How to Build Social Media Strategy For a Deep Tech Startup

My name is Iryna Manukovska, I help deep tech founders wth go-to-market, 0-to-1 launch, and investor relations. I've helped 50+ startups across EMEA turn complex AI and DeepTech innovations into fundable stories. I know how to make technical breakthroughs commercially attractive. With this piece, I aim to guide early-stage founders on social media and storytelling strategy - the question I’ve got most from startups I work with. What Is Storytelling? "The social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics, or embellishment,” is one of the oldest ways to pass the knowledge from one human being to another, from one part of the globe to another over distances of up to 4000km. Business storytelling originated in 1732 when US president, Benjamin Franklin, published Poor Richard's Almanack to promote his printing business with valuable content of calendars, weather forecasts, and astronomical data and stuff. It started as "the practice of using narrative techniques to communicate messages, values, or ideas related to a business in a way that engages and resonates with the audience,” in contrast to and in addition to typical business communication of facts and figures. While earlier in the 20th century businesses were selling “product features, quality and customer service,” today business stories are built around customers and their problems, and how exactly your product and service solve them in the best way possible by using all the features, customer service, and product range you have. So it’s like talking about them, not you. The social and cultural activity oldest Business storytelling originated The Role Of A Ballsy Founder In Startup Storytelling In 2026, Startups are forced to go to extremes, pushing founders to take the role of “influencers” and implement founder-led storytelling strategies. The reason behind this is quite simple - the team may change, but the founder is dedicated to staying till the end and should have a strong, broad strategic vision to pivot, overcome, and launch into new markets. “If you work in growth and you're not growing your audience, you are missing the point, this is a job now,” sums up Elena Verna, Head of Growth at lovable. And yet, most founders don't feel that way. And it's much harder for deep tech founders, who usually have a more technical mindset. Raised Not To Self-promote: Why Deeptech Founders May Struggle With Storytelling More Logical thinking and an evidence-based scientific mindset, critical to inventing new things, are responsible for skepticism toward anecdotal evidence used in social media storytelling. Over-simplification makes the use case understandable but lacks the evidence-based depth familiar to a founder, creating internal pressure and blockers on the way to a credible, strong LinkedIn profile. “Scientists are trained in logical-scientific communication, which aims to provide general truths judged on the accuracy of claims. In contrast, narrative communication aims to provide reasonable depictions of individual experiences, judged on the verisimilitude (plausibility) of situations. Shares my friend's explanation of the problem her PhD students encounter. "Storytelling often has a bad reputation within science, baseless or even manipulative," "Storytelling often has a bad reputation within science, baseless or even manipulative," explains Professor at Iowa State University, Michael F. Dahlstrom, in his 2014 paper “Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences,” cited 1735 times over 12 years. Iowa State University Iowa State University Michael F. Dahlstrom, Michael F. Dahlstrom Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences, Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences As a deep tech founder with a scientific background, you may think of social media as: As a deep tech founder with a scientific background, you may think of social media as: an extra mile that can be especially unappealing fully inappropriate in academia due to its self-promotion focus Conflict with academic goals (which may be as important as commercialization of the technology as well), even as funding, projects, and careers increasingly depend on visibility and public status Social media's culture of confident self-promotion is just too much, where your inbuilt precision, accuracy, and acknowledging uncertainty collides with “brutal truth” on 1-minute superficial reels an extra mile that can be especially unappealing fully inappropriate in academia due to its self-promotion focus Conflict with academic goals (which may be as important as commercialization of the technology as well), even as funding, projects, and careers increasingly depend on visibility and public status Social media's culture of confident self-promotion is just too much, where your inbuilt precision, accuracy, and acknowledging uncertainty collides with “brutal truth” on 1-minute superficial reels The shift happens when the founder understands that it is not about “baseless “ and “manipulative” information feed, or the founder’s self-proclaiming awesomeness, but it's about the popularization of science, its beauty, and the technology invented. We are changing focus from us, outlining the invention in the heart of the story, seen through the eyes of the potential beneficiaries - users who will get the most once technology is available on the market. To make science stories more concrete and engaging, communicators must "incorporate people into the story, explain science as a process, and include what people care about", To make science stories more concrete and engaging, communicators must "incorporate people into the story, explain science as a process, and include what people care about", summarize Emma Frances Bloomfield, Associate Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in her article “Storytelling Strategies Make Communication About Science More Compelling," published in July 2024. Storytelling Strategies Make Communication About Science More Compelling How Storytelling Works For A Deeptech Startup Makes Your Use Cases Understandable. You would be surprised, but C-level decision makers and VCs are not the smartest guys in the room. For feasibility, VC uses the scientific board, and executives have junior staff and analytics. While they both are gatekeepers to a finding in a day-opener pilot. So using a simple benchmark like “it's like Uber for drug research” or “Amazon for electricity provider” helps to get an idea of your solution and getting through the cognitive barrier when our brain needs to spend a lot of energy to deep dive into technicalities. Boost Scaling. Simple things go viral faster: ice bucket challenge, 67 (parents, I feel your pain) - those are pretty simple, scalable, sticky things. The easier the explanation of your technology or product, the easier it would be for others to share their experience and info about you, but simply restating the core message in plain English Keep Relations With Investors, Ecosystems, And Partners Alive. By constantly educating and engaging you build weak ties. I call them coffee machine relations (like the news update and chat we usually have near the coffee machine in the office). How To Build A Storytelling Strategy For A Deep Tech Startup Storytelling Channels For Early-stage Founders Depending on the b2b or b2c focus of your product, you may consider different platforms, such as a more professional platform like LinkedIn or a platform for a younger audience like TikTok. For any startup, you have two types of activities to promote yourself- push and pull. Push is when you are looking for customers and partners and push your use cases on the market via tech shows, pitch competitions, media, podcasts, etc. Pull is about customers funding you because they have the relevant problem and know you are working on it, or were recommended by someone. The more practice with push you have, the better your pitches, use cases, public presentation, and negotiation skills (if you have not 100% outsourced content creation to an AI). For the early stage, I suggest focusing on LinkedIn to cover as many segments as possible: investors, early customers, ecosystem partners, and media. Investor Relationship Building Start adding target VCs to your network 6-12 months before fundraising No pitching yet – just stay on their radar Show commitment, progress, and that you're someone worth backing Start adding target VCs to your network 6-12 months before fundraising No pitching yet – just stay on their radar Show commitment, progress, and that you're someone worth backing Visibility for Partnerships Demonstrate you're a credible, active player in the ecosystem Women founders in DeepTech get access to specific support programmes Ecosystem visibility opens doors to accelerators, clusters, and introductions Demonstrate you're a credible, active player in the ecosystem Women founders in DeepTech get access to specific support programmes Ecosystem visibility opens doors to accelerators, clusters, and introductions Minimum Viable Presence Think of it like chat by the coffee machine in a corporate office Someone bought a new jumper, someone went to a café – just staying visible You're not invisible, you exist, you're progressing Think of it like chat by the coffee machine in a corporate office Someone bought a new jumper, someone went to a café – just staying visible You're not invisible, you exist, you're progressing Social Media Strategy For A Deep Tech Startup. Prioritize the audience. Are you looking for a way to show investors that you are a great piece of work in progress? Do you work on engaging more enterprises in your pilot program? Do you want to share a broad word to validate your technology/product use cases and define possible product-market fit? Are you looking for a specific role to become your early adopters? Is it a customer-facing device/technology or a crowdfunding campaign? Map painpoints. Your technology was born as an answer. What was the question? What was missing, so you’ve decided to spend your free time inventing? List it, and overlap with the audience profiles you are aiming for. Use Perplexity + GenAI combination and Notebook LM. Ask Claude/ChatGPT to help you craft a research prompt to define classic painpoints and value chain friction (where business loses money) - > prompt it with a Perplexity deep research - > overlap with your insights in Notebook LM (later you can do the same with customer interviews). Start bit by bit with an introduction to why you, your team, and it's important now. Push the use cases you are thinking of based on your research, and check for feedback, if any. Start With Questions People Actually Ask You. Take every question judges, mentors, investors, and clients ask you – and answer them publicly (besides what is your know-how). Prioritize the audience. Are you looking for a way to show investors that you are a great piece of work in progress? Do you work on engaging more enterprises in your pilot program? Do you want to share a broad word to validate your technology/product use cases and define possible product-market fit? Are you looking for a specific role to become your early adopters? Is it a customer-facing device/technology or a crowdfunding campaign? Prioritize the audience. Map painpoints. Your technology was born as an answer. What was the question? What was missing, so you’ve decided to spend your free time inventing? List it, and overlap with the audience profiles you are aiming for. Use Perplexity + GenAI combination and Notebook LM. Ask Claude/ChatGPT to help you craft a research prompt to define classic painpoints and value chain friction (where business loses money) - > prompt it with a Perplexity deep research - > overlap with your insights in Notebook LM (later you can do the same with customer interviews). Map painpoints. Start bit by bit with an introduction to why you, your team, and it's important now. Push the use cases you are thinking of based on your research, and check for feedback, if any. Start bit by bit Start With Questions People Actually Ask You. Take every question judges, mentors, investors, and clients ask you – and answer them publicly (besides what is your know-how). Start With Questions People Actually Ask You. You already know these are relevant questions You practice answering more confidently You build a bank of referenced information No blank page syndrome or imposter syndrome You already know these are relevant questions You practice answering more confidently You build a bank of referenced information No blank page syndrome or imposter syndrome INVESTORS ASK:Technology & How It Works So walk me through it, what does your technology actually do? How far along are you? Is this still in the lab, or have you tested it in real-world conditions? What's been independently validated, and what are you still figuring out? What's your biggest technical risk right now, and how are you planning to tackle it? If something goes wrong during development, what's your backup plan? What does your testing roadmap look like over the next 12–18 months? Intellectual Property & Defensibility What stops a well-funded competitor from replicating this in two years? Do you have patents filed or granted? What do they actually protect? Who owns the IP? the company, the founders, or a university? Is there any licensing involved, and if so, what are the terms? Beyond patents, what makes your technology genuinely hard to reproduce? Manufacturing & Scaling Up How much does it cost to build one unit today, and where does that number need to get to? What does your production ramp plan look like? When do you hit meaningful volume? Have you talked to contract manufacturers? Are they ready to work with you? What are your yield rates? How much waste are you dealing with? How exposed are you to supply chain disruptions or tariffs? Do you have alternative suppliers lined up if your primary ones fall through? Is your product designed for manufacturing, or will you need to re-engineer it for production? EARLY CUSTOMERS ASKTechnical Fit & Integration Can this plug into our existing systems, or does it require a rip-and-replace? What PLCs, protocols, or standards does it work with? How much training or behaviour change does this require from our team? What happens if it breaks or goes offline? What's the fallback? Can we start small and scale up, or is it all-or-nothing? What data does it need from us, and what data does it produce? Trust, Risk & Explainability This feels pretty experimental. How do we know it's ready for production? What happens when the AI is wrong? How do we catch and correct errors? Can you explain how it makes decisions, or is it a black box? What certifications or regulatory approvals do you have? Do you meet the specific standards required in our country/industry? What's your track record with other customers in environments like ours? INVESTORS ASK: INVESTORS ASK: Technology & How It Works Technology & How It Works So walk me through it, what does your technology actually do? How far along are you? Is this still in the lab, or have you tested it in real-world conditions? What's been independently validated, and what are you still figuring out? What's your biggest technical risk right now, and how are you planning to tackle it? If something goes wrong during development, what's your backup plan? What does your testing roadmap look like over the next 12–18 months? So walk me through it, what does your technology actually do? How far along are you? Is this still in the lab, or have you tested it in real-world conditions? What's been independently validated, and what are you still figuring out? What's your biggest technical risk right now, and how are you planning to tackle it? If something goes wrong during development, what's your backup plan? What does your testing roadmap look like over the next 12–18 months? Intellectual Property & Defensibility Intellectual Property & Defensibility What stops a well-funded competitor from replicating this in two years? Do you have patents filed or granted? What do they actually protect? Who owns the IP? the company, the founders, or a university? Is there any licensing involved, and if so, what are the terms? Beyond patents, what makes your technology genuinely hard to reproduce? What stops a well-funded competitor from replicating this in two years? Do you have patents filed or granted? What do they actually protect? Who owns the IP? the company, the founders, or a university? Is there any licensing involved, and if so, what are the terms? Beyond patents, what makes your technology genuinely hard to reproduce? Manufacturing & Scaling Up Manufacturing & Scaling Up How much does it cost to build one unit today, and where does that number need to get to? What does your production ramp plan look like? When do you hit meaningful volume? Have you talked to contract manufacturers? Are they ready to work with you? What are your yield rates? How much waste are you dealing with? How exposed are you to supply chain disruptions or tariffs? Do you have alternative suppliers lined up if your primary ones fall through? Is your product designed for manufacturing, or will you need to re-engineer it for production? How much does it cost to build one unit today, and where does that number need to get to? What does your production ramp plan look like? When do you hit meaningful volume? Have you talked to contract manufacturers? Are they ready to work with you? What are your yield rates? How much waste are you dealing with? How exposed are you to supply chain disruptions or tariffs? Do you have alternative suppliers lined up if your primary ones fall through? Is your product designed for manufacturing, or will you need to re-engineer it for production? EARLY CUSTOMERS ASK EARLY CUSTOMERS ASK Technical Fit & Integration Technical Fit & Integration Can this plug into our existing systems, or does it require a rip-and-replace? What PLCs, protocols, or standards does it work with? How much training or behaviour change does this require from our team? What happens if it breaks or goes offline? What's the fallback? Can we start small and scale up, or is it all-or-nothing? What data does it need from us, and what data does it produce? Can this plug into our existing systems, or does it require a rip-and-replace? What PLCs, protocols, or standards does it work with? How much training or behaviour change does this require from our team? What happens if it breaks or goes offline? What's the fallback? Can we start small and scale up, or is it all-or-nothing? What data does it need from us, and what data does it produce? Trust, Risk & Explainability Trust, Risk & Explainability This feels pretty experimental. How do we know it's ready for production? What happens when the AI is wrong? How do we catch and correct errors? Can you explain how it makes decisions, or is it a black box? What certifications or regulatory approvals do you have? Do you meet the specific standards required in our country/industry? What's your track record with other customers in environments like ours? This feels pretty experimental. How do we know it's ready for production? What happens when the AI is wrong? How do we catch and correct errors? Can you explain how it makes decisions, or is it a black box? What certifications or regulatory approvals do you have? Do you meet the specific standards required in our country/industry? What's your track record with other customers in environments like ours? Examples of the question-driven content: "What competitors exist?" → Post about innovations in your space "Why this market segment?" → Post about a specific use case you are solving "Do you need a certification?" → Post about navigating the regulatory landscape "What competitors exist?" → Post about innovations in your space "Why this market segment?" → Post about a specific use case you are solving "Do you need a certification?" → Post about navigating the regulatory landscape Don’t over relate to GenAI Be careful with genAI. Most AI-generated posts follow the PAS structure - Problem-Agitate-Solution, and look pretty much the same. Here's a Problem. Acceleration/Agitation (we'll all die if we don't solve this!). Grand Solution announcement. Add some authenticity and thinking to your GenAI friend. For example, ask ChatGPT/Gemini, Claude: "How is the narrative structure built in [your favourite show/movie, book, etc.]?" Use that storytelling framework instead in your content prompt Limit characters, aim for punchier content Example: "I have these notes, I want a post on this topic, max X characters, using Strange Things narrative technique." "How is the narrative structure built in [your favourite show/movie, book, etc.]?" Use that storytelling framework instead in your content prompt Limit characters, aim for punchier content Example: "I have these notes, I want a post on this topic, max X characters, using Strange Things narrative technique." What is good social media content? For most people with emerging writing skills, finding the right topic is hard. The pressure of a perfect post is so strong, it's blocking any activity. I suggest starting by addressing the questions you get in your pitches and reframing them as problem-solving content. So you were asked about competition yesterday, you wrote about the market overview and how you are solving customer problems more efficiently. Each question is a one-post; you don't need to post daily. 1-2 times per week is fine. Good social media content is content that drives your desired outcomes: your network is growing, and you see relevant audiences engaging. Can I get customers, investors, and pilots from Social Media? Statistically, it's possible, unicorns like Lovable use Social Media to attract & engage, though they offer $0-$50 monthly pricing, not a quantum computer. The answer is not about the channel itself, but your audience. Do they use LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, whatever? How much time do they spend there? If you’ve built a dual-use equipment, not sure it would be easy to find plenty of commanders in charge actively scrolling on LinkedIn, while a stress tracking device would gain a lot of attention in between reels. So start with an audience just checking their accounts (easy for LinkedIn; direct question only for other SM that use nicknames for profile names). The geography of your pilot market, the roles of your potential customers, and the product/technology you offer are providing the answer, not social media itself. And yet, LinkedIn may serve as your startup's personal newspaper, covering all major audiences to some extent. "If I spent this hour on social media OR on pitching potential customers, which would move the needle of my business further?" If the answer is "customers" → Do less social, do more customer work. "If I spent this hour on social media OR on pitching potential customers, which would move the needle of my business further?" If the answer is "customers" → Do less social, do more customer work. If nobody knows about your breakthrough technology, it doesn't matter how breakthrough it is I’ve seen great inventions waiting on the shelf, expected to be funded by investors; I’ve seen scientists with lengthy, wordy decks in Word; I’ve heard mind-blowing pitches where founders lost attention to technical accuracy. Storytelling is an engaging skill that helps overcome unpleasant barriers in investors' and customers' minds with curiosity and engagement. That’s the whole point. If you are lucky, you will have the following feasibility study, where you can share technically accurate multipaged documents. It’s important to remember that stories and social media, as just one channel to distribute stories, won't line investors and customers to your door. So keep balance, keep them informed and in the engagement loop, focus on traction and use cases. And let the force be with you!