Knowing how to get the right information at the right time, from the right people, is key
Having worked in IR and communications for over a decade – almost always as a ‘team of one’ – I’ve learned a thing or two about making the most of limited resources. Today, I’m lucky to work with a talented multidisciplinary team as the head of investor relations at Zymeworks.
In my experience, investor relations in biotech is often mistaken for a role that requires deep scientific expertise or a background in high finance. If this were true, I would be doing IR for Cadbury’s or Ben & Jerry’s!
But let’s be honest – if an IRO were a leading scientist, they’d be in the lab, and if they were a world-class financier, they’d be structuring deals, not fielding investor emails. The truth is, an effective IR professional doesn’t need to be the foremost expert in any one business function: what they need is to have a deep understanding of their stakeholders and, importantly, know exactly who to call when the questions get technical.
At its core, IR is essentially a service function – connecting investors with the right internal experts, ensuring messaging is aligned and, ultimately, making sure the company is understood in the external market. Involving internal teams in IR processes not only enhances investor interactions but also helps those teams gain valuable insights into external perspectives, in turn sharpening their own strategic thinking.
In other words, investor relations isn’t just about telling the company’s story – it’s about ensuring the company understands how its story is being heard.
For many small and mid-cap biotech companies, IR is a one-person operation, tasked with translating complex science into investor-friendly language while managing expectations around financial strategy. The key to making this work is about scaling through collaboration and preparation rather than trying to know it all. Here’s how:
- Ahead of earnings, a lone IRO may not be able anticipate every investor question on valuation, cash burn, or pipeline prioritization off the top of their head. Instead, they should act as a conductor, orchestrating input from finance, clinical teams and business development to craft a bulletproof financial cheat sheet for management. This document should answer the obvious (runway, R&D spend, commercialization milestones) while pre-emptively addressing the trickier questions analysts love to throw in at the end of a call
- Banking and medical conferences each have their own brand of questioning. One revolves around peak sales estimates and market comps, the other dives into mechanisms of action and competitive differentiation. The trick? Pre-emptively align with internal experts such as the chief strategy officer, chief marketing officer, scientific and clinical leads on a robust scientific Q&A. No IRO needs to be an immunology expert, but they do need to know the 30-second answer to How does this compare to the current standard of care? and, equally, to know when to escalate a discussion to someone who can deep-dive on the details
- IR is at its best when it acts as a bridge between the company’s leadership and the investor community. Knowing how to get the right information, at the right time, from the right people is what separates a one-person IR function that is trying to know it all from one that looks like a fully staffed operation. Whether it’s teeing up the CFO for capital allocation strategy or the chief business officer for business development discussions, scaling should be seen from the lens of delegation, not through drowning in details
- The best IROs that I have had the pleasure of knowing aren’t walking encyclopedias of scientific jargon or financial models. They’re translators – capable of distilling complex internal insights into messages that resonate with investors. The goal is to communicate with your audience in mind – share enough detail to instil confidence, but remember that good IR is about translation, not regurgitation.
So, scaling investor relations with ‘a team of one’ isn’t about knowing it all, it is about having a deep understanding of what your stakeholders care about, knowing who to call and planning ahead. With well-prepared cheat sheets, a network of internal experts and the ability to communicate key takeaways without getting lost in the weeds, even the smallest IR team can punch well above its weight.
Because, at the end of the day, success in IR isn’t about being an expert in everything. It’s about building the right relationships internally and externally to ensure the company’s message is clear, credible, and compelling.
Shrinal Inamdar is senior director, investor relations at Zymeworks
