Gutenberg Case Study

Highly Targeted Visibility Campaign for a Tech Start-up Culminating in $35M in Financial Led by Bill Gates

National technology and business media campaign builds significant visibility for a social/professional network start-up to drive millions of sign-ups in scientific

community and gain the attention of Bill Gates.

Background:

In October of 2009, ResearchGate, a year-old Cambridge, MA-based social network start-up aimed at the scientific and research community, was in need of exposure in order to drive membership, support business development and help raise capital to fund operations.

Growth at that time was fueled in large part by the establishing visibility for the founders through individual presentations at colleges and universities, primarily in the Boston area, as well as in the hometown of the founders, Berlin, Germany. Overall, ResearchGate’s goal was to increase the number of registered users in order to facilitate greater ability for scientists and researchers to collaborate virtually, through one strategic social/professional network. The PR program would also provide valuable support for the founders to convince investors of the long-term potential of the business.

Strategy / Tactics:

The objective of our communications program was to broaden the exposure of ResearchGate and simultaneously introduce the company to technology, scientific and business audiences. The entrepreneurial nature of the company was the platform toward securing significant media coverage: a scientist/researcher needed a better way to conduct his research, conceived of the idea and brought in his friends to help create and launch the site.

This positioning earned ResearchGate the name, “Facebook for Scientists.” Subsequent pitching surrounded the popularity of the “crowdsourcing” medium, by establishing ResearchGate as a site where those in the scientific and research communities could communicate and work in a truly collaborative manner for the betterment of the research and discovery process overall.

This positioning was invaluable in attracting the attention of two rounds of funding by prominent Silicon Valley VCs and, ultimately, a third round by Bill Gates, who has given away billions of dollars of his fortune toward humanitarian causes. As a result of the PR campaign, the media has reported extensively on ResearchGate’s capabilities helping scientists and researchers publish studies, work collaboratively and more effectively work toward eradicating disease and making a variety of scientific discoveries around the world.

Results:  

Gutenberg secured media placements in outlets including, Bloomberg, PandoDaily, GigaOM (picked up by the WSJ’s Tech Europe blog), Fast Company, The Cloud Show, Forbes, Financial Times, another GigaOM story, Forbes (again), TechCrunch, BusinessWeek, MarketWatch, The Economist, ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Valley Watcher, and more. This significant media coverage, has contributed substantially to the growth and success of the platform.

Notably, we seeded a significant story in The New York Times “Cracking Open the Scientific Process” that highlighted many of these ideas. This critical hit came at a tipping point in the campaign, which provided significant credibility for the company and additional media attention, and, importantly, helped launch record rounds of financing.

Beyond media relations, we have incorporated award programs into our campaign, leading to ResearchGate’s CEO being named as one of the Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40.” We have leveraged the coverage of this honor for additional media attention. Currently, ResearchGate has nearly three million registered users in more than 200 countries and has secured multiple rounds of funding.

In June 2013, Bill Gates joined Tenaya Capital in leading a $35M round of financing, which also includes Dragoneer Investment Group LLC, Thrive Capital, Benchmark and Founders Fund. Notably, this follows another round of financing in February 2012, which was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Benchmark Capital.