“Leaders who are active on social media are perceived as more accessible, transparent, and influential.”
— Brunswick Connected Leadership Report

(Source: SMR, “Why Every Executive Should Be on Social Media”)

For many investors and potential collaborators, LinkedIn is now the first place they go, even before your website. According to Brunswick Group’s Connected Leadership report, 82% of investors use social media to assess a CEO’s credibility. In the early stages of building a venture, visibility and trust aren’t “nice-to-haves”, they shape access to capital, talent, and influence.

For founders of early-stage life science ventures, credibility travels faster than science. Investors, collaborators, patient advocates, and future hires are all forming impressions long before a meeting is in the diary. And yet, many founders in our space are either silent or relying on the company page to speak for them.

Silence on social media is its own signal.

In this nextGEN INSIGHTS, we’ll explore how LinkedIn can serve as a strategic tool, not for self-promotion, but for shaping the narrative around your venture. We’ll look at what’s lost when CEOs don’t engage, and how a considered, time-efficient presence can help you reach the people who matter most.

How much time per week do you spend on LinkedIn?

Speaker

Bennett Golder is a seasoned digital campaigner with 15 years of experience across corporate, political, financial, and crisis communications. He has worked at FGS Global, the market leader in strategic communications, where he led integrated mandates for senior executives navigating complex stakeholder environments.

Known for his collaborative leadership and pragmatic approach, Bennett has helped organisations build digital communications functions from the ground up, activate employee voices on social media, and manage reputational challenges in high-stakes settings.

At the core of his work is a single aim: ensuring digital platforms work as hard as possible to deliver on strategic communication imperatives.

This session will explore:

• How to align your personal and company presence — and how they should interact

• Why visibility beyond your immediate ecosystem (especially in the US) matters — and how to build it

• Which audiences matter most: patient advocacy leaders, scientific peers, investors, and future hires

• How to use formats that are working now (video, carousel, newsletters) without becoming a content creator

• How to measure what’s working — especially when others are helping create content

We’ll also look directly at the common concerns: What if no one engages? What if I say the wrong thing? What if visibility brings scrutiny? This part of the conversation will be shaped by real-world examples — not theory.

Questions to consider

• What signals is your current LinkedIn presence - or absence - sending to the audiences who matter most?

• If you were an investor, advisor, or future CMO, would your profile give them a reason to lean in?

• How are you using - or underusing - the connection between your personal and company page?

• What would it take for LinkedIn to be useful to you - not just another platform to manage?