How to Sound Like a Growth Company (Before the Numbers Catch Up)
A tactical guide to narrative posture when traction is real but unevenly distributed
It seems like I'm asked weekly: How should we discuss the business if the numbers aren’t there yet? What actually gets investors leaning in?
So I figured I’d write something I can forward to those inquiries.
To be clear, this isn’t a fundraising article. It’s about posture: how your company shows up in the market when traction is real but still uneven.
Because long before the raise, you’re being evaluated. By buyers. By investors. By potential hires. They’re all watching closely to how you talk about what’s working, what you’ve walked away from, and what’s next. And most of the time, they don’t see what you think you’re putting out there.
And this isn’t just the CEO’s job. Or Marketing’s job. It’s everyone’s job! Anyone who shapes the story, including sales, marketing, product, and finance, can either make the company feel like it’s building toward scale or still figuring itself out.
Let me offer five observations about narrative posture for growth-stage health tech companies. These come from time in the trenches with teams trying to earn belief before the metrics could carry the weight on their own.
Because until the results speak for themselves, your posture is the product.
1. When You Sound Vague, People Assume You Haven’t Learned Much
The most common narrative miss is also the easiest to fix: leaders describe their business in broad strokes, trying to sound flexible and adaptable. However, vague doesn’t signal flexibility; rather, it mostly signals uncertainty.
Saying, “We’re seeing traction across multiple segments and still refining the go-to-market,” doesn’t build confidence. It sounds like you haven’t made any hard calls yet.
Now contrast that with:
“We were chasing health systems and care platforms early on, but those deals dragged. The Medicaid plans, especially the regional ones with internal care teams, were actually moving. That’s who’s buying, so we stopped fighting it and shifted the team around them.”
That version doesn’t oversell. It shows judgment. It makes the listener believe that someone is in control of the company's direction and is taking calculated risks based on real-world feedback.
You don’t need a perfect story. You just need one that proves you’ve chosen a direction and are learning fast.
2. Most Teams Understate Their Own Progress
Too many health tech teams make their company sound earlier than it really is.
They’ve landed solid logos, learned which use cases stick, and started to narrow their lane. However, when they discuss it, it still sounds like a status update, not a company hitting its stride.
And no, I’m not talking about exaggerating. But I am absolutely saying make the progress visible!
Saying, “We’ve signed three regional Medicaid plans,” is technically accurate. But it’s more helpful to explain what that means: Are those the customers with the fastest buying cycles? Did they push you toward a tighter use case? Have you shifted the team’s focus based on what they showed you?
Most companies have more clarity than they’re putting into the market. But the patterns stay buried inside call recaps, sales anecdotes, or internal decks.
If you’re not doing the narrative work, no one else will do it for you. And if people can’t follow the logic of your trajectory, they’ll assume there isn’t one.
3. Misalignment Isn’t a Marketing Problem
Most people think narrative is something marketing “owns.” It’s not.
Posture unravels when Sales, Product, and the CEO are each telling their own version of the story. No one’s wrong, but no one sounds like they’re building the same company either.
This is one of the primary reasons early-growth companies often appear messy from the outside.
Other examples include:
When a prospect hears something from your sales team that contradicts what’s on your website…
When a client hears a totally different version of your capabilities during a Client Success call
When an investor hears a value prop that doesn’t match what they’ve seen in the market…
You don’t just lose clarity. You lose confidence.
The narrative doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to be consistent. Tight narrative posture displays internal alignment. When your team talks about the business, it should sound like they’ve wrestled with the same trade-offs and agreed upon the same conclusions.
4. Narrative Shows Up Earlier Than You Think
Many teams treat narrative like it only matters during a fundraise. But in reality, it shapes how you're perceived every time you show up, whether you're pitching a buyer, recruiting a hire, or partnering with another vendor.
How you describe the business affects how buyers stack you up in a competitive bake-off. It signals maturity (or lack of it) to partners. It even frames what candidates assume they’re walking into when they apply.
And the stakes only get higher as you grow.
A fuzzy story might fly when you’re three people pre-revenue. But by the time you’re scaling, people expect to hear clarity. They want to know what you’ve ruled out, what you’ve committed to, and who’s at the wheel.
You don’t need a scripted pitch. But the leadership team should be aligned on what’s working, what’s next, and how to communicate it to anyone who will listen.
5. Until the Product Scales, Posture Carries the Weight
When the numbers aren’t loud enough to speak for themselves, posture fills the gap.
Buyers don’t just evaluate your offering. They size up whether you’ll be around in a year. Investors don’t just want to see your TAM; they want to see that the team knows where it’s heading and why. And the best talent isn’t drawn to buzz; they’re drawn to a mission.
All of that gets communicated, long before the metrics catch up.
That’s why posture matters.
Not because you're polished. Not because you’ve spun a clever story. But because you’ve repeated the right things, clearly and consistently. What are you emphasizing? What have you walked away from? What can you already prove works (and what doesn’t)?
With that comes a sense of confidence that you’ve already earned your way into the next chapter and that you’re building toward something bigger.
If the market can feel that in how you talk, they start to lean in.
Even if you’re not “there” yet.
Final Thought
There’s a big difference between being early and sounding early. The strongest health tech companies at this stage don’t simply report what’s happened. They connect the dots. They speak with enough clarity and conviction that others believe it’s working, even before the metrics confirm it.
That’s what narrative posture does. It sharpens belief before the numbers can carry it. It gives buyers a reason to say yes, even when you’re not the safe choice. It gives investors a reason to lean in, even if your metrics are still uneven.
It’s not a performance. It’s a decision. A decision to name what matters, hold your ground, and show the market you’re building something that’s going to last.
At first, they’ll shrug. Then they’ll start paying attention. Then they’ll take you seriously. Eventually, they’ll say it always felt inevitable.
That’s the power of posture.
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