All about technical grant writing || What I wish I Knew... || Q&A

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I'm Stacy Chin from KeepYourEquity.co, and today I got invited to a virtual panel to talk about my career in scientific writing. And during that panel, I got a lot of great questions of people asking me, what do I do? How do I get started? What I have done in my PhD to help me prepare for this job, and even my experience being on YouTube. And I even answered the question, how do I deal with the haters online and also help clients to tolerate the nasty review comments on grant applications? So if you're interested in learning more, make sure you stick around to the end of this video and please like and subscribe and let me know in the comments below if you like the style of video. So with that, thank you so much for tuning in and let's jump into the panel. Our mission is to help science and tech startups secure non-diluted funding, and we do that by helping startups secure funding from programs called the SBIR and the STTR, along with federal contracts. So a lot of people ask me, how do I get into this job? And so when I did my PhD in Palmer Sciences, I was fortunate to spin out a startup from some of the research work I've done. And to fund that startup, we went for non- non-dilutive funding, like lots of state grants and federal grants such as the SBIR and STTR program. And we were fortunate to raise over $1.5 million of non-dilutive funding. And during my time there, realized there's a lot of other science and tech founders that are interested in going forward non-dilutive funding. But the processes are very long. There's a way to present the data and the science on paper, and a lot of people did not know how to go about this process. And so I started my company about 6 years ago to do this, just that. So to date, we've helped startups in healthcare, digital, cancer therapeutics, medical devices, all the way towards energy, environment, batteries, military defense, AI/ML, pretty much across the whole industry sector of the innovation space. We helped clients secure about a total of $10 million of non-diluted funding to date from different agencies like the NSF, the NIH, the DOD, USDA, DHS, DOE, and so many more. And I also was a reviewer back in the day, some of these panels as well too. And so for me, going to my PhD, I was really interested in business and commercialization. So I was fortunate that I got pretty much the MBA on steroids when I was going through my first startup journey. I work with a lot of academics, PhDs and MDs, and I also work with a lot of executives that have an MBA. So trying to marry those two together of balancing the science and research and also the communications of business has also been quite fun for me. What would I have done differently during my PhD training to help develop my skill sets? I think during my PhD I was very fortunate that I had a PI that was really, really involved in the grant writing process. And so I had a lot of exposure of how to write. The more writing was something that I found very advantageous of how to put really these complex thoughts on paper. And so a lot of the writing, the skill set for myself was being developed of how do you prepare a grant, how do you commercialize things, what does the business side look like. For example, how do you analyze the market, the customer, pro formas, what's your competitive advantage. And so I think that was a really advantageous skill set I learned to understand how do you take this really complex technical R&D work and apply that towards a commercialization perspective. And I think just having that early exposure was very helpful for me to be where I am today. And of course, there's so much to learn still. I'm still learning even though I've been doing this for almost 10 years, and it keeps me on my toes as well too. Now, on the side, as a business owner, again, learning how to just run a business, learning how to do client management, how to provide services, accounting, all that stuff has been something that's really fun for me as well. What are my day-to-day like? Same thing, it varies tremendously depending on, you know, what's on the docket, what deadlines we have to hit, and also what's going on the business side. So there's two aspects of the business. One is the technical grant writing side. I get paid if I sit down to write a grant, so we need to make sure we carve out time for that. There's the business side where I need to do client calls, checking with clients, new customer sales, and also putting out bids for other projects. And this year I started my YouTube channel. I teach people how to go about these grant writing processes because I find there's a lack of resources out there to do that. So it really depends on kind of the seasons of how things flow and what my day-to-day might look like. Currently I'm in a very heavy writing season, so we have a really big deadline in a couple of weeks. So I'll read you my schedule on Monday. So Monday I get up, I'm looking at my calendar. So Monday I get up about 7:30, 7:30 all the way to 12, I just sit down and have a bulk of time just to write a grant. And then 12 to 12:30 is lunch. 12:30, uh, check in with a call with the client. 1 o'clock client check-in. 1:30 is a new client consultation call. 2 o'clock another consultation check-in, 2:30 another new client, and then 3 o'clock a potential other new client, and then another hour for emails and work, and then gym, and then there I go. But it's exciting, everything is new, the projects are very different, so I really enjoy the clientele of it. The least enjoyable part of running a business is, in my opinion, a lot of the administrative stuff, making sure company registration, state registrations are up to date, accounting is another issue, taxes are absolutely horrible but has to be done. Why did I start my YouTube channel? For the past 6 years I realizing I was answering the same questions, and so because Because of that, I recognize there is a lack of education of trying to teach founders how to go about these processes. Some examples: is the SBIR program right for me? What does that entail? What phases are there? How much can you get? And there's no one out there that has a channel to teach how to do scientific writing or scientific grant writing and how to go and fundraise that way. There are a bunch of videos out there on how to fundraise the traditional route, like doing pitch decks and getting investors while giving away all your equity. But there's no one really talking about how to fundraise for early-stage startups in non-dilutive routes. One reason why I started the YouTube channel. Another reason is to grow my customer pipeline. And so right now I'm getting all my customers either through word of mouth or through online platforms. We are in such a beautiful stage right now in life where the internet is incredible and there's so many opportunities out there for jobs, writing, side gigs, you name it, it's out there. And plus with the lack of scientific writers, this is like your gold mine to try and do something in this space. And so I want to grow a YouTube channel to expand my business in different ways. One, to grow my customer pipeline to see who else is out there that needs these services. Two, I have digital products and templates. And then three, eventually I want to grow my pipeline and have communities and build courses and try to give this education in a very different light. So when I tell clients that even though I have a PhD in polymer sciences, I've worked with clients in healthcare, defense, environment, batteries— it's all over the place. And the reason for that is because when you go through your PhD process, you're developing the quantitative skills and how to communicate research through the lens of a researcher. I'm still seeing these challenges and these grants through a scientific lens and asking the right scientific questions and hypotheses to help you figure out what does that narrative look like. And so based on the skills that you have developed, we can apply them in different areas as well too. I started this when I was in grad school, and the reason for that was I want to make more money than just a grad student. And so like I said, we are in a beautiful time being online where everything is accessible. So I went on freelancing platforms and started just pinging out different projects that I might be interested in there. So I looked into projects that might need scientific writer or someone that has a research background. So anything from scientific blog writing to data analysis to chemistry consulting, grant writing. First thing to do is just start cold calling and seeing who needs out there, hey, this is a skill set I have. So again, looking at online freelancing platforms, just looking at LinkedIn or other types of jobs out there that looking for just scientific writers. There's also a lot of different scientific writing platforms out there and companies that are looking for contractors that you can choose to work on your own time or what projects you want to work on depending on your skill set. There's a lot of need for scientific writers. How do you handle the haters? One is when you write a grant and you get reviewer comments back, they're usually anonymous, usually through something called peer review process. And those can be quite nasty. As a grant writer, making sure expectations are clear to your clients as well. These can be kind of brutal, but this is just the name of the game. And so changing your mindset of how you see review comments or negative review comments can be one way to go about that. What are the skills that— what am I looking for to work with a client? That's a great question. And that's something that I've had to learn how to navigate as I was going through this process. I want to make sure it's a good fit for not just me and them, but also for them and me. So even though when we jump on a first call, it seems like that they're interviewing me for a job to work with their team to get this grant, but I'm also evaluating them as well too as a client. Because having a very difficult client, which I had many, especially the early days, it makes the job much harder and it's just not worth it in my opinion. I'm looking for someone that's collaborative. I'm looking for someone that is open to different feedback and different criticisms and way to go about things. I'm also open to someone that's very communicative as well too. When I work with a client, it's usually a 2 to 3 month intense process of putting together a really strong narrative. And so a lot of my work is figuring out how do I frame my expectations, saying, hey, if I want to work with you, this is my needs, and what are your needs and what are your expectations as a grant writer? So laying that out and knowing what does an ideal client look like versus what is not ideal client look like is also very important. I also ask clients to introduce themselves and also tell me about their startup, and I can tell how far startup is or how well prepared a client is to go forth in one of these opportunities depending on how much they thought about, how far they are in their developments, and all the aspects of putting together one of these applications. In the beginning, it's me just learning about what's going on and kind of where they stand first until I can tell them how I can add value and help them in this process.