Allison Satterfield wants to help biotech companies with their marketing
Her newly rebranded company named Particle31 is based in Chattanooga but has clients in the life science hotspots.
If you are in the life sciences and biotech sectors, Allison Satterfield wants to help your company develop tailored marketing solutions that help you achieve your broad goals, including everything from securing funding to attracting top talent.
“I specialize in building the foundations of their brands by creating logos, building websites, defining core values, establishing missions, and more. My expertise lies in taking complex ideas and distilling them into powerful narratives that resonate with diverse audiences,” she says in describing the company she founded in July 2021 as Alaray Creative and rebranded last August as Particle31.
Satterfield and her husband moved from Denver, CO to Chattanooga in May of 2022, something that she expected to happen as many as five to 10 years later, but they fell in love with the city and its vibrant entrepreneurial community.
Born in Charleston, SC, and raised in Greenville, SC, Satterfield accepted a job with Kimley-Horn in Raleigh, NC after graduating from Appalachian State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, concentrating in graphic design, and a minor in marketing. Yet, as she told us, there was always the allure of living in the Mile High City, so she quit her job and moved to Denver in 2018.
“I did not know a soul when I moved to Colorado,” Satterfield says. She soon landed a job with Effectv, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, which helps local, regional and national advertisers use the best of digital with the power of TV to grow their businesses.
In that role, she quickly learned the critical interplay between strategy and design. One without the other is generally a recipe for disaster. With this observation, Satterfield returned to school and earned her master’s degree in marketing, specializing in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the University of Colorado – Denver.
By October of 2021, she had launched Alaray Creative and had as its second client a company by the name of Elsie Biotechnologies. Located in San Diego, CA, that company, dedicated to unlocking the full potential of oligonucleotide therapeutics, was acquired by GSK in June of 2024 for up to $50 million.
For Satterfield, working with Elsie Biotechnologies was particularly important. It marked the beginning of her journey into the biotech industry and opened doors to other industry work. One such connection was with a company addressing the very cancer drug side effects her mother experienced. Sadly, Satterfield lost her mother to cancer in 2021, only a couple months before Satterfield was connected with this company and only four days after her wedding.
Reflecting on this experience, she shared, “From there, I saw how my work of effectively telling the story could help change the world for other people.”
Today, as might be expected, most of Particle31’s clients are in San Diego, Boston, and North Carolina.
While admitting that she does not have a scientific background, Satterfield believes that is actually an asset.
“No matter how complex, your story has to be communicated simply,” she explains. “You must communicate how your science can change the world for investors to understand and see the potential.” That allows it to be more than an abstract understanding and for people to really connect with the company and what it is doing.
In terms of the proverbial pitch deck, she offers several pieces of advice.
“You have to make it interesting to everyone – investors, talent, and vendors,” Satterfield says. That means spending the time to understand each of those audiences.
“It doesn’t take a lot of money to show you are real and how your technology can make an impact,” Satterfield explains. “You need more than your pitch deck, but it (creating collateral materials) does not have to cost a ton of money.”
In November, Particle31 posted an insight titled “A Scientist’s Guide to Presenting Complex Science Clearly.” It’s a four-step process that can be found at this link.
To reinforce its commitment to the life science and biotech sector, the company operates an annual give-back program it terms “Pass the Impact.” Particle31 donates a percentage of its clients’ paid invoices, minus third-party purchases, to charitable organizations having a direct impact of youth education for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the arts. Clients get to choose from a list of organizations nationwide to pick where they want Particle31 to pass the impact.
Learn more about Particle31 at this link
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