5 Go-to-Market Lessons from Building a Biosecurity Startup

Synthetic biology promises to revolutionize everything from medicine to materials, but with this power comes unprecedented security challenges. The story of how one startup is tackling these challenges offers valuable lessons for founders building in regulated markets.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Aclid founder Kevin Flyangolts shared insights from his journey building the security infrastructure for synthetic biology. Here are five crucial go-to-market lessons that emerged from his experience:

1. Start with Deep Customer Discovery

The temptation to build first and validate later is strong, especially for technical founders. But Aclid took a different approach: “We spent probably the first three months talking to 40 to 60 different manufacturers and just learning, figuring out what it is that they do day to day. Where are the biggest pain points? Is it in the screening? Is it in the vetting of the customer? Is it somewhere totally else?”

This intensive discovery process revealed an unexpected opportunity. While large manufacturers had built internal systems, early-stage companies were struggling with manual processes. This insight led Aclid to focus initially on smaller manufacturers who lacked resources for in-house solutions.

2. Target Points of Acute Pain

Instead of trying to compete with established players, Aclid identified where the pain was most acute. As Kevin explains, “When you’re an early stage company, you are dealing with a lot of problems… If you’re starting a company that requires facilities, 50 people, just to get started, just to build your first product and sell it to a customer, there’s just that much more. And dealing with compliance burdens along that way makes it that much harder.”

This focus on acute pain points made the value proposition clear and helped overcome the natural skepticism that comes with being a startup in a sensitive industry.

3. Build Trust Through Technical Authority

For startups in regulated industries, establishing trust is crucial. Aclid’s approach mirrors successful strategies from cybersecurity: “I personally really like what the cybersecurity space has done in marketing, where they offer you technical resources on SoC two compliance, ISO compliance, on x vulnerability or y exploit, and those technical resource end up helping you build trust with that company.”

This content-driven strategy positions Aclid as a thought leader while creating natural paths to customer conversations. Rather than pushing sales messages, they focus on building resources that help manufacturers navigate complex compliance requirements.

4. Shape the Regulatory Landscape

Instead of waiting for regulations to be imposed, Aclid actively participates in shaping them. “We’re working with both policymakers and industry, academia as well as politicians directly to make sure that our voice is heard and the right technical implementation is made,” Kevin notes.

This proactive engagement with policy puts Aclid in a unique position as new regulations emerge. By participating in these discussions, they ensure that upcoming requirements are both effective and implementable while building relationships with key stakeholders.

5. Build Infrastructure, Not Just Solutions

Perhaps the most important lesson from Aclid’s journey is thinking in terms of infrastructure rather than point solutions. Kevin envisions “helping build the infrastructure that helps scientists get access to the tools and the products that they need with as little as possible hurdles.”

Drawing parallels to financial infrastructure, he explains: “Like what you have in finance, there’s a whole bunch of things that happen every time a transaction goes through, every time you swipe a credit card, every time you send a wire a whole bunch of checks to make sure that there’s no fraud. We want to help build that for synthetic biology.”

This infrastructure mindset has profound implications for both product development and go-to-market strategy. Instead of selling features, Aclid is building essential systems that can grow with the industry while maintaining necessary security guardrails.

For founders entering regulated markets, these lessons highlight the importance of deep customer understanding, strategic positioning, and long-term thinking. Success isn’t just about building better products—it’s about creating the infrastructure that makes an entire industry possible.