Bringing Swagger to Ontario Life Sciences

Kris Barnette is a creative powerhouse—the President of All Good Marketing and an adjunct professor at Kent State—who brings a level of “swagger” to life science branding.

Kris is focused on turning Ontario, Canada, into a global commercial powerhouse in the life sciences.

Ontario has everything a biotech hub needs: world-class infrastructure, elite academic institutions, and incredible talent. However, Kris points out a “commercialization chokehold” that prevents the region from reaching global dominance. The science is often buried under layers of academic jargon and conservative positioning.

Kris is tackling this head-on with his upcoming project, The Ontario Life Science Founder Marketing Glow Up. It’s a guide designed to help PhD founders shift their mindset from “poster presentation” to “brand beast”.

One of the biggest hurdles for scientist-founders is the “curse of knowledge”. In academia, you’re taught to be conservative with data and open to endless debate. But as Kris explained, once you move from research to a venture, you are no longer just doing science—you are running a business.

Marketing isn’t just “mascara” or “bedazzle” you sprinkle on a product once it’s ready for the spotlight. It’s a muscle. It’s about charting a commercial path, building partnerships, and communicating value to three key audiences: investors, partners, and clinicians.

We talked about “Demand Gen Without Desperation,” a chapter in his book inspired by his work with Lee Jay Lowenstein at Stellar Scientific. Kris and Lee decided to inject some levity into the brand by creating the “Lab Llamas”—a family of characters like Lana Llama (Customer Service) and Leon Llama (Shipping).

While it might seem risky to use comic-book-style flyers in a conservative field, the data backed it up. Market research showed that 90% of customer sentiment was positive because people appreciated the friendliness and approachability. It proves that having a sense of humor doesn’t make you unprofessional; it makes you human.

Even for a veteran like Kris, with 30 years of marketing experience, putting yourself out there is hard. He admitted to a “reverse curse of knowledge”—feeling like if he knows something, everyone else must know it too, so why bother posting it on LinkedIn?.

But “invisible innovation” is a danger to any business. If your website is a “coming soon” page or your LinkedIn is silent, you’ve already lost. Kris had to overcome his own shyness to launch All Good Marketing in Canada, even navigating the hurdles of finding local talent to get his new site, allgoodmarketing.ca, live.

For U.S. companies looking to move north, Kris warns against simply “importing loud marketing”. The Canadian market is more risk-averse and relationship-driven. In Canada, trust is the primary currency; it’s earned slower, but it lasts much longer. His approach combines “Substance, Savvy, and Swagger” to help these companies get noticed without losing that essential human connection.

As a final surprise, Kris introduced his “aluminum shepherd,” Gizmo—a robot dog that will serve as his co-host for his upcoming 14-episode audio book podcast.

It was a fittingly creative end to the show. While this is the last episode of Life Science Marketing Radio, I am so grateful to the 200+ guests and the thousands of listeners who have joined me on this journey over the last 11 years.

Wishing you all the best.

Chris

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