How we helped the awesome ADORA guys explain to the world what their natural user interface for surgeons is, only to get them an investment from Tim Draper. Yeah, enough said.

You know, there are so many brilliant scientific projects that remain obscure to most people. This is actually a tragic pattern, as such products can revolutionize whole fields of science or bring immense benefit to people’s health and everyday life. If only there was somebody to explain how they actually function in plain language…

Adora could have been one of them, but its creators were wise enough to escape the deadly trend and realized their awesome health product needs a humanizing brand story.

Two fresh computer scientists plus a rockstar team of doctors make up the startup team of Adora. Their invention, you ask? Well, they created Adora Assistant, the prototype of a seamless natural user interface for surgeons, and Adora Healthsuite, a back-office solution for the whole medical team.

Their revolutionary idea is of tremendous help to surgeons on the operating table because it provides touchless presentation of the patient’s information through gestures and voice commands. This means they don’t need to memorize medical images anymore. All relevant visual data is available at hand, so surgeons don’t need to waste time and leave the patient waiting during the procedure.

The result? Shorter surgeries, thus less time in anesthesia for patients, plus reduced operational costs and efforts for the medical staff.

Having in mind the innovative and helpful product and the great team behind it, we could easily spot how we can help Adora: by showcasing their authentic story and explaining why they’re doing the awesome thing they’re doing.

Branding and storytelling for Adora

We started by auditing the existing image and presence of Adora. The guys had a solid slide deck presentation and a cool explainer video. What’s better, they also had gotten testimonials from surgeons who had tested the product. All of these were a great basis for efficient communication.

But what we discovered that Adora was missing was a good answer to the universal business question: Why? Namely, the authentic brand story that explains why the founders pursued their goals and what steps led them to creating their product.

Adora needed a story that everybody gets. They often have to pitch to VCs, as well as present their solution to the public and key journalists. That’s why they often stumbled in the same obstacle: how to explain a startup as complex as Adora?

That’s why the Edgars set on a quest to find and share with the world the origin story of Adora. By tying together the elements of the team history and their rationale for creating the startup, we crafted a multifunctional brand story. It goes well for both the general public and the press.

Then we picked the brains of the Adora team and crafted together relevant user stories about doctors, patients and other stakeholders, with clear personas and scenarios. The goal was to envision clearly the ripples that Adora can make in the medical sea. We put the focus on doctors’ experience with it, so the case study of Dr. Bogdan came forward, which became illustrative of Adora’s usefulness.

Finally, we revamped the language that Adora was using and switched to a friendlier copy that speaks to all users. Then we made a few versions of their slide deck – for VCs and for the general audience, in order to make sure that everybody gets the right message in the right shape.

The results for Adora

Let’s not waste words in vain. We’ll just mention that Tim Draper invested in Adora.

Another great step for Adora, naturally, is that it now has a clear and consistent brand message, paired with an emotional story that speaks to people and to which they can relate and empathize.

In the words of Kristjan Košič, founder and CEO of Adora: “Every time I pitch, everybody talks about the story and how important it is. But to make one… another thing. And that’s where Edgar helped us big time. We finally have a story everybody relates to, plus the guys designed the slick slide deck to compliment it.”

Edgar likes practical lessons

We like challenges, especially when these are storytelling challenges. And what better than a scientific topic that needs an everyday explanation?

Working with tech geeks and health buffs like the Adora guys was a blast. We saw how cool it is to work with real doctors! On top of that, we learned what you can do by hacking your gaming console like the Kinect. Wow.

The Adora project also gave us the opportunity to diversify our experience, as we had to work with a completely new persona in mind – the surgeon. And getting into a surgeon’s brain is fun.

Most of all we enjoyed the practical application of leveraging the experience of an existing happy user, turning him into a brand ambassador. Yes, Dr. Bogdan. Now whenever people see the Adora guys, they call them Dr. Bogdan.

Check out the complete Adora case study.

Need a compelling brand story?

Make sure to ping for help. We love telling a good story, however difficult it might seem.