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BY Tyler Perry

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A biotech or SaaS company wants to be seen as an AI company. A health company wants to be seen as a tech company. Some have earned the label. Many are chasing a valuation multiple, knowing capital flows to whoever carries the tag. We’ve seen this script before. During the dot-com boom, adding “.com” to a corporate name could trigger a speculative surge. A decade later, companies rushed to rebrand around blockchain.

I run a communications firm. Narrative can change how people see a business, but it can’t fix the fundamentals.

STORY MATTERS—TO A POINT

Investors, employees, and reporters invest in stories, especially concerning frontier technology. When a company is building something that won’t exist for years, it can’t point to a finished product.…