Meet Rachael Shayne | Co-Founder, R&D B2B Marketing

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rachael Shayne and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachael, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I kept seeing brilliant climate-tech founders drown in jargon while incumbents with shinier logos but thinner IP win the narrative. Diana and I realized the market didn’t need another agency chasing impressions—it needed translators that could turn “hard science” into magnetic business value. We built R&D B2B Marketing/Branding/Comms (the R is for Rachael and the D is for Diana, we kept it simple) to sit at that intersection of engineering truth and brand emotion, giving frontier-tech companies the same storytelling muscle FAANG brands enjoy—minus the hesitant branding spin cycles and the expensive marketing burn.

Every kilowatt-hour of geothermal power sold, every methane leak prevented, every ton of waste-to-energy diverted has a marketing story behind it. When we help a client land the capital, the pilot, or the Series B, the downstream impact is measurable carbon reduction and job creation in the age of energy options. Think of us as a force multiplier: better messaging → faster adoption → outsized climate benefit.

What should our readers know about your business?
R&D steps in when a clean-tech CEO realizes their story isn’t landing. We strip out the jargon, sharpen the message, and rebuild the narrative so that investors and customers immediately see the potential.
What sets us apart? Speed. No junior layers. When you hire us, you get us on the Zoom call doing the actual work. We’re proudest of the fact that our clients can repeat their value props in under 90 seconds after a single workshop—and their Series B decks close faster because of it.
Easy? Not at all, and that’s the way we like it. We launched during a policy roller-coaster, turned down comfy retainers that didn’t fit, and bootstrapped every tool we use. The hardest part was unlearning corporate muscle memory—saying “no” to slide bloat, endless calendars, and “we’ve always done it this way.” We overcame it by treating constraints as jet fuel: limited hours force ruthless prioritization; small teams force radical candor.

Lessons so far:

– Protect curiosity like cash flow—when curiosity dies, so does the work.
– Charge for clarity, not deliverables—nobody needs another PDF; they need conviction and things they can use.
– Stay delightfully quirky—our quirks are a feature, not a bug.

What do we want the world to know? That influential storytelling isn’t a “nice-to-have” for technical founders; it’s the shortest path from lab bench to market traction. And we’re here to make that leap feel exhilarating.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Spoiler alert: this itinerary is food-heavy. We’d start with breakfast at Right Cream. Don’t worry, no ice cream for breakfast (but never say never!). Their bodega-style breakfast sandwich can’t be beat (and we might even return later in the day for ice cream and the best smash burgers in town.
You can’t visit Denver without a hike near the Flatirons of Boulder—go to NCAR or Chautauqua Trailhead, which are favorites. For shopping, Recital and Still in RiNo are go-tos for great clothing and home goods.
After a brief intermission…we’re back to food. Dinner rotation includes Izakaya Den, Alma Fonda Fina, or over to Boulder for Pizzeria Alberico (the pizza is incredible, and the butterscotch budino is not to be missed). Don’t make us pick a favorite. For drinks, it’s hard to beat Yacht Club. Best cocktails in town, served in what feels like a dive bar, in the best possible way. Don’t sleep on their hot dogs if you’re still hungry (we are!).

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I blame (and thank) a rogue’s gallery of truth-tellers. First, to the coaches (esp. Ceal Barry) who plucked me out of a high school lineup and sent me to college on an athletic scholarship – I’m the first in my family to have a college degree. Second, my business partner Diana—she’s the only person I know who can dismantle a 30-slide deck with one eyebrow raise and rebuild it into a killer narrative on the spot. Second, the founders in our orbit who trust us with their “ugly first drafts” and still pick up the phone when we tell them their tagline needs surgery. Third, Scott Galloway for reminding us that marketing is a contact sport, not a coloring book. And finally, the entire BEN (Bridge Entrepreneur Network) team, especially Mick Freeman, who teaches me things and supports my endeavors in a way that inspires me.

Website: https://rdb2bmarketing.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/r-d-b2b-marketing