Internal pre-call brief

Jason Gross

Discovery Call 1, self-booked as an Outbound Readiness Review. Dr. Jason A. Gross, Pharm.D., VP Scientific Affairs and co-founding member, HLS Therapeutics.

When

13:30 UK today, Mon Aug 24

His clock

08:30 ET

Length

30 min

Where

meet.google.com/zxu-nwea-pfq

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Read this first

Three things the record gets wrong or misses

1

The call is 13:30 UK, not 09:30

The triage digest misread the Calendly stamp. 09:30 is Atlantic Time. The calendar event is 13:30 to 14:00 UK. You have not missed it.

2

He has only ever spoken to Jamie

Every message in the thread is Jamie's voice, and the last one led with the Business Enquirer publishing side.

Jamie shows no calendar conflict at 13:30. Pull him in, or open with: "Jamie and I work together, he asked me to lead this one."

3

His live email is the Aluna one

He booked with jgross@alunaresearch.com. The HLS address on his record was never used and is unverified.

Aluna Research is a past consulting vehicle of his. Its website is dead.

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The person

A semi-retired pharma co-founder, not an operator

Co-founding member of HLS Therapeutics, VP Scientific Affairs, with an insider equity stake.
30+ years across the FDA and NIH (about 5 years), IVAX, Zenith Goldline, Drugabuse Sciences, Cipher Pharmaceuticals (VP Scientific Affairs), and venture capital at MDS Capital.
Former Public Health Service and US Army lieutenant. Pharm.D., University of Arizona.
His own LinkedIn says he is "retired from full-time" work, available for consulting in clinical development and companion diagnostics. The VP title may be legacy. Resolve it on the call.
Eastern timezone, possibly New Jersey (unverified). Light LinkedIn poster: occasional mental-health advocacy and point-of-care testing posts.

He is a scientist-regulator, not a marketer. Do not bluff anything clinical or regulatory. He will know.

Persona read: closest to A, owner. Deciding with his own money and his own time.

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His anchor company

HLS Therapeutics, the context, not the pitch

Toronto specialty pharma, TSX listed, roughly C$130M market cap, 51 to 200 staff, US operations in the Philadelphia metro area.
CNS and cardiovascular drugs in Canada and the US: Clozaril (schizophrenia), Vascepa, NILEMDO and NEXLIZET (Canada launch March 2026), CSAN Pronto point-of-care monitoring.
Q2 results, Aug 12: revenue $14.7M, cardiovascular portfolio up 25% year on year, full-year guidance of $56 to 60M reaffirmed.
No landmines found: no layoffs, lawsuits, FDA or Health Canada actions, or recalls. CEO Craig Millian since May 2023.

HLS is not the buyer. It already runs a 22-rep specialty salesforce and is actively hiring. Pitching "we build your outbound unit" at HLS corporate would misread the room.

The buyer here is almost certainly Jason personally, with two personal asks.

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How we got here

The thread in 30 seconds

Aug 7 Him, on LinkedIn to Jamie: in pharma, "ideas for a new platform in our area," and separately wants help with a media program, thhguru.com, "strong hip hop following."
Aug 9 Him: "would like to hear more on both topics," asked for Jamie's email.
Aug 10 Jamie sent his address. Jason never emailed.
Aug 15 Chase 1: both topics in one call, name a time.
Aug 19 Chase 2, the last thing he read: led with thhguru, asked whether he wants that audience "bigger, or better qualified for something you plan to sell into it," and gave the Calendly link.
Aug 21 Friday, 23:27 UK: he booked himself. The calendar invite is still unaccepted.

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What he wants

Two asks, one open box

Ask 1: the pharma platform

Unknown. Nothing public. This is the call's biggest open box.

A semi-retired co-founder with ideas, a rolodex, and no engine. If it is real and funded, this is the Build, Run, Own shape.

Ask 2: thhguru.com

TheHipHopGuru. Toronto, founded 2016 by Alex Henein. "The Sit Down" interview series, 65+ episodes, roughly 138k Instagram followers.

Monetized by a merch shop only. No visible email capture, sponsorship layer, or funnel. An audience without an engine.

Jason's role in it is invisible publicly. Ask, do not assume.

Aluna Research, the email he booked with, has a dead website and no footprint at all. Treat it as his past consulting shell, not a live company.

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Fit

Caution, but take it well

Not core ICP. His employer is Canadian and listed, with a real salesforce, and he is semi-retired.
Positive inbound gets the full pitch. This was the strongest reply of its window, a clean two-sided hand-raise. Fit is Dan's call.
He is a wealthy, senior, connected pharma executive who came to us. The relationship is worth the 30 minutes even if neither lane closes.

Expect this to resolve into two possible deals: a media or publishing engagement on thhguru (Jamie's side), and a possible build around the platform idea (ECG side).

Diagnose which is real before framing anything.

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Pitch to these, not the menu

Two lanes only

thhguru: audience monetization and growth

138k followers and a merch shop is an audience with no commercial layer.

Reuse Jamie's knife: bigger, or better qualified for something you plan to sell into it? Social, content, PR and media through the publishing side.

The platform: outbound engine and market system

Whatever the platform is, he has no list, no engine, and no operator behind it.

If it is real and funded, that is a designed, staffed, and handed-over outbound unit. Build, Run, Own.

Do not offer a third lane until he shows you one.

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Conversation starters

Say this

"You told Jamie you're in pharma with ideas for a new platform in your area. Start there. What is it, who's it for, and where does it stand today?"Maps to Q1, then Q4 for the constraint

"On TheHipHopGuru, I did my homework. Alex has built a real audience, and the content is strong. What's your role in it, and picking up Jamie's question, do you want that audience bigger, or better qualified for something you plan to sell into it?"Maps to Q5 and Q13, and confirms his actual relationship to the site

"You booked this Friday night after a couple of quiet weeks. What moved it up the list?"Timing trigger, feeds the STAR checkout

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Landmines

Do not step here

thhguru is Alex Henein's. Jason's connection is invisible publicly. If he is backing someone else's brand, the buyer question changes.
He never emailed despite asking for the address. Do not say "you went quiet." He may feel Jamie went quiet.
HLS sells a schizophrenia drug and he posts mental-health advocacy. Keep any reference respectful and clinical-adjacent.

No pricing today. If he asks: "It depends on what we'd actually build for you, so a number now would just be wrong. Fixed-fee build, optional retainer after, scoped to what you need."
Disciplines, not vendor names. Business Enquirer is fine, Jamie already named it.
No guaranteed numbers. Engine results only as "we have achieved, on strong campaigns."
If he no-shows: the chase goes through Jamie's LinkedIn thread, not email.

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Before you hang up, and after

Close it properly

On the call

Stack the pain back in his own words and get the yes.

Book Call 2 live in the diary, invite sent before you hang up. Offer two windows.

Ask "what's the best way to contact you?" We hold no phone number for him.

Run the STAR checkout: situation, timing, authority, resources.

After the call, ops

The Twenty record still reads Claimed. Flip the stage to reflect today's call. Nothing does this automatically.

Add jgross@alunaresearch.com as his live email. Mark the HLS address unverified.

Post the outcome in the pod chat: Jamie's thread carries the relationship.

Sources: CRM evidence and triage digests Aug 9 to 24; Calendly notification Aug 21; team calendar; HLS Q2 results Aug 12 via BioSpace; LinkedIn; RocketReach and ZoomInfo (probable); thhguru.com; alunaresearch.com DNS checks. Compiled Aug 24, 2026.

Enquirer Consulting Group, Enquirer AI is the outbound engine of Enquirer Consulting Group

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