Breaking Into Big Pharma: How Pluto Built Trust From Day One

It’s one thing to build a good product. It’s another to sell it to one of the most risk-averse, complex enterprise customers in the world: Big Pharma.

That’s the challenge Rani Powers, founder of Pluto, signed up for from day one. Pluto is a life sciences platform that helps researchers analyze and visualize large-scale molecular data — a critical but long-overlooked step in drug development.

But to win the trust of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, Rani didn’t just need strong product-market fit. She needed compliance, clarity, and credibility — before even sending the first cold email.

Key Takeaways

• Pluto is a B2B SaaS platform that accelerates biological data analysis
• Pharma was the end goal — so compliance and security were built from day one
• Identifying the right users inside pharma orgs was more complex than expected
• One of Pluto’s biggest GTM unlocks came through smaller biotechs that later got acquired
• They’re now scaling their AI capabilities while navigating the SaaS margin tradeoffs in big data

The Problem: Analysis Lag Is Slowing Down Drug Discovery

Rani’s insight came from the lab. As a scientist, she watched as researchers generated huge amounts of molecular data — only to sit on it for weeks or months while waiting for analysis.

“This isn’t just about publishing a paper faster. It could delay a cancer drug by months.”

Pluto exists to remove that bottleneck — to help scientists move from raw data to real answers faster, through a platform designed for their actual workflows.

But knowing the problem doesn’t guarantee access to the buyer.

The Challenge: Breaking Into Big Pharma

Selling into pharma meant more than good design. It meant: • SOC 2 compliance
• Genomic data protections
• Multi-stage user roles
• Precision on who inside the org they were actually selling to

“At first I thought, we’ll just sell to ‘scientists.’ But there are dozens of roles. We had to get way more specific.”

One of Pluto’s biggest early wins? Building for small biotechs with strong research ops — many of which later got acquired by large pharma companies. That gave Pluto a warm entry into enterprise systems — with scientists already advocating for them from the inside.

What They Got Right: Compliance Before GTM

Most startups treat compliance as a blocker — something they’ll figure out later. Pluto did the opposite.

“We built SOC 2 and key data protections into the product early. That decision made every enterprise convo easier.”

And it wasn’t just checkboxes. They understood the compliance nuance across teams — from translational scientists to genomics to clinical teams — and tailored their story accordingly.

That clarity meant less friction, faster procurement, and deeper trust.

The Bigger Challenge: High Compute, Tight Margins

Pluto is a SaaS business, but it runs on heavy compute and storage, which messes with traditional SaaS margins and investor expectations.

“We’re not Slack. Our customers are running massive analyses. It takes serious infra — and serious optimization.”

Rani’s now actively working on how to: • Build AI-powered copilots into Pluto’s workflows
• Explain margin realities clearly to investors
• Balance performance, UX, and profitability in big-data SaaS

It’s a category-defining challenge — and one she’s approaching with the same scientific mindset that led her here.

Final Advice: Get Specific, Stay Close

“If you’re building for enterprise — especially pharma — specificity wins. Know exactly who you’re solving for. Build trust early. And don’t be afraid to lead with compliance.”

Book a Free AI Assessment if you're a SaaS founder and want to explore how AI can streamline complex workflows, enhance compliance, or power decision-making at scale.