Secrets To Crafting The Tantalizing Founders Story

We have all seen horrible pitches. That is the norm. However, behind some of these poorly articulated stories are great companies. The problem is that they will fail if the story is not improved.

A good founder's story opens the door to raising funds, closing sales, and improving products.

A great one removes risk.

The best stories follow these three rules based on adventure, problem, and overcoming:

1. Your hero is on an adventure

2. Your hero faces a problem

3. Your hero must change to overcome the obstacle

Adventure

The most captivating stories have a sense of adventure. They are quests in which we meet the hero, learn what qualifies them, and watch as they undergo a journey.

For example, "All the hotels in the area were booked."

Problem

Along the journey, our hero will face a problem. This is a big issue that cannot easily be solved. Our hero must change before they can solve the problem.

For example, "We could not make rent this month."

Overcoming

Once our hero puts in the work, like a Rocky Movie montage of workouts and sparring, they overcome the obstacle.

For example, "We ran a Craigslist ad to rent out our sofa."

Putting it all together

Consider, "Recruited by Apple, my best friend and I moved to the Bay Area. Unable to pay rent, we learned of a conference that caused all of the hotels to be booked for three days. Running an ad on Craigslist, we rented our sofa. Within minutes, we had rent money."

The problem with this story is that it is not personal enough, does not convey pain, and does little to highlight the founder's qualifications.

An improved version would be, "After graduating from MIT, my best friend and I moved to the Bay Area. Desperate to make rent, we offered our sofa to people attending the WWDC event. Soon, we helped our co-workers at Apple rent their sofas, too."

This version gives insight into the struggle while highlighting the founder's qualifications, market opportunities, and ability to solve problems quickly. However, it does not remove risk.

Removing risk

When you tell your story to a potential customer or investor, they listen to find the red flags. A great story removes this risk in the minds of the listener.

For example, in our story above, we have a red flag regarding the WWDC event. An investor just hearing this would think, "Would this work if there was no event keeping the hotels full?" In other words, how would this product compete against hotel rivals?

To improve the story, you have to remove the risk. For example, instead of saying, "Desperate to make rent, we offered our sofa to people attending the WWDC event," explain that "Desperate to make rent, we offered our sofa first to people attending the WWDC event. Thinking it might be due to the event, we offered it again during a slow time of the year. The same result, we paid our monthly rent in two days."

Crafting the perfect founding story is critical. If you need help with yours, reply to this email.