Stories explain, captivate, disturb and inspire. We are more likely to resonate with a good story than we are bunch of information. “Entrepreneurship is about telling a story that connects the deep needs of a group of people with a repeatable solution.” The stories you tell during your pitch connects the information on your slides together like thread connects pieces of fabric together. Without the elements of story, your pitch deck is just a boring report about your company. Telling stories during your presentation will make your presentation persuasive and motivating. It will get investors interested in the product or service you provide. Here are three primary ways to use stories in your deck as shared by Baehr and Loomis in Get Backed:

  1. To create a narrative arc that ties your slide deck together.
  2. To explain one or more of your slides.
  3. To have as a reservoir of things to discuss and ways to respond to questions during a conversation.

Here are some different types of stories you could tell during your pitch to investors. For each of the story types below, let’s use as an example a business selling a new healthy and tasty vegan snack that you feel will be a game changer because there is nothing else like it on the market. There are also video clips from the hit show Shark Tank as examples for each story type.

Origin Story

Your origin story is a story about how you came up with the idea for your product or service. Sometimes founders like to share a personal story about a problem they had and how it led to their startup idea. Telling an origin story is great for products and services with high social benefits. A great time during your pitch is when discussing either your problem/solution or team slides. Also, it helps investors to understand why your startup is important to you.

The origin story follow this pattern:

  1. Describe the problem you were having
  2. Describe the epiphany you had that led to the idea
  3. Describe what initial action you took to get started
  4. Explain how your startup gives you a sense of purpose and motivation

So, if you were telling an origin story about your vegan business, you can say whenever I go to the grocery store looking for vegan snacks the selection is very limited. The snacks that are there don’t look appetizing and are bland in taste. I thought there should be more options than this and vegan snacks do not have to be bland. I believe that by making more tasty vegan snacks I am helping others to eat healthier.

A compelling instance of utilizing an origin story is demonstrated by Everlywell, a company that appeared on Shark Tank, offering a solution for obtaining clear results to a range of medical tests. By watching the video below, you can witness how they effectively employed their origin story to engage the investors

Customer Story

Your customer story is a story about how your customers have benefited from your product or service. The customer does not have to be real customer if you are pre-revenue. It can be fictional. A customer helps investors better understand the benefits of your startup to your customers. A customer story is especially great if your startup is a complex product or service. It can help them understand the value. This story type is very common when introducing the problem and solution.

The pattern this story type follows:

  1. Give a description of the customer
  2. Describe the problem the customer was facing
  3. Describe the solution your service or product brought to the customer

At an event where I was selling my snacks, I had multiple customers try them and received feedback that they were the tastiest vegan snack they have ever eaten. One customer told me that by having a tastier snack option it has helped them to stick with their vegan diet plan which was difficult especially when they wanted a snack.

Here is another excellent illustration of how to integrate a customer story into your pitch. It’s worth noting that the story doesn’t necessarily need to be about a real customer. In the following video from Shark Tank, you can witness Bug Bite Thing, a company presenting their business to investors, effectively utilizing a fictitious customer scenario to illustrate the problem their product solves. This approach enables them to vividly showcase the relevance and impact of their solution.

Industry Story

Your industry story is a story about how the industry you are in is changing and how your product or service is taking advantage of that change. This story type is great if your product or service will be disruptive to the industry. A great point in your pitch to tell this story is when explaining your product or competition slide.

The pattern this story type follows:

  1. Describe how the industry operates currently
  2. State how as a result of recent changes (social, technological, or economic factors etc.) the way the industry is currently operating is not working as well
  3. Describe how the changes have created an opportunity for your startup

The vegan lifestyle was not always popular but all that has changed. There has been an increase in the desire for vegan foods as more and more people are choosing to be vegan. The plant-based market grew by 27% during the COVID pandemic.

In the following example, PaddleSmash presents their company to the sharks on Shark Tank, seeking investment. It is interesting to observe that instead of focusing on a specific problem they are solving, they discuss how they are taking advantage of the growing popularity of pickleball.

Venture Growth Story

Your venture growth story is a story about the traction your company has been experiencing. So if you have an interesting story about how you managed to get early traction, you can share that story. You can share this story when discussing either your competition, business model, financials, or ask slides.

This story type follows this pattern:

  1. State the action you took to get traction.
  2. State the results from the action you took.
  3. State how the results made a difference for your startup
  4. State that you are looking to grow your startup even bigger

At first, we did not have many sells, but once we started reaching out to people in the community business really took off. At every event, we sell out. We are in multiple stores, and we are consistently having reorders.

<a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-photos”>Free Stock photos by Vecteezy</a>

After learning about all the different stories, you can tell during your pitch, you will need to decide which story you want to lead with. The story you led with should be your strongest story that will really capture the investor’s interest and motivate them to want to get behind your company. Here are some tips for when it may be a good idea to tell each type of story during your pitch:

  1. Consider telling your origin story when introducing your company or talking about your team.
  2. The industry story is a great to tell when talking about the opportunity in your industry.
  3. The customer story can be introduced when describing your problem and solution.
  4. The venture story can be given either when talking about your competition, unique advantage, business model, financials, or your ask.

You may not have a story for each type and that is fine. Having at least one strong story can go a long way. If you feel like you do not have time to tell stories during your, remember these stories do not have to be long. Your story can last less than 2 minutes! Hope you found this article helpful. Wish you well on your pitch. If you need help with crafting your pitch deck schedule a free consultation and we will tell you how we can help.

Reference

Baehr, Evan, and Evan Loomis. Get Backed: Craft Your Story, Build the Perfect Pitch Deck, Launch the Venture of Your Dreams. Harvard Business Review Press, 2015.