Recently a colleague Amir Grinstein asked for examples of storytelling in entrepreneurial pitches. Even as I responded to him I realized that there are numerous examples that I use in my innovation and entrepreneurship classes. One of my favorite is this short 3-minute pitch made by a student at the Husky Startup Challenge at Northeastern University. Let’s take a look at it first.
Here’s what Jessica did in her first 60 seconds
| Stage | Script | Effect or Outcome |
| Opening | “What is MODE? Let me start by telling you a story. [pause]” (4 secs) | Almost the same as “Once upon a time.” Creates anticipation. Her opening question and answer explicitly tell you she’s going to tell a story. |
| Context | “This is my friend Sally. She recently bought a jacket online, expecting that it would come looking like this” [7 secs] | Introduces the protagonist Sally (with a picture) and what she did and her expectations, providing context and making her relatable, establishing empathy. |
| Problem | “But when it came it actually ended up looking like this.” [3 secs] | Hooks us in with the problem – poor fit and unmet expectations. Again a single picture SHOWS does a great job that even many words may not do clearly. |
In under 15 seconds, Jessica managed to set up her story—creating anticipation, spelling out the context and SHOWING not merely telling the problem.”
Entrepreneurs all too often are focused on their solution. They may even state who it is for. However, they fail to state what the problem or need that customer or user faces.
The core purpose of storytelling is to create empathy with your listeners. If they can relate to your protagonist, identify with their problem, they are more likely to continue listening to you. Every class or team that I’ve shown this video to have instantly related to the problem statement. And they can all narrate a tale or two of someone they know (if not themselves) who have faced this problem.
Jessica having stated the problem, then goes on to state why her listeners should care.
| Stage | Script | Effect or Outcome |
| Problem | A lot of times when you’re shopping online the clothing does not fit on you like it does on that ‘beautiful, 5’8″ model’ (10 secs) | Relatability. |
| Unmet Need | Sally is a representation of 50% of online shoppers. People want to be confident that their clothes fit when shopping online (10 secs) | This is NOT just Sally’s problem but all of ours |
And she finally frames the problem in terms of its magnitude and the reason for MODE!
| Stage | Script | Effect or Outcome |
| Climax | Customer satisfaction in the eCommerce industry is extremely low, with a 15-40% return rate in comparison to 5-10% return rate for in-store purchases. (15 secs) | Yet another reveal |
| Resolution | That is why I created the perfect solution, MODE (5 secs) | Here’s a solution |
So in under 60 seconds, Jessica framed the problem through the story of her friend Sally’s experience. She made it relatable to the listener, built credibility by quantifying the problem and set the stage for her solution.
Stories can serve as great hooks or openings for any presentation or speech. They are particularly useful when making fundraising pitches, especially for technical or complex problems or solutions. And as we saw with the earlier example of Hans Rosling’s using data storytelling, these stories don’t have to be long. They can as short as under a minute as Jessica so beautifully demonstrates!
