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We’ve been telling stories our whole lives. It’s how we communicate. It’s how we tell people what’s important to us. Most importantly, it’s how people remember the important things that we tell them.
Yet when it comes to pitching investors, we don’t effectively take advantage of our ability to tell stories. Instead, we list off a bunch of boring facts and figures our pitch falls flat, and we fail to get investors excited about our startup.
I don’t want this to happen to you. I’ll explain 10 ways you can use storytelling to help you get an investment.
1. The stories you use have to be relevant.
When I was in graduate school, there was a seminar on how to use stories effectively. In presentations, the presenter showed us a video of someone telling a story about how his favorite football team smashed the competition, and then he was going to do the same thing.
The story fell flat because the story had nothing to do with him or what he was selling. One of the keys to good storytelling is the stories have to be relevant to your presentation.
A great way to start your pitch is with an origin story of what drove you to start your company. For example, a CEO I am working with told the story of how his mother died of cancer and her death led him to start his company that uses blood testing to do early stage cancer detection.
The story worked because it was relevant. Now, let’s move to number two on our list.
2. The stories have to be compelling.
One way to think about any presentation you give including pitching investors is your goal is keeping your audience’s attention. Stories make it easier to do this.
However, the stories you tell must be compelling. In other words, the stories have to be interesting.
Obviously, it’s compelling when you tell a story about how your mom died of cancer and how it became the reason you started your company. Next, let’s move to number three on my list.
