7 Must-Haves in an Impactful Startup Story
By Stanley Meytin
Top 7 Tips for Stories with Impact
You have a great idea. You have a plan, people who believe in your vision, and the willingness to work through trying times to make your startup a success. Now, one thing stands between you and all of your goals: capital.
The best way to maintain momentum for your startup is to attain venture capital (VC). Scalability can help attract VC, but a startup that shows potential investors the value of their product will always have an easier time connecting with them. People invest in other people and their stories, so stop trying to sell a product and start selling your story. Use these seven pointers to plan your storytelling strategy for success.
Tell Your Own Story
No one knows the roots of your startup better than you do. So why pay someone else to do what you’d do best anyway? Skip the actors and voice-overs and get in front of that camera. People respond to personable, genuine human communication and will appreciate the face of your product being your own.
This also gives you the opportunity to evoke an emotional response from your audience. Your startup is likely something you feel passionately about and investors want to see that. Take time to verbalize this passion and work with your production partner to find the best way to capture it on film.
Keep it Simple
Audiences have increasingly short attention spans, especially when they’re being sold to. In the case of a startup looking to gain investments, your best bet is creating a human connection to your audience fast. Don’t generalize, over exaggerate or over complicate your message. Be concise and clear with your story and tell it in a way that people can identify with. Catching the eye and interest of a potential investor quickly is crucial in the beginning stages of a company. Unlike larger companies, startups lack the recognizability needed to bring first-time viewers back to your website or social media. Gain their attention with your strategy and keep it with your story.
Engage Your Audience
Once you grab a viewer’s attention give your audience the chance to participate. Some of the strongest video marketing campaigns end each piece of content with an opportunity for feedback and participation. Provide a call to action for viewers, whether it be a social media hashtag to repost or landing page on your website with a prompt for viewers to share their own story. After they participate, interact with them. Respond thanking them for their input and showing them that you’re a real person engaging with them, not an automated message like they’d get at a larger company. People invest in people; the ability to attract great people is a major selling point to investors.
Show, Don’t Tell
You could sit down in front of a camera and tell your story masterfully, but a face on a screen will never have as much impact as visual storytelling. Did you come up with the idea for your product while standing in line at Starbucks? Did you create your first prototype in your kitchen at home? Did you crash your car on the way to a pitch meeting with an investor? Every startup story has quirky, situational moments like these but your audience won’t respond to hearing them alone, you need to show them. Bring them into the moment and let them experience your story for themselves. Film in a Starbucks, show off that picture of you beaming in the kitchen, find a picture of your totaled car. Everyone is looking for something they can relate to. By bringing them into the little moments of your story, you encourage and allow them to make their own connections to it, connections that may inspire them to invest.
Don’t Sugarcoat It
Startups are riddled with issues. You’re building something from nothing, which could simply not be done without resilience, struggle, and some failure along the way. Don’t hide or downplay this struggle, show it off. You’ve jumped countless hurdles and now have something incredible to show for it, something that they can benefit from investing in. The reality is you’re not only competing with large companies like Apple and Google, but other startups as well. You need to showcase your undying passion and perseverance to prove that your company is the best place for an investor’s future.
Invest in Yourself
You may already have the resources to tell your story, but nothing will show a potential investor your dedication and confidence in your product more than an investment in yourself. You know the most enticing version of your startup’s story but you cannot tell it on your own. To reach the next level, you need to find the right people to help you tell your story so you can gain traction and growth.
Use these tools along with a strong sense of your story to create an impactful, honest video campaign for your startup. Pair your passion with the skills of a like-minded production company and watch the connections form before your eyes.
Reading Time: 4 minutes
By Stanley Meytin
Top 7 Tips for Stories with Impact
You have a great idea. You have a plan, people who believe in your vision, and the willingness to work through trying times to make your startup a success. Now, one thing stands between you and all of your goals: capital.
The best way to maintain momentum for your startup is to attain venture capital (VC). Scalability can help attract VC, but a startup that shows potential investors the value of their product will always have an easier time connecting with them. People invest in other people and their stories, so stop trying to sell a product and start selling your story. Use these seven pointers to plan your storytelling strategy for success.
Tell Your Own Story
No one knows the roots of your startup better than you do. So why pay someone else to do what you’d do best anyway? Skip the actors and voice-overs and get in front of that camera. People respond to personable, genuine human communication and will appreciate the face of your product being your own.
This also gives you the opportunity to evoke an emotional response from your audience. Your startup is likely something you feel passionately about and investors want to see that. Take time to verbalize this passion and work with your production partner to find the best way to capture it on film.
Keep it Simple
Audiences have increasingly short attention spans, especially when they’re being sold to. In the case of a startup looking to gain investments, your best bet is creating a human connection to your audience fast. Don’t generalize, over exaggerate or over complicate your message. Be concise and clear with your story and tell it in a way that people can identify with. Catching the eye and interest of a potential investor quickly is crucial in the beginning stages of a company. Unlike larger companies, startups lack the recognizability needed to bring first-time viewers back to your website or social media. Gain their attention with your strategy and keep it with your story.
Engage Your Audience
Once you grab a viewer’s attention give your audience the chance to participate. Some of the strongest video marketing campaigns end each piece of content with an opportunity for feedback and participation. Provide a call to action for viewers, whether it be a social media hashtag to repost or landing page on your website with a prompt for viewers to share their own story. After they participate, interact with them. Respond thanking them for their input and showing them that you’re a real person engaging with them, not an automated message like they’d get at a larger company. People invest in people; the ability to attract great people is a major selling point to investors.
Show, Don’t Tell
You could sit down in front of a camera and tell your story masterfully, but a face on a screen will never have as much impact as visual storytelling. Did you come up with the idea for your product while standing in line at Starbucks? Did you create your first prototype in your kitchen at home? Did you crash your car on the way to a pitch meeting with an investor? Every startup story has quirky, situational moments like these but your audience won’t respond to hearing them alone, you need to show them. Bring them into the moment and let them experience your story for themselves. Film in a Starbucks, show off that picture of you beaming in the kitchen, find a picture of your totaled car. Everyone is looking for something they can relate to. By bringing them into the little moments of your story, you encourage and allow them to make their own connections to it, connections that may inspire them to invest.
Don’t Sugarcoat It
Startups are riddled with issues. You’re building something from nothing, which could simply not be done without resilience, struggle, and some failure along the way. Don’t hide or downplay this struggle, show it off. You’ve jumped countless hurdles and now have something incredible to show for it, something that they can benefit from investing in. The reality is you’re not only competing with large companies like Apple and Google, but other startups as well. You need to showcase your undying passion and perseverance to prove that your company is the best place for an investor’s future.
Invest in Yourself
You may already have the resources to tell your story, but nothing will show a potential investor your dedication and confidence in your product more than an investment in yourself. You know the most enticing version of your startup’s story but you cannot tell it on your own. To reach the next level, you need to find the right people to help you tell your story so you can gain traction and growth.
Use these tools along with a strong sense of your story to create an impactful, honest video campaign for your startup. Pair your passion with the skills of a like-minded production company and watch the connections form before your eyes.
What story would you like to share?
Whether you want to launch an idea, spark a movement or simply get people talking about what you do, you have one shot
at delivering your message in a way that matters. Let’s make sure you do it right.
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