The Art of Startup Storytelling

Metro India News | Hyderabad

Over the years, working with many startup founders, I have had the privilege of listening to startup pitches of all kinds. There are those that gave you goosebumps, there are those that sound outright ridiculous, those that put you to sleep and everything in between. I have thought about the constituents of a good pitch, and I am doing my best to articulate that here.

I believe the storytelling has three arcs to juxtapose. The first arc for a pitch is the ‘Narrative Arc’. A good pitch like a good story moves through four acts – hook, interest, consideration and action. The second arc is the ‘Business Plan Arc’. This is where the numbers meet the narrative. The pitch deck construct typically facilitates this flow. A typical flow goes thus – problem, solution, why now, market size, product details, business model, team, traction, differentiation, financials and vision. 

The third arc is what I call the ‘Fit Arc’, and this is the one almost nobody considers deliberately. The first fit is well known i.e. the Product-Market Fit: do the customers of the product really need it? Do they want it? Are they willing to pay for it. The next one, the Founder-Market Fit is addressing the “why you?” question. These three arcs are strands that need to interweave and run in parallel to make the thread.

They are a juxtaposition. Most pitches focus on the business plan, some manage the narrative and the fit. Very few articulate all the three. When the three land well, the discussion “feels” right. That is the best, one can do anyway. A pitch needs to be convincing and unforgettable for the investor to wield his or her cheque book.

- Ravi Ravulaparthi

The author is the CEO & Cofounder of Qapita