StoryStack: The Role of Narrative and Story Telling in Your Startup
1. STORYSTACK
The Role of Narrative and StoryTelling inYour Startup
The IdeaVillage / New Orleans
March 26, 2014
2. PRESENTATION
• Live on www.alanweinkrantz.com blog & Slideshare
• Ask questions….I’m not here to “lecture…”
• Based on belief sets, principles, and experimentation
• Real world examples at the end
3. TODAY
• Learn about the role of narrative and story telling for your startup
• Take-away five steps you can apply through the end of 2014
• Build a body of work that will contribute to your being discovered
• How it can help lead to media coverage
• Add a layer of value to your brand
23. MENTORING
•Speaking / Writing /
Observing / Watching
• Geekdom - San Antonio
• TechLoft -Tel Aviv
• TechStars Cloud - San Antonio
• MexicanVC (500 Startups) - Mexico City
• Microsoft Azure -Tel Aviv
24. GOOD NEWS :)
•Very low cost / no cost to
create a start-up
•Big Idea
•Core team
•Strong will
•Servers / hosting
25. BAD NEWS :(
•Someone in NewYork, Madrid, San Francisco, Singapore,Tel Aviv,
Mumbai is thinking the same thing as you are :(
•Hard to have a defensible position
•Hard to protect your IP
•Getting traction is tough
27. QUALITIES NOW
•No Intellectual property
•Nothing really defensible
•Strategic investors & partners - Friends, Family,Angels, 500 Startups,
Google, Intel, etc.
•Up until recently....No funding, or angel, micro, friends & family funding
•Easy to run a virtual company... no real address, presence from a co-
working space and an IP phone number
28. THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT
•Hardware
•Software
•Telecom
•Security
•Bio Sciences
Go to School
Go to College / University
Summer Job
Travel
Go to Work
29. THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
•Consumer Web
•Mobile
•SaaS
•Subscription
•eCommerce
High School
Start-Up
GapYear
Start-Up
Year ofTravel
College / University
Start-Up
Work
Startup
Quit Day Job
Startup
33. WHY
• Builds a new type of defensible position
• Your body of work helps you define who you are
• Media can discover and cover you
• Can lead to new types of unexpected deal flow
37. NARRATIVE
• Connected events
• Gluing your story together
• Ties your channels together
• Helps you express, connect
and engage with your
ecosystem
38. ENGAGEMENT
• Lets you listen
• Give your customers /
partners a voice
• Enables amplification of
your story
• Which can lead to….
39. DISCOVERY
• An act of faith
• People are searching for you
• Let them discover you
• Find others
• Get discovered, covered by media
55. EXECUTION…
• Agree to some basic milestones
• Don’t be afraid to write
• Don’t publish until you feel comfortable doing so
• Build out an editorial calendar
• Share the responsibility with your co-founders
56. EXECUTION
• Decide on the outposts (channels)
• Allow 90 days to get the process going
• Use stock tools
• Your SmartPhone is a very powerful story telling platform