Storytelling matters, for technical founders too

What exactly is storytelling? It’s not something you need to get an MFA in order to do well, but storytelling is a critical skill for entrepreneurs. When I was working on my most recent column for The New Stack, about marketing for developer-focused companies, one of the quotes that didn’t make it into the piece but stuck out at me nonetheless was from Kris Bondi, who said,” As a founder, you have to tell your own story. You can hire someone to help you get the story right, but ultimately you have to be the one who delivers the story.”

As a founder, you’re the one who needs to get up on a stage and give a talk, which should include at least hints of your startup’s story. You’re the one who pitches investors — and making them believe in you and your company largely by telling a story about the problem you’re going to solve, why it matters to the marketplace and why you’re the right person to solve this particular problem.

Those are not the only audiences you need to teel a story, though. When you’re looking for design partners, beta users and first customers, you’ll have a buggy product with no track record. People will end up trying it out and investing their time and energy to help you improve your product based on how compelling the story you tell them is. In this case, the story can’t be just about it, it is also about them. Making your audience feel heard and appreciated is a part of being a good storyteller and it’s critical for the first customers and users.

You also have to convince people to work for you. Chances are, you don’t pay quite as much as some other companies. Your competitive advantage in the market for talent shouldn’t be just about unlimited time off, but rather your mission and vision. And your story is how you communicate that mission and vision. Your early team needs to believe in you even more than your early customers do; telling them a good story is how you bring them on board.

Just to be clear: When I say ‘storytelling’ I’m not talking about fibs or tall tales or outright lies. Everything you say, to investors, conference audiences, customers and new recruits should be true. But how it’s presented matters. It’s important to pick and choose the right things to say so that you build a narrative around the company (and the founders) that is memorable and makes sense. It’s important that you integrate information that your customers care about, to make them feel heard. It’s important not to skip over important details about your motivations or opinions out of fear that strong opinions will scare some people away (they will, but that’s ok).

I’ll talk next week about some storytelling tactics. Because technical buyers, technical investors and engineering talent are just as human as everyone else, and that means they appreciate feeling like they’re part of a mission, moving a story forward.