The 4 Parts of a Great Startup Company Story
One situation where storytelling is critically important is crowdfunding. This article explains the 4 parts your startup story must have.
If you’re looking for investors, nothing is more important than a compelling company story. It’s constantly in the spotlight because the roles of consumer and investor are intertwined.
Investors have 1,000s of investment options, so your story must attract their attention. A good story can separate the winners from the losers. Sure people want profit, but they also want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
The challenge is that investors have a very short attention span. You need a way to get into their mind. A good story can help you build awareness fast. Further, it can establish your credentials, promote news about your product, dramatize your difference and create a rationale for investors and users. People tend to follow the herd and a good story can kick-start the momentum.
While the public has the final say on what your story is, you can get the ball rolling by choosing which key moments or scenes to include. A great startup business story has four basic parts: problem, solution, journey and mission.
- What got the whole thing started? (the problem)
- What was your moment of inspiration or magic formula? (the solution)
- What was the journey you took? (what makes you an original)
- What’s your ongoing purpose? (the mission)
Startup Company Story Examples
Using concrete language to describe your story can make it clear, compelling and concise. But if telling a great business story is so important, why doesn’t every startup have one?
The challenge is that telling a company story is it’s difficult puzzle to solve. It’s not simply a resume, but picking out the key moments in time that add to your purpose. If fact, some of the best stories are hiding right in plain sight. Sometimes it’s easier to have an outsider gather and review the facts of your history — to help you “discover” your story.
As a professional copywriter and company story coach, I specialize in interviewing Founders and helping them capture the essence of their company story. Here are four examples:
Dominium — The Uber of Real Estate
Max Property Group became so frustrated with outdated real estate industry practices they began setting up their own property funds. Then they decided to partner with 200-year old German property management firm Munte Immobilien (MI) to do something about it. Together they created Dominium, an international property portal on blockchain where historical data can be stored permanently and transparently providing many benefits for home sellers, estate agents, tax authorities and investors.
After eliminating all the technical challenges that lay in their way, their platform now acts as a global land registry where you can market your property anywhere in the world in all languages. You can literally buy a house in minutes instead of months at a cost of 10 dollars instead of 10 thousand. Dominium now has members in over 156 countries and is on track to become the Uber of Real Estate.
Read the full article.
Me Token — The Breakthrough Moment
Rufus Parkinson had spent his entire career working with blue chip fashion brands so he knew how brick and mortar fashion retailers were dropping like flies. The only industry growth was happening online, but the e-commerce shopping experience for clothing remained quite poor. On the other hand, social media content creators were becoming incredibly successful and influential. Some even had their own agency to source brands and products for them to promote.
After being hired as CEO of an innovative B2B2C virtual fitting room solution, he had a moment of inspiration. Why not turn the consumers’s purchase experience into an exciting journey, and at the same time help influencers monetize their content? The result was the Style Me app and Me Token.
Read the full article.
Alethena — The Pursuit of ICO Excellence
Marcus Hartmann had a hobby of investing in ICOs. But as the blockchain industry took off, he found it harder to find the best ones while avoiding the scams. He and his colleagues started uncovering and measuring ICO KPIs to identify all the red flags and risks.
After writing their best practices down in a white paper, they launched their own firm Alethena, held an ICO and used their rating system on themselves. Now their proven due diligence formula helps startups raise the quality of their offering to win the favor of investors.
Read the full article.
EthicHub — A Problem Worth Solving
Jori Armbruster hadn’t even heard of blockchain until he earned a master’s degree in innovation and read a statistic that 2 Billion people in the world are unbanked. That’s when he decided that helping unbanked farmers in developing countries was a problem worth solving. So, Jori and his wife created Ethichub.
Their solution uses crypto and smart contracts to break down the barriers of accessing capital and bringing the unbanked into the global economy. Their system lets people make a meaningful investment and while getting a great ROI by helping unbanked farmers and their communities succeed.
Read the full article.
Dice Money — In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity
Konstantin Dimitrov failed to secure funding for a venture he was involved in three frustrating times to before he started looking at the possibility of running his own ICO. But when he realized how much the marketing would cost, he decided to create an easier, cheaper way for startups to get funding — Dice Money.
His new form of cryptocurrency is something people can easily mine themselves. Since it doesn’t use blockchain, it’s a more sustainable form of money that spurs innovation and grows the economy by letting investors create digital certificates to invest with.
Read the full article.
Coin Factory — Where There’s a Will There’s a Way
Aharsh MS is a visionary entrepreneur with the firm belief that decentralized apps are good for society. But he saw how ICO scams are giving the good ICOs a bad rap. With a passion for helping the best ICOs succeed, he created Coin Factory.
The key to his solution is a new mechanism called the Milestone Contract. It tracks the development of a project and releases investor funds as milestones are completed. His goal is to make his Milestone system an industry benchmark for helping ICOs attract more investment while keeping investor dollars secure.
Read the full article
NEXT: The 4 Steps to Creating a Company Story That Stands Out
About the Author
Derek Little is a Copywriter and company story coach. He interviews today’s most inspired entrepreneurs to help them discover their company story. What’s yours? Contact Derek at derek@trailblazerwriting.com
