Why your story to investors should start from the middle

In my workshops, I often ask the audience to tell me the three parts to any story. Everyone starts shouting out: the beginning, the middle, and the end!

To which I say: and what’s the most interesting part of the story, the part with the car chase and all the action? The middle, they tell me.

And so finally, I ask: if the most interesting part of the story is the middle, where does your story to investors begin? And to that they all answer: the beginning.

But if the best part is the middle, I say, start from the middle.

Get to the heart of the action

To be perfectly honest, I’m not the only one saying it. One of the most common storytelling techniques is to start from the middle — it actually originates from Latin literature and is known as “In Medias Res”.

In Medias Res takes your investors straight to the heart of your story, setting the ground at a high pace for everything that will follow. When you start from the middle, you skip the traditional cause-and-effect story flow — the problem and solution template that every investor has seen a million times before. When you start with In Medias Res, you break the mold.

Here’s a story to illustrate it.

Amir Elichai, CEO and Founder of Carbyne, is probably one of the most gifted storytellers I’ve ever met. When he starts discussing his company, he doesn’t go over the team first, the market potential, or anything. He simply stands in front of the people in the room and says this:

One day, I was on the beach when a group of men surrounded me and demanded my money. I realized I was being robbed and outnumbered very quickly. After I handed them the money, I called the police. I told the operator at the emergency call center what happened and she asked for my location.

I don’t know my location, I said, I am surrounded by sand and there are no street signs here.

If I don’t know your location, I can’t send help your way, she replied. I was shocked! Uber can pinpoint my mobile location in a second and the police can’t?”

So I asked her if I could share a video with her. She will probably recognize stores and landmarks and will be able to direct the police my way. We can’t share video, the operator said.

What? The whole world is working through video.

At that moment I knew I had to bring advanced technology to public safety.

He then talks about Carbyne’s patented technology and why it would be a great investment. It allows any emergency center around the world to connect with citizens with the most accurate location, video sharing, and silent instant messaging in case the caller is threatened. All without the need for an app and with no changes to the way callers are contacting emergency services today.

The first step towards investment is standing out

Think about the way Amir starts his pitch. It’s not about the product, it’s not about the team, it’s not about ARR. It’s the story.

And, time after time, I saw it work like magic.

When you get to the action, the story that made you become the founder of your company, the rest will follow.

It breaks the traditional flow of problem, solution, demo, benefits, and market that everyone else follows today.

And by doing so, it really levels you up above the traditional attention threshold that investors have.

So, my advice, start from the middle.