2 min readOct 27, 2014
An Analysis of Start-Up Pitches
After analyzing several start-up pitches, you may start to notice a pattern known as ‘metanarratives’. There are several definitions for a metanarrative, but the one I’m going to use today is ‘higher-level stories that allow you to categorize lower-level stories’. Here are several common examples of metanarrives:
- Transition from inconvenient to convenient: Example: Scotts is working on GGO grass that doesn’t require mowing; Luxe Valet parks your car for you.
- Transition from expensive to cheap. Example: Warby Parker offers cheaper glasses; Robinhood facilitates cheaper stock trading.
- Transition from unknown to known (or from unconnected to connected). Example: Sensors allow us to measure things that we did not know before (our location for an Uber comes to mind); Experiment allows people to crowdfund research.
- Transition from closed to open. Example: AngelList Syndicates allow us to invest in startups, previously reserved for VCs; Academia.edu pushes for open access academic research.
- Transition from static to dynamic. Example: Smaller satellites allow us to analyze things like droughts faster than ever before by offering a rapid image refresh rate; Fitbit allows you to monitor your health on a daily basis instead of visiting the doctor every year.
- Transition from scarcity to abundance. Example: In vitro meat will allow us to produce meat in greater quantities for a lower price, allowing more people to have access to this type of food; Planetary Resources wants to mine asteroids.
- Transition from a bad situation to good situation. Example: Biotech companies can cure several diseases; Tesla Motors is changing the energy source of automobiles from fossil fuels to electricity.
- Transition from complex to easy. Example: AWS allows people to create the backend for their service without ever touching a server; ETFs allow us to invest without having to analyze every single company in a sector.
- Transition from unstructured to structured. Example: Google structures the data of the web; The website NomadList structures data for digital Nomads. Mattermark collects and structures data from private companies.
These metanarratives allow us to categorize existing ideas and come up with new ones (going beyond Uber for X approach). They are not mutually exclusive, but might help your thinking process. Everything is a remix.
