Four stories about your company will resonate — and they aren’t about product features

In the two and a half year history of FiscalNote, we’ve gone from a few table tops (above) to a large office in the heart of D.C. This growth story is one that resonates with prospects, clients, and investors.

When I think about some of the most iconic companies of our time, the thing that most resonates with me is the story of those companies and what they stand for. Salesforce built up much of their business through a David v. Goliath — SFDC v. Siebel — storyline that they rode all the way to $1B in annual recurring revenue.

Facebook built their entire company and culture around the scrappy Harvard dorm room where Facebook was born. Uber’s entire narrative around busting the taxi co-ops and liberating the rider experience has turned it into a massive juggernaut. Slack’s website homepage tells the dynamic stories of how their software powers Mars rovers and Antarctic explorers.

With both B2B to B2C, the most powerful parts of a brand are not what features are built, but what it truly stands for as a company.

I will guarantee you that in 99 percent of scenarios, people will not mention the functionality and features of your products as the most compelling thing.

Recently, I had a chance to really sit down and think about the elements and parts of FiscalNote that really make FiscalNote stand out today. Here’s an exercise: ask yourself, your roommate, your friend, etc. to go through all the material online about your company and ask them “what is the most compelling thing about us?”

Here’s what I get:

1. Your Founding Story: FiscalNote is the story of a couple of high school friends from D.C. moving out to Silicon Valley and starting a company in a Motel 6. Bootstrapping the company is an incredibly motivating story about our scrappy origins and the idea that anyone can level up. It’s a classic “started in the garage” Silicon Valley story that has been true since the dawn of the computer age, but not all founding stories are the same. Make sure your employees know yours and that it is crafted to show the passion and drive that got your company off the ground.
2. Your Startup Story: Every company overcomes adversity at some point — the story of a company in its darkest times. For FiscalNote it was when our Series A funding nearly didn’t come together. Saving the company is a true testament to our culture and history of supporting the family. This is an incredible story that still has tremendous ramifications for our culture today. Likewise, the milestones and the achievements are all steps that got us to where we are. Find those unique moments in your history; use it to motivate the team and educate the public about your commitment.
3. Your Customer Story: FiscalNote customers came to us flooded under a mountain of legislation and regulations, trying to stay on top of it all. Their current successes are an incredibly compelling story that should be told over and over again. Your startup is providing a key benefit to customers — celebrate their wins. The breadth of that customer base is also something that is incredibly powerful. FiscalNote powers Lyft, Southwest Airlines and Aetna in trying to make sure they don’t get completely ambushed by government. When customers ask me what FiscalNote does, I now tell the story of our customers. “FiscalNote powers companies like Lyft as they try to stay on top of all the changing laws out there. When new laws come out trying to get drivers off the road, we power the teams that stop that from happening.”
4. Your Competitive Story: A story that our investors love (and some customers) is the story of “killing the dinosaur.” Legacy members of our space have been around since World War II and before the Great Depression. This is a David v. Goliath story that can resonate with anyone. It allows people to be a part of “the next big thing.” If your company is truly innovative, surely you are bringing an industry into the future with cutting edge technology and incredible customer service. Capture people’s imaginations with what is possible tomorrow.

I will guarantee you that in 99 percent of scenarios, people will not mention the functionality and features of your products as the most compelling thing.

As your company evolves, it gets better and better at telling these stories. This is to be done not only in marketing, this is in the business team where you tell these stories to your prospects; this is in product where you really think about the story for which your products stand; this is in talent where potential recruits are sold on the company mission; and this is in client success where word of mouth spreads from your customers.

These stories are what customers talk about to each other — not the functionality or even the product. These stories are what the press and the public love and what capture their imaginations.

My job as a CEO comes down to telling our story to everyone — to investors, to customers, to prospects, to the press, etc. This is a core area that every single member of your team can improve on and something that will take a company from a startup to the stuff of legends.