Founders: Here’s How You Craft A Narrative that Sells

I was reading an article in the Marker Publication here on Medium about the Three Most Common Mistakes Founders Make When Building a Company. I won’t bother with a recap, you can click through to read the whole thing (and I encourage you to do so, it’s got some really great info), but I do want to dive a little deeper into Justin’s first point: the mistake of underestimating the importance of narrative when fundraising.

Justin touched on some great storytelling tactics, and does give some really actionable advice as to how you can craft a compelling narrative that will convince potential investors that your product is worthy of their buy-in. But there is one element that is missing from his recommendations that is absolutely crucial in crafting a narrative that will get you funded: your financial projections.

(Justin, if you’re reading this, I know you touch on this in the article you linked out to, but I’d like to argue that it was certainly worth a mention even in the TL;DR version for Medium)

Making Your Financial Projections Your Story’s Through Line

Your product has a stellar story, I’m sure. You’ve likely thought it through and have a wonderful narrative crafted to share with your potential investors as to why you’re worth their money and your product will succeed.

(Ok, this is where you’ll need to bear with a few literary metaphors, because I’m a writer by trade.)

Like any good story, there has to be a really solid through line to get readers to stay on board throughout the whole thing, and end up fans of the story when all is said and done. Your financials are your pitch’s through line, and the most powerful storytelling device you can use as a founder. If you don’t tell your story through a financial lens, you will not get funded. Period.

Your financials are your pitch’s through line, and the most powerful storytelling device you can use as a founder.

This isn’t to say that you need to get deep into the financial weeds, or simply slap numbers and graphs on every slide of your pitch deck. No, it actually means the opposite! Think about it: in storytelling, literary devices (like foreshadowing, symbolism, metaphors and similes) are honestly better received when they don’t slap the reader in the face. Instead–like a well-used literary device–financials should be subtly used as a storytelling device throughout every moment of your pitch.

Here’s What This Looks Like

Let’s take Justin’s pitch deck structure, for example, and apply a financial outlook to the narrative. Justin recommends focusing on things like introducing the problem, explaining the “why now?”, and touching on the competitive landscape that already exists. Since I recently just did this for our pitch deck for SaaS Proforma, I’ll use our story as an example of how we’d frame those sections with a financial through line:

The Problem

Instead of:
SaaS companies are relying on error-prone Excel spreadsheets for their financial projections

Try:
SaaS companies are spending upwards of $10K a year on upkeep of their financial projection spreadsheets

The “Why Now?”

Instead of:
There has never been a financial projection option like this specifically with SaaS business goals in mind

Try:
According to Forbes, Investment rounds have risen steadily over the last few years, with average seed valuations averaging between $7 million and $11 million as of last year, which means there’s more on the line for first-round funds than ever before, and early-stage SaaS companies can’t risk pitching error-prone financials to their potential investors.

The Competition

Instead of:
*listing the competition and explaining what makes your solution different*

Try:
*listing the competition and their pricing structures compared to yours. Include key metrics from your projections that prove your pricing is not only competitive, but will be sustainable as you work to enter the market, grow within the market, and begin to (hopefully) win over some of your competitors’ customers*

See how that works? By looking at each section of your pitch though a financial lens (not just slapping your projections on a Power Point, don’t do that), you’re not only providing a really solid through line that ties your story together, but also proving to your potential investors that you know your stuff financially, and plan to run your business with a financials-first mindset.