StoryStack: The Role of Narrative and Story Telling in Your Startup

STORYSTACKThe Role of Narrative and Story Telling in Your Startup

The Idea Village / New Orleans

March 26, 2014

PRESENTATION

• Live on www.alanweinkrantz.com blog & Slideshare

• Ask questions….I’m not here to “lecture…”

• Based on belief sets, principles, and experimentation

• Real world examples at the end

TODAY

• Learn about the role of narrative and story telling for your startup

• Take-away five steps you can apply through the end of 2014

• Build a body of work that will contribute to your being discovered

• How it can help lead to media coverage

• Add a layer of value to your brand

Background…

ABOUT

• Tech PR / Branded Journalism

• 30+ years…. been through major shifts & cycles

• U.S. and Israel

• 2nd time at Idea Village

Client Work 60% !

Mentoring / Volunteer 20% !

Branded Journalism 20%

My Mix….

YES, I’M ON…

• Twitter

• Facebook

• LinkedIn

• Instagram

• SoundCloud

• YouTube

As story tellers you have the opportunity to add a massive layer of value to your startup

What’s Branded Journalism?

The art of applying story telling and building narratives to support and

reflect a brand’s values…

Having a body of work separates your startup… all vying for attention

WHO’S HERE?

• Need 3 volunteers / 2 minutes each

• What’s your story?

• What makes you interesting?

• How do you….?

50 years

The Four Coders

Coders & Story Tellers

The Coders & Story Tellers of New Orleans

Rock & Jazz Music is code.

MENTORING

•Speaking / Writing / Observing / Watching

• Geekdom - San Antonio

• TechLoft - Tel Aviv

• TechStars Cloud - San Antonio

• MexicanVC (500 Startups) - Mexico City

• Microsoft Azure - Tel Aviv

GOOD NEWS :)

•Very low cost / no cost to create a start-up

•Big Idea

•Core team

•Strong will

•Servers / hosting

BAD NEWS :(

•Someone in New York, Madrid, San Francisco, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Mumbai is thinking the same thing as you are :(

•Hard to have a defensible position

•Hard to protect your IP

•Getting traction is tough

QUALITIES THEN...

•Strong Intellectual Property

•Defensible technology

•Strategic investors like Intel, AT&T, Cisco, Motorola

•Traditionally, VC funded

QUALITIES NOW

•No Intellectual property

•Nothing really defensible

•Strategic investors & partners - Friends, Family, Angels, 500 Startups, Google, Intel, etc.

•Up until recently....No funding, or angel, micro, friends & family funding

•Easy to run a virtual company... no real address, presence from a co-working space and an IP phone number

THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT

•Hardware

•Software

•Telecom

•Security

•Bio Sciences

Go to School Go to College / University

Summer Job Travel

Go to Work

THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

•Consumer Web

•Mobile

•SaaS

•Subscription

•eCommerce

High School Start-Up Gap Year Start-Up

Year of Travel College / University

Start-Up Work

Startup Quit Day Job

Startup

The new tools of building your startup

Technology Stack

LAMP Java

Python OpenStack

Ruby AWS

StoryStack

Blog YouTube Instagram Twitter LinkedIn

SoundCloud FaceBook

WHY

• Builds a new type of defensible position

• Your body of work helps you define who you are

• Media can discover and cover you

• Can lead to new types of unexpected deal flow

StoryStack

Story

Narrative

Voice

Engagement

Discovery

STORY

• Sets the stage for the heart and soul of your company

• Builds and expresses culture

• Attracts customers, partners, media, etc

VOICE

• Techie

• Businesslike

• Expert

• Fun

• Leader

NARRATIVE

• Connected events

• Gluing your story together

• Ties your channels together

• Helps you express, connect and engage with your ecosystem

ENGAGEMENT

• Lets you listen

• Give your customers / partners a voice

• Enables amplification of your story

• Which can lead to….

DISCOVERY

• An act of faith

• People are searching for you

• Let them discover you

• Find others

• Get discovered, covered by media

content (curated,

contributed, posts)

socialcommenting

writing

Branding your startup with content adds a unique layer of value

Your Startup’s Voice

BRANDED JOURNALISM EXAMPLES….

• News

• Content

• Story Telling

• Media

WHAT’S YOUR VOICE ?

• Techie

• Fashion

• Sports

• Music

• Culture

EXECUTION…

• Agree to some basic milestones

• Don’t be afraid to write

• Don’t publish until you feel comfortable doing so

• Build out an editorial calendar

• Share the responsibility with your co-founders

EXECUTION

• Decide on the outposts (channels)

• Allow 90 days to get the process going

• Use stock tools

• Your SmartPhone is a very powerful story telling platform

SUGGESTED READING

!

• www.adweek.com/topic/branded-content

• www.digiday.com

• www.battellemedia.com

• www.ragan.com • all photos (except for The Beatles, BB King, etc) by me.

Thank You.

alan@weinkrantz.com www.alanweinkrantz.com

about.com/alanweinkrantz