At this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival, Austin entrepreneur Lyn Graft gives tips on how to get investors and customers excited about your new business.
Those who tell stories rule the world.” – Plato
Every entrepreneur navigating the startup world inherently understands the value of a good story. It’s ingrained in our culture. The challenge, however, is taking the time and asking the right questions to develop that story into something bigger — a marketing tool that converts, inspires and, ultimately, leads to financial success for both your company and investors.
This topic was explored at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin this weekend in a presentation by Lyn Graft, an Austin entrepreneur and videographer who has filmed more than 350 entrepreneurs and their stories. Despite the badge lines, rain and the crowds trying to find their way around SXSW, this topic was great for entrepreneurs to ponder over the weekend. Speaking to a packed crowd at the Startup Village, Graft laid out simple ways to answer the most important question in regards to storytelling: knowing what to say when someone asks, “Why should I care?”
An easy mistake is to believe that a story is just a clever way of delivering facts. There’s a place for facts, of course, but facts are not the core of storytelling. Leaving an impression is. The stakes have never been higher. Millions of entrepreneurs are fighting for people’s time, talent and treasure. A venture capitalist may get pitched up to 1,000 times in a year. An entrepreneur’s story that can make a permanent, physical impression on a key person. Graft calls it “the Goosebump moment.” And it can be the difference between success and failure.
…to read this article in full, visit leading US entrepreneurial resource, Entrepreneur.com
