# 3 Must follow rules for fundraising storytelling

*Published: 2021-07-18 | Categories: Fundraising*
*Canonical: https://simplybroken.com/stop-losing-because-of-bad-storytelling/*

> Every business story needs to be: Radically Simple. Instantly Credible. Can’t-sleep Exciting.

Success in almost every new initiative or startup begins with telling & selling a story. Then, over time the story materializes and is replaced with data and results. I have seen too many amazing ideas fail before they even begin since they don’t deliver the message.

For example, I recently met a founder, let’s call him Jonathan. When we first met, it seemed like a terrible start-up and more of a bootstrapped business. Luckily for both of us, I decided to dig a bit deeper. What I discovered can be summarized as follows: 1) huge market that’s currently overlooked by investors 2) the company helps customers 6x their revenue in the first year! 3) CAC/LTV of 7+ and a rapidly growing top line. The founder knew most of these, but they were lost in the complexity and I did not HEAR them in our first meeting. Don’t let this be you, make your own luck.

Every story and then every key-point within it should be:

> 1. Radically Simple to understand for the audience, especially when have limited context and will only pay limited attention.2. Instantly Credible, by providing the key insights, highly synthesized3. Can’t-sleep Exciting – raises your heart-rate, and interrupts your ability to go to bed at night.

You need all three and you need them in sequence. If it’s not simple, I won’t understand it, and the rest doesn’t matter. Then, if I don’t believe you, our conversation stops there. Finally, if I understand it and believe you, I need to get excited to move into action.

## Framework deep-dive:

#### Is it Radically simple?

- You are deep into your work. Things that are simple to you will not be simple for others.
- You need to be able to say your key point in one (ONE) short sentence
- Test it out on a friend or employee, don’t add much, tell them the sentence and ask them to explain what they understand. Then ask them questions about it. If they are not 80% correct, it’s not simple enough.

#### Is it Instantly credible?

- Credibility comes from many places: your background, reader’s background, facts, anecdotes, pattern recognition, and even common sense.
- Start with common sense and your background and ask yourself: how much do I need to strengthen this key point? If you are considered an expert in the space, you can sometimes assert aspects with little explanation, which keeps things simple ⬆️. Same for common sense.
- If it doesn’t pass the personal background or common sense test, it’s time to figure out how to add credibility. You are looking for 1-3 (no more than that) key facts, figures, borrowing from other domains (Uber for Trucking), or strong anecdotes that will explain your statement.
- If the only support you are finding is complex or convoluted, don’t stop. Consider changing your key statement. If it’s not simple and credible, it doesn’t support your goal.

#### Is it Can’t-sleep exciting?

- What? Start with defining what is exciting to your target audience: making money? Saving the world? Eliminating poverty? A specific cause?
- Big Enough? Then ask yourself: Is this big enough? Does this make a material change so that people invest their time/effort in it?
- Likely to succeed? Does it seem likely to succeed given the setup so far? What assets and unique advantages do you have?
- Effort/Investment required? How much effort or investment will the reader require to be a part of this fantastic success. It needs to be a great value prop (“for limited effort or investment your will be a part of all of this…”)