Module Description:
Space journalist, TV host, and author Sarah Cruddas shares why nailing (and updating) your startup story is essential for accelerating fundraising, recruiting, and sales.
Full Transcript:
- Welcome, everyone, to our Ubiquity University session, "Get Your Story Straight," why nailing your startup story and updating it regularly helps you accelerate fundraising, recruiting, and sales. Today, we're lucky to have as our speaker, Sarah Cruddas, a space journalist, TV host, and author, who specializes in communication of complex subjects. Before we get into her session, let me say a word about Ubiquity. Ubiquity Ventures is a pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm investing in software beyond the screen. That means we love to back entrepreneurs who are solving a real world physical problem, by bringing software off the screen and computers into the real physical world, to solve a whole new set of problems. With that, let's dive in today's session. Sarah, thank you for being here, and I'll let you take over.
Oh, thank you so much for having me, Sunil. And I just wanna say thank you to everyone who's watching this, because I think the great thing about what all of you are doing is you really are changing the world, and it's those great ideas which enter the world and which can like, create the future that we can't even imagine yet. And just a little bit about me, my background is actually in astrophysics, then I became a journalist and a presenter with the BBC covering complex science, all kinds of complex science, to a general audience. So I got very good at speaking geek, or speaking nerd, seeing as we are in the Ubiquity theme, and also speaking kind of like, to the lay person. And since leaving the BBC, I've worked across the world, working in the space industry and hosting shows, and also dabbling in the startup sector as well. And what I've really learned is that whether you're talking to a 10-year-old or a group of investors, when it comes to complicated subjects, such as STEM, science, you know, AI, things which you might grasp, things which are hugely exciting and game changing, the reality is whether you are 8, 88, or 50, if you haven't got that STEM background, you need to be communicating to people in the same way. In fact, I've used talks that I've given for eight-year-olds, I've rehashed them and then given a similar talk to investors, because simplicity is really key. And kind of like not underestimating your audience or who you're talking to, they're intelligent, but just explaining it in a way where it's clear you know what you're talking about, you've got substance, but actually, you are able to simplify it, because if you can't simplify what you're doing, especially when you're doing something so complex, so game changing, how can you expect other people to be on board with it? In terms of "Getting Your Story Straight," this is something I've been working on since about 2017. I started working with graphene companies and other tech and space companies, really looking at why... What you're doing when you start telling your story, why it matters. Because we know how great ideas are, we know how they can do game changing things, and we know what we want to do, but sometimes it is kind of like this thing you think is just a soft skill. And I've often heard it said, you know, communication is a soft skill, and particularly with the space industry where I've done a lot of my work, they see entrepreneurs, people, engineers, with great ideas, they normally marry up with a business person, and then that communications element is often forgotten. And then the next thing you see is people saying, "Well, you know, I'll just hire a PR." And unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. So on this screen here, and I'll pause if you'd like to take a screenshot of this, you've got some of the problems you actually face when it comes to telling your story. So the first is people just assume that they have this great idea. You can talk amongst yourselves and develop this great idea, you're really excited about it, but then you almost forget about how to communicate. You see, you don't think it's necessary. But the reality is, that if you want to create a game changing company, if you want to do something that's changing the world, people need to understand it because no one cares, so you've got here in the third box along, no one cares how complex or how hard something was to do. Most people care about a contraption that they've got in the palm of their hand, most people care about something which will make their lives better, you know? Or investing in an idea which they know is gonna make them money and they can go home, and they can get that promotion, and they can go home earlier that day. No one really cares about all the small stuff, all the details, all the complexity, even though you really care about all that kind of stuff. Secondly, one of the problems I see a lot of the times, if you look at the bottom of the screen, is people think communication is just a soft skill. And then later down the line, perhaps you're further in your startup journey, you're starting to think about getting your story out there, but the reality is you don't really know what it is you're about and you don't see alignment across the board. So you might see yourself as founders, your company going in one direction, but you might have hired staff by this point, they might not be on the same page as you, and then you bring in a PR, and PRs are fantastic, we absolutely need PRs, they're storytellers, but if they don't know what you're actually doing, if you can't articulate to that PR who you are, what you are about, if you haven't got a story that is relatable, you can't just expect that PR to come in and fix all your problems. Because as a journalist, I've been on the other side of the fence, and you get the most terrible stories pitched to you, and journalists care about, you know, is it gonna make my life easier? Is there something newsworthy there? Is there something which is going to affect people? Is it something which is gonna impact people? Is it something which is related to something I'm doing right now and can make my life easier as a journalist? And often, if you bring in a PR, you bring in someone to help you tell those stories at a late stage, but you haven't really figured out who you are and what you're all about, you are gonna be in trouble. You know, you risk kind of like, wasting that money, because there's real value in having PRs, there's real value of people coming in at a later stage, but the difference is between a PR and internal storytelling, so just get your story straight. And what I like to do is actually knowing what you're about, so then you can make the most of opportunities that come along once you get to that stage where you need a PR.
Sarah, as you're talking about this, I'm thinking that a lot of this is especially acute for deep tech startups where it is really hard, a lot of time and energy has gone into the product development, and I can imagine many people I know saying, "No, no, no, you don't understand how cool this is or how hard this was." And hearing you talk about the other side of the spectrum, making it relevant for other people, whether it's the output or getting them a promotion, like this is definitely a broad spectrum and I think it's... I'm glad you're saying that it's self-serving to sort of use the language and position that they want to use, even if it is hard to do, even if you could make your point that it's difficult and took a lot of time, you'll get a bigger impact if you put it in their words and in the way that they want to use it for their own purposes.
Exactly. And I think, as I've mentioned on this thing, we have a massive STEM and literacy problem. As you can tell, I'm from the UK, but across the western world, we have a massive STEM and literacy problem within the media. But it's not just within the media, many people might not have studied STEM since they were 18 years old, you know? In the UK, you specialize at 16, so many people wouldn't have studied STEM since 16 years old. And then you're trying to get these really, really complex ideas. And the great thing about technology is it is changing the world and what you're doing does matter, and you need to remember that. But on the flip side, because it's so complex, people get bamboozled by jargon. They hear something such as deep tech, such as AI, and people, the lay person, doesn't exactly know what it is. All they want to know is how it affects them. And the true kind of like, power of really understanding what you're able to do and really understanding what you're doing is being able to distill it down into very brief words. There's a famous quote which has been, you know, mis-attributed to many authors and writers, but it basically says that, you know, "Sorry, I didn't have enough time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." It is simple to put out a stream of thought, a stream of ideas, a PowerPoint with lots and lots of text on it, lots and lots of equations, you know, or give a long presentation, but the true mastery of what you're doing actually comes from understanding how to distill that into just a few words so that you can explain what you're doing, why it matters, and most of all, how it's going to affect people. And this is something you and I, Sunil, have talked about before, but really poor messaging is a silent killer of startups, because if you don't know how to communicate what you're doing, if you don't know what you're about, where you're going, and you're able to, you know, evolve with your journey, so have your journey being part of you, your story being part of you, and to pivot and to communicate those pivots correctly, and then to get your pitch decks in correctly for the language and the type of communication skills you need to actually nail that fundraising, nail that next seed round, whatever it is, it is the silent killer of startups. And that's where... You know, those who can actually think about, who am I? What am I doing? How can I explain it simply? And what is our story? What differentiates us? What differentiates my startup, my idea from everything else on the market? And then on top of that, 'cause you're probably doing that already, but explain it in simple ways, so not only that you understand and can explain it in a simple way, but that other people around you, your staff, once you hire, can understand, and most importantly, people who know nothing about you can understand in just a few words what it is and why what you're doing matters so much. And then just finally, as I've stated at the bottom, poor communication impacts everything, everything that you're doing. And that's not from me, that's from Harvard Business School. And there's often this trope that we hear, and I hope you appreciate my nerd reference, you know, a good story is not inevitable. You are not Thanos. And working in the television industry like I do, the best example I can give is when you watch a TV show, you never notice the guy who created the sound for that show you're watching. But when the sound goes wrong, that's when you realize there's actually a sound guy. When you hear poor sound on TV, for example, that's when you realize that something which seems so simple is actually the most complex thing to do. So there is this false belief that if you produce something amazing, if you produce something elegant, this amazing product, that if you build it, people will come, and that's not true. You need to think about all the little steps underneath, such as the sound guy in the TV, that that job matters because you only notice it when it goes wrong. And then secondly, as I mentioned on our last slide as well, there's a tendency to make things complicated. I've communicated everything from horrendous stories in parts of Africa, you know, stories about orphanages, stories about murder cases, stories that most people wouldn't wanna cover, and then I've covered everything from black holes to space shuttle, or, you know, the final space shuttle launch, and stuff that you and I as nerdy people, I assume, watching this might enjoy, but the reality is you've gotta distill these things as a storyteller, and it relates back to what you're doing with your startup, in a way that a person sat at home would understand, in a way that an investor sat at home going through a gazillion pitch decks will think, "Wow, this one's different. This one stands out." You've got to speak in a way that peaks people's interest, you've got to take a crazy concept, for example, covering something about black holes, and relate that back to the person at home, why it matters to them, why it could potentially change their lives, why should they care. And it's exactly the same with what you're doing with your idea. You've got to make it something that anyone can care about, that you can explain simply, and that someone sitting at home, you know, or an investor, for example, can be like, "I get this. I get how this is gonna impact my life. I don't care how complicated it was," most people don't care how complicated it was even if you do, they just care that it's gonna make a difference. And I think particularly with deep tech, particularly with something so complex as this, when we're living in a world with a lot of STEM and literacy, it becomes even more critical to understand not only what you are about, but to be able to communicate that in a much more simple way. So in terms of tips to get your story straight, 'cause that's what we're all here for, it's one of those things which is easy when you know how, but it's an ever-evolving thing. So getting your story straight isn't about just sitting down at a meeting and start and being like, "Well, this is my brand, this is what I'm gonna be, this is my idea. We're always gonna stay like this." Because as you know, as startups, nothing ever stays the same. You're gonna pivot, you're gonna turn, you're gonna have to adapt to, you know, what people want, what people don't want. But the first one, and I've said this before, and as you see point 2 on my thing, "Repeat yourself" is important. So I'll say it again, make things simple. You know, I've written down here, "The devil is not always in the detail." I get it, my background's in astrophysics, I get how important the detail is, I get how important it is to do great things. And, you know, there's this joke I remember, one of my colleagues when I was doing some work at the European Space Agency saying that if you ask an engineer to go out and get milk, instead of going to the store and actually buying a carton of milk, they will go out and create a contraption to actually milk the cow itself. Engineers and entrepreneurs have a tendency to overdo things, to over-engineer things, and to keep on going. But at some point, you've gotta let go, you've gotta let go of the detail when you're explaining what you do. And even if it really matters to you, you've gotta almost say, what matters to that person? In England, in journalism for example, there's a trope which is used, but I actually think it works not just for journalists, but across the board when you're trying to explain things, and the English expression for journalists is, "Talk to me like you're talking to your mate in the pub." As in, if you can't explain it to someone in a bar, someone in a cafe, someone who has no knowledge of that subject, then let it go. Simplify, simplify, simplify. But as long as you understand what it's about, but you're able to explain it, and the true test of understanding something is to explain it in simple words. So no matter how awesome your product is, you need to be able to explain it simply. Now, my second tip is to repeat yourself. It's easy to say something once and think everyone is listening, but the reality is, people aren't listening. So say you're at an early stage of the company and you're trying to get people to get excited about your ideas, to get that initial fundraising, you need to be able to tell them, not once, not twice, but three times, that is the magic number. So work that into your talk, you need to be able to say at least three times, at different parts, you don't need to repeat yourself one after the other, but why what you're doing matters. You know, what is your product? How is it gonna change the world? Repeat, repeat, repeat, because then that helps people understand your message. They might not hear you the first time, they might not see it the first time on the slide, but if you're able to get it in at least three times, and not more than three, you're able to showcase and help people understand more about what you're doing and why it matters. And it isn't just about the start of your journey, this is gonna continue as you start to build in staff, as you pivot, as you go for fundraisers, as you develop pitch decks, as you... All stages in that journey of the company, you need to be able to adapt your communication style to all kinds of different people, and the best way to do that is to repeat and to repeat your story. Now, my third top tip for getting your story straight is, again, it's a journalism tip and I know there's a lot of... You know, journalism is an industry which is under threat at the moment in terms of the pursuit of truth and what people choose to decide they believe or not when they watch the news. But I believe in journalism, I believe in the good that can come from journalism, but one of the founding principles of journalism is impartiality. And you can take that idea of impartiality and you need to bring that to your idea for a startup, your idea of an early stage company, whether you're 2 people or 10 people, no matter where you are along the line, you need to be impartial. You know, there's a phrase which often gets used in America in terms of drinking the Kool-Aid. You can't drink your own Kool-Aid, you need to recognize that what you might think is a good idea, if you are hearing from other people it's a bad idea, you need to listen to them. You need to listen to people within your organizations and be impartial. You can't just run with something if other people disagree. You need to work out what is the best way forward. Is your idea the best? Are other people saying it needs to go in a different direction? You need to fully be impartial and use that impartiality to actually develop the best product possible. So if you have an idea, other people, maybe you go to an investor meeting, people give you feedback, take that feedback, look at it impartially, look at your idea, and look at how you can use that to improve what you are doing. So my three tips so far, devil is not in the detail, repeat yourself, and embrace impartiality. Now, my next tip in terms of what to do when it comes to actually getting your story straight, and there's a lot more to it than these points, but these are some of the top ones just to think about when you're actually starting your company, or at the beginning of your startup journey, is know your audience and listen, listen, listen, particularly with technology. And see there, three listens, but that's why I'm trying to repeat an important point. But particularly with technology today, all of us are on broadcast mode. We're saying how great what we're doing are, we're encouraged to share, to showcase everything what we're doing, but we're not actually listening. And as you're starting up, while you're developing a product, you know, use your audience as other team members. They're there to find out feedback from, to understand... You know, use your customers, your first few customers, to understand more about what resonates with them, what doesn't resonate with them, what's exciting, what's not exciting. Your audience are as big a part of your story, your audience, your customers, your consumers, what ever you wanna label them as, are as big a part of your story as you are. And you need to listen to them, you need to listen to others, and you need to embrace what you are hearing and make that part of what you're doing. Now the next tip is to be part of the story, and this is something slightly further along in terms of your startup journey. So you might begin, you're just two people, you're not really gonna be thinking PR or getting yourself out there in the news. But once perhaps you've got some funding under your belt, you've developed, you're growing as a company, the next thing is to think what it is you are, what you represent, and how to actually be part of the story that is out there. So say you're doing a deep tech company which is utilizing AI, one of the simplest tips I can give you in terms of... Say you want to get some free PR, say you want to... You know, you haven't quite got yet to hiring a PR, but you want to start being known for what you're doing outside of the niche world, is to set up Google alerts for your specific niche. So let's just broaden it and say it's AI. You set up Google alerts for that, you see stories that are relevant. And as we know, there's a STEM and literacy problem in the media, so often there might be errors in those stories or things not fully explained, but that's where you can use that opportunity to be part of the story. You can utilize social media, you can utilize emails, whatever kind of communication you want, to actually put your comment out on a story. Make a social media post about it, you know, start talking about what's in the news, and gradually build yourself up as a thought leader in terms of what you are doing and where you want to do it. It's a really simple way of just broadening yourself out and having... Perhaps if you do get to the point where you get a PR, then you need to actually get some quotes together for yourself, and you know exactly what it is you want to be. 'Cause a PR will get you in the news, but they won't know who you are and who it is... You know, what you wanna be about. So think about who you are, who you wanna be, how you wanna be seen in the media once you get to that stage in your journey, and then find the type of stories you want to be a part of, comment on those stories, write about those stories, do posts about that story, whatever works for you, and then start developing quotes that should an opportunity come up for the correct type of story for you to be a part of, you are already there, you can be part of that story.
So, Sarah, that reminds me of something that I've heard. I think it's correct, although I don't know for sure that at Amazon when a new product is being launched, when there's an idea for a new initiative or a new feature, before they write a line of code, they will write the press release for that product.
Yes, I've heard that too.
Yeah. And I think it just rhymes exactly with what you're saying, is not how is it built, but how do you think people will talk about it? What will they love? What will they rave about? And start with that clarity of the end goal. And that's for product development, but I kind of see the same thing even with your startup, hearing you talk about this. I think it's interesting.
Yeah, and I think with the Amazon thing, and I don't know if it's true or not, but it's interesting that we both heard this, but it's about engaging and showing how enthusiastic you are. Because most of us, well, not most of us, you could probably do the code, or you listening to this can do the code, you can do the tech behind it, but if you had to write the press release, if you had to talk about it, how excited are you actually about it? Does it relate to something which is newsworthy or is it something cool that you're doing, but that doesn't need to be part of the news? Because people only care about, I hate to say it, but often it's the end product which matters, and how it impacts someone's life. And then the final thing which kind of also tags onto that point, Sunil, as well, is that I think particularly in startup life, it's hard, you know? And you're feast or famine almost, you're going for that next hurdle, you really believe in what you're doing, but sometimes you get bogged down in the weeds. And what I would say is remember that what you're doing is changing the world, is thanks to people 10, 20, 30 years ago who had incredible ideas about technology which were beyond the imagination at the time, that I'm even able to talk to you in this way. So what you are doing matters, and passion matters. Passion is a huge part of your story, and passion is something which people can relate to. If this is... You've got a story, and I'll jump onto this in the next slide, but in terms of Airbnb and the tagline, "Belong Anywhere," Airbnb, when they were starting out as well, also integrated their own story about how, you know, the founders were struggling as a startup and to pay the rent in San Francisco, they let out their apartment as a bed and breakfast during a conference. So having that story, and showcasing your passion, and remembering why what you do matters so much, is so important in terms of getting your story straight. And if you can remember, and if you can take ownership and wear that on your sleeve in terms of why it matters so much, that's gonna go across the culture at your company as you start to develop and grow, people will understand why it matters. And then finally, repeat yourself. This is my terrible joke that I put in for this slide, but it is so important to keep saying things, not continually the same thing, but, you know, don't expect people to listen the first time, don't expect people to be 100% focused on what you're doing. You've got to think of creative ways of getting your message out there. So we've had Thanos, now we've got Ironman. So, you know, a good story is not inevitable, but when you're able to get your story straight, when you're able to talk about what you do, why it matters, and to then communicate across the level, so have effective communication at higher levels as you grow and develop as a company, that's when, you know, it works and it matters. So some examples here, we've just talked about Airbnb in terms of the founders and having that story of why they started Airbnb, and also the tagline of "Belong Anywhere." So they've presented themselves as this community-driven travel platform, and it's really stayed. And what's significant about Airbnb is its consistent and simple messaging. And another example of consistency, simplicity, and clarity as well, is Slack. You know, we know the history of Slack, how it came from the ashes of a failed gaming company pretty much, but it's this, "Be busy less." It's such a simple message. It doesn't explain the complexity of what you're doing or why it matters, but it shows how it impacts on you. And then just finally, Uber, further along in their journey, and this comes back to the listening advice. So back in 2017 when the new CEO came in, that new CEO could have gone, "I am here to save Uber. I am the greatest person, I'm gonna save Uber." But it's about listening, and listening to your employees. So instead of being like, "I am the savior of Uber," their messaging was, "Retain the edge," that made Uber a force of nature. So that positioning, but also showing that you're listening, you're listening to your customers, and most importantly, you're listening to your staff. And I think we're just about out of time, Sunil, but I just want to say thank you to everyone for listening to this, and hopefully we'll be able to discuss more another day.
Yeah. Sarah, thank you. This is great stuff. I think there's this running theme that the simplicity of the end goal of this exercise is deceptive. It takes a ton of energy and work to think through, and thank you for sharing these tips. And we will explore doing another session to go a little deeper. I think that could be really fun. So again, this has been a Ubiquity University session, "Get Your Story Straight." My name's Sunil Nagaraj. I'd love to hear from you, I'm at sunil att ubiquity.vc. Or if you'd like to set up a meeting to pitch your software beyond the screen idea, we're at pitch.ubiquity.bc. And if you wanna get ahold of Sarah, I can help make that possible too. So again, thank you Sarah, and thank you everyone for watching.