FounderFuel: The art of bringing people with you – communication frameworks that could make or break your startup

There are challenges aplenty when it comes to bringing people with us on the startup journey. This month’s article looks at how our approach to communication can make or break influence and persuasion with stakeholders. We also bust the myth that communications planning needs to be laborious or time-consuming.

It goes without saying that effective communication sits at the heart of entrepreneurship.  It’s something we do every day, at all stages of the startup journey, in a myriad of ways.  And while many of us thrive on it (or parts of it!), plenty of us would like to be better at it.  

As a startup founder, the cost of miscommunication is undoubtedly high – missed investment, fractured teams, and lost sales, to name a few.  But founder communications come with their own unique set of challenges – the scale and diversity of stakeholders, lack of time to plan, and our tendency to be too close to the detail.

Another challenge is the speed with which most entrepreneurs reach a creative solution.  We tend to get there before our team, and even our stakeholders, meaning we’re off the starting blocks before they’ve even arrived at the racetrack.  This leads to a phrase we hear in FounderCircles – “why don’t they just GET it??!!”

So, with the stakes high and the odds seemingly stacked against founders, what’s the solution?  What does good communication look like, and how do we get our teams, investors, and customers to happily join our startup mission?  

And, more to the point, how do we do it without drowning in strategy decks, or spending time we don’t have!?

What does it mean to be a good communicator?

We had the pleasure of talking with communications expert Ed Staite in one of our FounderFuel LIVE shows.  Ed has trained Presidents, Prime Ministers, and countless CEOs and he told us:

“If you communicate well, then you are literally leaving a mark on that person” (Ed Staite)

Framing communication in this way sums up its potential power. And he’s absolutely right – research by Uri Harrison in 2010 showed that when two people communicate well, the brain activity of the recipient changes.  It becomes synchronised, leading to a literal alignment of minds and a greater depth of understanding.

What better skill to have as a founder than being able to light up someone’s brain with your ideas!  

Communication must be led by our audience…

Achieving this synchronicity comes down to knowing (really knowing) who we’re connecting with and ensuring they understand our message.  That means the focus shouldn’t be on what we want to say but on ensuring the message is received and understood.  

And that’s hard as a founder, because there is so much we need to say, so we can move on at pace.  And we have so much passion for it! So let’s use Ed’s counsel to prompt a reframe:

“All communication starts with people” (Ed Staite)

This simple shift in perspective prevents us from being mere broadcasters of information and instead, encourages curiosity, genuine connection, and a deeper level of understanding – whether it’s with one investor, a scaling team, or a customer base of thousands.

So, before crafting your message, it’s helpful to write down exactly who your audience is. In the case of investors or customers, it can be tempting to write down the name of a company, but it should always focus on the person who will be representing them. What do we know about them, and how can it help us plan?

….and what we want them to do as a result of our message

If “forgetting our audience” is the most common mistake Ed sees in founders and CEOs, then “forgetting the action” is a close second:  

“Unless you are clear on what it is you want people to do, you are not going to be successful in your communication”.  

He suggested we ask ourselves four questions: 

• What do we want our audience to think?
• What do we want our audience to feel? 
• What do we want our audience to do differently? 
• And what barriers are getting in their way?

This doesn’t have to be time-consuming.  In the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, we can get the clarity we need to supercharge our communication.

Here’s an example for an Agritech startup seeking Series A:

Now we know our audience and our mission, it’s time to focus on what we need to say and how we need to say it.  

And the good news is, there are a lot of frameworks to help.

Storytelling is at the heart of effective startup communication

The arc of a story has been used as a communication tool since the dawn of time, and for good reason.  It works.  In the research referenced earlier, it was stories that created the greatest synchronicity between speaker and listener.  Stories provide familiarity through structure, connect on an emotional level, and give the reassurance of closure.

We’re often trained to tell a story when we pitch, but there are different ways to do it. Here are some of the storytelling structures that Ed shared with us:

• Problem, solution, benefit
• Story Spine – Start, middle, end
• Hero story – using a protagonist to bring the message to life
• What? So what? Now what?
• The Leadership story

If you’re interested in finding out more about storytelling, take a look at Ed’s blog and this brilliant article from The Harvard Business Review

Communicate with words that challenge beliefs and prompt action

Earlier, we identified what was getting in the way of our audience thinking, feeling, and behaving the way we need them to.  Think of the words you use as being metaphorical sledgehammers, designed to knock down those barriers.  

To avoid superficial communication, every word we use or piece of information we include must be in the pursuit of deepening audience understanding and changing behaviour.

Our style of language must also connect with them, and that might not necessarily be our natural style.  An example of this might be treading cautiously with industry jargon unless we’re certain it will help our audience.

This requires great self-awareness, especially when we’re submerged in the detail or have a tendency toward a certain style or phraseology.

Persuasion needs to be considered here, too, and Ed gave us a great prompt using Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle, which can be used to analyse how persuasive your communication might be for your audience. The model considers three appeals:

• Logos, the intellectual appeal > Does your argument stack up logically for the audience, and is there evidence to back it up?
• Pathos, the emotional appeal > Does your argument appeal to the audience’s emotions and provoke a connection?
• Ethos, the ethical appeal > Does the audience see you, the speaker, as credible and trustworthy?

Repeat a consistent message… repeat a consistent message

In marketing, there is a rule of 7 – the idea that a message needs to be received 7 times before it prompts action, and it’s also relevant to internal communication within startup teams.

The rule of 7 is a stark reminder that just because we are enthusiastic about conveying our message, it doesn’t necessarily follow that our audience is as keen to receive it.  They have their own agendas and distractions, which may take precedence. 

And while it’s wise to use multiple forms of communication (written, verbal, etc) to get our point across, the message needs to be consistent.  This is particularly important if we’re reinforcing company vision or communicating strategic shifts. 

Saying it once isn’t enough (despite this being a common frustration amongst our founders!). Instead, think about repetition, as this consistency builds stronger neural pathways for our audience, solidifying their understanding. 

Reflect on how effective your communication was

All this theory is all very well, but it must be put into practice.  As startup founders, there is pressure to get things right first time, but communication is such an iterative process; we need to start somewhere and refine our approach as we go.  

A simple mark out of 10 to say “how well did I achieve my objectives in that conversation/presentation/pitch” is all it needs to be.

In our article about metacognition, we delved into this idea of stepping back and assessing how things have gone – it’s a key part of building resilience and having strategies to fall back on when the shit hits the fan.

External communications help for startup founders

Sometimes the stakes are particularly high, and these are the moments we might seek coaching or training. Here are some suggestions:

Peer-to-peer support and feedback, such as in our FounderCircles, is great for testing out messaging and getting feedback from others who have tackled similar communications challenges.  Since Circle combine people across several industries, they can question any jargon that might have slipped through the net too.

Communication training – it would be remiss of me not to mention Ed Staite after our enlightening conversation.  Investing in coaching before a big presentation or pitch could be a worthwhile investment.

Communications Planning – most incubators or accelerator programs will have members who are marketing or communications experts.  These will often include copywriters who can help craft the right words in the best structure to ensure a connection with our audience.

So what’s your plan for putting these frameworks into practice?  Once we have an adaptable and repeatable approach, it’s far easier to form a communications habit which will, in time, become second nature.

Other FounderFuel articles on a similar theme

Harnessing your brain’s creativity….

The power in knowing your body and mind

Dr Emily Clements – FounderFuel LIVE

Ed Staite – FounderFuel LIVE

Startup team communication for working from home

When you feel an overwhelming desire to drive urgency in your team

Sources

1 – Harrison (2010), Speaker–listener neural coupling underlies successful communication

2 – HBR, The irresistible power of storytelling as a strategic tool