This is the ‘Win with Stories’ newsletter focused on helping founders, entrepreneurs and business owners. Every week I send an email with a business or life message wrapped in a short story. I also share one actionable tip and a few content recommendations to help you enhance your business storytelling skills.
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Kunal Shah and the power of framing
Kunal Shah, the founder of Cred, is a force to reckon with. He had a life-changing exit from his previous startup, Freecharge.
His current venture is a unicorn despite the fact that how they are going to make money is still not clear(at least to me).
I’ve heard Shah speak on various podcasts and interviews over the years. One thing is apparent to me.
He is a master at framing.
And that is one of the reasons for his success in fundraising. He is able to narrate a story of our times and future which we were not aware of.
Look at how he used to describe Cred at least till a few months ago.
- 10% of highest earners in India are the ones who move the GDP forward. They contribute with 80% of the discretionary spends in the country
- But the government, bureaucracy and even brands ignore them
- Also, this group lacks financial education. That’s why, they make late payments to credit cards among other things
- Cred is a high-trust community of such high earners. Cred will help this group adopt good financial behaviour by incentivizing it
- Not just that, it will help premium brands access this high net worth audience. The disposable income ability of this group is higher than most developed nations
Of course, he may or may not have used the same words. I have paraphrased from memory.
Now this is the narrative that brings Cred to its consumer communication ‘It Pays To Be Good.’
This framing of the macro-economic situation also makes him a favourite with VCs.
But Shah does not follow this method only for pitching his startup. He does that for most aspects of work life.
In the recent ‘First Pinciples’ podcast, he spoke about high-slope and low-slope people.
That is his approach to talent spotting and team-building.
According to him, people who have a lot to prove or a longer journey to success are high-slope. People with privilege and a shorter journey to success are low-slope.
Hence he tries to work with high-slope at Cred.
Again an example of framing. Knowledge that we were probably aware of. But Kunal, takes it and frames into a beautiful picture that we can all hang on our walls.
And my guess is this habit helps him win on many fronts.
One communication tip for today:
I am not sure if Shah creates these frames on purpose. But there is merit if each of us tried to.
Here’s a small exercise for you to create your own frame.
‘Big theme and problem > your product or service > second/third order benefits’
Here’s an example involving The Story Co:
Big theme and problem:
India is now the third-largest startup eco system in the world with over 90,000 startups. But the real deal is in when our products and services are celebrated across the world.
Our founders have great with ideas and work ethic. But they lack narrative skills required on the big stage. They need to become better storytellers for their companies and our country.
Your product or service:
That’s where The Story Co comes in. We are on a mission to use techniques, templates and training to help Indian startup founders win users, talent and investments.
Second or third order benefit:
Better storytelling will help Indian startups achieve their goals with speed and ease. But we also believe, it will also make India the world-leader it is meant to be.
Hope this helps.
But what will help even more is joining my next online cohort course called ‘Founder’s Pitch’.
This is where I will teach only 6 entrepreneurs different storytelling techniques. This will help you build and narrate your startup’s story to different audiences. Not just that, each of the participant will build their startup story-kit in this cohort.
I will be sharing a detailed announcement in a week or two. But if you join the waitlist, you get the chance to enroll ahead of others.
That’s it from me this week. Tell me one thing that will make you share this newsletter with friends and colleagues 🙂
If it’s already share-worthy, then please forward this to your network right away. Let’s all win with stories.
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