Back in 2017, we shared some of the perspectives from our network about how to make your fintech startup stand out. Read on below.
February 3, 2018 in Entrepreneur Advice, Talent
One day, the forest caught on fire, and all of the animals rushed from the forest. As they were watching the forest burn, they saw a hummingbird flying back and forth, from the river to the fire, dropping one drop of water on the fire at a time. The other animals stopped her and asked “hummingbird, what are you doing?” Before returning to her work she responded, “I’m doing the best that I can.”
This simple story is at the heart of our work at Resonate, and it’s one that we reference often. The hummingbird is our logo, and it’s symbolic of how we describe leadership: being proactive in the face of a challenge. This particular story has been repeated so many times in our office that now, when we tell someone she’s “being a hummingbird,” she knows that we are commending her on her initiative, proactivity, and leadership.
At the risk of sounding like another business blogger: stories are incredibly powerful. But they have applications that are much broader than external communications and marketing. If used intentionally and regularly, strategic storytelling can be an important factor in building a strong, motivated, and successful team.
Here are three ways that we use storytelling at Resonate to motivate our team.
Startup leaders talk often about the importance of values within a company, yet it isn’t as simple as writing them down on a piece of paper. Making values a present force in the culture of the organization requires repetition and demonstration.
At Resonate, we hold quarterly team retreats, and at most of them, we start off the session by talking about values. But we don’t just talk about them in the abstract. Instead, we have each staff member share one or two stories about moments when they were proud of themselves or the team, and then map those proud moments to our values.
Telling stories about when we demonstrated our values makes them more real and present in our minds. This process helps highlight what values we are doing well at achieving, where we are falling short, and opens up a conversation about where we can be more aligned with and committed to our values.
When we think about impact stories — successful stories of participants and clients who have benefited from our programs — often times we think about sharing them externally as a source of validation for our work. Yet sharing stories of success internally is just as important. Despite the fact that our program is based on storytelling — we teach personal storytelling as a tool to gain confidence and leadership skills — not everyone on the team has a chance to hear those stories in the course of their daily work.
During our team meeting every week, we allocate time for program staff to share about recent workshops with the whole team. Ultimately, the reason that all of us are so excited about what we do is because of the impact we have. So giving the program team time to share stories of participants who have been positively impacted by our work is motivating for the whole team.
We went through a strategic planning process last year, and anyone who has done it knows that it’s hard work. There are tons of moving pieces, lots of input from various stakeholders, and at times it can get hard to keep track of where you’re actually headed.
We found it very orienting throughout the process to take time to reflect on our vision for the future — not in an abstract way, but in a very specific, concrete way. Having each staff member tell a story about where they see the organization in 5, 10, or 50 years allowed us time to really dream about what we want our organization to look like. By fitting those stories together into an aspirational reality, we could then work backward toward building out the step-by-step of how to get there.
Ayla Schlosser is the CEO & Cofounder of Resonate, which unlocks the leadership potential of women and girls in Africa.
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Back in 2017, we shared some of the perspectives from our network about how to make your fintech startup stand out. Read on below.
“FinTech startups should come to investors with a data-driven perspective on why someone should invest. They shouldn’t say ‘We’re perfect for you because you invest in fintech.’ Rather, they should talk about many touch points, including other CEOs who vouched for the quality of the investor. They should also state specifically what they want other than money; almost no one does this or has given thought to it.”
“Particularly for early-stage companies, do not raise money at such a high valuation that you price yourself out of raising your next round. Chasing the highest valuation now will achieve less short-term dilution, but may limit the company’s ability to raise money in the next round.”
“Consumer facing FinTech startups should focus on cohort curves and cohort analysis. Only about one-fourth of the companies that should be obsessed with the cohort view of their business are actually looking through a cohort-lens.”
“As a FinTech startup, you should be willing to change the market. The FinTech market is moving at a frantic pace. With regulation constantly changing and barriers to entry getting higher, listening to the market is more important than ever.”
“If your business is about selling to banks or regulated institutions, front-load security and regulatory hires, or at least be upfront about your plan. That should save you substantial time in the early phases of your sales cycle.”
“Become a time capitalist. Your greatest resource and asset is not tech, team or cash. It’s your time. Audit your time and use it judiciously, as though it’s your most limited and precious asset (because it is).”
“With the number of startups chasing the large market opportunity in fintech and insurtech, it’s easy to get lost in the noise of many companies with similar value propositions vying for competitive advantage. While everyone can make up a “here’s why we’re different” pitch, the most convincing way to show this is to demonstrate that you know your customer base better than anyone else, and are relentlessly motivated to solve their problems better than competitors can. If you have been part of the customer base and experienced the pain points of what you’re trying to solve yourself, even better.”
“When I started, I wish I had known how long it really takes to build a great business (7–10 years vs. my initial expectation of 2–5 years). I also know how much opportunity there is once you reach a certain size threshold; it’s no longer about ‘if’ you’re going to make it, but ‘how big’.”
