19 Comments
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Nazanin Bigdeli's avatar

The founders who raise the fastest aren’t better storytellers; they’re better at revealing what’s already true.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

Wow. So we'll articulated Nazanin - thanks for sharing your wisdom ✨

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Ivan Landabaso's avatar

Storytelling = underrated fundraising superpower.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

One of the highest ROI skills 💲x

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John Brewton's avatar

This breakdown shows why the strongest stories feel lived in, not performed.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

💯 comes out natural. The closest to conversational the better it lands 🤝

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Kamil Tarya's avatar

Ops view: Act One is where clarity matters most. If the shift isn’t obvious in behaviour or cost curves, the rest of the story collapses. Execution only compounds when the opening act is undeniable

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Chris Tottman's avatar

Great comment and brilliantly articulated ! Thanks ✨

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Kamil Tarya's avatar

Thanks Chris, have a good one!

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Latifur Rahman Bappy's avatar

Congratulations what is your agency business website brother 😊

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Piyush Gupta's avatar

Great writeup Chris. Is “revealing what’s already true” possible without traction, or is traction itself the real truth investors respond to?

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Passport Inspiration's avatar

no doubt that progress indicates potential, good ideas are a dime a dozen and all over the internet these days

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Chris Tottman's avatar

💯👍

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Neural Foundry's avatar

Strong take on narrative arc! The reveal vs persuade distinction is spot on, its basicaly about making the future feel inevitable rather than possible. The way momentum gets encoded into story structure here is exactly why some decks close rounds while others just circualte.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

The pitch works best when it's like a conversation about a secret that you've found and mastered vs a broadcast 🤓

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Edward Grundy's avatar

Very nice breakdown of the stages

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Chris Tottman's avatar

Glad you like it. Thanks for sharing

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Latifur Rahman Bappy's avatar

I have 10 years of experience in Social Media Management & Marketing on Upwork. I help creators grow from 100K to 5M+ organically, working with top celebrities across Instagram, Apple Podcasts, Spotify & YouTube. If you want, I can show you my portfolio—100% real, natural growth. If you are interested or struggling with your progress, please let me know if you are ready to discuss.

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Chris Tottman's avatar

Why are you prospecting all over my feed? It's coming off weird and makes the claims in the comment sound untrue. Ie you're offering this incredible pedigree where you're building huge audiences for others whilst at the same not demonstrating it yourself in your own profile. Comes off fake.

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