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Why Every Pitch Needs a Killer Example
48 Plays4 months ago
When someone says to you, “Give me an example” about your product, what do you say? It’s a pivotal moment in any conversation, and you as a founder must be ready for it. Why? Scrambling on the fly is no fun, but you also don’t want to miss your chance to get that beautiful “a-ha!” moment where their eyes light up and they nod their heads.
The painful truth is that general or abstract concepts don't help you connect with investors or customers.
In episode 2 of Message Worth Millions, your host and communications expert Kirin Kalia explains why you always want to include examples – whether it’s a conversation or formal pitch – and what makes examples strong and memorable. The question to ask yourself before you start: “What will they remember and retell?”
Kirin’s four rules for memorable examples:
1. Just enough details to be memorable but not overwhelming or distracting.
2. Relatable or understandable for your audience. They can visualize it and see themselves in it.
3. Have something valuable at stake (such as money, time, health, etc.)
4. Showcase the most valuable or compelling aspect of your product/solution.
To bring these points to life, Kirin looks back at the 2014 story about consumer products startup Walker & Co – which started with shaving products for Black men and was acquired by P&G in 2018.
[FYI: Founder/CEO Tristan Walker talks in this 2023 interview about the relatability problem and who ultimately invested.]
She then walks through recent coverage of a new productivity app called Ocean and the memorable example it includes (with a bonus tip on talking to reporters).
Message Worth Millions is a weekly podcast for startup founders like you who want to raise money and grow their revenue faster. You need a message that moves your audience – usually investors and customers – to say YES…and all those yeses add up :)
Especially in an AI world, human connection beats perfection every time.
→ Follow your host Kirin Kalia, founder of Grow Through Story, on LinkedIn.
-=-=-=-ABOUT YOUR HOST-=-=-=-
Kirin Kalia is a startup veteran and communications expert with 25+ years of experience across journalism and marketing. As a communications partner for growth-stage startups, she helps founders master their messaging and public-speaking skills so they raise money and grow their revenue faster.
Kirin has coached 1000+ founders to pitch investors and innovation leaders at companies including Visa, P&G Ventures, the Estée Lauder Companies and more.
Kirin is a 2023 All-Star Mentor for Techstars Los Angeles and also mentors founders in programs including the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, FoundersBoost and the MassChallenge FinTech Program.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Host
00:00:01
Kirin Kalia
Welcome to episode two of Message Worth Millions. This is a weekly podcast for startup founders like you who want to raise money and grow their revenue faster. You need a message that moves your audience, usually investors and customers, to say yes, and all those yeses add up.
00:00:17
Kirin Kalia
I'm your host, Kiran Kalia. I'm the founder of a consultancy called Grow Through Story. And especially in this AI world, I believe human connection beats perfection every single time.
00:00:31
Kirin Kalia
So for this episode, we're going to talk about why every pitch needs a killer example and how you're going to create one for your own pitch.
Listener Feedback and MVP Status
00:00:41
Kirin Kalia
Now, before we do that, I do want to shout out one of my favorite founders who I've worked with recently. Her name is Rudmilla and she gave me some great feedback on episode one because you know, you guys know this is an MVP, right? I need your feedback.
00:00:56
Kirin Kalia
And she said to me, I want you to dive deeper into how you became a storyteller like you tell me to do. Thank you for the advice.
Kiran's Storytelling Journey
00:01:04
Kirin Kalia
So that's why I'm going to share a little something about me before we dig into this, ah just to give you some more background on why i know something about the way you need to connect with investors and customers.
00:01:16
Kirin Kalia
So that thing today, going to be honest with you, great. all the way back my freshman year of high school. I'm not going to tell you what year it was, but let's say it was a very different decade.
00:01:28
Kirin Kalia
And I was brand new to my school. i was a freshman. I had to find my way in that new world. And I walked into the high school newspaper room because I was like, well, I like writing. Let me see what I can do here.
00:01:42
Kirin Kalia
And what I quickly learned was that it was an incredible way to start telling the stories of my peers because we had stories that were important to tell and we needed to know something about our own world.
00:01:54
Kirin Kalia
And so that kind of storytelling is what set me off on an incredible journey. And I still think it's really important to give voice to people who don't always get that attention or who aren't always seen and heard.
00:02:09
Kirin Kalia
So throughout my career, I found ways to do that and to share important things with a larger audience. And so guess what? That's what I help folks like you do. So that's a little bit about me, high school journalist, nerd, Karen.
Importance of Memorable Examples in Pitches
00:02:23
Kirin Kalia
um Like I said, today, we're going to talk about why every pitch needs a killer example and how you're going to create one. Now, you all have probably been in a situation where somebody says to you, well, give me an example of that.
00:02:37
Kirin Kalia
And it's a command, of course, but it's not just a command. It's actually a massive opportunity to say something about the way your product works. It's something that's going to be important whether you're in a one-on-one meeting, whether you're in that pitch competition situation, for any kind of thought leadership that you're doing, frankly.
00:02:55
Kirin Kalia
And frankly, it's something that will stick with people. And you're going to hear me say this over and over again. i am all about what is somebody going to remember and retell to someone else. so for example This is something from a pitch competition years ago.
00:03:09
Kirin Kalia
ah Amazing founder, shout out Spark in the Philippines, creating software to help all of these smaller banks actually go online. And something that Spark said I will never forget to illustrate this problem is that there is a farmer in the Philippines who has a smartphone.
00:03:28
Kirin Kalia
But in order to actually get any banking done, he's got to walk four hours to the actual bank and stand in a line to make sure that he can get some money. Like, that's crazy, right?
00:03:40
Kirin Kalia
Like, I can still see that all these years later after hearing Spark give that pitch to Visa, by the way. So that's what I'm talking about. You want something that somebody's going to remember and retell.
00:03:52
Kirin Kalia
And that's because it helps the person not just understand what you do, which is base level, everybody wants that, but it also helps them share it with someone else, right? That's why I talk about remember and retell.
00:04:03
Kirin Kalia
It's exactly what you want. Now, I want you to do this at networking events. Like somebody asks you about your business, you can just give them an example, right? And It's brilliant because you do it before they even have to ask. It's just so smooth and so professional, right? Shows you know your business.
00:04:23
Kirin Kalia
I want you to do it because it gets you, like I said, to that understanding faster. It sparks curiosity and good questions. And that's how you start getting that human connection, the human connection that beats perfection, whatever that looks like every freaking time, right?
00:04:39
Kirin Kalia
So, One example, also to think about this in a different way, are viral videos, right? We have all seen a viral video. It's something that we remember and we can tell somebody about and then they're gonna wanna go see it. We can describe exactly what we saw.
00:04:55
Kirin Kalia
And one example, recent, comes to mind. It's August, 2025. ah Maybe it was a few weeks ago now, was that Coldplay Kiss Cam. I am sure you all have heard of it, you have seen it, and you know exactly how embarrassing it was.
00:05:09
Kirin Kalia
for the CEO of a company called Astronomer to be seen on camera with his head of HR, literally ducking to get out of the shot. She turns away. It's something you have to watch, right? And you probably described it similar to the way I did.
00:05:24
Kirin Kalia
Well, let's be clear. No abstract concept has ever gone viral. Right? So if you wanted to talk about an embarrassing moment, you could just describe what an embarrassing moment is, or you could talk about the Coldplay kiss cam and everybody would know exactly what you're talking about.
00:05:40
Kirin Kalia
So what makes an example powerful and memorable for the right reasons?
Key Elements of Strong Examples
00:05:47
Kirin Kalia
I've broken this down into four things, and I'm going to take you through them one by one.
00:05:51
Kirin Kalia
Going to give you some mini examples for each. And then we're going to go through an example from a recent TechCrunch article. I did this last week. I think it works. So if you want something different though, let me know, but we're going to work with it for now.
00:06:04
Kirin Kalia
So number one in this list of four things, it's giving just enough details to be memorable, but not overwhelming or distracting. So what does that mean?
00:06:15
Kirin Kalia
You guys have heard me say this before and it won't be the last time. i want you to use plain English, not industry terms. I want it to feel like you're talking to a grandparent or a kid and it's got to be the 32nd not the 30-minute version of the story.
00:06:29
Kirin Kalia
And no joke, folks, this was at LA Tech Week some years back. I literally heard, i think it was a 20-minute version of somebody's addiction journey, and that explained why he created this app so you could find AA meetings.
00:06:41
Kirin Kalia
And as soon as I heard it, i was like, well, there's a 30-second version of that story about being an addict, hitting rock bottom, and then needing to find the next AA meeting, right? there There was no need for that to be a 20, almost 30-minute description.
00:06:55
Kirin Kalia
Now, one example I want to give you here, is an old school example. i am giving this because it's a story that has stayed with me. It goes back over a decade ago, back in 2014, when direct-to-consumer was a thing. i don't know if you guys were even working yet. Some of you may remember a company called Walker and Company, and an amazing founder named Tristan Walker, who actually connected with back in those days. I was working in corporate innovation, and we were trying to get Tristan in front of a company called Unilever, a big ah consumer package goods company.
00:07:34
Kirin Kalia
you know You might know this story, but ah Tristan eventually sold Walker and Company to Procter & Gamble, not Unilever. But back in 2014, needed he needed to be able to describe his company. And let's say, you know, that a website is long gone.
00:07:51
Kirin Kalia
So I went and found an old article and this is the description from it. And I'm going to read you exactly what TechCrunch wrote back in 2014. So it says Walker and company, a startup that he likens to a proctor and gamble for black people, how fortuitous, right?
00:08:06
Kirin Kalia
Okay. Back to the story. Walker and co is opening up direct orders of its inaugural product this week. Bevel, a shot shaving system that is uniquely suited to men with coarse curly hair.
00:08:16
Kirin Kalia
The product will start shipping regularly on Monday. So you know what that is, right? That is a really short version of a product. It's Procter & Gamble for black people. So we know it's a consumer packaged goods company. It's going to have more than one product, but it's starting with this one product and it's for men with coarse curly hair.
00:08:37
Kirin Kalia
Great. That is something that anybody could understand. Now, number two is when you're doing something with an example, it's gotta to be something that's relatable or understandable for your audience.
00:08:53
Kirin Kalia
Characters or a setting your audience can visualize, they can even see themselves in. That is number two. Now let's be clear, what's relatable for an investor, especially when you know specifically what investor you're in front of, could well be different than what's relatable for your customer.
00:09:10
Kirin Kalia
So, This gets tricky, and this is actually why I wanted to talk about Tristan, because frankly, it wasn't always easy for him to connect with the investor that was across the table from him.
00:09:22
Kirin Kalia
Now, Tristan had quite a career before he decided to become a founder. He had literally knocked on the door multiple times of something called Foursquare before they accepted him and let him work for them.
00:09:34
Kirin Kalia
ah He then was an entrepreneur in residence, I think that was the title, at Andreessen Horowitz, And Andreessen was very excited about this concept he had to create a company around the problem that black men have with shaving.
00:09:48
Kirin Kalia
But let me tell you, and Tristan's been pretty honest about this, it was not easy to explain this problem to men who didn't have the problem. They didn't need didn't know the pain and they didn't know how big of a problem it was. So it was actually harder for him to connect with some of those investors. And he's been very open about it.
00:10:07
Kirin Kalia
So I'll give you guys a link if you want to read more in his own words. But I want you to know that coming up with a relatable example can be challenging depending on who you're speaking to. And so that may well influence who you choose to pitch as a founder to find somebody who actually can relate to it or where you can really find that common commonality.
00:10:26
Kirin Kalia
So for example, women who have women's health things, they're speaking to an investor who's male, they can speak about it in terms of their wife. If they know that that person has a spouse who's female, they might frame it as something that's relevant for their daughter, for their mother, for their sister.
00:10:43
Kirin Kalia
So you get the idea. there's There's some way to make it personal and relatable, something that they can step into.
Showcasing Stakes in Storytelling
00:10:49
Kirin Kalia
Point number three, there has to be something valuable at stake.
00:10:54
Kirin Kalia
So this is key to storytelling, and I want you to include it in examples as well. So what kind of things are we talking about here? Money is absolutely always one of them. There's a lot of money at stake.
00:11:05
Kirin Kalia
There's time at stake. There's some maybe kind of prize, which could be money, but also related to ah your aspirations, your dreams, your job, right? Things like your health, your reputation.
00:11:18
Kirin Kalia
Those are all things that could be on the line if somebody has a real problem that needs to be solved. And you're going to bring that to life in your example. So for the Walker & Company example I brought up earlier with Tristan, he actually talks about this. He needed to shave for job interviews. He didn't want to look you know like he hadn't shaven properly.
00:11:40
Kirin Kalia
There's something real at stake there. And that's really memorable as well. You can imagine nobody wants to show up looking less than their best version for something that important.
00:11:51
Kirin Kalia
He also gave the example of people in the military who need to shave every single day. And if that is a painful experience, if it doesn't look good, it's not great for your experience within a world like that where you're going to get judged on all kinds of things every single day.
00:12:07
Kirin Kalia
So this is a way to raise the stakes, to make it clear that you are not just talking about something that's a nice to have, it's a need to have.
Demonstrating Product Solutions Through Stories
00:12:16
Kirin Kalia
Now that fourth thing, and this is related to number three and the example that has something at stake is you're going to showcase the most valuable or compelling aspect of your product or solution.
00:12:29
Kirin Kalia
The one that shows how you actually solve that problem. And now ideally it's going to be a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end, something, you know, there's this ah situation,
00:12:42
Kirin Kalia
and then this happens and then there's a resolution. Now, what i'm going to tell you is really important. Every story must have a, but there's something, something, something, but then this happened, right? That's going to be important in your examples as well, if you can find a way to work that in.
00:12:57
Kirin Kalia
So, uh, this is a different pitch that I heard many years ago. And if you've worked with me, you certainly know this one as well. Uh, it was a behavioral, uh, economics play in healthcare. care So how are you going to motivate people to do healthy behaviors? Well, the idea was to create an app that would incentivize you with actual money.
00:13:17
Kirin Kalia
And the example that the founders came up with for the pitch competition went like this. Mary is in her mid fifties. She's a type two diabetic and Mary is super excited about her daughter getting married, but Mary actually doesn't have a lot of money to buy the dress that she wants to wear to her daughter's wedding.
00:13:37
Kirin Kalia
Now, lucky for Mary, her insurance company is suggesting that she use this new app. And when she shows every day through the app that she's eating the right foods and she's taking her medication, at the end of 90 days, she'll have $150. And Mary thinks, well, that's great. That's going to help me buy that dress for my daughter's wedding.
00:13:56
Kirin Kalia
So Mary signs up for the app. And over the course of the next 90 days, she's pretty good about making sure she's taking those pictures and taking her medications. She misses a couple days, and every time that happens, she gets a few dollars docked off.
00:14:09
Kirin Kalia
And at the end of 90 days, guess what? Mary has $140. It's transferred to her Visa debit card, because remember, that was the Visa competition. And she goes out and she buys that beautiful dress for her daughter's wedding.
00:14:20
Kirin Kalia
So you see what just happened there? Gave you an example from beginning to middle to end. There was something at stake, right? She needed this dress for her daughter's wedding, high stakes, but she didn't have the money and the solution came with this particular app.
00:14:36
Kirin Kalia
So that's what I'm talking about. Now, depending on the amount of time you have, it might not be as long or as detailed. It could actually be a case study if you do have a little bit more time, but I want you to think about this as something that you can be using over and over again your marketing as well. So not just for these more conversational type pitches.
00:14:57
Kirin Kalia
So those are the four things. I'll recap them for you
Recap of Storytelling Elements
00:14:59
Kirin Kalia
one more time. Number one is just enough details to be memorable, but not overwhelming or distracting. Once you use plain English, no industry terms. Remember, this is like you're talking to your grandparents or a kid.
00:15:10
Kirin Kalia
The second one is make it relatable or understandable for your audience. That means people can actually see themselves inside this example. And like I mentioned, it can be challenging depending on who your audience is, but you're going to do your best.
00:15:24
Kirin Kalia
Number three, it has to have something valuable at stake that can be money, time, reputation, et cetera. It's important to bring this tension into your example.
00:15:34
Kirin Kalia
So that was, you know, the situation with somebody from like Walker and company who needs to show up for a job interview and they have to shave. Number four,
00:15:47
Kirin Kalia
showcasing the most valuable or compelling aspect of your product or solution, that's going to show how you solve the problem, beginning, middle, and end. So those are the four things.
00:15:58
Kirin Kalia
Sometimes three is easier, but this one, it was actually four. And I want to give you an example from an actual story that I saw in TechCrunch just this week about a company called Ocean.
00:16:09
Kirin Kalia
And it's not about Ocean raising money. It's by Sarah Perez, who, shout out Sarah, has been writing these kind of stories for TechCrunch for years, literally years, and she is such a pro that writing about a new app is something she can probably do in her sleep.
00:16:23
Kirin Kalia
But what Sarah does, and she probably had some help from the founders, is to include some examples of what this app called Ocean is. So she starts it by describing it in the beginning of the article by saying it's a new personal productivity app, and it's helping you triage your overloaded inbox, take action on your emails by turning them into tasks, share your a abilityil availability for meetings with others, and it's all in one app.
00:16:46
Kirin Kalia
Okay. So what does that actually mean? And I'll tell you it comes a little bit later in the article. She talks about inbox zero enthusiasts. So that's pretty specific, right? That's an example. And the killer feature for them will be the inbox triage tools.
00:17:00
Kirin Kalia
So you can filter emails by categories like first timers, people who emailed you for the first time, the persistent pingers. Those are the people who email you repeatedly. And then the emails from your contacts, people you probably actually like do need to hear from.
00:17:13
Kirin Kalia
And it can even surface emails, ah she writes, that are marked as spam but might belong in your inbox so you don't miss anything important. So now I understand why this app is valuable, especially if you're an inbox zero enthusiast, right? It's going to help you sort things by first-timers, persistent pingers, and even your contacts.
00:17:32
Kirin Kalia
Great. That is what I'm talking about. So if imagine you are coming to a press interview. You better have an example of how you're app or your solution works, your hardware, whatever it is, because you want to be able to have something like this appear in the article.
00:17:47
Kirin Kalia
You can arm the journalist. And if you don't, by the way, they will, if they're really good, they'll come up with their own. You may or may not like it. So there's a little press pro tip for you on top of just generally pitching, but that's what I'm talking about.
00:17:59
Kirin Kalia
An example is so powerful. I will now remember Ocean and the founder, Martin Dufort, who i don't know, but Martin, great job on getting this press coverage, by the way. I'll let you know that you're in my podcast as well.
00:18:13
Kirin Kalia
ah But it's it's so powerful because now I will remember what this product is and who it's for. So that is today's episode.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:18:22
Kirin Kalia
This was episode number two. And as we're wrapping up here, i have three asks for you, your feedback. I got some good stuff this time. Like I said, shout out Redmila for telling me to tell a little bit more about my own background.
00:18:35
Kirin Kalia
ah And people ah out there, if you haven't heard episode one, please go back and listen. Tell me what you loved, what you didn't. I want you to be totally honest, totally serious here, what you need help with. I'm Kieran at growthroughstory.com. That's K-I-R-I-N as in Nancy at growthroughstory, all one word and spelled exactly like you would expect.
00:19:00
Kirin Kalia
G-R-O-W- T-H-R-O-U-G-H-S-T-O-R-Y.com. Number two, if you are enjoying this podcast, please subscribe. You know for anybody who's creating content, that is absolutely the most important thing that you can do.
00:19:14
Kirin Kalia
And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with a founder friend. And number three, if you know that you need more help, let's talk. We can work on your messaging for investors, for customers, even your board or your team.
00:19:27
Kirin Kalia
So please email me, kieran at growthroughstory.com. Or you can find me on LinkedIn, DM me. I'm here to help. I don't want to waste your time. i want you to waste your time screwing up anything that's high stakes, those meetings, those important events.
00:19:42
Kirin Kalia
It doesn't matter. i want you to show up because you deserve to win. And you're going to win by connecting with the human eye of the on the other side because human connection beats perfection every single time.
00:19:55
Kirin Kalia
That's it for this week. I'll see you again next week. And until then, keep pitching your heart out.