TL:DR

• Go deep: Skip surface-level announcements and dig into founder motivations, decisions, and metrics.
  
  
• Be emotionally smart: Use anecdotes, humour, and relatable problems to connect on a human level.
  
  
• Don’t skip the messy bits: Share struggles and setbacks openly to build trust and authenticity.
  
  
• Show investor value subtly: Let founder voices, timelines, and outcomes highlight your role without overt self-promotion.

Founder stories are a pillar of Venture Capital (VC) content for good reason. Telling the story of how an investment firm discovered an entrepreneur and their company, gives them an opportunity to champion their portfolio companies while also showcasing their own skills as investors to future founders and limited partners (LPs). 

But, when everyone claims to be founder-first (and believe us, they do), how do you stand out? We’ve written founder stories for VCs and investment firms including Index, Creandum, Insight Partners, Dawn Capital, EQT  and more, interviewing investors, deals teams and founders to build full portraits of a company’s journey. Of course, we’ve read our fair share too. 

Here are the four guiding principles that the best founder stories are built around. 

They go deep

Founding stories aren’t funding announcements, so keep your news moments separate and use these pieces to really get into the substance. Explore the story as a journalist would – or even better, with a journalist. For our founder stories, we often collaborate with reporters from leading publications including The Economist, the WSJ and the BBC – skilled interviewers and storytellers that can extract unique insights from both sides of the table. After all, those are the publications you’re competing with in the attention economy. 

For Sequoia's article on its investment in Notion, for example, they hired Megan Finnerty, once part of a Pulitzer Prize winning team for explanatory journalism. Coming in at around 5,000 words, the piece tells the story not just of Notion, but of each founder, exploring their individual motivations and histories. It’s a gripping story, with actionable insights and advice woven into the fabric. Specific metrics. Crucial decisions. It’s content that other founders would want to read. 

Likewise, for Index Venture’s profile of Riccardo Zacconi, founder of Candy Crush creator King, the firm interviewed Zacconi’s former colleagues and university professors as well as the man himself and Index investors. 

They’re emotionally smart

Like all great stories, founder stories should make the reader feel something. They tap into frustration, joy, humility, or humour. They root a company in an anecdote or common problem or show an investor/founder relationship that goes beyond the cheque and equity stake. 

For example, when we worked with EQT Ventures to tell the story of portfolio company Holidu, a vacation rental platform, the piece began with a simple quote from founder Johannes Siebers: “It’s really, really hard to find and book vacation homes. Why isn’t this easier?”

That grounding in the everyday is a powerful tool. Dawn Capital’s article on its investment in Flatpay, a payments company for SMEs languishing on legacy payment systems, does it on a number of levels. It breaks down the relatable challenges of common SMEs in a way that is instantly recognisable while also putting Dawn’s investment team, who voice the piece, at the heart of the story as both consumers and investors: “As fintech obsessives we never buy a coffee without checking the point-of-sale (PoS) solution. No barista is safe from our questions.” In doing so, both parties become more than just founders and investors, elevating the story in the process. 

They don’t skip the messy bits

For both investors and founders, speaking honestly about the hurdles of running a startup can feel risky. But your audience is founders and investors – they know what building a company involves. They don’t want to read a puff piece. They want authenticity. They want to know about how Notion scrapped its entire codebase three years into launch and nearly ran out of money, or how Calm’s founders – and backers Insight Partners – balanced cultural hype with “thoughtful growth”. 

Honesty demonstrates confidence,wins trust and –over time– builds a reputation that extends far beyond the reach of any single piece of content. 

They show investor value, without having to spell it out

As an investor, your two primary target audiences are promising entrepreneurs and LPs for future funds. Therefore, the two skills you need to demonstrate are your ability to spot companies and then nurture them. But how do you do that without looking like you’re trying to take all the credit? 

The key is to position your involvement through the lens of the startup – letting the founder’s journey do the talking. In Bessemer Venture Partner’s ServiceTitan story, for example, referencing the fact that partner Talia Goldberg sourced the deal in 2015 and has supported the team ever since is enough to showcase long-term commitment without fanfare. Kind words from the founders themselves can go a long way too, but try to include as much specific detail as possible. 

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Ready to tell your founders’ stories? 

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We can help. Get in touch. 

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