The Impact Pitch: How Tech Founders Tell Stories that Attract Capital

Lee Schneider
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship

THE IMPACT PITCH supports the founder/funder ecosystem by connecting startups, funders, and incubators who all have the common goal of creating social impact companies that thrive. It shines a light on startups that are in their early-stage funding rounds or that are underrepresented. Scientists and tech founders sometimes struggle to translate their technical innovations into compelling business narratives. In the Impact Pitch, you’ll hear from a founder, an investor, or sometimes both, about how they worked to shape their pitch, the challenges, the reboots, and the successes as well. Each episode will include a lessons-learned teardown of the startups discussed, and will offer feedback on what worked with the pitch and what didn’t. The podcast features three different categories of guest.  We feature tech founders, often scientists or academics, making the transition into entrepreneurship. They can be in their early-stage funding round.   We showcase investors, both angels and VCs, who focus on impact investing to address the world’s most challenging problems.  We feature impact incubators who offer support and education to impact-focused tech founders.  The podcast is hosted and produced by Lee Schneider, a veteran storyteller for hire for film and TV, novelist, and author of The Angel Playbook. He is an adjunct assistant professor teaching a popular media-making and storytelling class for USC’s School of Architecture, and he is the facilitator of the Storyline Sessions, a series of masterclasses for startup founders who want to improve their storytelling skills to win more funding.

Episodes

  1. La Keisha Landrum Pierre: What Does it Take to Pitch an Impact Startup?

    6d ago

    La Keisha Landrum Pierre: What Does it Take to Pitch an Impact Startup?

    What does it take to pitch an impact startup? Host Lee Schneider sits down with La Keisha Landrum Pierre, General Partner and Co-Founder of Emmeline Ventures. She is a venture capital investor who reviews over a thousand pitches a year. In their conversation, they break down exactly what separates the founders who raise capital from those who don’t. La Keisha explains why clarity, structure, and the classic “tell them what you’ll tell them” approach still hold up, and why a compelling headline matters. The conversation gets specific about why charisma is never enough by itself to drive a successful pitch, and why founders will be rewarded if they do the work to research the VCs they are pitching. Key takeaways of the episode include: Storytelling is the #1 skill — VCs need to walk away inspired. If they’re not inspired, you haven’t made an impression. Structure your pitch in threes — Tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. Repetition is how ideas stick. Lead with a headline — Like journalism, you need a clear headline before diving into details. Charisma helps but isn’t enough — Natural charisma puts you ahead, but without refinement and practice it won’t close the deal. And if you don’t have it, practice to close the gap. Know your investor type — Impact investors want your personal story deeply woven in. Traditional VCs care more about your expertise, network, and why you’re the right operator. Do the research — Tailor every pitch to the specific investor. La Keisha is consistently surprised by how many founders clearly haven’t looked up the firm they’re pitching. You only get one chance — First impressions in VC are rarely recoverable. Preparation isn’t optional. Creators & Guests La Keisha Landrum Pierre - Guest (00:00) - Intro to La Keisha Landrum Pierre (00:58) - La Keisha Landrum Pierre interview start (10:15) - Key Takeaways (12:13) - Episode closing

    13 min
  2. Pocket Sun & Michelle Turner

    Apr 15

    Pocket Sun & Michelle Turner

    This episode is a look into the early-stage funding journey of Michelle Turner and her virtual healthcare startup, Here Now Health. The company serves kids in foster care through Medicaid-covered mental health services. The episode features two interviews. The first is with founder Michelle Turner about how she pitched and closed her pre-seed round. The second interview is with her investor Pocket Sun, co-founder and Managing Partner of SoGal Ventures, who shares the investor perspective on what attracted her to the deal and the realities of securing venture capital. (00:00) - Episode Intro (01:15) - Michelle Turner (16:55) - Sum up of Michelle Interview (17:25) - Intro to Pocket Sun Interview (17:54) - Pocket Sun Interview (31:15) - Key Learnings Creators & Guests Michelle Turner - Guest Pocket Sun - Guest Notable Quotes> "Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. I also knew that we could do something about it." — Michelle Turner on identifying the foster care healthcare gap > "They wanted to learn about me. They wanted to learn how I was going to make decisions, how I thought through problems." — Michelle Turner on investor priorities > "We need each bet to have the potential to return the full fund, so that math has to work." — Pocket Sun on venture math and 100x returns > "It's important to see it almost like a trial period already to see whether the VC is too demanding or you actually like the suggestions they're making." — Pocket Sun on founder-investor fit

    33 min
  • 2 Episodes

About

THE IMPACT PITCH supports the founder/funder ecosystem by connecting startups, funders, and incubators who all have the common goal of creating social impact companies that thrive. It shines a light on startups that are in their early-stage funding rounds or that are underrepresented. Scientists and tech founders sometimes struggle to translate their technical innovations into compelling business narratives. In the Impact Pitch, you’ll hear from a founder, an investor, or sometimes both, about how they worked to shape their pitch, the challenges, the reboots, and the successes as well. Each episode will include a lessons-learned teardown of the startups discussed, and will offer feedback on what worked with the pitch and what didn’t. The podcast features three different categories of guest.  We feature tech founders, often scientists or academics, making the transition into entrepreneurship. They can be in their early-stage funding round.   We showcase investors, both angels and VCs, who focus on impact investing to address the world’s most challenging problems.  We feature impact incubators who offer support and education to impact-focused tech founders.  The podcast is hosted and produced by Lee Schneider, a veteran storyteller for hire for film and TV, novelist, and author of The Angel Playbook. He is an adjunct assistant professor teaching a popular media-making and storytelling class for USC’s School of Architecture, and he is the facilitator of the Storyline Sessions, a series of masterclasses for startup founders who want to improve their storytelling skills to win more funding.

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