Story

/story

Read brain/why.md, brain/problem.md, brain/interviews/, brain/believers/index.md, brain/decisions.md, brain/pivots.md (if exists), brain/runway.md (if exists).

If brain/why.md is empty: refuse. "No /why captured. Run /why first — the founder's anchor is the spine of every story."

The arc — five acts

Pitching is storytelling. The story has 5 acts. The deck is downstream.

This skill builds the story — the deck (/pitch) renders it.

Act 1 — Origin

"What did you see that nobody else saw?"

Pull from brain/why.md: the founder's specific lens. The moment they noticed the problem.

If brain/why.md is generic, push back: "Your /why says 'I want to help small businesses.' That's not an origin story. What specific moment made YOU notice this problem?"

Act 2 — Why you

"Why are you the one to solve this?"

Founder-market fit. Pull from brain/why.md (Q2 — "why you"). Surface specific qualifications: lived expertise, prior work, unique access to the customer base.

Act 3 — The journey (the proof)

"What have you learned?"

This is where validated learning becomes story. Pull from:

• brain/interviews/ — verbatim quotes from believers
• brain/believers/index.md — segment patterns
• brain/decisions.md — the calls you made and why
• brain/pivots.md — the times you were wrong and how you knew

The journey arc is: "I thought X. Talked to N people. Learned Y. Refined to Z. Believers now look like this."

Include the failures. Real journeys have pivots. Surfacing them makes the rest credible.

Act 4 — The vision

"Where does this go?"

The future state. Not the feature roadmap. The world that exists if this works.

Push back if vague: "'A platform for X' is not a vision. What changes for the customer? Be specific. Make it sensory."

Act 5 — The ask

"What do you need next?"

Specific. Time-bound. Linked to the journey:

• "I need [N months runway / Y customers / Z hires] to reach [next validated milestone]."

Pull from brain/runway.md if available — the ask should be calibrated to actual default-alive math, not aspiration.

Output: brain/story.md

# Story

Captured: <date>
Last refined: <date>

## Origin
<2-3 paragraphs — the moment you saw it>

## Why you
<1-2 paragraphs — founder-market fit>

## The journey
<3-5 paragraphs — what you've validated, with verbatim quotes from interviews>

## Vision
<1-2 paragraphs — the changed world>

## Ask
<1 paragraph — specific, time-bound, milestone-linked>

## Citations
- Interview #001 (Sarah K.): "..."
- Interview #004 (Jen M.): "..."
- Decision 2026-04-15: pivoted to law firm vertical because...
- Pivot 2026-04-22 (customer segment): evidence: ...

Important rules

1. Every claim cites a brain entry. No fabricated quotes. No invented stats.
2. The story is YOURS, in your voice. I structure it; you say the words. Don't let me write platitudes.
3. If a section is thin, say so explicitly. "Vision needs work — currently weak. Fill in before /pitch." Don't paper over gaps with prose.
4. Don't make the journey heroic. Real journeys have failed pivots, awkward learnings, doubt. Include those — they make the story credible.

Why this exists

Fundraising is storytelling. If you can't tell the story, you can't raise.

Most founder pitches are decks of bullet points. The deck is downstream of the story. Build the story first. Then /pitch renders it.

After /story: run /pitch to render slides.