A short YouTube video ("Ep 6 - Telling Your Story") that teaches entrepreneurs how to pitch a business model by narrating the business model canvas as a story, scene by scene. The transcript uses a worked example — matching retiring baby boomers with overseas retirement communities run by franchisees (Beth and Carl) — to demonstrate how to present customer segments, value propositions, revenue streams, testing outcomes, and growth assumptions. The presenter emphasizes honesty about failures discovered during testing, concrete customer research findings, and using human-centered service to build trust with baby-boomer customers.
Questions this video answers
September 20, 2013.
10,000 baby boomers per day.
Five letters of intent, valued at over $1 million.
4 out of 5 customers (80%).
Over $1,000,000 in pre-sales to customers.
Chapters
You've done a lot of great work on your canvas, and the result is a business model that you're ready to pitch. Sharing your work with others for the first time can be intimidating. But remember, you know the model inside out, and I'll help you along the way. So go ahead, pitch it. Not like that. Showing the model all at once is cognitive murder. There's way too much info there to digest. You wrote it like a story, so tell it like a story. Scene by scene. Use sticky notes to fill in the boxes one at a time as you explain them. Go on, try it. We're going to match retiring baby boomers with overseas retirement communities run by franchisees. These are the two customer segments we're targeting. Good. Now make it even more real for them. 10,000 boomers are retiring every day. Like the Andersons who can barely scrape by in Florida but can live like kings in Brazil. Okay, now continue the story with the next logical box. For the retirees, our value proposition is affordable, high quality retirement. We've taken the guesswork out of finding an overseas location that will be comfortable, affordable and fun. And for our franchisees, we'll offer customer acquisition through thousands of high quality leads. How will we monetize this? By charging retirees a modest monthly fee and collecting franchising fees. They pay us for both leads and a trusted brand. We already have five letters of intent from potential franchisees valued at over $1 million. Now reinforce your case by explaining what you learned from your testing. Admitting your failures to investors and partners may seem unorthodox, but it shows your model is stronger for having been real world tested and adapted. We also learned from extensive research and some failed pilot offerings that many of our customers aren't just dissatisfied with their retirement options at home. They won't be able to keep up with medical costs either. You're doing great. Now walk them through the rest of your model. 4 out of 5 customers we spoke to don't trust overseas options. By applying a local brand new communications technologies, they'll never feel too far away. Services like Skype and FaceTime make connecting with family as easy as possible. We can continue to grow. And though our revenue numbers may seem ambitious, they're based on over a million dollars in pre sales to customers. By favoring human customer service over services provided through the Internet, we become that much more accessible to boomers. So in conclusion, we've tested, failed, adjusted, and we are now convinced the market potential of this model is enormous. And while our idea is compelling, our business model is what makes us ready to compete on the largest stage. And that is the story of how Beth and Carl took a great idea and created a great business model. But their story doesn't end here. As their business begins to grow, the canvas remains a valuable tool, growing and evolving with it. With some determination, hard work, and the right business model. This could easily be your story, too, Sam.
