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Communicate · Choose

Investor narrative

Tells the strategy as a story an investor recognises — market, insight, why you, why now, what the money does. Distorts internal decisions if you let it leak back in.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
03 Choose
Works at
Corporate, Business
Maturity
An idea → Scaling
Time
A day, plus several rewrites

What it is

The strategy retold in the structure investors evaluate: an insight about the world, evidence it is right, why this team and this moment, and what capital would do. A translation exercise rather than a strategy exercise, and it should not be mistaken for one.

The insight
What you believe about the market that others do not, stated plainly. This is what is actually being backed.
Evidence
Why the insight is right — traction, data, customer behaviour. The part that distinguishes a thesis from an opinion.
Why now
What changed that makes this possible or necessary at this moment. Without it, the obvious question is why nobody has already done it.
Why you
Unfair advantage: access, capability, data, relationships. Passion is not an advantage and is heard as an absence of one.
Use of funds
What the money buys and what will be true when it is spent. Tied to milestones rather than to categories of spending.
The hard questions
The three things you would least like to be asked, answered honestly and in advance.
The mistake people makeThe genuine risk is reverse contamination — the narrative starts shaping the strategy rather than describing it. Investor framing optimises for fundability, which is not the same as being right, and businesses have followed the deck rather than the plan more than once.
What it’s forYou are raising and need the strategy told as a story an investor recognises.
What it’s not forYou are not raising. Investor framing distorts internal decisions.

How you run it

  1. Lead with the insight, not the productInvestors back a view of the world that turns out to be right. What do you believe that most people in your market do not?
  2. Answer why nowSomething must have changed — technology, regulation, behaviour, cost. Without a why-now, a good idea reads as one that has been available for years and not taken.
  3. Be specific about why youNot passion. Unfair advantage, unusual access, accumulated capability, proprietary data. If the honest answer is nothing much, say what you would build.
  4. Tie funds to milestonesWhat this money buys, and what will be true when it runs out. Vague use of funds is read, correctly, as an absent plan.
  5. Prepare the three hardest questionsEvery business has them. Answering them well beats a polished deck, and answering them badly ends the meeting whatever the deck looked like.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A settled strategy and a funding requirement
  • Honest numbers including the unflattering ones
  • Understanding of what this type of investor backs

You’ll end up with

  • The narrative in a recognisable shape
  • The use of funds tied to specific milestones
  • Honest answers to the three hardest questions

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAI opportunity mapAssumption mappingBusiness case and driver model