The Technical Storyteller: A Founder Archetype

In our April 2024 Fund II launch, featured in Fortune magazine, we made it clear that we back the best storytellers. Some might assume that when we say “storytellers,” we mean people who are skilled at talking. But in our view, storytelling is far more about listening and deeply understanding context. The best storytellers help us see the invisible — they show us the unseen paths to success.

To expand on this thesis, we want to dive deeper into the type of storyteller we believe in: the technical storyteller. This founder archetype combines technical expertise with the ability to narrate a compelling vision, while adapting to the complexities of their landscape.

What is a Technical Storyteller?

At their core, a technical storyteller can operate fluidly across four critical layers of abstraction, switching seamlessly between them in both execution and communication. These four layers are:

1. Product: Understanding the intricacies of product philosophy, code, customer needs, and the technical tradeoffs involved in building something scalable. 
2. Team: Knowing how to recruit, build, and nurture a high-performing team that can execute the company’s mission.
3. Vision: Articulating a long-term vision and mission, guiding the company toward its North Star.
4. Landscape: Understanding the broader industry landscape — the history, what incumbents and startups are doing, and where the founder’s vision fits in.

The best technical storytellers can move effortlessly through these layers. What sets these founders apart is their innate curiosity and the grit to pursue answers others might overlook. They can get into the weeds, adjusting a technical approach or fixing a small issue. At the same time, they can step back and evaluate whether the team’s execution aligns with their long-term vision, and how their strategy stacks up against competitors.

A Metaphor: Building and Navigating a Vehicle

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Think of these layers as the process of building and navigating a vehicle. The product is the vehicle itself — whether it’s a rocket, boat, or even a paper airplane. The team is the group responsible for designing, building, and maintaining that vehicle. The vision is the destination, the North Star guiding their journey. And the landscape represents the competitive terrain — the other vehicles on the road, the obstacles ahead, and the changing winds.

A great technical storyteller isn’t just able to fix a bolt on the vehicle; they can assess how the whole machine operates, and whether the direction they’re heading is the right one. They understand that success isn’t just about building something that works; it’s about ensuring that the vehicle can outpace competitors, adapt to headwinds, and chart new courses.

Why the Landscape Matters Most

While all four layers are important, it’s the last one — the landscape — that truly separates good from great founders. A founder might build an excellent product and assemble a strong team, but without understanding the broader context, they risk being blindsided by shifts in the industry.

Building an understanding of the landscape can shape a company's journey in many ways. Here are a few favorites from our portfolio, starting with product insights: 

• Spark the Idea: During a conversation with an operator, Coast cofounders Austin Pager and Spencer Levitt noticed API demos were mission critical but challenging to bring down to earth. They set out to build a better API sales tool, and now Coast works with many of the best API-first companies. 
• Key Product Insight: At Intramotev, founder Tim Luchini rode rail cars with locomotive engineers to understand that what they needed wasn’t a whole new railcar, but technology to retrofit existing ones. This insight allowed them to build a sustainable business model that meets industry needs while minimizing upfront costs.
• Discovering Form Factor: At Lotus, founder Dhaval Patel spent 9 months doing in depth user research with folks with limited mobility to understand how to increase their agency through smart home tech. In the middle of an interview, someone mentioned “a ring would be great.” Thus, the form factor for Lotus was discovered.

While these examples above focus on the original idea or form factor, further examples can be found that focus on the pricing and distribution: 

• Aligning Pricing Value:  At Statusphere, founder Kristen Wiley spent over a decade as both a marketing executive and an influencer herself. She gained key insights from her experience, enabling Statusphere to navigate the crowded landscape. By addressing the challenges of scaling micro-influencer campaigns and developing a unique pricing structure, she better aligned brands with influencers.
• Unique Distribution: When we met the Beacons.AI team, they had already captured a large share of the growing influencer market through their TikTok-first marketing approach. This strong distribution network enabled them to successfully expand their product offerings.

Beyond product and pricing, understanding the broader landscape—whether before or during company building—can shape a company’s long-term success in unexpected ways. Here are a few examples of founders who leveraged deep insights about their industries to navigate complex challenges and uncover new opportunities: 

• New Markets: At Textla, founder Luke Brickman, who led a sales team at Twilio, recognized that text message marketing was both challenging and costly for small businesses to adopt. Driven by a deep curiosity about how to democratize this space, Luke has led Textla to thrive.
• Understanding Complex Contexts: Shipping perishable goods is a highly complex problem, giving Coldcart a significant advantage thanks to cofounder Matt Salzberg, who spent over a decade tackling this issue as a cofounder of Blue Apron, and Jason Park, an operations wizard who launched Allstate's Consumer Identity product.
• Application Expansion: At Coastal Carbon, founders Kelly Zheng and Thomas Storwick discovered that seaweed harvesters faced significant challenges in predicting their harvests. While building an AI model to solve this problem, they realized their technology could be applied across many industries.

The best technical storytellers see the invisible—deriving unique, intangible patterns from lived experience and decoding the landscape to bring those insights to life in ways that drive meaningful innovation.

We also focus on the landscape piece because a founder’s deep understanding of the landscape reveals genuine passion, especially in niche fields like rail electrification. This insight helps us assess their dedication and long-term goals. The strongest founders treat their business as a generational endeavor, committed to addressing their industry’s challenges over the course of their careers.

Born or Made? 

The question often arises: Are technical storytellers born or made? 

While storytelling may come naturally to some, it’s also a skill that can be honed through experience, mentorship, and a commitment to understanding the world. Some founders may consider their journeys ordinary, but it’s their relentless pursuit of the extraordinary that truly makes them stand out. In the end, great storytelling isn’t just about the adventure—it’s about the ability to convey that journey in a way that inspires and captivates others.

For founders looking to improve their storytelling to attract customers, inspire teams, or build a movement, we’ll be sharing additional pieces soon on how to develop these crucial skills.

Conclusion

At Behind Genius, we believe that a dynamic leader, one who embodies the technical storyteller archetype, is crucial in today’s fast-paced world. It’s not just about building a great product or leading a capable team; it’s about understanding how all the layers fit together and guiding the company toward success in a constantly evolving landscape.

This combination of technical depth and visionary leadership is what we look for — and what sets the best founders apart. If you’re a founder who’s ready to combine technical expertise with visionary leadership, we want to hear your story. It’s time to see the invisible and bring your vision to life.

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