Strengthen your founders' pitch. Strengthen your program's outcomes.
Your founders are doing meaningful work. But the way they talk about it is costing you — at demo days, in grant reports, in alumni features, and in the applications that get your portfolio noticed. Let’s fix that.
What StoryLab is
StoryLab is a virtual cohort we run privately for your founders. Over 4 weeks, 8–10 of them sharpen the way they talk about their work and walk away with a 5-minute founder story they can use anywhere – in applications, outreach, pitches, content, and beyond.
You bring the founders. We bring the facilitation, coaching, and the program. Your founders leave with clarity. Your program leaves with content. Every participant walks away with:
💬 A 5-minute founder story in their own voice
Versatile, durable, and adaptable to grant applications, About pages, pitch openers, podcast intros, partnership emails, and any moment where they need to explain what they're building.
The challenge we see across founder ecosystems
Most accelerators, incubators, and ESOs do strong work supporting their entrepreneurs. But when it comes time for founders to communicate what they’re building, the gap shows up — and your program inherits it:
👉🏾 demo days that don't convert
👉🏾 grantees who undersell their work in reports
👉🏾 alumni who are hard to feature
👉🏾 portfolios that don't tell a clear story to funders
👉🏾 founders unsure how to talk about what they do
We exist to fix one layer of this: pitch and story clarity. When your founders can articulate what they’re building, everything else gets easier — for them, and for you.
See What Founders Create Through Our Work
These are pitches that created by founders who went through Jelly Social’s facilitated experience. Each one started with a founder who needed a clearer way to convey their work. Together, we helped them clarify their pitch and turn it into a short video they can use in applications, meetings, outreach, and showcases. What you’re seeing here isn’t just video production. It’s founders learning to communicate their work in a way people understand.
Who We Work With
Our clients include:
🔸 Startup and small business accelerators
🔸 Social impact / creative incubators
🔸 University innovation and entrepreneurship centers
🔸 Foundations and funders with entrepreneur / grantee cohorts
🔸 Economic Development Agencies
🔸 Ecosystem support organizations (ESOs)
What Your Program Gets
✅ Concrete deliverables at scale
8–10 founders × 1 polished 5-minute story + showcase recording each = real outcomes you can report on.
✅ Visibility beyond your walls
Share-ready content to attract new applicants, partners, and funders
✅ Low lift for your team
We run facilitation, coaching, and the final celebration
How StoryLab Works
Week 1 — understanding
We'll learn about basic storytelling theory and try an exercise to apply it to a real story.
Week 2 — develop
Together, we shape your basic story arc —what to include, what to leave out —so you can leave with a rough draft of your story.
Week 3 — create a story
We turn your rough draft into a polished version that can be spoken aloud in 5 minutes.
* practice week
A week to live with your story. Read it out loud. Time yourself. Adjust the parts that feel stiff so it sounds natural when you eventually share it.
Week 4 — showcase + Celebration
The cohort comes together one last time. Each founder shares their 5-minute story live. We record the session on Zoom and send you your clip. That's the moment you can point to when someone asks how you got clear about your work.
How Partners Use StoryLab
As a demo day or showcase
Replace or complement your existing pitch night with stories that actually land
As a mid-program reset
Re-energize founders between intensive blocks
As an alumni offer
Capture where founders are now and highlight long-term impact
As a cohort kickoff
Get founders articulating their work clearly before they start applying for things
As a stand-alone offering
For fellowship recipients, grantees, or members who'd benefit from clarity work
We’ll work with you to tailor StoryLab to your context, your founders’ stage, and your reporting needs.
Pricing & Next Steps
Our pricing scales with your cohort size, level of customization, and how many cohorts you run per year. Because every partner’s context is different, we share a tailored proposal after a short call rather than posting a generic rate card.
💬 Learn about your founders and goals
🗓️ Session timing to fit your calendar
🎥 Walk through what founders can expect
🎉 Share pricing options and a clear proposal
FAQs
Q: How many founders per cohort?
A: 8–10 is the sweet spot for intimacy + throughput.
Q: What does each founder walk away with?
A: A polished 5-minute founder story written in their own voice, the Zoom recording of their live showcase reading, and ongoing access to our AI story coach so they can keep adapting their story over time.
Q: Is the showcase recording high-production-value?
A: It's a recorded Zoom session — clean, clear, and usable. It's not a produced video, but it's authentic and longer-form than a typical pitch reel, which makes it more usable as testimonial and program content. If you need produced video assets for higher-stakes marketing use, we can scope a separate production add-on — ask about it on the call.
Q: Is StoryLab only for BIPOC and women founders?
A: StoryLab is designed with BIPOC and women founders at the center. Many partners prioritize these founders in their cohort selection. We're happy to discuss what makes sense for your context.
Q: Do you work with nonprofit leaders and project-based founders, not just startups?
A: Yes. We regularly work with nonprofit leaders, creative entrepreneurs, and project builders whose work doesn't fit neatly into a "startup" box.
Q: What if our founders are at very different stages?
A: That's normal. StoryLab focuses on clarity and resonance, not stage-specific tactics. Idea-stage and established founders both benefit — the framework adapts to where they are.
Q: Can we reuse the founder stories and recordings in our own marketing?
A: Yes. You'll receive recordings and (with each founder's consent) the written stories themselves, which you can use on your site, social channels, at events, and in reports. We'll walk through consent and credit on our discovery call.
Q: Can the cohort be co-branded with our organization?
A: Yes. We co-brand cohort materials, the Zoom environment, and showcase recordings with your logo and program identity.
Q: How much time does our team need to put in?
A: Minimal. Your team handles founder selection and introductions. We handle scheduling, facilitation, coaching, the showcase, and delivery. Most partners spend under 4 hours total across the 5 weeks.
