How to tell a business origin story to build your brand

Entrepreneurs can use storytelling as a growth strategy by following these simple strategies.

I keep getting questions about origin stories, so I’m going to look at 3 popular origin stories. Let’s see what makes each one effective and what the pitfalls might be — that is, what parts of your story might lead your audience to respond in unexpected ways that weaken your credibility.

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I’m using two stories from product-oriented companies and one from a service. I don’t usually talk about larger companies, but these aren’t Fortune 500 and the stories illustrate important points about origin stories.

Let’s start with Warby Parker.

They have shops around the US to make prescription eyeglasses at greatly reduced prices They began with a uniform pricing strategy and chose a price that was low enough to separate themselves from mainstream opticians yet with. enough cushion for marketing and not so low as to damage credibility.

Their origin story is: One of the founders broke his glasses just before attending graduate school. Glasses were so expensive that he couldn’t afford…