STORYTELLING IN EARLY-STAGE STARTUP FUNDING ACQUISITION : Case: GOOROO Education
Phat Tram, Gia (2015)
Phat Tram, Gia
Lahden ammattikorkeakoulu
2015
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2015060111797
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2015060111797
Tiivistelmä
Storytelling is a human activity that could be traced back to time immemorial. It was discovered to be a human adaptation that played an important role in the survival of human beings, and that our predilection for and dependence on stories for eons have come to reshape our mind, making us process information delivered via story structure more rapidly, flexibly and precisely. In addition, the past decades have witnessed numerous neurological findings that elucidate the effects that telling and listening to stories can exert on our brain. Such understanding of storytelling can be deliberately taken advantage of to improve human activities, including business in general and entrepreneurship in particular. As observed during the thesis process, storytelling in business is a nascent yet budding topic not only among businessmen, but also among intrigued scholars and researchers. This thesis narrowed down the broad topic of entrepreneurship to as specific as early-stage startup funding acquisition, and in turn set out in search of an answer for this question: How can early-stage startups attract funding with support from the use of storytelling?
There are three main parts that constitute the thesis body. The first part studied extant literature to explore the notion and definition of storytelling, its functions and effects, startup investment landscape, and how storytelling can be of use in helping early-stage startups acquire external funding. The second part applied the findings drawn from the literature to support the case business venture Gooroo Education in acquiring financial capital. Finally, the empirical research was conducted to shed light on business angels’ perspective towards the topic at hand and empirically examine certain effects of storytelling. The finding in respect to angel investors’ perspective is indicative of the potential of storytelling, and the result of examining storytelling effects is remarkably corroborative.
This thesis adopts both inductive and deductive approaches, in favour of the latter. The mix-method of both quantitative and qualitative is the research method of choice. With regards to data collection, primary data was garnered from in-depth interviews with the case startup founders and business angels. Secondary data was acquired from publications like books, journals, articles, and electronic sources.
There are three main parts that constitute the thesis body. The first part studied extant literature to explore the notion and definition of storytelling, its functions and effects, startup investment landscape, and how storytelling can be of use in helping early-stage startups acquire external funding. The second part applied the findings drawn from the literature to support the case business venture Gooroo Education in acquiring financial capital. Finally, the empirical research was conducted to shed light on business angels’ perspective towards the topic at hand and empirically examine certain effects of storytelling. The finding in respect to angel investors’ perspective is indicative of the potential of storytelling, and the result of examining storytelling effects is remarkably corroborative.
This thesis adopts both inductive and deductive approaches, in favour of the latter. The mix-method of both quantitative and qualitative is the research method of choice. With regards to data collection, primary data was garnered from in-depth interviews with the case startup founders and business angels. Secondary data was acquired from publications like books, journals, articles, and electronic sources.