SaaStr Annual 2024: The Power of Story: Building a Business People Believe In with Runway

When we think about “storytelling”, we think of it as something we do just for marketing, or for investors.
Something that sits apart from engineering, product, design. But stories are far more powerful than something
we just do on the side - stories can and should be the central operating pillar of a company. In this session SiqiChen, the founder and CEO of Runway, shares how the principles of storytelling has transformed the product, marketing, and culture at Runway, and how you can harness the power of narrative to transform your own team.

1. The Power of Story: Building a Business People Believe In Siqi Chen CEO & Founder Runway

2. Hi, I'm Siqi. I was Head of Product at Zynga, VP Product at Postmates, CEO of Sandbox VR. Now, I’m running Runway.com. Our mission is to make finance accessible and understandable to everyone — from department heads to the CEO.

3. We launched Runway in July …

4. … and ended up with 10% of Apple’s iOS 18 launch impressions For a finance product!

5. Here’s how we did it.

6. It all started with a story …

7. I’ve always loved a good story. Stories help you sell, hire, fundraise, and keep your team motivated.

8. Then I met Wolfgang. Wolfgang was executive producer of House of Cards and Hunger Games, and head of studio at Miramax and Lionsgate.

9. He taught me that stories are more powerful than I realized. A good story isn’t something you do on the side, along with marketing, recruitment, product, or sales. Stories are at the core of everything you do.

10. Your story isn’t just a story. It's not just a marketing message or a brand tagline. It’s your purpose, your values, how you hire, what you prioritize, how you operate. It’s the difference between coherence and chaos. One of Enron's values was "Integrity" – you don't want that.

11. Stories are the central operating pillar of a company. A company narrative should be a series of concentric circles: it starts with the CEO, spreads to the executive team, then the wider team, then customers, and finally the world. They all need to hear the same story. The World Customers Wider Team Leadership CEO

12. Stories define humanity. Tribes Civilizations Culture The invention of language allowed us to to tell stories within earshot, creating tribes. The invention of writing allowed us to tell stories outside of earshot, creating civilizations . Stories carry values and intent beyond tribes and nations, beyond time – creating culture .

13. What happens when you find your story? You get to say something only you can say. You attract customers, investors, and teammates who believe in not just what you do, but why you do it. You move faster because everyone’s rowing in the same direction, for the same reason.

14. How to find the right story Choose the right conflict Be honest about your villain Find the thing that only you can say 1 2 3

15. The Three Layers of Story Content This is the unfolding action, the events of the plot. Emotion These are the feelings that the characters, and the audience through the characters, feel. Worldview The richest, most impactful stories have a depth that we can feel but are difficult to name: a conflict between worldviews.

16. A story of a startup is a story of a conflict between two worldviews : A Global Dominant Worldview A Global Underdog Worldview

17. The Global Dominant Worldview This is the default belief of the world. It's imminently reasonable, and powerfully seductive. In almost every story, this is the worldview of the antagonist - the villain of the story.

18. The Global Underdog Worldview This worldview sees the subtle, seductive lies of the dominant worldview for what they are, and believes a better world is possible. In almost every story, this is the worldview of the protagonist - the hero of the story.

19. Stories plays out the conflict between worldviews from the eyes of a single character.

20. This is deceptively difficult to get right.

21. An example from Runway

22. Runway's Old Global Dominant Worldview Finance is complicated, not everybody needs to understand it. It's okay for non-finance folks to be little cogs in the machine. We already have great software for finance professionals so everyone else can stay heads down focused on their own work.

23. Runway's Old Global Underdog Worldview Finance is important, and everyone should understand it, even non-finance folks so they can move faster and make better decisions. The reason why people don't understand finance and what finance people do is because the software isn't good enough.

24. Not bad?

25. We created a strawman without even knowing it. Who's saying "be a cog in machine?" Nobody. On the contrary - everybody is saying "be collaborative, be strategic". Whether that's "Connected Planning" or "Strategic Finance".

26. We ended up with the same message as everybody else. And adding "but we do it for realsies" is not a winning message.

27. You need an honest and generous portrayal of the Global Dominant Worldview to make your story stick. The greatest villains have the most sympathetic, believable motivations. From Walter White to Thanos. Believable villains create believable heroes, which makes your story believable.

28. Getting this right is deceptively difficult, but it changes everything. When you have it, you're not just making up a new story. You have it when you've found the words to tell the truth that you already know, that only you can tell.

29. Runway's New Global Dominant Worldview Finance has never been under more pressure to be more strategic, and more collaborative. Thankfully, we have great software built for finance teams to save them time, give them more control, make things automated, so they can finally be freed up to do the real strategic work.

30. Runway's New Global Underdog Worldview Finance has never been under more pressure to be more strategic, and more collaborative. But software built just for finance — to save time, and give more control — is table stakes. Collaboration requires context, but sharing all the context in the world doesn't matter if people don't understand what they're looking at. Creating understanding is at the heart of why we do what we do at Runway.

31. Finding the right story changes everything.

32. It’s changed who we are. It’s changed our values — one of ours is “Create Clarity.” It’s a commitment to making things accessible and understandable, and flows naturally from our story. It’s changed how we hire — we look for people who can create clarity, and are great storytellers. We don’t just look for skills; we look at a deeper cultural fit.

33. It’s changed how we operate. It’s changed our messaging — our story is the lens through which we look at everything. Whether it’s a blog post or a launch video, all our communication aligns with our story of creating understanding. It’s changed how we sell — our pitch focuses on clarity and understanding, because saving time is just table stakes. This attracts customers who care about clarity, and true strategic impact. It’s changed how we build our product — if a feature doesn’t help create clarity, it’s table stakes, not a differentiator. Knowing our story also means knowing what to build, and what not to build. It guides us to build a product that’s truly differentiated.

34. It’s changed where we’re going. It defines our mission — everyone at Runway knows why we exist. We’re telling a story only we can tell. It shapes our strategy — we’re building a tool for thought, to create understanding. Every strategic decision, every roadmap item goes through this filter. We’re always asking ourselves: “Will this help people understand finance better?”

35. When you know you’ve found the right story: You immediately start using it everywhere. You feel like you’ve always known it. Your customers feel deeply understood. 1 2 3

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