It has been 2 weeks since we emailed the participants about the start of the project. And what a rocky 2 weeks those were!
The goal of the StoryLab is to curate the next generation of entrepreneurs. Therefore, it is not only about the projects but first and for most – about the people behind them. For this reason, in the first week of operating as a project, we focused on getting our cohort started. Our project assistant, Maja, prepared a crash course on Asana and Slack to introduce those as the main tools for this project as they are the industry standard. At this stage, the participants created their project in Asana, joined Slack channels and recorder elevator pitches.
In the second stage of the project, week 2, we dedicated two days to workshops. Innitially, they were supposed to be held in-person in the Innovation Lab of School of Journalism, Media and Culture. However, life happened. Both the project lead – David Dunkley Gyimah – and one of the guest speakers – ex head of BBC, Robin Moore – got tested positive for COVID-19. Therefore, Robin’s masterclass got postponed until next week and the workshops were moved to online and were held on Zoom from 10am to 4pm with a lunch break from 1 to 2pm.
On Wednesday, we focused on storytelling. First, we familiarized the participants with the details unexplainable via text. Then, the participants introduced everyone to their projects and welcomed initial questions which arose during their short presentations. This was crucial to further work as StoryLab operates on the basis of a mastermind in which everyone helps everyone. This way, we can generate more ideas, provide multiple perspectives and avoid stagnation. In the next stage before lunch, the participant found out a little bit more about themselves.
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” ~ Archilochus
According to Isaiah Berlin’s 1953 essay inspired by this quote, there are two types of thinkers: foxes “pursuing many ends (…) related to no moral or aesthetic principle” (Berlin 1953) and hedgehogs who “relate everything to a single central vision”. Our participants found out which one dominates in themselves and, through completing pattern-related activities, observed how their inner fox/hedgehog impacts their thinking.
After lunch and some tools-related housekeeping, we discussed, based on some great examples of amazing storytellers, why being able to sell the story behind the idea is a key part of the process of startup creation. Each of the young entrepreneurs created a short journal entry from the future – from year 2025. This way we concluded the day.
On Thursday, we moved onto more detailed strategy of incorporating storytelling through 3Ps – Project (forecasting principle), Persona, People. We talked about how to attach the story to something that people care about – as it was done when cigarette retailer called their product ‘torches of female freedom’ to market it to the new groups of potential buyers- feminists. Moreover, we underlined that storytelling helps to think into the future and plan long-term goals. After this talk, we reviewed their journal entries – which can be found here (LINK).
“Your ADHD, your way of thinking is your superpower” – Mayo Twala
This exercise was followed by the guest appearance of Mayo Twala – founder of mystock.exchange – an award-winning, subscription-based, game-like platform which teaches its users to invest in the stock market. She shared her story and motivated our participants to be ready to deliver their elevator pitches at any given time and to not be afraid of failure or direct contact with potential mentors.
Then we continued with mind-mapping activity using Coggle.it . The aim was to create a community of potential influential groups of contacts and audiences – to which our participants can reach out. Each participant had their 15min for the exercise and to use the help of everyone on the call.
Later on, we introduced them to the metaverse and laid the foundation for activities during week 3.