I’m back from Session 8 of the Create Growth programme at The Studio. The theme was Story Led Speaking, and the day ended up highlighting the massive tension that exists between being an authentic, passionate creator and the ruthless pragmatism required to scale a business.
It was a day of two very different halves: the intentionality of the story, and the cold reality of capital.
Wrestling with the Odds
The morning was led by Martin Barnes—known as the ‘wrestler of crocodiles’. I’ve met Martin before at a talk a year or so ago, so I knew we were in for an engaging session. Martin works with individuals and businesses to help them curate and share authentic, impactful stories. It’s not about spin; it’s about intentionality.
He introduced a fantastic analogy for pitching based on horse racing. To build a successful pitch, you need to understand the four components of the race:
- The Jockey: The founder and the team.
- The Horse: The product, solution, or technology.
- The Course: The market landscape.
- The Odds: The finance and the deal.
Then came the icebreaker: a 30-second improv pitch on one of these topics, randomly selected.
I’ll be honest, the whole room was hoping for ‘Jockey’ or ‘Horse’. That’s our comfort zone. It’s why we do what we do. When I volunteered, the wheel landed on Jockey, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, for some reason, the wheel was re-run.
And it landed on Odds. The finance. The thing I was dreading.
I wrestle a lot with the value appropriated to what I do. Ultimately, I enjoy the work—building interactive systems, teaching robots to paint—so it doesn’t often feel like “work” in a transactional sense. Assigning a raw monetary value to that, especially in a high-pressure improv pitch, feels ugly.
I spent those 30 seconds muddling through some rough statements, feeling like I was clutching at straws. I’m still in the processing of working out the hard financial value of Octopus Immersive for a formal pitch, and that improv session highlighted exactly where my biggest vulnerabilities are.
However, despite the anxiety, the feedback was incredibly useful. Breaking the pitch down into those four specific areas makes targeting different audiences much easier, and I got some great pointers on the order of delivery that I’ll be applying to my always-evolving pitch.
Ugly $$$
The afternoon session took a sharp turn into Paul King on VC funding processes.
I’ll be direct: I struggled with this.
I have a chip on my shoulder about capitalism. It’s there, and I know it. I have a hard time reconciling my creative values with a system that creates such disparity in welfare. The discussion about jumping through hoops to plead for money from someone rich, solely so they can make more money from your labour… it just doesn’t sit well with me.
There was also a glaring absence in the conversation. There was zero mention of cultural impact, social value, or ‘tech for good’. In the VC world presented to us, the only green that mattered was money.
Related to this, I recently read ‘Company of One’ by Paul Jarvis. This book looks into when not scaling might be the best option. It details the challenges of scaling and how the benefits can be achieved with better strategising and decision making. It reminds me of another good book ‘Small Giants’. Essentially, what is the business to you, does it need to be huge to achieve your goals? Going the usual raise & scale route doesnt always lead to more money, better life style or even positive cultural impact… there are other options.
Final Thoughts
This session forced me to confront the fundamental duality of this course.
On the one hand, I am learning to tell my story authentically with people like Martin. On the other hand, I am being taught how to navigate a financial ecosystem that I fundamentally find uncomfortable.
I left The Studio realizing that as I continue to grow Octopus Immersive, my real challenge won’t just be the tech or the pricing—it will be defining what “success” looks like for me, and deciding how much of that VC narrative I am willing to let shape my story.
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