Turning Pitches into Stories: A Founder Workshop at Emory's Hatchery
Neha Negandhi led a private founder storytelling workshop at The Hatchery, Emory University's startup incubator — helping founders trade forgettable pitches for stories that land, using the Hook·Heart·Home method.
On Monday, June 8, Neha Negandhi led a private Founder Storytelling Workshop at The Hatchery, Emory University's startup incubator in Atlanta. The room was full of founders with strong ideas and a familiar problem: most founders don't have a product problem — they have a pitch problem. The premise: your product is great, is your pitch? Investors, customers, and recruits don't remember specs — they remember stories. The workshop focused on helping each founder find the human thread underneath their venture: why it exists, why it matters, and why they're the one to build it. Hook · Heart · Home Neha walked founders through her three-part framework for a pitch that actually lands: Hook — earn attention in the first fifteen seconds. Heart — make the audience feel the problem, not just understand it. Home — land the ask with clarity and conviction. Founders didn't just learn the method — they worked it live, shaping their own stories and getting real-time feedback in the room. Why it matters A great company with a forgettable pitch loses to a good company with a great one. Storytelling isn't decoration on top of the business — for a founder, it is the business development. An hour spent sharpening the story pays off in every room a founder walks into next. Bring this to your team or program Neha delivers founder and executive storytelling workshops for accelerators, teams, and leadership programs. Speaking & workshops: storytellertables.com/speaking The method: Hook · Heart · Home