

Master Session: The Art of Storytelling with Donna Griffit
Members Only — Required for Demo Day
About the Event
Storytelling isn't just for books, it's one of the most powerful tools you have as a founder.
In this session, we'll explore how to craft a compelling narrative that connects with customers, investors, and partners, and most importantly, moves them to action. You'll learn how to turn your data, traction, and vision into a story that's clear, memorable, and persuasive.
This workshop will be led by Donna Griffit, Corporate Storyteller, pitch coach, and best-selling author, who has worked with 1,000+ startups, Fortune 500 companies, and VCs across 30+ countries. Through her guidance, founders have raised over $2B in funding.
Donna is known for helping founders transform complex ideas into powerful stories that resonate, focusing not on showing how good you are, but on how your story makes others feel, think, and act.
Expect a highly interactive session where you'll start shaping your own narrative and sharpening your pitch from the inside out.
This session is mandatory for all members preparing for Demo Day, come ready to work on your own story.
Meet the Coach
Donna Griffit Corporate Storyteller & Pitch Alchemist
Donna Griffit is a corporate storyteller and pitch alchemist who's spent 20+ years working with 1,000+ startups, Fortune 500 companies, and venture capitalists across 30+ industries and 30+ countries. She's consulted and trained clients on how to create, edit, and deliver verbal and written presentations, pitches, and messages that land and through her guidance, clients have raised over $2 billion in funding.
She's the author of the bestselling book Sticking to My Story: The Alchemy of Storytelling for Startups, which has hit #1 in six categories including Venture Capital and Business Communication. Donna is also a Communication Coach at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, where she works with MBA and MSx students on executive presence, storytelling, and pitching, and coaches the school's LOWKeynotes program Stanford GSB's answer to a TED Talk, exclusively for its students.
As CEO of Donna Griffit Corporate Storyteller, she helps founders build investor decks, executive summaries, demo day pitches, and more, and previously co-founded invisu.me, a platform helping founders and investors communicate through clear, visual one-pagers.
Her philosophy: it's not about showing how good you are it's about how great you can make others feel.
What You'll Walk Away With
A clearer, more compelling way to talk about your data, traction, and vision Tools to shape your pitch from the inside out, not just polish the surface Hands-on practice sharpening your own narrative in real time A stronger foundation heading into Demo Day
What Venture Dock Offers Founders
Beyond sessions like this one, Venture Dock is built to be a real part of how founders operate day to day:
Investor introductions
Curated programming: roundtables, fireside chats, and working sessions with operators who've built and scaled before
Peer network: direct access to other founders building alongside you, for the honest conversations you can't have with investors
Visibility with visiting delegations: opportunities to meet founders and ecosystem leaders coming through Silicon Valley from other markets
Ecosystem support: hiring, fundraising, and go-to-market help pulled from the community itself, not a generic playbook
Become Part of the Venture Dock Community
Venture Dock is a founder-first community and innovation hub connecting startups with investors, operators, mentors, and strategic partners.
If you've been looking for a high-signal founder community in Silicon Valley, we'd love to meet you.
If you've been coming to events and want deeper access, you can apply to join the community here: https://venturedock.fillout.com/t/gHcUcf7Tz8us