Elevate’s Workshop Series is officially back, and we opened 2026 with a powerful reminder. Before you scale a business, you have to tell a story worth hearing.

At Elevate Ventures, our workshops are designed to cut through the noise and deliver practical, founder-first insight that can be applied immediately. This marked our seventh workshop in the series and set the tone for the year ahead: clarity, courage, and community.

Session Overview

The Art of Resonance with Mariah Ivey

Photo by G. Marie Photography

We began the day with something unexpected and unforgettable. Mariah Ivey opened the workshop with an original poem and a framework that grounded storytelling in humanity before strategy.

Mariah challenged the room to think about storytelling as more than performance. She framed it as a practice rooted in urgency, relevance, substance, and impact. Why does this story matter right now? Who does it serve? What changes if it exists? Those questions became the foundation for the rest of the day.

Using her poem about libraries as an example, she demonstrated how creative work can reflect cultural moments while still carrying personal conviction. She walked through the pillars that guide her writing process and showed how each one applies beyond poetry. Substance requires depth beneath the surface. Personal connection fuels authenticity. Creative rigor sharpens the craft. Impact determines whether the work should be shared at all.

Her message was clear. Storytelling is intentional. It requires clarity about who you are, what you stand for, and why your voice matters. In a room full of founders building companies, the connection was immediate. Before you sell a product, you must first understand the story you are telling and the change you are trying to create.

How To Tell & Sell Your Story with Innovatemap

Photo by G. Marie Photography

After grounding the room in the human side of storytelling, Innovatemap brought the focus to execution. The transition was deliberate. If the morning began with why stories matter, this session focused on how to structure one that drives results.

Innovatemap positioned storytelling as a strategic discipline. A company’s narrative is not a branding exercise layered on top of the business. It is a foundational tool that shapes positioning, go to market execution, fundraising conversations, and customer acquisition.

The session emphasized starting with clarity of audience. Founders were encouraged to define exactly who they are speaking to and what decision that person is trying to make. A story that attempts to speak to everyone rarely resonates with anyone. Specificity creates traction.

From there, the focus shifted to problem definition. Rather than leading with features or product capabilities, founders were challenged to articulate the real friction in the market. What is the current reality? Who feels the pain? What happens if nothing changes? By clearly contrasting today’s constraints with a better future state, founders create urgency and make their solution necessary.

Innovatemap also underscored the importance of validation. A strong narrative pairs vision with proof. Market signals, customer traction, and measurable outcomes reinforce credibility and reduce perceived risk. Story builds interest. Evidence builds confidence.

The session concluded with an emphasis on structure and clarity. Whether speaking to investors or customers, founders benefit from a repeatable framework that aligns problem, solution, differentiation, and next steps. In venture, clarity compounds. The companies that communicate their value most precisely are often the ones that accelerate momentum.

Live Founder Pitches and Real Time Feedback

The final session of the day brought everything together in real time. Three founders stepped to the front of the room to deliver five minute pitches, followed by candid feedback from the Elevate Ventures and Innovatemap teams. It was a practical demonstration of the very storytelling principles discussed throughout the workshop.

Photo by G. Marie Photography

First up was Duett, a platform addressing the fragmented referral process in home and community based care. The pitch opened with a compelling demographic trend and highlighted the inefficiencies of manual coordination across aging networks. Duett positioned itself as the infrastructure layer connecting case managers and providers in real time. Feedback centered on sharpening the emotional throughline of the problem, clarifying the buyer, and leaning further into traction metrics to reinforce credibility.

Photo by G. Marie Photography

Next, Jua Technologies presented a solution aimed at reducing post harvest loss and expanding energy access through portable solar dehydration and power systems. The company shared early sales traction across multiple countries and outlined a vision for distributed energy infrastructure. The feedback encouraged tighter slide structure, clearer articulation of the primary customer, and a stronger human level framing of the farmer whose livelihood changes because of the technology.

Photo by G. Marie Photography

The final pitch came from Lemhi, an AI services control plane built for managed service providers navigating a major technological shift. The founder framed disruption in the MSP landscape and outlined early commercial commitments just weeks after launch. Feedback focused on clarifying what was live versus visionary, simplifying the narrative arc, and elevating early traction earlier in the story to anchor credibility.

Across all three pitches, common themes emerged. Anchor the problem in human terms. Make the buyer unmistakably clear. Quantify urgency. Separate vision from proof. Close with conviction.

The session was a reminder that storytelling is not theoretical. It is tested in front of customers, investors, and partners every day. Live feedback delivered in community remains one of the fastest ways to sharpen both narrative and execution.

Storytelling was the throughline of the day. From poetry to positioning to live investor style feedback, the workshop reinforced a consistent truth. Companies scale when their stories are clear, credible, and compelling.