The Summer Series - Episode 7: Pitching for Investment: The Story-First Method with Sarah-Jane Kurtini
Media MagnetShow Notes
🎙️ Episode Overview
If you’ve ever struggled to explain what you do without over-explaining, underselling yourself, or slipping into jargon, this episode will completely change how you think about pitching.
In this conversation, Liz Nable is joined by startup founder and pitch expert Sarah-Jane Kurtini, co-founder of Tinybeans — the much-loved Australian family photo-sharing app she helped grow from two people to IPO before exiting in 2020.
Sarah-Jane now helps early-stage and scaling founders nail their narrative and pitch for investment using a story-first approach, including through her cleverly named tool, Pitch Slap, which “roasts” and rewrites your startup story so it actually lands.
Together, Liz and SJ unpack the surprising overlap between pitching to investors and pitching yourself to the media — from speaking in human language, to understanding your audience, to confidently owning your experience without minimising it.
Whether you’re a tech startup founder, a bricks-and-mortar business owner thinking about franchising, or a side-hustler who wants to communicate your value more powerfully, this episode will help you clarify your story and pitch with confidence.
👀 In This Episode, Liz & Sarah-Jane Cover:
✅ Why pitching is always about humans, not just money ✅ The crossover between investor pitching and media pitching ✅ How to structure a pitch using story before slides ✅ Common pitching mistakes founders (especially women) make ✅ Founder storytelling and why credibility matters ✅ How investors think about risk, traction, and team ✅ Why minimising language hurts your pitch ✅ How to handle feedback without taking it personally
⏱️ Episode Timestamps
00:00 – Welcome & why pitching stories matter 02:00 – Sarah-Jane’s journey from founder to IPO & exit 05:00 – Why pitching is storytelling, not selling 07:30 – Investor stages explained (pre-seed to Series A) 11:00 – Risk, equity, and what investors actually look for 13:30 – Choosing the right investor for your lifestyle 16:30 – Women, confidence, and pitching bias 18:00 – Why founder stories build trust 21:30 – Pitching vs dating: why less is more 26:00 – Minimising language and credibility gaps 29:45 – Grit, failure, and resilience in pitching 35:00 – The biggest pitch mistakes founders make 38:00 – Sharing failure without losing authority 42:30 – How to learn pitching faster 44:00 – What Pitch Slap is and how it works
🚀 Next Steps & Resources
🎧 Subscribe to the podcast for more conversations on media, visibility, and authority-building.
🧠 Try Pitch Slap — Sarah-Jane Kurtini’s free AI tool designed to give honest feedback on your pitch story before you build slides.
📣 Share this episode with a founder or business owner who
More from Media Magnet
Enough of the box-tickers. My guest today says most small business owners have, at some point, buried their head in the sand about their numbers, come to her flying completely blind, and finally hit the point where enough is enough.
"I think we've attached a lot of success to raising capital." When a business raises $25 million and gets a $100 million valuation, we treat it like a win. My guest today says that's not actually a marker of success at all, and understanding the difference could change how you think about your own business.
Most people who sell a business they've poured five years of blood, sweat and no salary into would take the win and put their feet up for a while. My guest today looked at her payout and thought, "Great, let's do it all again, but harder, faster, and with a lot more on the line this time."
There are 2.2 million self-employed Australians. Nearly half of small business owners aren't contributing to their own super. And most of them are telling themselves the same thing: my business is my retirement plan.
They beat out 14 other applicants for the lease. They opened with 5,000 local social media followers already waiting for them. They had a line out the door on winter mornings. Their biggest day was 444 coffees in a little suburban cafe with just two people behind the counter.