REACH Story Engine™
Your next opportunity starts with your story.
Discover the stories behind what you're building. Turn them into conversations that connect, influence, and create opportunities.
Create a Free account. Complete your intake. Unlock one full story for free.
Your story. Your audience. Your next opportunity.
Introducing REACH Story Intelligence™
Your story shouldn't be the same in every room.
The right story. For the right audience. Every time.
The story that earns an investor's confidence isn't necessarily the story that wins a customer's trust.
That's why we built REACH Story Intelligence™.
Powered by the TROJAN™ storytelling framework and guided by Nolan, your AI storytelling coach, REACH Story Intelligence helps uncover the most meaningful parts of your experiences and identify what matters most to the people you're trying to reach.
Whether you're pitching investors, winning customers, building partnerships, or stepping onto a stage, Nolan helps you discover which story to tell, why it matters, and how to make it land.
Discover What Matters
Find the stories hiding in your experiences.
Nolan uses the TROJAN™ framework to help uncover the defining moments, challenges, relationships, and insights that make your story meaningful.
Adapt to Your Audience
Different room. Different priorities.
Whether you're speaking to investors, customers, partners, or a conference audience, REACH Story Intelligence helps identify what deserves the spotlight.
One Intake. Multiple Opportunities.
Your experiences are already there. Put them to work.
Build on your existing story foundation, change your audience, and explore new ways to communicate without starting from scratch.
Illustrative demonstration
Same founder. Same company. Different audience.
Your experiences don't change when you walk into a different room.
What changes is which parts of those experiences matter most.
The founder's experience
A founder developed predictive maintenance technology after witnessing manufacturing companies lose business because of preventable equipment failures.
Select an audience to see how the story changes.
Illustrative example featuring a fictional founder. These are sample story directions written to show the idea, not live results from Nolan.
Ready to find the story that belongs in your next room?
Nolan
Your AI storytelling coach.
REACH Story Engine™
Meet Nolan.
Your AI storytelling coach.
Your story is already there. Let's discover it.
Nolan is your personal AI storytelling coach, built on John Kundly's REACH methodology and coaching philosophy.
Part strategist. Part storyteller. Part curious mind that refuses to settle for the obvious answer.
Nolan helps you uncover the experiences that shaped you, develop stories that connect, and prepare for the moments that matter.
Your experiences. Your voice. Your story.
What it is
A storytelling coach built for founders.
You can explain your technology in perfect detail. The harder part is making someone care in the first 30 seconds. The REACH Story Engine helps technically accomplished founders find the real stories behind their work, and use them where it counts: with investors, customers, partners and the people they want on their team.
It's built on John Kundly's REACH storytelling method and coaches the way a good human coach does. It asks better questions, works only with what's true, and adapts your story to the person in front of you.
- 01
Find it
Start with you. A private founder intake gathers the moments, choices and people behind what you're building.
- 02
Shape it
Work with Nolan, a coach that asks the follow-up question you didn't think to ask, and never invents a fact.
- 03
Use it
Adapt your story to the person across the table, then take it into the real conversation.
- 04
Learn from it
Capture what happened afterward so the next conversation lands even better.
Inside the Engine
Six tools. One story that travels.
Discover My Story
Guided questions surface the experiences that make your work make sense to other people.
Build My Pitch
Shape one true story into a 30-second intro, an investor pitch or a customer conversation.
Prepare for a Conversation
Walk into the meeting with an opening, a story worth telling, good questions and a clean close.
Practice with Nolan
Rehearse your pitch and get clear feedback on clarity, connection, structure and relevance.
My Story Library
Every story, draft and version you've built, private to you and ready when you need it.
Track My Progress
Log real conversations and see what your stories actually make happen.
Tools roll out in stages during the REACH Founder Lab pilot, starting with the founder intake and your Story Library.
The REACH Founder Lab™ · Signature founder-development program
Where technical excellence meets the power of story.
Your idea may be brilliant. Can you make someone else believe in it?
A founder-development experience that combines human-centered storytelling, practical coaching, AI-powered preparation, and real-world experimentation.
- Proprietary methodology
- The six-stage REACH Method and the TROJAN™ storytelling framework.
- Personal coaching
- Human-centered coaching from John Kundly, P.E., TEDx speaker and author.
- AI-powered preparation
- The REACH Story Engine™ helps founders discover and develop their story.
- Real-world feedback
- Stories are tested in real conversations and refined through the REACH Field Report™.
You've spent months, maybe years, building something extraordinary.
You know the technology. You understand the problem. You've studied the market, challenged the assumptions, and put in the work.
Then comes the moment that matters.
An investor asks what makes your company different. A potential customer wants to know why they should care. A strategic partner gives you 30 seconds to explain what you're building.
And suddenly, all that technical brilliance has to become a story someone can understand, remember, and act on.
That's where The REACH Founder Lab™ begins.
We're not here to turn founders into professional speakers.
We're here to help them become more effective communicators, more compelling leaders, and better advocates for the ideas they're bringing into the world.
The Big Question
What happens when technically exceptional founders become exceptional storytellers?
We believe there's an important difference between having a great idea and creating the conditions for that idea to succeed.
Technical expertise builds the solution. Storytelling helps people understand its significance.
The REACH Founder Lab brings those two capabilities together through a structured, repeatable process designed to help founders discover what makes their story meaningful and communicate it in ways that create genuine human connection.
Because the goal isn't simply to deliver a better pitch.
It's to create better conversations that lead to better opportunities.
The REACH Method
Six steps. One continuous cycle of improvement.
This isn't a one-time exercise. It's a method for continuous development.
Powered by the REACH Story Engine™
AI-powered preparation. Human-centered communication.
The Founder Lab is the experience. The REACH Story Engine™ is the technology behind it. Built around the proprietary TROJAN™ Framework, it helps founders explore their experiences, identify meaningful narrative elements, and develop messages tailored to different audiences.
The Founder Lab: human-led
- The structured six-stage REACH Method
- Workshops and personal coaching with John
- Real conversations with investors, customers, and partners
- Reflection and refinement through the REACH Field Report™
The Story Engine: AI-supported
- Discover the personal experiences behind your founder journey.
- Connect your story to the problem your company solves.
- Build compelling founder introductions and elevator pitches.
- Develop investor, customer, and partnership narratives.
- Practice communicating your message.
- Reflect on conversations and identify opportunities to improve.
The AI doesn't invent your story. It helps you discover and communicate the one that's already yours.
Launch the REACH Story Engine™The TROJAN™ Storytelling Framework
Six lenses for discovering the human story behind the business.
Tension
What problem, conflict, or unmet need demanded your attention?
Relationship
Who was affected, and why did that matter?
Origin
Where did your journey begin?
Journey
What obstacles, decisions, and experiences shaped your path?
Awakening
What realization changed the way you saw the problem or opportunity?
Now
Why does this story matter today, and what should happen next?
TROJAN™ isn't a rigid script. It's a framework for finding the meaningful elements of your story and using them intentionally.
Who it's for
Built for founders who are building something that matters.
The REACH Founder Lab is particularly valuable for:
Technical Founders & Engineers
Translate complex innovations into clear, compelling stories without sacrificing technical credibility.
Early-Stage Entrepreneurs
Build a stronger founder narrative and communicate the purpose behind your venture.
Startup Teams Preparing to Pitch
Develop consistent messaging for investors, accelerators, competitions, and strategic opportunities.
Founders Entering New Markets
Adapt your story for different customers, partners, and decision-makers.
University Entrepreneurship Programs & Accelerators
Bring a structured storytelling-development experience into founder education and venture-building programs.
Beyond the Pitch
We're interested in what happens after the story is told.
A compelling presentation is valuable. But what matters more is whether that presentation opens the door to a meaningful conversation, a new relationship, or a tangible opportunity.
That's why the REACH Founder Lab encourages participants to test their stories in real situations and reflect on four important dimensions:
Engagement
Did the audience pay attention and participate?
Clarity
Did they understand the idea and its value?
Connection
Did the story create a meaningful human response?
Opportunity
Did the conversation produce a next step worth pursuing?
Through the REACH Field Report™, founders document their observations, identify patterns, and refine their approach.
The goal is to learn from real-world experience, not just from simulated practice.
Founder Development With a Human Touch
Technology can help you prepare. People help you grow.
Created by John Kundly, P.E., founder of Reach With John, the REACH Founder Lab draws on experience in executive leadership, engineering, business strategy, and storytelling.
John is a TEDx speaker, award-winning author of Within Reach, and former corporate executive who has spent his career working at the intersection of technical complexity, business performance, and human connection.
The Lab combines practical business understanding with the psychology of communication and the power of authentic storytelling.
Because founders don't just need to know what to say.
They need to understand why it matters to the person listening.
For Organizations
Bring the REACH Founder Lab™ to your organization.
A structured founder-development program with a proprietary methodology, personal coaching, AI-powered preparation, and a real-world feedback process, delivered for your founders.
- Universities
- Incubators
- Accelerators
- Corporate innovation teams
- Entrepreneurship organizations
Smart moves, not hard moves.
Start the conversation
John will follow up personally to talk through your founders and goals.
Your story. Your audience. Your next opportunity.
Already part of a Founder Lab cohort? Launch the REACH Story Engine™
Smart moves, not hard moves.