This article is part of DBA, a series on Mashable about running a business that features insights from leaders in entrepreneurship, venture capital and management.

Pitching a startup to investors can be a harrowing experience — but things become even more complicated when presenting a hard-to-describe technology company. For startups pitching ideas that make a direct impact on consumers, value can be tangibly communicated. This whets potential investors' appetites because it's easy to picture the potential.

Sometimes, though, technology that lacks an immediate "wow" factor is just as valuable, viable and important as the next evolution in social media or clean energy. Truly revolutionary products are ones that have never existed before, but explaining them requires that you meet your audience (potential customers and investors) where they are; it's crucial to communicate the idea based upon their existing framework of knowledge, and to remember that not all decision makers are tech-savvy. They may love and believe in technology, but that doesn't mean they understand the nuts and bolts of it on a detailed level. What people do understand are stories.

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The trick for startups that can't easily be summed up in an elevator pitch to a broad audience is simpler than you might think: Don't pitch the company. For example, if you're going into a discussion with investors or potential clients about your company's approach to minimizing vulnerability on serverless frameworks, you might lose the audience. The material is too dense and the reach is too narrow.

Instead, pitch a problem — first by presenting an industry-related story, then an analogous story that doubles as a metaphor to what the company offers. Here's an example using a theoretical company addressing the problem of "bring your own everything" (BYOx) security. Let's assume this (fake) example company has a security product that limits communication ports on networks while monitoring and verifying endpoints. For this company, the goal is to communicate the problem and technology using an everyday, relatable situation, all broken down into the following eight steps.

1. Tell a story about your industry that's easy to understand

Potential pitch point: "Everyone has a smartphone, tablet and/or laptop these days. And all of these have to interface the corporate network. All of these also represent possible security breach points in the corporate network."

2. Establish your perspective as a subject matter expert that understands everyday problems

Potential pitch point: "Online safety is all about security. Can someone inherently trust that the data they're sending is secure? In the old paradigm, trust was built around a central authority. But with today's technology, a central authority represents a single point of failure. It puts you at risk.

The BYOx trend isn’t something that’s going to go away. In fact, it will grow as the workforce grows increasingly mobile — in August 2015, 37% of the United States workforce telecommuted. Telecommuters usually bring their own laptops and tablets, and that’s not even factoring in the amount of internal company-authorized mobile devices or devices used by partners and guests. You can't wait out this storm; you must proactively build your security around it."

3. Relate it to something in the listener's known universe

Potential pitch point: "Picture this: Your corporate network is a hub that directs device traffic, just like an airport. At airports, you have people arriving and leaving, ranging from the drop-off areas to the boarding terminals. From a security standpoint, you have checkpoints, scanners and security staff, but each person is walking their own path towards their own destination."

4. Give the listener space to think about how this will affect them and interact with the group

Potential pitch point: "Think about all of the possible variables airport security have to consider: foot traffic, people density, equipment functionality, staff fatigue and attention to detail. The airport is a hub, just like your corporate network, except instead of people coming and going, your network’s variables are connected devices sending data on your network."

Then have a short Q&A with the listener.

5. Find the place where they are hungry. What hurts in their world? What are they afraid of? What are they excited about? What makes them want more?

Potential pitch point: "So if you could theoretically do anything to secure your airport while keeping visitors happy and everything running on time, what would you do? Create clear and specific routes to expedite visitors to their destination? Install fast and easy identity verification and security checkpoints? Imagine being able to safely and efficiently get people to their destinations while maximizing security measures and minimizing resource needs."

6. Pull back to create desire and help your customer see themselves using your product

A simple way to do this is by asking questions to get the customer to reveal the needs they have and the outcomes that they desire.

Potential pitch point: "Your corporate network faces the same variables as airport security every day thanks to the rise of BYOx — and it will only intensify as months pass. What price would you put on securing that? And what is the price if your security fails?"

7. Get your audience to name the next action

This is a technique to help minimize the time you will spend chasing leads. It will also give you a reality check on where you are in the sales process.

Potential pitch point: "So, what's the next step here?"

8. Establish who the decision makers are

Potential pitch point: "We have the means to efficiently optimize network security in a BYOx environment, preparing your network for the future of business. Who else do we need to get involved to move this project forward?"

This pitch example presents a problem, uses a real-world analogy to ground the technical background in relatable means, and positions the startup as the company to lead the way to a solution — all without getting into any technical details about things like network ports and endpoint analysis.

This model works for almost any pitch situation, but it's particularly effective when you need to convey a complex issue or highly technical product/service. By presenting a relatable situation as an analog to your solution, it allows investors or prospects to see the potential without having to get into a technical discussion (which usually happens after the initial hook anyway). Instead, the focus is on delivering a clear understanding of value — and it all begins by telling a story.