Stories under scrutiny: How entrepreneurs and investors negotiate entrepreneurial narratives in interactional exchanges during investment pitches

Entrepreneurial pitching is normally framed as a unidirectional scripted performance, with entrepreneurs presenting pre-crafted narratives for investor evaluation. We reframe pitching as an interactional process in which stories are scrutinised, challenged, and negotiated through investor-entrepreneur exchanges. We apply sequential analysis to video recordings of the question-and-answer sessions of 14 investment pitches in the UK. Our analysis identifies four recurrent interactional patterns: Unencumbered Storytelling, Resisting Presuppositions, Giving Ground, and Pushing Back. We also show how collective investor dynamics can further shape the trajectory of the pitch story. These findings demonstrate that investors are not passive evaluators but active participants whose individual interventions and collective questioning trajectories enable and constrain entrepreneurial storytelling. By foregrounding the interactional dynamics of pitching, we shift understanding of entrepreneurial storytelling, viewing it as a negotiated process rather than a scripted performance, and highlighting how the persuasiveness of entrepreneurial narratives depends on their capacity to accommodate investor challenges while preserving the integrity of the story.