Katie Taylor: Building Startups with Story

Katie Trauth Taylor took the road less traveled when it came to her college education. When we picture a founder, we often think of someone with a business degree, maybe in marketing or finance, or, in more recent years, someone who studied entrepreneurship in a formal program. But Katie chose something arguably even more valuable: she studied the arts.

Katie earned her Bachelor of Arts in English from Thomas More University. She then went on to the University of Cincinnati for her Master’s in English and Comparative Literature. After eight years of late nights and relentless dedication, she earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Purdue University.

Sure, the arts may not be the most conventional path to entrepreneurship, but plenty of successful companies have been started by those who chose that path. Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Slack, studied philosophy, spending late hours in the library reading about Kant and Socrates. Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, spent his college nights unpacking the layers of Freud’s theories of consciousness. Innovation isnt unique to spreadsheets and strategy. It comes from curiosity, critical thinking, and the ability to tell a compelling story.

For Katie, storytelling is as much a business tool as it is personal. As a fourth-generation Appalachian, she has never separated her roots from her work. She even wove her heritage directly into her academic journey, writing her dissertation on how Urban Appalachians craft identity through organizations like the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition.

In an interview, Katie Taylor shared, “Appalachian identity just happens to be one of many untold stories of social disparity that I am invested in telling. And by doing so, I’ve found that it’s the translational work of storytelling that strengthens our connections.”

As the largest startup conference in Appalachia, we share that same passion for giving voice to the untold stories. Which makes us even more excited for her to take the stage and share her insights at the 2025 Startup Mountain Summit.

After earning her education, Katie landed what academics call “the dream job” , a tenure-track job with a university that has stellar students and faculty in the same city your family lives in. Katie continued to consult and started as a professor at Miami university. 

In 2016, after four years of freelance consulting alongside her role as a professor, Katie began to hear a recurring need from business owners and nonprofit leaders, for help with the very thing she was most passionate about: writing and communicating meaningful messages. So, she followed her heart’s calling, resigned from her position at Miami University, and took the leap to start her company, Untold, full time right before her first son, Bryce, was born. By the fall of 2016 Katie hired her first employee, which quickly grew to a team of five just a year later.

Katie and her team at Untold went on to collaborate with some of the world’s most notable brands, including NASA, Hershey, the United Nations, and the World Food Forum. They produced a wide range of creative deliverables such as illustration, design, and powerful written content, all with the mission of ensuring that every good idea needs a story behind it.

After a decade of running Untold, Katie launched her next venture: Narratize, an AI-powered workflow platform designed to take big ideas to market faster and more efficiently, without sacrificing the human element of documentation in product development.

A recent MIT study found that AI-assisted writing tools can reduce documentation time by up to 75%. Another study by researchers at the University of Central Florida compared documentation outcomes across teams using Narratize, ChatGPT, and no AI tools at all. They found that 84% of documentation created in Narratize passed leadership review, compared to just 30% from teams using ChatGPT or no AI.

Interestingly, Narratize users spent more time on documentation, but in deeper, more strategic areas. The platform encouraged them to think more critically about their product, in ways other tools didn’t.

Katie is a strong advocate for the belief that writing is not just communication, it’s a form of thinking. If we eliminate the writing process, we risk eliminating the thinking process too. Narratize reflects this philosophy and is reshaping how teams approach product development.

Katie has emphasized a key idea: we should use AI to amplify our creative spark, not replace it. Her journey proves that writing isn’t just something you do after the work is done, it is the work. From earning a Ph.D. in rhetoric to building companies that help others find the right words. We’re excited to host Katie Taylor at the Startup Mountain Summit!

Grab your tickets here.