Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

Paying Your Board Isn’t Optional; It’s the Price of Serious Governance

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:14:36 GMT

Why free boards, unpaid advisors, and investor-only oversight are holding founders back

Let’s start with an uncomfortable question:

Would you work for free?

Would you expect your customers to take your product seriously if you gave it away “for goodwill”?

Would you trust a consultant who showed up when they had spare time, but disappeared when things got hard?

Then why do we keep pretending this is acceptable when it comes to boards and advisors?

Because here’s the truth most founders don’t want to say out loud:

If you’re not paying your board or advisors, you’re relying on goodwill - not commitment.

And goodwill is a fragile governance strategy.

This isn’t about money. It’s about value exchange.

This article isn’t really about whether to pay your board.

It’s about something more fundamental:

Every governance role needs a clear, intentional value exchange.

Cash is one form of that exchange.

Equity is another.

Learning, influence, reputation, access - these can all matter.

But “paying it forward” on its own is not a strategy .

And it rarely produces the level of rigour, challenge, and consistency founders actually need as they scale.

Advisory boards: let’s stop pretending they’re different

Here’s the unpopular opinion I’ll happily stand behind:

I don’t understand why anyone expects serious advisory board members to work for free.

If someone is good enough to be on your advisory board, they are almost certainly:

Time-poor
In-demand
Bringing judgement and pattern recognition
Taking reputational risk by being associated with your business

So what, exactly, are they getting in return?

Too often, advisory boards become:

A soft holding pen for people you don’t quite want on the board
A “lite” version of governance with no accountability
A CV exercise for advisors, not a value engine for founders

If you want real advisory value, you need:

Clear expectations
Defined scope
Regular cadence
And yes - compensation

Otherwise, don’t call it an advisory board. Call it what it really is: occasional friendly chats with smart people.

A harder truth about “free” NED roles

When non-executive or advisory roles are unpaid, one of three things is usually happening:

Someone is doing it for optionality (future upside, access, influence)
Someone is doing it for ego or visibility
Someone is doing it when they have spare capacity, not when you need them most

None of these guarantee commitment when the business hits turbulence.

And turbulence is exactly when boards earn their keep.

Investor-only boards aren’t boards - they’re oversight mechanisms

If your “board” exists primarily to keep investors comfortable, something is missing .

A properly run board should:

Help you think, not just report
Challenge the narrative, not just the numbers
Hold the business accountable, not just the founder
Look forward, not backwards

Unpaid, investor-dominated boards often default to:

Compliance over strategy
Control over collaboration
Short-term risk management over long-term value creation

That’s not governance. That’s supervision.

The dangers of not paying - spelled out plainly

Here’s what I see repeatedly when boards and advisors aren’t compensated:

Patchy commitment

Attendance and preparation slide… not maliciously, but inevitably.

Polite conversations instead of hard ones

Unpaid advisors are far less likely to challenge forcefully or stay in uncomfortable tension.

Founder over-reliance

Founders carry more emotional and strategic labour because no one else is fully “on the hook”.

Blurred roles and expectations
Without a formal value exchange, boundaries erode fast.

Difficulty removing people
It’s surprisingly hard to ask someone to step down from a “free” role; guilt replaces governance.

Why this matters particularly for female founders

This issue shows up more often - and more quietly - for women.

Female founders are still more likely to:

Be grateful for access
Overvalue goodwill
Undervalue their own time
Avoid appearing “demanding”

The result is that many accept unpaid governance far longer than they should even when the business would benefit from professionalisation.

A reframing worth holding onto:

Paying your board isn’t aggressive or entitled.
It’s you taking your business - and yourself - seriously.

Strong governance protects founders. Especially those already navigating power imbalances.

The real question founders should ask

Not: “Can I afford to pay my board?”

But:

“What level of thinking, challenge and commitment does my business require, and what am I willing to invest to get it?”

Because every serious growth decision comes down to this:

You either pay in cash and equity
Or you pay later in mistakes, stalled growth, and founder burnout

One is predictable. The other is far more expensive.

If you’re in: how to pay your board properly

If you accept the argument above, this is the execution part.
No drama. No hand-holding.

1. Decide what gets paid - and what doesn’t

Formal board roles (Chair, NEDs): paid
Advisory boards with defined scope and cadence : paid
Informal mentors or occasional chats : don’t dress these up as governance

Clarity here prevents resentment later.

2. Choose the right form of compensation

Most early-stage and scale-up businesses use a mix of:

Cash - signals commitment and accountability
Equity - aligns long-term incentives

What matters isn’t the mechanism. It’s that the value exchange is explicit, fair, and agreed upfront.

3. Indicative UK ranges (as a guide, not a rule)

Non-Executive Directors: £10k–£25k per year at early scale, rising with complexity
Chairs: £20k–£60k per year at early scale
Advisory board members: often £3k–£10k per year depending on scope

You’re not paying for time. You’re paying for judgement.

4. Put it in writing

If you’re paying people, you owe it to both sides to be clear.

At a minimum, cover:

Role and responsibilities
Time expectations
Term and review points
Fees, equity, and expenses
How someone exits the role

Professional governance deserves professional documentation.

Final thought

If you wouldn’t expect your customers to pay you in gratitude,
don’t expect your board to govern your company on goodwill.

Paying your board isn’t a cost.

It’s the price of building something that’s actually built to last.

Ready to Grow? Ask Yourself These Hard Questions Before You Plan 2026

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 14:38:40 GMT

This isn’t a year-end review. It’s a reset.

By December, most founders aren’t planning… they’re unravelling.

The adrenaline that carried you through the final quarter starts to fade. Your mind is crowded with board packs, client commitments, team emotions, family logistics, and the low hum of “I should really plan next year…”

Thanks for reading Enter The Arena! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

But this is exactly the moment when the truth has the best chance of breaking through.

Not through a five-hour goal-setting sprint.

Not through a colour-coded annual review.

But through a few sharp, honest questions that cut through the noise and show you what’s really going on - in your business and in your leadership.

This is your pause.

Your exhale.

Your reset before you race into 2026.

��‍♀️ How to Approach This (Gently)

You don’t need clarity.
You don’t need the perfect notebook.
You don’t even need to “feel ready.”

You just need an hour, and a little bit of honesty.

Here are three ways founders tell me this reflection actually works:

1. The Hour Alone

Take yourself somewhere quiet - a café, a corner, a train seat.
Pick a handful of questions from each list and write freely.
No editing. No polishing.

2. The Voice-Note Walk

Put the questions in your notes app. Take a long walk.
Talk out your answers as they come.
Let movement become momentum.

3. The Founder-to-Founder Debrief

Choose someone who gets it.
Swap questions.
No advice - just truth.

Simple. Human. Powerful.

✨ My 2025 in Five Honest Moments

Modelling the kind of reflection this exercise invites.
(Drawn from my own notes this year.)

1. I did things I once thought were out of reach.
I made two direct angel investments into mission-driven, female-founder-led businesses - something I couldn’t have imagined doing a year ago.

2. I backed myself to build something new.
I returned to early-stage venture creation and remembered just how energising it is to build from scratch.

3. I honoured a boundary I’d been avoiding.
I stepped away from a toxic board situation instead of forcing it to “work.” That choice restored more energy than I expected.

4. I challenged a habit that’s been quietly holding me back.
I finally faced the truth that I’m still not articulating my value strongly enough at board level, and it’s time to change that.

5. I noticed the patterns I’m ready to leave behind.
From revenue uncertainty to saying yes to unpaid speaking out of FOMO - certain dynamics kept repeating, and I’m ready to shift them.

Not polished. Not packaged. Just honest.

Now it’s your turn.

�� Part 1: What’s Worth Celebrating?

Not the Instagram wins.
Not the investor-update victories.

The real growth.
The inner shifts.
The courage that didn’t make it into your metrics.

Ask yourself:

What did I do this year that felt impossible a year ago?
What’s the bravest decision I made - even if no one saw it?
Where did I back myself, and what did that unlock?
What would the January 2025 version of me be proud of?
What boundary did I finally honour?
What do I now do with ease that used to drain me?
What am I deeply proud of that no one clapped for?
What would my future self thank me for?

Sit with these.

This is where your real progress lives.

�� Part 2: Where Did I Get Stuck?

These aren’t failures.

They’re the clearest signposts you’ll get all year.

What decisions did I delay - and what did that cost me?
Where did I say yes out of fear, not clarity?
What uncomfortable truth did I avoid?
What role or task am I holding that someone else should own?
What repeated pattern am I tired of seeing?
What feedback did I quietly ignore?
What boundary did I keep breaking - even though I knew better?
What am I still carrying into December that I should have put down months ago?

These questions sting for a reason.

That’s where the insight hides.

�� And Then… Something Shifts

When you stop and actually answer these, you start to see differently.

You stop explaining.
You stop justifying.
You start noticing.

And once you see something clearly, it’s impossible to unsee it.
That’s the start of real change.

If one of these questions made you pause - or wince - that’s the one to begin with.

And if you want help turning these reflections into a sharp, confident strategy for 2026, that’s exactly the work I do.

�� Book a Strategy Reset Session for early January

Let’s build a plan that fits who you are now, not who you were a year ago.

PS. You don’t need to answer all 16 questions.
Start with the one you least want to.
That’s where the truth is.

What the Best Boards for Scaling Businesses Actually Get Right

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 17:11:25 GMT

Why the boardroom can become your growth engine - not just a governance checkpoint

When a business starts to scale, the board can either power it forward or quietly hold it back.

Too often, board meetings become a review of the past: updates, risks, compliance, a bit of financial hygiene. All important, but not what creates growth.

The best boards don’t just monitor a business. They help to move it.

They bring honest challenge, clear thinking, and the calm you need to make good decisions. They help the founder think bigger, move faster, and stop firefighting.

So, what does that kind of board look like?

1 | Start with Strategy, Not Just Share Papers

A scaling board’s job isn’t to tick boxes, it’s to stay obsessed with what’s next.

That means moving beyond quarterly retrospectives into shaping the future direction of the business. Bain & Company ’s research into high-performing boards found that those spending more time on strategy discussions deliver stronger growth and better decision-making overall.

What to do:

Dedicate real time at every meeting to forward strategy not just reporting.
Ask each board member to share one future-focused question they think the company needs to answer.
Make sure the board’s agenda reflects ambition, not just accountability.

2 | Challenge That Supports, Not Critiques

The best boards know how to challenge without crushing.

Founders under pressure don’t need easy praise, but they also don’t need interrogation. What really helps is challenge that’s grounded in trust, where tough questions come from belief, not suspicion.

What to do:

Agree a shared code for board discussions: challenge the plan, not the person.
Create a safe space for dissent; a good “no” is often the start of a better idea.
Encourage directors to ask the questions they’re afraid to and normalise that kind of honesty.

3 | Be Agile, Not Just Quarterly

Fast-growing businesses change faster than most board calendars.

A rigid quarterly rhythm can slow momentum; decisions get delayed, opportunities missed. Boards that stay flexible, communicating between meetings, tend to be more responsive and useful.

What to do:

Set clear expectations for contact between meetings: when is a quick call or WhatsApp update appropriate?
Introduce shorter “pulse” sessions on key priorities instead of relying on big quarterly catch-ups.
Keep board papers digestible… concise enough to invite discussion, not induce fatigue.

4 | The Chair as Board Architect

A strong Chair is the cornerstone of an effective scaling board.

They shape the agenda, manage the dynamics, and ensure conversations stay both strategic and supportive. Research from the Institute of Directors shows that a skilled Chair can lift overall board effectiveness by up to a third, mostly through how they run the room.

What to do:

Hold a short pre-meeting between Chair and CEO to align on what matters most.
After each meeting, ask: did we act as architects or auditors today?
Make founder development an explicit part of the Chair’s role, not an afterthought.

5 | Relevant Experience > Impressive CVs

The people who help you scale aren’t always the ones with the biggest titles.

What matters is relevant, hands-on experience - people who’ve lived through similar growth stages and understand the specific messiness of scale.

What to do:

Build a skills matrix that maps against your next 12–24 months, not last year’s challenges.
Fill the gaps that will matter next.
Prioritise diverse perspectives - not just demographically, but in how people think and make decisions.

6 | Values & Vision Alignment as the Bedrock

When everyone around the board table shares a clear sense of why the business exists, decision-making becomes simpler and faster.

Purpose alignment might sound soft, but it’s deeply practical. Deloitte ’s Human Capital Trends Report found that companies with purpose-led governance see higher innovation and stronger employee retention - both critical in scaling environments.

What to do:

Begin each board induction with the company’s mission and values, not its financials.
Start every board meeting with a five-minute “purpose check-in.”
If any board member can’t articulate the vision clearly, you’ve got an alignment problem.

7 | How It All Comes Together: The Board Growth Engine

A high-performing scaling board rests on three levers:

Direction-setting (strategy, vision, values)
Activation (agility, experience, strong chairing)
Growth-readiness (trust, challenge, and communication)

Self-Diagnostic:

Score your board out of 10 on each:

Are we spending more time on the future than the past?
Can the founder pick up the phone between meetings for real help?
Do our skills map to the next phase of growth?
Does the Chair manage energy, not just process?
Are we aligned on purpose and values?
Is challenge welcomed, not avoided?

If you’re under six on any of those, that’s your next area for focus.

8 | Special Considerations for Female Founders

For women leading high-growth businesses, the board dynamic often feels different.

There can be unspoken biases, gaps in trust, or less confidence in founder authority, even when results are stellar.

What to do:

Choose board members who elevate the founder’s voice, not overshadow it.
Make sure the Chair pays attention to airtime and dynamics.
Build a board culture where the founder is seen as the expert on the business - because she is.

9 | To-Do List for This Month

Add a 30-minute “future scan” to your next board meeting.
Review your board skills matrix against where you’re heading, not where you’ve been.
Define your between-meeting rhythm… how communication flows, who’s available, how fast to respond.
Set up a Chair–founder check-in to clarify expectations and working style.
Start your next board meeting by reconnecting to your why.

10 | Final Thoughts

A board isn’t just there to keep things steady. It’s there to help the business - and the founder - grow deliberately, and move fast where it matters.

When a board works well, it’s not a set of templates or dashboards. It’s a rhythm of sharp thinking, calm judgment, and steady progress.

That’s what the best boards - and the best founders - get right.

The Boardroom Edge for Female-Led Businesses

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:15:50 GMT

Scaling isn’t just about funding - it’s about who’s around your table

In the last few years, women have been making incredible strides in the UK’s scale-up scene.

According to EY’s 2024 report on high-growth female-led businesses, 45 women-founded companies have now passed £50 million in annual turnover - collectively contributing £6.9 billion to the UK economy and employing over 55,000 people .

And there are hundreds more hot on their heels. EY identified 242 “Ones to Watch” -female-founded companies in the £20m–£50m revenue bracket, with almost 100 of them growing at more than 10% a year.

So, we know women can scale. The question is: are they getting the right kind of support as they do?

The Power of a Good Board

We talk a lot about funding, but here’s what doesn’t get nearly enough airtime: the role of a brilliant board.

When it’s done well, a board isn’t just there to tick governance boxes; it’s a strategic lever, confidence builder, space for challenge, reflection, and fresh thinking.

The data backs this up:

ScaleUpNation found that companies with well-structured, purpose-aligned boards outperformed their peers.
EY says founders who evolve their boards early are better prepared to raise capital and scale sustainably.
And the Advisory Board Centre found that 90% of companies using advisory boards saw a positive impact on their growth.

And yet, most founders still don’t have one.

A Tech Nation report found that only 35% of scale-up founders in the UK have a formal board - and just 22% use them strategically .

Why Founders Hold Back

It’s not surprising many founders feel uncertain or even wary about bringing in a board. The most common things I hear?

“I don’t want to lose control.”
“It feels too early.”
“I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“I don’t know the right people.”

And honestly? I get it. The wrong board can be a time-sink. But the right one? That’s a game-changer.

Because the truth is: as your business grows, you can’t and shouldn’t carry it all on your own.

Boards help you shape your narrative, pressure-test big decisions, open doors to investors, and think longer-term. They create space to work on the business, not just in it.

And the need is especially urgent for women scaling fast. EY found that female-led businesses turning over £50 million+ are growing at 11.5% CAGR , more than double the average for similar-sized UK businesses.

So many women are already flying - imagine what’s possible with the right support around them.

What a Great Board Looks Like

If the word “board” makes you think of suits, PowerPoints, and people you barely know, let’s reframe that.

Here’s a simple way I help founders think about it:

The 4 R’s of a Growth-Ready Board

Role Clarity
Why are they here? Are they helping with governance, strategic decisions, fundraising - or all three?
Right People
Look for people who challenge and support you. Who’ve been where you’re going, see your vision and help you expand it.
Rhythm
Set regular meeting cadences, plan ahead, keep the agenda focused on what really matters. Strategy should always take centre stage.
Respect and Challenge
The best boards make you feel both safe and stretched. It’s a space where you can be honest and be pushed.

This isn’t admin. It’s armour. Strategic, steadying, and exactly what fast growth demands.

When Should You Build a Board?

The short answer? Sooner than most founders think.

You don’t need to wait for a funding round or a certain revenue threshold. In fact, some of the most effective boards are built before external investors get involved, when you still have full control over who’s around your table and why.

In the earliest days, you might just need a few trusted advisors. People you can call for a sanity check, a second opinion, or a nudge in the right direction.

As you move closer to raising investment, it’s worth pulling those people into something more structured; an advisory board that meets regularly and helps you shape your story, strategy, and funding plan.

Once institutional capital is in play, a formal governance board will likely be part of the deal. That’s your opportunity to shape it well, bringing in people who support your vision, stretch your thinking, and truly add value beyond the legal minimum.

And if you’re heading toward £50m+ turnover, planning for exit, or considering leadership succession? That’s the time to bring in seasoned non-execs who’ve been there, done it, and can help you navigate the complexity ahead.

Wherever you are on the journey, the board you build now should support where you’re going next. And that’s the key: build ahead of the curve - not after you’ve hit it.

What We Can’t See Hurts Us

One of the biggest barriers to progress? Lack of visibility .

EY’s 2024 report is one of the first to publicly map women-led companies by revenue tier. But even they acknowledge the data is patchy , thanks to opaque ownership structures, inconsistent reporting, and underrepresentation in public datasets.

We still don’t have a clear national picture of how many female-led businesses are scaling or what support they’re getting.

That matters. Because if we can’t see it, we can’t support it .

Data gaps lead to policy gaps. They make it harder to build inclusive networks, to track progress, or to hold funders and investors accountable.

If we want more women to scale successfully - and we should - we need both better boards and better data.

Final Thought: No One Scales Alone

We pour energy into helping women raise capital. But capital without guidance? That’s like rocket fuel without a navigation system.

A great board doesn’t control you. It challenges you , champions you , and keeps you grounded when things get noisy.

So if you’re growing fast, don’t wait for permission to build your board.

Do it for your business.

Do it for yourself.

And do it on your terms.

Because no one scales alone .

Is My Board Dysfunctional Or Is This Just Normal?

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 11:20:00 GMT

How to Spot the Red Flags and What To Do About Them

If you’re a founder, investor, or board director, you’ll know that startup boards are rarely neat and tidy. They can be scrappy, sometimes chaotic, and often filled with strong personalities. That’s part of the early-stage ride.

But sometimes boards cross a line from constructive challenge into destructive dysfunction. And once you’re in that territory, the board can stop being a growth engine and start becoming a dangerous brake on the business.

So how do you know the difference?

Why Boards Go Off the Rails in Startups

Unlike in big corporates, most startup boards are not populated by seasoned directors. They’re usually a mix of founders, investors, and advisors... all with different motivations, levels of experience, and expectations.

Add to that:

High stakes: money on the line, fragile cash flow, survival mode.
Fast change: business models pivoting, teams doubling in size, markets shifting.
Personal dynamics: founders under pressure, investors chasing returns, egos in play.

It’s a perfect storm. Some tension and scrappiness are inevitable. The question is: what’s healthy, and what’s a red flag?

The Red Flags You Shouldn’t Ignore

1. Toxic behaviour

If a board member undermines, manipulates, or intimidates, that’s not “healthy tension” — it’s poison. Some people thrive on control and chaos. You won’t change them. If you’ve got one of these in the room, you need to plan their exit.

2. Money distortions

Money changes behaviour. Don’t pay board members and they drift; overpay them and they stick around even when they shouldn’t. Neither is good for the business. Be thoughtful about incentives, and remember: compensation is about alignment, not appeasement.

3. Big names, small value

It’s tempting to recruit the “logo board” — the person with the big CV or brand name. But if they’re not engaged, curious, or aligned with your values, you’ve gained a photo opportunity, not a partner in growth.

4. No psychological safety

If people are afraid to speak up, challenge, or admit mistakes, the board stops functioning as a decision-making body. You end up with rubber-stamping or hidden conflict — both dangerous.

5. Hidden agendas

A board member angling for an early exit. An investor pushing for strategy that suits their portfolio, not your company. An advisor wanting a future exec role. If personal motives outweigh the company’s purpose, trust erodes fast.

6. Overreach or absence

Two extremes: the micromanager who tries to run the company from the board table, and the absentee who never shows up. Both are signs the board is out of balance.

What’s Just “Normal” Scrappiness

Not everything that looks messy is a problem. Some chaos is simply part of early-stage growth.

Messy conversations. In young companies, board agendas sprawl... strategy, funding, product, operations. It’s normal, as long as the discussion ends in clarity.

Clashes of opinion. Disagreement is healthy when it sharpens thinking. If every vote is unanimous, something’s wrong.

Inexperience. Many startup board members are learning the role as they go. Some bumpiness is to be expected.

The difference is whether the mess ultimately adds clarity and momentum or whether it drains energy and undermines trust.

How to Fix a Dysfunctional Board

1. Get the right chair

The chair sets the tone. A strong chair manages dynamics, balances voices, and ensures the board serves the company, not individual egos. Without this leadership, dysfunction festers.

2. Reset purpose and roles

Founders run the company. Boards provide governance, strategic challenge, and support. If those lines blur, things unravel. A reset conversation can bring clarity.

3. Build for values, not just CVs

Skills and experience matter, but values and approach matter more. Recruit people who share your vision, are open-minded, and can hold both support and challenge in tension.

4. Refresh the table when needed

Boards aren’t static. As the company evolves, so should the board. Don’t be afraid to move people on if they’re no longer right for the journey.

5. Create healthy process

Simple but powerful: clear agendas, good papers, agreed decision-making processes, and regular board evaluations. Structure creates safety, which creates trust.

For Founders, Investors, and Directors

Founders: Trust your instincts. If something feels off, test it with people you trust and act early.

Investors: Remember you’re there to serve the company, not your own return profile. Ask yourself: am I making the founder’s job easier, or harder?

Board members: Be self-aware. Are you contributing meaningfully, or just adding noise? Are you aligned with the company’s needs today, not yesterday?

Final Thought

Boards in startups and scale-ups will always be a little messy. That’s normal. But dysfunction isn’t something to tolerate.

If your gut tells you something’s wrong, listen. Talk about it. Act on it. Because a great board can be a company’s secret weapon. A dysfunctional one can quietly kill it.

What’s Your Growth Strategy Really Missing?

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:05:33 GMT

A diagnostic for ambitious scale-up founders

When founders talk about their “growth strategy,” they usually focus on markets, customers, product innovation, or fundraising. All crucial, yes. But when I dig deeper, I often find that important pieces of the puzzle are missing.

Scaling a business is like building a complex machine: every cog, wire, and bolt matters. If one part is weak or missing entirely, the whole system struggles to run smoothly. Blind spots creep in. Performance stutters. The business feels harder to drive than it should.

Having supported hundreds of scale-ups across many sectors and verticals, I’ve seen just about every configuration of this machine - from engines firing on all cylinders, to beautiful designs with critical parts missing. The challenge for founders is having their eyes opened to what’s not working, so they can strengthen the whole picture.

So, what’s your growth strategy really missing? Here are the blind spots I most often see.

1. A Clear and Compelling Vision

Your north star isn’t just a statement on a wall. Without a vision that’s both commercially ambitious and emotionally inspiring, the machine stalls. Vision keeps the whole system aligned and moving forward.

2. Culture as a Growth Engine

Culture is the oil that keeps the cogs turning. If it’s not defined and reinforced, friction builds up fast. Left unchecked, culture can erode just when you need it to power growth.

3. Pricing and Positioning Power

If your machine is well-built but you’re fuelling it with the wrong fuel, it won’t go far. Pricing and positioning are that fuel. Underpricing or underselling creates strain without reward.

4. Leadership Structure That Matches Your Stage

Every scaling machine needs a skilled operator for each part. If your leadership structure isn’t designed for this stage, roles blur, accountability weakens, and energy is wasted.

5. Talent and Performance Management

Hiring more people isn’t the same as strengthening the engine. You need the right people in the right places, with performance monitored and supported, otherwise the system overheats.

6. Building for Long-Term Value

A machine that only runs short distances won’t win the race. Are you designing for durability with brand equity, customer loyalty, IP, and strategic positioning... or just chasing the next revenue milestone?

7. Financial Clarity

This is the dashboard of your machine. Without the right dials - unit economics, margins, runway, scenarios - you’re driving blind, hoping you’ll get to your destination.

8. A Strategy That Connects the Dots

The real power of a growth strategy comes when every part of the puzzle is connected. Vision, culture, leadership, pricing, talent, finance, and value creation don’t sit in isolation. They work as one integrated system. Miss a piece, and you’ll feel the strain.

Final thought

Scaling is about building a machine that runs smoothly, efficiently, and powerfully. The challenge is seeing which parts of the puzzle are missing and strengthening them before they cause a breakdown.

That’s where an outside perspective helps. I bring the experience of working with hundreds of scale-ups to help founders diagnose blind spots, solve problems, and build the whole picture.

So, what’s missing from your growth strategy? If you’re ready to find out, let’s talk:

The Messy Middle: Why Scaling Feels So Hard

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 13:13:59 GMT

Surviving – and thriving – through the toughest stage of growth

When you first start a business, the challenges are intense but straightforward: finding product-market fit, getting your first customers, convincing early believers to back you. It’s a whirlwind, but it has a certain simplicity.

At the other end of the spectrum, big established businesses benefit from infrastructure, resources, and processes that give them stability (even if bureaucracy creeps in).

But in between lies a stage that many founders underestimate: the messy middle . This is where growth gets complicated, risks multiply, and scaling can feel harder than starting up.

Why the Middle is Messy

1. Complexity multiplies
With more customers, more products, more markets, and more team members, the founder suddenly finds themselves running not a scrappy startup but a complex organisation. What worked when you were 10 people no longer works at 50, 100, or 200.

2. Cash is king – and under pressure
Growth eats cash. You’re hiring, investing in systems, expanding into new markets. Suddenly, what felt like healthy revenues are never quite enough to keep pace with the scale of ambition.

3. The founder’s role shifts dramatically
This is often the toughest transition. The founder who once did everything now has to let go, delegate, and step into a true leadership role. Many find this disorienting and emotionally challenging.

4. Culture is fragile
As the team grows, the values and spirit that bound the early group together can start to fray. Maintaining alignment and motivation becomes harder when you don’t know everyone personally.

5. The boardroom dynamics change
Investors are now around the table with higher expectations. The board is no longer just about cheerleading; it’s about governance, strategy, and accountability. For many founders, that feels like extra scrutiny just when they’re already stretched.

Why It Feels So Hard

The messy middle is tough because it requires a different kind of founder energy . Early stages are about hustle, invention, and speed. Scaling demands systems, leadership, resilience, and strategic clarity .

It’s no wonder that so many businesses stall - or fail - at this stage. Research from McKinsey shows that fewer than 1 in 200 startups actually scale to more than $100m in revenue. The leap from scrappy start-up to sustainable scale-up is vast.

How to Survive – and Thrive

1. Get the right people around you
This is the time to invest in leadership talent, advisors, and a strong board who can help you think strategically and hold the business together as complexity increases.

2. Shift your role – consciously
Founders who survive the messy middle are those who evolve from doer to leader. Your job now is to inspire, delegate, and set direction - not to run every detail.

3. Protect your culture fiercely
Codify your values, communicate them constantly, and make sure they are reflected in hiring, management, and decision-making.

4. Be financially ruthless
Don’t let growth get ahead of cash. Build realistic forecasts, keep a close eye on burn, and raise investment with enough runway to execute your plan properly.

5. Embrace the discomfort
Scaling is messy. Accept that. The founders who thrive are those who don’t resist the chaos, but instead find clarity within it and keep moving forward with purpose.

Closing Thoughts

If you’re finding the middle stage of growth hard, you’re not alone. This is the crucible where founders are tested most deeply - not just as entrepreneurs, but as leaders.

The messy middle may feel like the hardest part of the journey, but it’s also where businesses transform from fragile startups into resilient scale-ups. Get the right people, processes, and perspective in place, and this stage can become the launchpad to lasting success.

VCs Should Step Away From Start-Up Boards

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 12:51:11 GMT

A founder-first case for rethinking the default board structure

Let’s talk about a provocative idea.

Venture capital investors should not sit on the boards of the startups they invest in.

That might sound radical or even ungrateful. But if we really care about building the right support around founders, it’s time to challenge the long-standing assumption that VCs deserve, or even belong on, the board. Here’s why:

1. Conflicted Interests

A board director’s legal duty is to act in the best interests of the company. But a VC partner’s first responsibility is to their fund. That creates an unavoidable tension, especially when tough calls need to be made about valuation, dilution, exits, or leadership. Founders deserve a board that puts the business first, not one balancing multiple loyalties.

2. Lack of Operational Relevance

Most VC partners aren’t operators. They may be brilliant investors, but they often lack the hands-on experience of building a business, growing a team, or navigating the emotional rollercoaster of scale-up life. And very few bring deep sector expertise tailored to the founder’s specific market. The result? Shallow advice, misplaced confidence, or rigid pattern-matching that misses the nuance.

3. Defensive by Default

When a VC is on your board, they’re incentivised to protect their capital. That can lead to a bias towards safe bets, early exits, or pressure to follow a “fund-returning” narrative that may not align with the founder’s mission. It’s not malicious, just misaligned. And it can seriously constrain a founder’s ability to play the long game.

4. Power Dynamics That Muzzle Openness

The boardroom should be a place where founders can be vulnerable, seek support, and openly share what’s really going on. But when your biggest investor is also your boss around the table, it gets complicated. Too often, founders feel the need to perform not confide. That’s the opposite of what effective governance requires.

So what’s the alternative?

VCs absolutely have a role to play, but it doesn’t have to be (and arguably shouldn’t be) a governance one. Instead, founders should be supported to build independent, well-rounded boards that provide:

✅ Sector and functional expertise
✅ Independent, founder-first thinking
✅ Strategic challenge without conflicted interest
✅ Emotional intelligence and coaching mindset
✅ Diversity of background, identity, and thought

Boards like this are far better placed to help the business scale with clarity, conviction and resilience.

But what does the data say?

There’s surprisingly little public data about board composition in UK venture-backed startups. Most term sheets still default to giving lead investors a board seat, and many funds list it as part of their “value-add.” But there's no central source tracking how many startups include their investors on the board, let alone how that impacts business outcomes. In the US, some research suggests VC board presence correlates with easier follow-on funding, but doesn’t necessarily improve performance or revenue. It’s a reminder that governance and growth are not always the same thing.

But what about the counterarguments?

To be fair, this idea does go against the grain. So let’s take the most common pushbacks seriously:

“Founders need the governance experience a VC brings.” Yes, strong governance is critical. But good governance doesn’t have to come from your investor. It can come from an independent chair, experienced NEDs, or trusted advisors who don’t have a financial stake. In fact, separating governance from ownership can improve objectivity and trust.

“We’ve invested millions so we need a seat at the table.” Fair - but a board seat isn’t the only way to stay close. Investor rights, observer roles, regular reporting, and strong communication can all provide transparency and oversight. Control isn’t the same as support. And control isn’t what founders need most.

“We add value through pattern recognition and networks.” Absolutely. VCs can bring huge value. But that value is better delivered outside the boardroom. Mentorship, introductions, and strategic input are still welcome, just without the weight of fiduciary responsibility.

“Founders often want us on the board.” True, especially when trust is high and the relationship is new. But dynamics evolve. What starts as a partnership can shift over time, especially when the going gets tough. Founders deserve boards that are built for the long haul, not just the next fund cycle.

“This is how it’s always been done.” And maybe that’s the problem. If we want a more inclusive, founder-friendly, and growth-enabling ecosystem - especially for underrepresented founders - we need to question the status quo. Just because something is industry standard doesn’t mean it’s the best model.

It’s time for a new board model

One where investors invest , mentors mentor , and boards govern with independence, balance, and clarity. Let’s stop calling “sitting on the board” a value-add. Let’s build boards that actually add value.

Integrity Isn’t Optional

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:30:02 GMT

Why this core value should guide who you hire, partner with, and bring onto your board.

Integrity. It’s a word we all throw around, but do we really stop to define it, or recognise when it's absent?

As one of my own core values, integrity means showing up with honesty, consistency, and a strong moral compass... especially when no one’s watching. It’s about doing the right thing even when it’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, or unrewarded in the short term. And when you're building or backing a business, that really matters.

But here’s the kicker: you’ll come across people who don’t have integrity. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it smacks you in the face. And when it shows up - or rather, doesn’t - it can be incredibly damaging.

So what does lack of integrity actually look like in real life? And how can you spot it before it infects your team, your partnerships, your investor group, or even your own leadership?

What Integrity Really Looks Like

Integrity isn’t just about being nice or saying the right things. It’s a set of behaviours and choices that align with core values like honesty, transparency, accountability, and trust.

People with integrity:

Say what they mean, and mean what they say.
Follow through on promises, even when it's hard.
Take responsibility for mistakes.
Speak up when something’s not right, even if it’s unpopular.
Are consistent in their behaviour across all levels of power and audience.

This kind of integrity builds trust, the the bedrock of any successful relationship, whether it’s with co-founders, investors, clients, or your team.

Red Flags That Integrity Is Missing

Inconsistency – Their words don’t match their actions. Today’s values shift to suit tomorrow’s agenda.
Blame-shifting – Nothing is ever their fault. They dodge accountability at every turn.
Manipulation or gaslighting – They twist the truth to suit their narrative and undermine others.
Secrecy and spin – They withhold information, share selectively, or distort reality to maintain control.
Lack of empathy – They prioritise their own gain over what’s right for the team or business.
Performative noise – Big claims, loud values, chasing headlines, without the substance to back it up.
Shaky commitment – They say they’re in, but disappear when it really matters.
Shortcut culture – Always looking for the fastest route to personal gain, regardless of long-term impact.

Spotting these red flags early is crucial. Integrity (or the lack of it) has a way of seeping into the culture of a business and impacting decision-making at every level.

Why It Matters - Especially for Founders

When you’re scaling a business, who you surround yourself with matters as much as your product or strategy. That includes:

Co-founders – Misaligned values can destroy a business from the inside.
Investors – If they lack integrity, you’ll feel it in your boardroom dynamics, deal terms, and the way they treat your team.
Employees – Even one toxic hire can erode a healthy culture fast.
Partners – Values misalignment leads to broken trust and broken deals.
Board members – These are the people helping to guide and govern your business. A board lacking integrity can lead to poor strategic decisions, personal power plays, and a lack of accountability at the very top.

Integrity isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s a non-negotiable. If you compromise on this value in favour of short-term gain, the long-term cost can be enormous.

How to Spot Integrity in Action

Sometimes it’s less about red flags and more about green ones. Look for:

People who are calm under pressure and consistent in their decisions.
Colleagues who admit when they’re wrong.
Leaders who treat everyone - from the intern to the investor - with equal respect.
Transparency in communication, even when it’s uncomfortable.
A strong sense of purpose that’s lived, not just laminated.

Ask behavioural questions in interviews. Seek references. Watch how people behave when things go wrong. That’s when true integrity, or the absence of it, reveals itself.

Final Thought

Integrity isn’t just a virtue. It’s a strategic advantage.

When you build your business around people who operate with honesty, accountability and strong values, you create a foundation of trust that’s impossible to fake and incredibly hard to break.

And when you are that person? You attract others who are, too.

So don’t compromise. Integrity isn’t optional.

Why Your Board Needs to Evolve as You Scale

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 12:17:35 GMT

How to evolve your board as your business grows - and why failing to do so could hold you back.

When you're building a business, you’re constantly evolving, and your board should be too.

Yet I see too many founders and CEOs clinging to their early-stage board for too long. The truth is, the board that supported you in your early days isn’t always the board that will help you navigate scale, lead through complexity, or reach your next big milestone. And that’s OK.

What matters is recognising when the time has come to make a change, and being prepared to do it with clarity, compassion, and courage.

Why Boards Need to Be Fluid

There are many reasons why the composition of your board might need to change as your business grows:

Changing circumstances - Maybe you've pivoted the business, or you're facing challenges the current board doesn’t have the experience to help you navigate.

New phase, new needs - As a female founder scaling your business, you may need new kinds of support - from strategic growth advice and leadership coaching, to experience navigating bias in investment or complex board dynamics. If your board isn’t equipped to champion you through this next phase, it’s time to rethink."

Dynamics that aren’t serving you - Sometimes it’s about energy. Perhaps there’s a board member who’s checked out, or whose style is increasingly misaligned with your leadership. Tension doesn’t always mean bad people, it just means change is needed.

Governance evolution - As you grow, you may need to add more independence, greater diversity, or different skill sets to meet investor or regulatory expectations.

Making Change Easier: Set Up the Right Contracts

One of the most important things you can do is build flexibility into your board agreements from the start . That means:

Clear, time-bound terms (e.g. 12-month rolling contracts or fixed three-year terms).

Role descriptions that can be revisited annually.

Clauses that allow either party to step down gracefully if it’s no longer a fit.

A review process - ideally tied into your broader strategic planning cycle - that creates space for regular reflection on board performance and composition.

If you’re the CEO or Chair, this sets the tone : we’re all here for what the business needs right now, and that might change.

Navigating the Conversation with Emotional Intelligence

This is where leadership really comes in. Letting a board member go - especially someone who’s been with you from the beginning - can feel tough. But it doesn’t have to be brutal.

Start with honesty and appreciation . Acknowledge what they’ve contributed, and be clear about why change is needed.

Focus on the needs of the business , not personal shortcomings. It’s about context, not character.

Offer options - some board members might prefer to step into an advisory role or ambassadorial position instead.

Keep it human. This is emotional territory - for them, and for you. Holding space for those feelings is part of being a great leader.

What Happens If You Don’t?

If you avoid these conversations or handle them poorly, the consequences can be serious:

Stagnation : A board that no longer challenges or supports you effectively will slow you down.

Frustration : Misaligned dynamics erode trust and sap energy - yours, and your team’s.

Risk : Investors may lose confidence. Future fundraising can get harder. You might even miss key strategic moves.

Worse still, you can damage relationships with people who once championed you simply because the ending wasn’t handled well.

Leading Through Evolution

Your job as CEO or Chair isn’t to keep everyone happy, it’s to keep the business healthy. That means knowing when to make the hard calls, and doing it in a way that honours the people involved.

A board isn’t a fixed structure... it’s a living, evolving group of humans. When you embrace that, and create the systems and culture to support change, your board becomes what it should be: a powerful asset to help you lead through every stage of growth.

How Your Board Can Help You Through Challenging Times

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:22:57 GMT

Why your board matters most when the stakes are high

If you’re running a business right now, you’ll know just how tough things are. Economic uncertainty, global trade tensions and instability through conflict, affordability pressures on your customers, and increasing complexity around social responsibility and inclusion. It’s a lot to navigate. Add in the usual growing pains of a scaling business, and it can feel overwhelming.

I’ve been working with several founder clients recently who are going through exactly this kind of turbulence. And time and again, I’m reminded just how valuable a strong board can be in these moments.

Perspective from the battlefield

Most experienced board members have seen a lot in their careers... recessions, crises, restructuring, rapid growth, sharp contraction, leadership transitions, and everything in between. We’re old enough (and let’s be honest, maybe a bit battle-scarred) to recognise the signs of a shift before it becomes a crisis. That experience brings perspective. Not panic. Not knee-jerk reactions. But a steady hand to help you weather the storm.

A safe space to think

There are conversations you can’t always have with your team. As the founder or CEO, you’re expected to show confidence, clarity, and calm, even when you’re not feeling any of those things inside. A good board gives you the space to be honest. To explore worst-case scenarios. To vent, if you need to. And then to work through the options logically, without judgement.

Clarity and focus in the fog

When everything feels uncertain, one of the most important things a board can do is help you get clear. Clear on what matters. Clear on what’s possible. Clear on where to focus your energy. We help you step back, reassess your goals, and prioritise ruthlessly. We can interrogate the data and challenge assumptions, helping you make decisions based on facts, not fear.

Navigating tough decisions

Sometimes, things have to change. And those decisions can be incredibly hard. Whether it’s cutting back staff, pulling out of certain markets, shifting your product roadmap, or pivoting to a new customer segment, we help you weigh up the implications and think through the human and commercial impact. We’re not there to sugar-coat. But we are there to support you through it.

Managing your financial runway

In challenging times, managing cash becomes critical. A good board will help you model different scenarios, scrutinise your burn rate, and explore all your financial options - whether that’s raising new capital, renegotiating terms, securing grants, or making tough cuts to extend your runway. We can also bring in external experts, contacts and resources to help, when needed.

Balancing urgency with calm

Perhaps most importantly, your board brings a different emotional energy to the table. We’re not in the thick of the day-to-day, so we’re able to hold the big picture. To stay calm when things feel chaotic. To remind you that this, too, shall pass.

We’re not just there to give advice, we’re there to walk alongside you.

You are not alone

If you’re a founder feeling the weight of uncertainty right now, know this: you’re not alone. And you don’t have to do it all yourself. Lean into your board. Use us as a sounding board, a strategic partner, a source of strength. That’s what we’re here for.

Should Board Members Ever Go Operational?

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 11:28:57 GMT

When stepping in helps, when it harms, and how to get the balance right.

In the unpredictable world of high-growth entrepreneurial business, the line between governance and operations can sometimes blur. Teams are lean. Resources are stretched. There’s a crisis, or an urgent gap to fill. And a well-meaning board member offers to step in and help on the ground.

Sometimes this can work, and even be exactly what the business needs in the moment. But far too often, it creates more problems than it solves.

So when is it appropriate for a board member to step into an operational role? And how do you do it without undermining governance, confusing the team, or disempowering the founder?

Let’s break it down.

When It Might Make Sense

There are some situations where a board member stepping in can be genuinely helpful if handled carefully and transparently.

1. Crisis or Transition Support

If the founder or a key exec suddenly steps away due to illness, burnout, or personal reasons, a board member might temporarily fill the gap to steady the ship. In this case, the priority is continuity and damage limitation.

2. Specialist Expertise

Perhaps the business is entering a new market, launching a major commercial pivot, or preparing for an investment round and a board member has precisely the expertise needed to lead that phase, hands-on. A short, focused operational role might make sense here.

3. Pre-Exit Preparation

Sometimes, in the lead-up to a sale or major funding event, an experienced chair or NED might embed more deeply in the business to professionalise reporting, shape the narrative, and support the founder through complex negotiations. But - and it’s a big but - this kind of involvement should never be ad hoc or informal.

It Must Be a Formal Board Decision

This is non-negotiable. Any move for a board member to take on an operational role must be discussed and agreed by the full board in advance. Not just nodded through over coffee. Not just a quiet favour to the founder. Proper board approval - minuted, with a clear role description, agreed timeframe, and transparent terms - is essential.

Why?

Checks and balances: The board exists to provide oversight. If one of its members becomes part of the exec team, the rest of the board needs clarity on boundaries and accountability.
Avoiding conflicts: A board member acting operationally could end up on both sides of key decisions, from performance reviews to budget approvals. This is a huge governance red flag if not handled correctly.
Protecting the founder: Formal board approval ensures the founder isn’t pressured or left navigating a messy power dynamic alone. It becomes a collective decision, with shared responsibility and clear expectations.

What Can Go Wrong

Even with good intentions, board members stepping into operations can create serious issues. I’ve seen this go wrong first hand, and once trust starts to erode, it’s incredibly hard to rebuild.

1. Blurred Boundaries

Suddenly the founder isn’t sure who’s in charge. The team is confused. The board member is wearing two hats and no one knows which one they’re wearing at any given time.

2. Undermined Leadership

If the board member takes control of strategic decisions or team management, it can leave the founder sidelined, resentful, or second-guessing themselves. Especially if there was already a power imbalance at play.

3. Lack of Accountability

Board members aren’t usually set up to be performance-managed like executives. So unless clear deliverables and reporting structures are defined, you’ve got someone operating without proper oversight.

4. Conflict of Interest

A board member with an operational role may find themselves involved in decisions they should be overseeing independently, creating ethical and governance risks. Who are they accountable to? What decisions are they excluded from? These questions must be addressed upfront.

Do It Right - Or Don’t Do It at All

If your business is genuinely in need of short-term operational support, and a board member is the right person to step in, do it properly:

Get full board approval
Define the scope, timeframe and objectives
Formalise the role with a contract and appropriate remuneration
Communicate clearly with the team
Build in clear deliverables and performance accountability
Put reporting structures in place - to both CEO and Board Chair
Address potential conflicts of interest from the start and audit regularly
Agree a clear plan for when and how they step back out
Conduct a post-engagement review to consider any lessons learned

If you can’t do all of that? Think twice. It might be better to bring in an interim operator or advisor, leaving the board to maintain independence and focus on its core job: governance, strategy, and founder support.

Final Thought

In high-growth businesses, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “all hands on deck.” But your board’s power lies in its independence, perspective, and ability to support the founder from a safe distance. Step over the line into operations, even with the best of intentions, and you risk losing all of that.

So before you say “yes” to that operational request, ask yourself:
Is this truly in the best long-term interests of the business?

Need to Get Clarity on Board Roles in Your Business?

If you're a founder unsure about how to manage the boundaries between your board and your operational team, or a board member navigating the tricky line between support and overreach, let’s talk.

Driving Growth With Purpose

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:12:28 GMT

Set your vision, track your progress, and stay on course

When founders tell me they’re struggling to scale their business, one of the first questions I ask is: Where exactly are you trying to get to? Because if you haven’t defined the destination, no wonder you’re feeling a bit lost.

You wouldn’t get in your car and just start driving without knowing where you were headed. And yet so many founders do the business equivalent every day - making decisions without a clear vision, chasing opportunities that don’t align, and wondering why progress feels slow or chaotic.

Start with Vision... But Make It Personal

Your growth strategy has to start with your vision, not just for the business, but for you as a founder.

What do you want to achieve? This isn’t just about topline revenue or investor returns. It's about your own definition of success.

I often think of this as a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles:

Contribution to the world – the impact you want to make
Financial reward – how much you want or need to earn
Work/life balance – how you want to live while doing it

The sweet spot in the middle? That’s your personal North Star.

From Vision to Strategy

Once you know where you want to go, you can look honestly at where you are now – your resources, your team, your market position, your operational maturity – and build a roadmap from A to B.

Your vision needs to be translated into strategic goals , broken down into measurable KPIs , and managed with discipline. Otherwise, it remains just a lovely idea.

Strategy Without Execution Is Just a Dream

This is where the driving analogy comes in handy.

Your vision is the destination.
Your goals are the route.
Your KPIs are the dashboard.
And your operational management is how well you drive.

You might want to get there quickly, taking the motorway with all guns blazing. Or you might prefer the scenic route, stopping along the way to build slowly and sustainably.

Either way, you need to know:

How much fuel you’ve got (cash flow and team energy)
How fast your vehicle can go (capacity and capability)
What traffic lies ahead (market conditions and challenges)

And just like in a car, if you’re not looking at the dashboard regularly, you risk running out of fuel, veering off course, or blowing the engine.

Tools That Can Help

There are systems and frameworks that can help you manage this journey well.

EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) is a popular one – especially for scaling founder-led businesses. It’s a clear, structured approach that gets your whole team aligned behind your vision, with tools for accountability and execution. But it can feel quite prescriptive and process-heavy for early-stage or creative-led businesses.

Other options include:

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) – great for focus and alignment, especially in fast-moving or tech-led teams.
Balanced Scorecards – a more corporate-style system, but useful for tracking different performance dimensions.
Scaling Up (Verne Harnish) – strategic planning meets high-performance culture.

The right system depends on your leadership style, your team culture, and the complexity of your business. But some kind of system is essential.

Keep Your Eyes on the Road

Ultimately, building a growth strategy is about making intentional choices – not just about where you want to end up, but how you want to get there.

Set your destination.
Check your dashboard regularly.
And manage the drive like a pro.

That’s how you stop drifting, and start making real progress.

The CEO Whisperer

Thu, 29 May 2025 10:05:24 GMT

Why Every Founder Needs a Chair Who's Got Their Back

Behind every high-growth business is a founder with big vision, relentless drive, and a million and one things on her plate. She’s the face of the company, the chief decision-maker, the one raising capital, steering the team, dealing with fires daily, and navigating the inevitable emotional rollercoaster that comes with leading at the top. But even the most resilient CEOs can’t do it alone. And they shouldn’t have to.

Enter: the Chair of the Board. The CEO Whisperer.

More Than a Formality

Too often, founders see the Chair as a tick-box requirement once they take on investment. A formal role to keep the board ticking along and make sure governance is in place. But a great Chair is so much more than that. She’s your sounding board, your strategic partner, your coach. The person who’s not just keeping an eye on the business, but looking out for you as the founder and CEO. Someone who understands the pressures you’re under, and has your back, especially when the going gets tough.

Holding Space for Honest Conversations

The best Chairs are the ones who create a safe space for open, vulnerable, and sometimes difficult conversations. The kind you can’t always have with your exec team, your investors, or even your co-founders. They’re the ones who’ll ask the hard questions, challenge your thinking, and help you see round corners — but also listen deeply, validate your experience, and give you confidence when imposter syndrome strikes. They're the person you can text at 10pm when you’re wrestling with a knotty issue. No judgment. Just clarity and calm.

The Bridge Between CEO and Board

One of the most valuable - and overlooked - parts of a Chair’s role is being the bridge between you as CEO and the rest of the board. When it’s working well, that relationship ensures that everyone’s aligned around the mission, understands the strategy, and is clear on where support is needed. But when things go awry, it can create mistrust, miscommunication, and even a loss of confidence in leadership. The Chair helps prevent that. They bring objectivity, perspective, and balance. They help the board understand the CEO’s world, and help the CEO make the most of the board’s experience.

Coaching, Not Controlling

The best Chairs know that their job isn’t to run the business, it’s to support the one who does. That means coaching, not controlling. Listening more than directing. Asking, “What do you need from me right now?” It also means knowing when to lean in and when to step back. When to challenge, and when to simply offer reassurance.

The Power of Chemistry

Here’s the truth: the relationship between founder and Chair is one of the most important and intimate dynamics in the business. When there’s trust, openness, and mutual respect, magic happens. The founder feels seen, heard, and supported. The business gets the leadership it needs to grow. And the board becomes a true asset, not just an obligation. When the chemistry’s not there? It’s like having a backseat driver in the car with you on a high-speed motorway. Distracting at best. Dangerous at worst. That’s why it’s so important to choose a Chair who aligns with your values, understands your mission, and brings emotional intelligence as well as strategic nous.

So, Do You Have a CEO Whisperer?

If you’re a founder, ask yourself:

Do I have someone who really gets me?
Who can hold space for honest conversations — and help me stay grounded and focused?
Who builds bridges between me and the board?
Who coaches me to be the best leader I can be — without ever stepping on my toes?

If the answer’s no, maybe it’s time to find one.

Because being CEO is a lonely job. But with the right Chair by your side, it doesn’t have to be.

Paying Your Board: The Smart Founder's Guide

Thu, 29 May 2025 09:38:59 GMT

What to pay, when to pay, and how to make it work at your stage.

As a founder, you’ve probably been told you need a board. Maybe you’ve already got one – a couple of investors, a friendly advisor, maybe even a seasoned operator you convinced to come on the journey.

But when it comes to paying your board members, things can get murky.

Should you pay them at all? In cash? In equity? What do investors get? What’s “normal” at your stage? How do you keep it fair without breaking the bank?

Let’s demystify board remuneration so you can build a board that adds real value, without the awkwardness or guesswork.

Why Pay Board Members?

There’s a myth in early-stage circles that board members should just want to help. That they’ll do it for the love, the experience, or the equity upside someday.

But here’s the truth: If you want proper commitment, you need to offer proper remuneration .

Here’s why:

It prioritises your business – Paid board members are more likely to show up, do the prep, and support you between meetings.

It levels the playing field – Not everyone can afford to work for free. Paying board members helps you attract a more diverse and representative board.

It signals professionalism – You’re not running a hobby. Paying your board sends a clear message that you take governance – and their time – seriously.

Of course, the way you pay depends on your stage, funding situation, and what you want from your board.

How Should You Structure It?

There are two main options:

Cash fees
Equity (usually via options)

...or A mix of both

Fees

If you’ve got revenue or funding in the bank, paying board members a modest fee is a good way to lock in their time and energy. Think of it like paying for any other high-value service – and one that could directly influence your success. Fees are typically agreed on an annual arrangement and paid monthly. Some founders defer payment until the next round closes; just be upfront about the plan.

Equity

If your cash position is tricky and your business is early stage, then remunerating with equity can be a good idea, Just make sure:

It vests over time (e.g. 2–4 years, often with a 12-month cliff)
It’s structured via share options (so there’s no tax hit on day one)
You have clear expectations about time commitment and contribution

Equity aligns your board’s interests with yours – they win when you win.

Do You Need to Pay Investor Directors?

The short answer is, No. Investors already have skin in the game. They sit on the board to protect and grow their investment, not for a fee. In fact, most VCs and angels won’t accept payment for board roles – it’s part of their value-add.

You do pay:

Independent Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) – people you bring in for their experience, contacts, and independent perspective
Chairs – especially if they’re actively supporting you between meetings

What’s the Going Rate?

Let’s be real: if you want serious value from your board, you’ll need to budget for it. The days of getting strategic input for a bottle of wine and a LinkedIn shoutout are (thankfully) behind us.

Here’s a clearer picture of typical UK rates:

Non-Executive Directors (NEDs)

Most experienced NEDs will charge a day rate of £1,000–£1,500 .
You’ll typically need them for 1–2 days per month , depending on the stage and complexity of your business.

That works out at around £12k–£36k per year , sometimes more if they’re rolling up their sleeves between meetings.

Chairs

A great Chair is your strategic right hand – they’ll support you, challenge you, open doors, and guide the board.

Expect to pay in the region of £40k–£60k per year for 2–3 days per month involvement. For high-growth or venture-backed businesses, this is money well spent.

Advisory Board Members

Contrary to popular belief, advisory board members are often compensated , especially when they’re providing deep domain expertise or strategic support.

You might offer:

A day rate (often lower than a NED, say £500–£1,000/day), or
Equity in the range of 0.05%–0.25% , typically via options, often vesting over 12–24 months

Some founders use a “pay per call” or “quarterly retainer” structure for lighter-touch advisors.

Even if the time commitment is light, a symbolic payment or equity grant shows respect for their contribution, and keeps the relationship professional.

Don’t forget:

D&O insurance (Directors and Officers liability cover)
Legal fees for board contracts
Expenses for board meetings, travel, and hospitality

How to Negotiate the Right Deal

If you're hiring a board member:

Be honest about what you can offer (cash or equity)
Set clear expectations on time commitment and support
Offer a fair package that reflects their value – even if it’s symbolic at first

If you’re joining a board:

Ask for clarity on deliverables and decision rights
Don’t be afraid to negotiate – founders respect transparency
Get everything in writing

What Should Be in the Contract?

You’ll want to issue a Letter of Appointment for every board member (whether paid or not), covering:

Role and responsibilities
Term and review periods
Fees or equity (and vesting terms)
Meeting schedule
Confidentiality and conflict of interest clauses
Termination terms

It doesn’t have to be complex – just clear.

Final Thoughts

Bringing on the right board members can change the game for your business. But their time, insight and experience are worth something – and should be treated as such. Compensating your board sends a powerful message: You value their input. You take governance seriously. And you’re building a business with long-term vision and integrity.

Need help shaping your board structure or working out fair remuneration? I’d be happy to support you in getting it right.

Founder vs Investor: The Boardroom Trap

Sun, 04 May 2025 12:47:17 GMT

One of the biggest mistakes I see founders make during the investment process is failing to think through what their board will look like as the business scales. And all too often, they find themselves stuck with a board that’s made up solely of themselves and their investors, a structure that can create real problems for the business if left unchecked.

This isn’t usually something founders actively choose. It tends to creep in almost un-noticed, particularly when you're laser-focused on closing the deal and don’t yet appreciate the long-term implications of board structure. You agree to a term sheet, the legal paperwork flies around, and suddenly you realise the investors have secured the right to appoint one or more directors, but you haven’t done the same. In some cases, there are even voting rights tied to board control that you didn’t fully appreciate at the time. And before you know it, your board is no longer your own.

No Neutral Voice in the Room

A board made up of founders and investors, without an independent chair or NEDs, lacks a crucial ingredient: objectivity.

Everyone around the table has skin in the game, which might sound like a good thing, but in practice, it means there’s no one whose sole job is to look out for what’s best for the business overall. Investors are there to look after their money (understandably). Founders are there to fight for the vision and drive the business forward. But who’s there to broker the tough conversations, mediate differing viewpoints, and bring a long-term strategic lens? Without that third voice, things can easily become combative, political, or just plain stuck.

No One to Chair

Without an independent chair, board meetings can feel more like a marketing exercise than a place for robust strategic discussion. Founders feel the need to “perform”, presenting a polished version of the story to keep investors on side. Investors can slip into judge-and-jury mode, interrogating rather than collaborating. And no one is holding the space, keeping discussions on track, bringing in diverse perspectives, or making sure difficult issues aren’t brushed under the carpet. This kind of board setup isn’t just ineffective - it’s unhealthy.

Lack of Psychological Safety

The absence of a neutral, trusted presence on the board can also make it incredibly hard for founders to show vulnerability. Growing a business is tough. You need a space where you can be open about what’s really going on, get support on the challenges you’re facing, and be held accountable in a constructive, compassionate way. When the boardroom becomes a performance zone rather than a safe space for growth, founders suffer. And so does the business.

So How Do We Fix This?

If you're a founder heading into an investment round, start with your Articles of Association . Make sure you retain control over the total number of directors on the board and who gets to appoint them. Don’t give away that power blindly in the rush to get your deal done.

Think about board composition as a strategic asset . Who do you need around the table to help you grow? What skills, experience and perspectives are missing? Who can play the role of trusted chair; someone who can hold both you and your investors to account while keeping everyone aligned around the mission?

If you’ve already got a founder-and-investor-only board, it’s not too late. Make the case for bringing in independent expertise. You’ll often find that the right chair or NED can be a game-changer for everyone involved, helping smooth out tensions, improve communication, and ultimately make better decisions that serve both the mission and the money.

Final Thought

As a founder, you will undoubtably outgrow your startup board - and that’s a good thing. But make sure you’re the one driving that evolution, not just being carried along by the deal terms. A well-balanced, well-chaired board can be one of your most powerful levers for scale. Don’t leave it to chance.

What the Best Boards for Scaling Businesses Get Right

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 15:46:05 GMT

When you hear the word “board,” what do you picture?

For many people, it’s a group of men in suits sitting around a long table, thick board packs in front of them, ready for a formal, structured meeting. There’s often a heavy air of hierarchy and formality. It can feel intimidating, overly corporate, and far removed from the realities of building and growing a business.

But that version of a board just doesn’t work for fast-moving, high-growth companies. Especially when you're an early stage founder still shaping the business, raising investment, building a team, and navigating scale.

In this environment, a traditional board structure often adds unnecessary friction or pressure. What’s really needed is something quite different: a board that supports momentum, encourages ambition, and grows alongside the business.

So what does that kind of board actually look like?

1. Strategy First, With the Right Level of Accountability

In more established businesses, boards tend to focus heavily on governance. Reviewing financials, managing risk, signing off decisions. All important, of course, but for a growing company, it can’t be the only lens.

What’s needed is a board that’s actively engaged in strategy. One that understands the vision, contributes ideas, asks the right questions, and helps shape the direction of travel.

There still needs to be accountability. But that accountability should feel supportive, constructive, and focused on what’s ahead, not just what’s already happened.

2. Founders Need Challenge They Can Trust

Founders in high-growth businesses are under a lot of pressure. They’re moving fast, making big decisions, learning as they go. What they don’t need is a board that either rubber-stamps everything or constantly knocks them back.

The best boards find the balance. They ask tough questions, challenge assumptions, and bring fresh thinking, but but they do it from a place of belief in the founder and commitment to the mission.

That kind of challenge builds confidence. It helps founders grow as leaders, and it creates a culture of openness and shared ownership at the top.

3. Flexibility and Responsiveness Are Essential

Let’s be honest: the pace in a high-growth company is relentless. The situation can change week to week, sometimes even day to day. That quarterly board meeting, scheduled months in advance, won’t always cut it.

A great board in this context is available when needed. It’s a WhatsApp message, a quick call, a check-in between meetings to help unblock a decision or sense-check a plan.

This isn’t about overstepping boundaries or micromanaging. It’s about being responsive, collaborative, and ready to act when the business needs it.

4. The Power of a Good Chair

One of the most valuable assets in a high-growth board is a strong Chair. Someone who can create the right environment for effective discussion, manage board dynamics, and ensure the founder feels supported but also constructively challenged.

A good Chair sets the tone. They help focus the agenda on what really matters, keep conversations strategic, and make sure all voices are heard - especially the founder’s. They also act as a sounding board between meetings, often playing a key role in founder development and wellbeing.

When the Chair gets it right, the whole board functions better. And so does the business.

5. The Right Experience, Not Just Impressive CVs

It can be tempting to bring in big corporate names for your board - people with years of experience, impressive titles, and strong networks. But that doesn’t always translate into value for a business that’s growing fast and facing constant change.

What really helps is experience that’s relevant. People who’ve raised capital, scaled teams, launched products, broken into new markets. People who know what it’s like to lead through uncertainty.

And diversity matters. Gender, ethnicity, background, mindset - a range of perspectives leads to better decisions. It also reflects the kind of inclusive, future-focused business most early stage founders are trying to build.

6. Alignment on Values and Vision

Ultimately, the best boards are built on trust. There has to be genuine alignment between the founder and the board around what the business is here to do and how it’s going to get there.

That doesn’t mean always agreeing. It means having the same North Star, and being able to challenge each other respectfully along the way.

If a board member doesn’t buy into the founder’s values or leadership style, it’s never going to work, no matter how good they are on paper.

Time to Rethink the Boardroom

Boards don’t have to be formal, corporate, and intimidating. For high-growth companies, they can be energising, inspiring, and incredibly useful, if they’re designed with the right mindset.

As more early stage founders build businesses that challenge the status quo, we need board structures that support them to thrive.

That means doing things differently. And that’s a good thing.

73. Nicola Piercy, Stripe and Stare - Securing investment for sustainable knickers

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 20:48:51 GMT

#crowdfund #VC #perseverance #consumer #underwear #ecommerce

Join Julia Elliott Brown, Founder & CEO of Enter the Arena as she sits down with Nicola Piercy, the Founder of Stripe and Stare, the world's most comfortable knickers sustainably sourced from trees. Nicola shares her life as a serial entrepreneur, from founding Stripe and Stare with co-founder Katie Lopes to getting £3.6million in investment.

Whilst gaining angel investment, Nicola experienced a devastating personal loss—her husband's unexpected passing. Despite the immense grief, Nicola persevered, meeting investors and navigating the complexities of running a business. Her journey shows the strength, dedication, and resilience required to overcome adversity in both personal and professional realms.

Since then, Stripe and Stare went on to gain their first major venture capital round of £1.8m from the Business Growth Fund as well as a further shareholder and customer “crowdfund”.

Tune in to discover the unique journey of Stripe and Stare, the brand's commitment to sustainability, and the remarkable story of Nicola Piercy's triumph over personal tragedy while building a globally recognised and eco-conscious business.

How to navigate VC term sheets
Why you need to do due diligence on investors
How to not take investor rejection personally

72. Vicky Whiter & Claire Gill, Peters’ Cleaners - Dry cleaning: sexy & investable?

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 22:49:18 GMT

#B2C #crowdfund #regional #marketing #heritage #strategicplanning #storytelling #exitstrategy

Vicky Whiter acquired and transformed a struggling heritage dry cleaning business after she saw potential where others saw challenges. The business had a stellar reputation but suffered from poor marketing and a lack of awareness.

She initially self-funded and had friends and family invest while she replaced physical locations with lockers. She wanted to solve the challenge she had faced in her busy corporate career: the dry cleaner never being open at the right time or place.

Vicky brought on Clare Gill, to take charge of all aspects of marketing, and help take the businesses to the next level. One of her objectives was to “make dry cleaning sexy” and inject life into the brand ahead of their crowdfund which she did with attention-grabbing tag lines such as, “drop your trousers”.

In this episode, Vicky and Clare highlight the power of strategic planning and storytelling to secure the right investment partners and control the destiny of your business. Tune in to unravel the journey of making dry cleaning sexy and investable!

Why you should consider your exit strategy at the start
The art of warming up investors before a crowdfunding campaign
The importance of investing in marketing

71. Lisa Eaton, Fabric Academy - The Power of Advisors

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 18:46:55 GMT

#marketing #saas #tech #angelinvestment #advisors #strategy

From marketing agency owner to SaaS tech entrepreneur, Lisa Eaton didn’t have the intention to raise investment when she started up Fabric Academy, an online training provider for marketers. However, it was when she realised the business potential and her ambition to dominate the space globally that she started looking at the equity investment route.

Being new to the world of investment, Lisa mapped out local experts in the North East of England that could fill certain knowledge gaps. It was after discovering who could add value to the business that she “accidentally” found her Angel investors and went on to successfully close her round of funding.

Listen to Lisa’s investment journey to find out what she learned along the way and her tips that might help you with your own fundraising endeavours.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

The value of having advisors from the start
Why you should think of raising investment as a sales process
How to select the right route to investment

70. Rebekah Brown, MPowder -Raising Money for Menopause

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 19:34:29 GMT

#health #consumer #pitchdeck #VC #angel #accelerator #research

£850K raised

Like many women starting businesses, the motivation for Rebekah Brown’s entrepreneurship, MPowder, was in response to her own experiences and spotting a gap in the market. She was struggling with a multitude of symptoms during perimenopause and felt there was barely any information on how to deal with it.

Since then, Rebekah has listened to the stories of many women to understand midlife better, launching several supplements to help enhance the stages of menopause. Rebekah credits the co-creation community as the driving force behind the success of MPowder. As consumers feedback and share their stories, they help the team understand what they should be thinking about next.

So, how hard was it to find investors ready to fund a menopause business? Rebekah reveals all about her experiences as she talks through her fundraising journey with our founder and CEO, Julia Elliott Brown.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

How accelerators can help you begin conversations with investors
Why it's normal to feel confused by the investment world
Why storytelling during pitches is the key to getting investment

69. Polly McMaster, The Fold - Don’t Fold under pressure

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 06:00:00 GMT

#pregnant #crowdfund #fashion #angelinvestment #stress #retail #resilience

£11 million raised

From being in turmoil and struggling to eat and sleep, to Kate Middleton wearing a dress from the brand; elevating the business to new heights. All in the same year. Oh, and add in raising over £11m in funding, and a couple of pregnancies. Not easy!

Being an entrepreneur is an incredibly turbulent journey. Polly McMaster is the founder of modern luxury workwear brand, The Fold, and she’s been experiencing the highs and lows since 2011. As Polly says in this episode, “that's something you have to have your eyes wide open to, when you go into it”.

So how did Polly approach her fundraising strategy and stay sane throughout the process? All is revealed as she talks to our founder and CEO Julia Elliott Brown about her experiences.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Why a simple approach to raising investment is key
How to deal with the immense stress of fundraising
Understanding when you just need to get the deal over the line

68. Sheila Hogan, Biscuit Tin - Raising For DeathTech

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 18:14:56 GMT

#deathtech #angelinvestment #resilience #tech #saas #PR #grantfunding #crowdfunding

Sheila Hogan is the founder of Biscuit Tin, a TechDeath company and digital vault that securely holds information and makes managing our affairs when we come to the end of our life easier. With an extensive background in tech and business strategy, Sheila secured grant funding from Scottish Enterprise, utilising her skills in writing business cases. She initially thought it was possible to get plenty of funding just from having the idea for the business, but this wasn’t the case.

Biscuit Tin won the COVID response competition from Innovate UK, being one of 800 out of thousands of applications which gave the business runway through the pandemic. With no marketing budget, Sheila used partnerships to get the business to market and has been on Dragon’s Den which has certainly helped with PR and awareness. She used the media opportunity to cleverly run the true investment campaign in parallel and raised from a mix of angels and VCs.

Since then, Sheila’s been on a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, with a large US investor pulling out at the last minute, the UK economy crash and then, an all-consuming crowdfund for £150K. Sheila is still on the fundraising journey, looking for further investment to propel Biscuit Tin forward.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

How to keep moving forward when it’s tough raising investment
How to get the most from PR opportunities when fundraising
Why too many voices can hinder your funding journey

67. Cindy Gallop, MakeLoveNotPorn - Funding a real sex website

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 19:35:13 GMT

#sextech #angelinvestment #marketing #education #resilience #sexualwellbeing

Cindy Gallop founded MakeLoveNotPorn, the world’s first user-generated, human-curated ‘social sex’ video-sharing platform. Over 1 million people have signed up from 200+ countries, generating around £60K revenue per month despite many business growth challenges involved in marketing a SexTech business.

No investors wanted to “touch the business with a barge pole” fourteen years ago, when the company was started by Cindy, due to fear of being associated with SexTech. However, Cindy saw an opportunity in the market. She feels sex is essentially a recession-proof industry and the niche of “socially acceptable” sex, which normalises it and allows people to publicly share sex and advocate for this is needed in society.

Cindy managed to get one private angel investor to invest $3 million. Things are slightly better now than 14 years ago thankfully, but there have still been many challenges due to restrictions around marketing and other elements. The longer-term goal for the business is to create “sex education” content in collaboration with experts through the platform. She’s currently raising investment to achieve this ambition.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

How to be resilient when raising investment
Why you need to market yourself and your brand constantly to raise successfully
Why the investors who get it, will champion you in every way!

66. Katy Cottam, Luna Daily - Funds, vulvas, knees and toes

Thu, 04 May 2023 21:28:45 GMT

#ecommerce #wellbeing #femaleproduct #brandpositioning #angelinvestment #VCinvestment

Katy Cottam is the CEO and Founder of Luna Daily, the award-winning body care brand for all skin, including intimate care. Katy’s own personal experience with traditional, often stigmatised feminine hygiene products was what led her to want to develop something better for women.

Fast forward 15 years of a career in the beauty and wellness industry, Katy made the leap and started on the brand during Covid. She enlisted the help of expert dermatologists and gynaecologists and Luna Daily was born.

Katy secured a pre-seed funding round from several angel investors. She remembers hearing from multiple people “That's not possible" and is really glad she didn't listen to that advice and instead pushed to get on board the right angel partners that fully believed in the vision.

The relationships Katy has built have been fundamental to the success of the business - with the next round of investment of £2 million propelling them to new heights alongside stock financing of £1 million. While stock finance is not for everyone, Katy’s deal structure has been a perfect marrying of both funding types that has allowed Luna Daily to scale quicker.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

How to build your dream team
Start with your brand positioning
Why you need to stay nimble in your fundraise

65. Vivi Cahyadi Himmel, AltoVita - Investor herd mentality

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:30:28 GMT

#property #digitalnomad #vcinvestment #angelinvestment #seriesa #personalbrand #termsheet

Vivi Cahyadi Himmel is the CEO and Co-Founder of AltoVita, and is on a mission to build the largest, most connected ecosystem in corporate accommodation.

As digital nomads, Vivi and her co-founder had the ambitious goal of building a global empire. With Vivi being from an investment banking background, she had some financial skills, but starting a business was a whole new challenge. It’s why being humble is core to the culture of the business now, and not knowing everything is okay.

The co-founders started with £60K to bootstrap their company which allowed them to launch a website, start marketing and recruit internal developers. Then they secured £300K through family and friends. AltoVita went on to raise £1.6m from angel investors globally. Key to their success were a few highly engaged ‘anchor’ investors who really resonated with the product. Vivi confirms herd mentality is not just a myth.

Most recently was their Series A round. During the process, they walked away from some of the term sheets they were given by investors which was a difficult decision. When starting up a company, Vivi thinks you should truly consider investment market fit - not just product market fit.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Why you need a personal brand - not just a company brand
How to secure ‘anchor’ investors
When to walk away from the term sheet

How do you know if an investor is right for you?

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 09:14:59 GMT

After putting in an immense effort preparing your business for its fundraise and meeting with potential backers, you’ve finally found an interested investor.

But before you get too excited, take a second and consider a few things.

Ask questions

How can you tell if this is a person you want to do business with and whether them being an investor makes sense for you and your start-up?

You can determine if an investor is right for you by asking questions. Ask any seasoned investor whether they can recall a single instance of a founder asking their reasons for investing. This happens very little and is a mistake on the part of the founder.

How can you possibly know whether a potential investor is a good fit for you if you don't know what matters to them? Ask open-ended, strategic questions that will help you learn what the person's investment style and background is.

What problems do they encounter when determining where to invest, what worries do they have when investing in start-ups, and which sectors and industries do they typically invest in?

With these questions, you can determine whether your possible investor is a suitable match for you and what's essential to them. If it’s obvious you’re not aligned, you may as well let them know it'll be unsuitable for you both. Don't accept the money!

Consider the terms and conditions

Before finalising the deal, it's important to determine if there are any conditions attached to the investment. For instance, they may require a lead investor to be confirmed or only have funds available after a certain date. Ask them what they expect to see in the Term Sheet , which outlines the basics of the investment deal.

You should ask whether they'll demand a board seat, charge management fees, or want a say in certain decisions. Any unusual or unreasonable clauses should be treated as red flags. Proceed with caution.

What's it like to work with the investor?

It's important to ensure you're a good fit for each other and can build a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship. Ask them how their interests align with yours and what value they think they can add to your business. And here's a good one: "What do you think other founders you've worked with would say about you as an investor?" Talk to a few of their portfolio founders to get the inside scoop.

Remember, you're in charge here. Investors are looking for great businesses to back just as much as you're looking for investment. So, if something doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to walk away. Stay cool and keep moving forward with your next investor chat. You're one step closer to finding the right investors to support you and your business.

To learn more about how to prepare for conversations with investors, join the Fundraising Academy .

How to deal with sexist behaviour from investors

Fri, 03 Mar 2023 16:02:11 GMT

Brilliant female-founded start-ups are severely hindered by sexism in the male-dominated investment sector. We've seen it first-hand over and over again.

Even our founder and CEO, Julia Elliott Brown, the leading fundraising expert working with female-led start-ups to get the funding they deserve, experienced sexism on her entrepreneurial journey launching, growing and funding successful businesses.

Entrepreneurs and the start-up community must openly discuss this sensitive subject and potential solutions.

Is there still a lack of investment in female founders?

Yes. Absolutely.

According to the European Investment Bank, "female-founded companies deliver twice as much revenue per dollar invested, despite receiving less than half of the investment capital of their male peers," and startlingly, "female entrepreneurs pulled in only a tiny fraction - 1% - of venture capital investment in 2021."

These figures highlight the difficulty female entrepreneurs face while also highlighting how tragic it is that so many women are missing out on achieving their goals due to their gender.

Statistics from Simply Business, show that only 29 percent of UK small businesses are run by women and this falls to just four per cent in the trades, according to Simply Business research.

Julia's personal experience

Julia's own experience with investors is comparable to that of many other female founders. At first, she was having great success gaining funding for the "fashion-tech" design-your-own shoe firm, Upper Street, a business she founded with her sister. The casual misogyny they encountered, however, made her realise that most male venture investors didn't take her female-owned enterprises seriously. One said “isn’t it just a nice little lifestyle company you can run to fit around your kids and family life?”.

She soon discovered that it was not only male venture capitalists with this kind of attitude. A male bank lender visited her house to evaluate their account a year after the business bank approved our loan. After seeing her new kitchen, he made a remark along the lines of "is this what you spent the money on then". Would he have joked with a male this same way? Very likely not. Then he went a step further inquiring about the occupation of her spouse. Not a question he would have posed to a male founder.

She met an investor at an event a few years ago, and after learning about the work we do with female founders at Enter The Arena, he said “What are you, some kind of feminazi?”.

This is the opposition we face. It is absurd.

Many of you have also experienced it

In the seven years we've spent helping female entrepreneurs with their investment raises and interviewing them for the podcast Fundraising Stories with Female Founders , we've realised that sexism is tragically something that almost every female founder encounters.

Tersha Willis , a client of ours and the founder of Terrible*, a clothing line for the creative industries, once told me, “getting asked out on a date when you’re on a pitch, it’s pretty much, that’s the worst thing that can happen because it makes you feel like this is it’‘.

Alex Pluthero from Freedom Underwear said “I was asked a number of times, not outright, but they basically wanted to know if this was a lifestyle business and if I was just about to go and have kids”.

Concerns about pregnancy and ‘lifestyle’ businesses are recurring topics for female founders. Even though males would never be exposed to such subjects, barriers for women clearly still exist. It’s wrong to ask founders questions like this.

When investors behave in this inappropriate way, it sends the message that female founders lack the credibility to be taken seriously as opposed to their male counterparts. As a result, fewer women start, invest, and grow their firms, which causes the market to become even more saturated with male-dominated companies.

The problem extends beyond the unwelcome advances. Minimising our successes, or "venturesplaining," as I refer to it in my book , happens frequently. You're probed and prodded; to these usually older male investors, you're an experiment, and when their tests are complete, you’ve likely failed. Men simply aren't held to the same standards.

So, what can be done?

There’s a lot of discussion about the need for more women to lead VC firms and for female angel investors to promote diversity. But it shouldn’t be down to only women. By having both male and female investors, we can hugely improve the prospects of women.

Male investors, male entrepreneurs, and the whole investment ecosystem must examine and address sexism. And it’s not just about making these moves on International Women’s Day. The investment community must implement year-round tactics to deal with sexist behaviour in fundraising and start-ups.

To push past gender stereotypes and casual sexism when raising investment, join the Fundraising Academy .

64. Lucy Hall, LOANHOOD - Failed your investment round? Go again

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 20:20:59 GMT

#fashion #sustainability #crowdfunding #angelinvestment #valuation #VC #community

Lucy Hall is the co-founder and CEO of LOANHOOD, a gender inclusive fashion rental marketplace for the next generation. Before Lucy founded LOANHOOD in late 2019, she had a long career as model agent and had entrepreneurial experience before, with her farm to fork restaurant in Covent Garden, which is where sustainability became front of mind.

Lucy started raising for LOANHOOD by building a rewards-based Crowdfunder and receiving a grant from NatWest. This helped establish the brand’s community and opened their eyes to the crowdfunding ecosystem. After some questionable advice, they tried to raise £400,000 from VCs who, from the get-go, said, "No, you're not ready for this. You haven't got any traction”. The founders also wanted to crowdfund via Seedrs as the business has a major community aspect, so it made sense to go this route. They got commitment and went live in a way that felt poorly timed before several investors pulled out, and they decided to close the round when it didn’t exactly work out. Lucy believes you must be honest with yourself in this situation – there’s no shame in backing away and refocusing when the time is right.

Thankfully, talking to other founders was invaluable and helped Lucy, and the team figure out the next steps - contacting Angel investors. After many LinkedIn messages, their lead investor reached out to them, which was a game changer, and the domino effect began.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Why rewards-based crowdfunding won’t work for everyone
How important advice from the right people is
Why there’s no shame in failing a funding round and starting over

63. Stamena Dimitrova, Refillable - Think big to win the investment game

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:48:37 GMT

#sustainability #crowdfunding #retail #research #familybusiness #startuploan #valuation

Stamena Dimitrova is the co-founder and CEO of The Refillable, a grocery store bringing people single-use plastic free everyday products that are kinder to the planet, sustainable, local, organic, and ethically produced.

Stamena’s co-founder is her daughter, which occasionally means sparks with their differing yet complementary approaches to business. The first thing they did was research the market, to validate their idea and strengthen the vision. Then they found a shop to rent and purchased stock but just before the agreement signing, the owner pulled out. At this point, they were bootstrapping and got a small startup loan from the British Business Bank. As many founders do, Stamena underestimated how much capital they were actually going to need in the very beginning. So they crowdfunded and owe much of their success to showing their loyal community a burning passion for the business.

Looking back, Stamena believes she made a mistake in not enlisting experts to help with the marketing of the crowdfund. As a new business owner, spending money can feel like a luxury. Changing your mindset to think big and getting professional support to help with your fundraise is Stamena’s top piece of advice to budding entrepreneurs.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to use your passion to win investors over
How to remove a ‘fearful’ mindset
Why you should never neglect your health and wellbeing during a fundraise

62. Linda Wade, Spinview - Spinning funding plates

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 20:57:03 GMT

#technology #b2b #VR #VC #pitchdeck #wellbeing #communication

Linda Wade is the CEO & Co-Founder of Spinview, a virtual reality platform that simplifies the way organizations access, understand, and communicate information about the world around them using powerful digital twin technology. Linda spent over ten years in business development and partnerships for major organisations including Microsoft.

Linda had no experience in raising investment before starting the company, but luckily, her manager at Microsoft become Spinview’s chairman and championed the business, which helped elevate Linda. He advised her on how to go about doing a pitch deck, standing in front of an investor, and what kind of things they were looking for. This valuable support she received made a huge impact on the success of the initial investment round.

Linda has been spinning many funding plates with a mix of grant funding, equity funding, the government Future Fund and taking on debt. With all of this complexity within the business, Linda stays sane by developing healthy habits which give her clarity and thought space. Linda reiterates that you shouldn’t underestimate the need for supportive people around you when building and funding a growing business.

In this episode you’ll discover:

What champions of your business can do for you
How expressions of interest can give investors confidence
Why finding the right investors is fundamental for success

Raising investment as a female founder in 2023

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 14:15:07 GMT

As we enter into a new year surrounded by doom and gloom news about the investment market, what does this mean for you as a female founder looking to secure funding in 2023?

What's been going on in the market?

After a very buoyant end to 2021 following the pandemic, 2022 saw a very significant drop of 24% in the number of venture deals done in the UK, with the amount of capital invested plummeting by 52% in the last 12 months [1] .

The current economic climate is undoubtably taking its toll. In challenging times, investors often hold back, double down on their existing portfolio of investments, take less risks on early-stage businesses, and tend to back founders and industries that they feel most familiar with.

We have still not seen the dial move on funding directed to female led start-ups, who still only secure less than 2 pence in every pound of venture funding invested. We are still operating in an investment ecosystem where 95% of partners at VC firms are men, only 14% of angel investors are women.

What does 2023 have in store?

The turbulent financial environment looks set to be a continuing theme for the year ahead. It won’t be easy for early-stage start-ups to get funded. It will be more challenging for D2C businesses, as investors shy away from e-commerce and other consumer focused sectors which are more likely to be impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.

But those businesses that are solving long-term pressing problems in the world, shaking up industries, and making real innovations will still be of interest to investors, especially those who are looking for a return over the medium and long term. Tech businesses will undoubtably continue to attract most venture funding, including B2B / SaaS companies, FinTech and AI. Biotech and sustainable energy will remain hot sectors.

The increase in the SEIS investment allowance for start-ups from £150k to £250k which comes into effect in April 2023 will I hope encourage investors to direct their funds into very early stage start-ups, where we’re starting to see a lot more female founders coming through.

If we’ve learned anything over the past few years is that we must expect the unexpected. Therefore, raise money before you need it, and raise as much as you can. Because you never know what is round the corner.

How can you improve your chances of raising investment?

The very best will always win through. But there is a lot you need to get right to secure investment.

Not only must you have a highly investable business – solving a real and pressing problem, with a significant market opportunity and great potential for returns – but you must also come across as a credible founder that an investor can trust with their money. Having robust and well thought through financial forecasts, the right raise amount and a valuation that hits the sweet spot and an outstanding pitch deck are all essential parts of preparing for a successful raise. You also need to be speaking with the right investors that are most likely to be a fit for you, know how to have great meetings with them, and be able to negotiate and close your deal.

Empowering yourself with the skills to perform at your very best on all these elements will help you cut through, along with having the right professional support along the journey. Raising investment is like climbing Everest. You wouldn’t attempt it without training and preparation in advance, a well thought through strategy and plan on how you’re going to attempt the expedition, or an experienced sherpa to guide you to the peak.

61. Vineeta Tripathi, Vitarka Therapeutics - From scientist to CEO

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 22:41:00 GMT

#biotech #STEM #financials #storytelling #grant #genderbias #communication #health

Dr Vineeta Tripathi is the founder of Vitarka Theraputics, a biotech start-up developing technology to unleash the power of RNA therapeutics, a new class of medications which will help combat untreated late-stage cancers.

Vineeta founded the company in 2021 after 15 years in drug development in major pharmaceutical companies and is a co-inventor on 13 granted patents and 4 filed patents. Biotech start-ups like Vitarka Therapeutics need funds for research and development from the get go and Discovery Park Ventures invested £150,000 as part of a seed round. More recently, Vineeta raised over 500,000 dollars of investment through the IndieBio New York Program as the only UK firm in the cohort.

Vineeta’s biggest challenge was providing investors with confidenc as Vitarka is not a university spin out company, which is the more usual route for biotech start-ups. Some investors were surprised when Vineeta’s financials were highly detailed and she experienced bias from a few investors, who asked questions like, “Are you sure you can do that? And, can you balance work/ home life?”. Vineeta believes we should stop identifying and labelling a female founder as the moment a founder is labelled as female, it’s likely to put their pitch presentation at a disadvantage, at a granular, sub-conscious level. She encourages everyone listening to this podcast to take the Implicit Association Test.

In this episode you’ll discover:

Why you should be your unapologetic self when raising investment
Why all founders must learn to storytell
How critical it is to communicate your credentials effectively

What are the 5 steps to fundraising for female founders?

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 17:02:14 GMT

Access to funding is the top barrier to entrepreneurship for women across the entire entrepreneurial journey, with female founders feeling 81 per cent less likely than men that they can access the finance they need for their start-up. [i]

The thought of raising investment can feel overwhelming, especially for female founders. Ask any woman who's leading a high growth start up, and they’ll tell you they already have way too much on their plate. Embarking on the task of going out to fundraise can feel like you're at the bottom of a mountain, with that money you need right at the top of it, and it's going to be a long and tough climb to get there (if you get there at all).

But leading a start-up doesn’t mean you have to put in a 100-hour week – it’s about working smarter, not harder. And that principle also applies to the process of raising investment. Fundraising successfully while running your business, dealing with life and staying sane is about breaking down the task ahead into bite-sized chunks, so you don’t become overwhelmed. It's a step-by-step process.

Step 1: Company

You'll need to show investors you’ve got an investable business with huge potential to scale, a strong plan for growth, and a team which can execute. To be successful on your raise, you must be able to articulate your business plan, know how investors will assess the opportunity and learn how to strengthen your proposal.

Step 2: Commercials

It will be critical to demonstrate well thought-through financial projections and an attractive investment deal to potential investors. That means building strong financial forecasts, working out how much investment to raise, determining your company valuation, and structuring your investment deal well.

Step 3: Communication

When fundraising, you'll have to explain the opportunity to investors clearly and succinctly. That means learning to speak the language of investors, building a compelling investment narrative, developing your pitch deck, and communicating your true value.

Step 4: Connection

You'll need to attract the right investors who'll add real value to your business. So, you'll need to first determine which investors are right for you, then learn how to find and reach out to them, and of course make sure you run your investment campaign effectively.

Step 5: Commitment

Successful fundraising means running effective investor meetings, and negotiating and closing a great deal. You'll need to know exactly how to have the most productive investor conversations, close their commitment on backing you and negotiate your deal to build long-term value. The deal isn't done until you've got the money in the bank!

Fundraising Mindset

Your fundraising mindset underpins all these steps, as you need to keep that strong throughout the whole fundraising journey. It's the extra factor that makes the difference between failure and success on your journey, providing you with bulletproof confidence. You'll need to discover how to keep your mindset strong, stay focused, build resilience, and remain authentic through the fundraising process.

Why must you get all five right – and in the right order?

Following the 5 Steps in the right order is absolutely critical for a number of reasons:

There's no point in spending all your energy connecting with investors, trying to see if they’ll back you, if you aren’t able to show them you’ve got a business that’s investable or you don’t have a sensible deal proposal. The value proposition won’t be clear.

You can have an incredible business, with strong and well-based financial projections, but if you’re unable to communicate effectively to potential investors, you’re going to get nowhere. They won’t be able to see the opportunity.

Communicating your proposition with well-crafted outreach messages and a stellar investor presentation is all well and good, but if you’re speaking to the wrong investors, you’re wasting your time. You’ll be knocking on closed doors.

You can do a brilliant job at getting in front of the perfect investor, but if you walk into that meeting and don’t know how to handle yourself, can’t communicate the opportunity or don’t have a clue how to get the best deal, you’ll struggle. You won’t get an offer, or you’ll sign a poor deal that won’t benefit you in the long term.

Develop your skills and get the right support

Fundraising is something you may end up doing time and again as you build and grow your start-up: it’s a key part of your role as a founder and entrepreneurial leader, so empowering yourself with the strategy, skills and support to be successful in raising investment is absolutely critical.

First step: check out our Female Founder Investability Scorecard ™ . It's a free, confidential test that measures your potential to raise investment by analysing your performance across 5 key areas. Your unique score will reveal your personal strengths and weaknesses and deliver practical, actionable tips to improve your results and help you secure the funding you need.

Next, to get the right support through all five steps of the fundraising process, join our Fundraising Academy for Female Founders where you'll learn how to raise investment and be guided through the whole fundraising journey. You’ll be able to confidently communicate the business opportunity, reach and pitch to your ideal investors, secure their commitment and negotiate your deal.

60. Abbie Miranda, Beija London - Explaining bras to investors

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 21:09:06 GMT

#consumer #pandemic #underwear #fashion #crowdfunding #valuation

Abbie Miranda is the co-founder and head of design at iconic lingerie brand Beija London which responds to the needs of different cup sizes from AA-H. Their collection is beautifully practical, without compromising on style.

Abbie launched the business in 2016 with her co-founder and sister Maizie, with Abbie managing design and Mazie heading up the brand. The sisters grew up in a family lingerie manufacturing business with their mum as a successful entrepreneur which was understandably inspiring. However, with the family’s successes came some pressure for Beija to be profitable and get to a good place - fast. Beija is now an independent company with over 30,000 customers and an incredible rate of repeat purchases - a metric described as “the soul of e-commerce”.

In 2021, Beija launched its crowdfunding campaign after considering different ways of raising investment. While crowdfunding definitely felt scary, Abbie was confident that their loyal customers were behind them. They launched the crowdfund during the pandemic with less than half the funds already secured which is certainly a risky move, but thankfully it paid off when over 300 investors invested a total of £480,000.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How your valuation can impact the success of your crowdfund
How to communicate your unique edge to investors
The value a lead investor can bring beyond just money

Women backing women?

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 14:56:39 GMT

Should female angel investors only invest in female-founded businesses?

The dial is still not moving on the gender funding gap. Still, less than 2% of venture funding goes to women-led businesses, and more than half of female founders experience gender bias in the fundraising process.

In the current economic climate, investors are pulling back or redirecting capital into their existing portfolio or later stage less risky deals, and angel investment has dropped by 32% compared to this time last year. The impact on female founders starting to come through at seed stage is likely to be felt acutely. There is often talk of how at the current rate of progress, it will take 100 years before we close the gender funding gap. However, there is a danger that the dial for female founds might go backwards. We must act.

Investors tend to have a bias towards backing businesses and founders they understand and relate to. Male investors are half as likely as their female counterparts to invest in start-ups with a woman on the senior team, and three times less likely to invest in those with a female CEO. We clearly need more women investing.

The impact of female angels

Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest who led the seminal Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship in the UK, and Jenny Tooth OBE, Executive Chair of the UK Business Angels Association, are just two of the women in the industry who are striving to make serious change. One of the spinouts of the Rose Review is the Women Angel Investment Task Force which Jenny leads. I’m a fan of their Women Backing Women campaign, running a series of events across the UK to encourage more women to invest.

However, women still only make up 14% of the angel community, and less than 0.5% of that community have built a portfolio of at least 10 investments.

A recent study from the UKBAA and industry data experts Beauhurst on The Impact of Female Angel Investment In The UK reveals that over 1,000 female led business have been backed by women angel investors in the last 10 years, injecting £2.34bn of capital into those start-ups. However, these numbers are still small compared to the overall industry statistics. Looking at the report in detail, the absolute amount of equity investment with female angel participation has actually gone down in the last couple of years, both in terms of number and value, from £304m to £266m, and 571 to 409 respectively, whilst data from Beauhurst’s The Deal 2021 showed that investments from the angel community as a whole were growing and the UK venture capital industry almost doubled.

Women backing women

So, with all this information in mind, should female angel investors, still in the minority, focus on deploying their funds into female founders? In my view, it’s a resounding ‘yes’. Changing an industry is hard. Shifting your own behaviour is much easier.

In the past decade, almost 25% of all companies backed by female angels were female-founded, higher than the average of 19%. I’d like to see that number at 100%. Male founders don’t need female angel investors’ support. They already have the privilege that gives them much better access to funding.

Female founders deliver significantly better outcomes for investors than their male counter parts, performing 63% better than those of their male peers in delivering value for their investors, significantly less likely to fail , and generating 10 per cent more revenue, and delivering double the return on investment. From a rational decision-making process alone, it’s a total no brainer.

The more female founders that we back, who go onto scale and exit their business, the more these women will put back into female-led start-ups themselves as angel investors. It’s circular.

The Crowdfunding Effect

The definition of Female Angel Investors within the aforementioned report from the UKBAA and Beauhurst is “those individuals who have shareholding(s) in at least two different companies, excluding those which have received crowdfunding”. We should consider changing this because many women, myself included, invest exclusively via crowdfunding. Anecdotally, the leading crowdfunding platforms tell me that 25% of crowdfunding investors are women. Worth noting too that funding amounts through crowdfunding have only dropped by 7% in the last year (against the industry average of 33%) and is the second most important route to investment for women. And it’s great for female founders, who have a 75% success rate compared to 55% by male founders. 24% of crowdfunding deals go to female founders.

So where next?

Despite the ongoing work in the angel ecosystem to raise awareness of the gender funding gap, encourage more diversity of investors, better measure and track diversity in funding opportunities and outcomes, and provide more comprehensive support for female founders, there is still clearly a very long way to go before we have a level playing field.

We encourages female angel to put 100% of their venture investments into women-led start-ups.

We continue to work hard to give female founders exposure within the investment community, through our networks, email communications and social media channels. Visibility is a big part of the issue, as well as raising their confidence and helping them know that other women have got their back.

[This article was originally published in Angel News in November 2022]

E59. Gabi Jennings, Love Ocean - Facing your fundraising fears

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 20:51:28 GMT

#financials #sustainability #personalcare #valuation #crowdfunding #consumer

Gabi Jennings is the founder of Love Ocean, a sustainable bathroom products brand creating an ocean-friendly children's range in a striking whale tail-shaped bottle. Before Gabi set up Love Ocean, she spent 20 years as a brand and beauty specialist, working for companies including Harpers Bazaar, Youx, Net-A-Porter and Conde Naste.

When Gabi overcame her fear of the ocean, a love of the ocean emerged, so the inspiration behind the brand was born. Being out of your depth is a common part of entrepreneurship! By taking a different approach to developing a product, and beginning with storytelling, Love Ocean differentiated itself in the kids’ bath product market.

Gabi has raised over £600K from a mix of crowdfunding and friends and family. She found the complex financials needed for investors daunting so brought on financial partners that advised her to “Never try and blag your way through a financial answer”. Gabi advises working with experts, and coaches/ mentors to unlock the financial confidence needed to alleviate the pressure many female founders face when raising investment.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How facing your fears can show you what’s possible
How to use founder passion to succeed at raising investment
Why mentorship and coaching make all the difference

How long does it take to fundraise?

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 11:21:42 GMT

Funding is the number one priority of any growing start-up business, whether you’re at idea stage, making early progress and winning customers, or more established and beginning to scale.

However, one of the biggest issues that we see for female founders is leaving it too late to start working on your fundraising campaign. You might keep putting your fundraise off for as long as possible because you're afraid of or don't understand the process, are worried you don’t have everything ready, are constantly trying to do everything perfectly or are just caught up with the day to day (i.e. firefighting) of running your business without enough resource, along with dealing with life in general. All of this is super stressful, but adopting a head in the sand approach to funding isn’t the solution. If you need funding to make your business a success, it can be extremely dangerous to procrastinate.

The dangers of leaving it too late

If you leave raising investment to the point when you’re out of cash and at the point of desperation, you’ll be in a much weaker position; like a rabbit in the headlights, giving off the scent of fear that an investor can smell from a mile off.

You simply won’t have enough time to do a good job of it, risking taking the wrong deal, or getting no funding at all. And that can lead to your business either stagnating or having to close.

How long does it take to raise investment?

If you try and go it alone, without the right support and advice along the way, it’s easy for a fundraise to suck up all your time and energy, and you can find yourself still out there trying to raise money after 12 or 18 months.

However, if you follow a structured professional approach, a well-run fundraising campaign should take around four to six months from start to finish, sometimes a little longer.

Is fundraising seasonal?

Bear in mind that certain periods in the year can impact the timescales on raising money, as the investment industry tends to go a little quiet in the school holidays; meanwhile, the weeks towards the end of the accounting financial year are also busy times for investors, so be sure to plan accordingly.

Do the groundwork and preparation in the quieter months, then hit the ground running when investors are back at their desks. January, May and September are great times to start your investor outreach, so give yourself a good couple of months in advance of that to work on your fundraising strategy, pitch assets and all the preparation.

What's the first step to take?

The sooner you start empowering yourself with the strategy, skills and support you need to be successful in fundraising the better.

The very best entrepreneurs are decisive and resourceful. If you need to raise, make a decision to do it, then do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Explore all our free resources to learn as much as you can about fundraising - including Fundraising Insights , Investability Scorecard (TM) and our market leading Fundraising Stories with Female Founders podcast . You might even want to get your hands on a copy of our CEO and Founder's best selling book on the subject: RAI$E: The Female Founders Guide To Securing Investment.

Then it's time to take the leap and make this fundraise happen! Join our Fundraising Academy , and we'll take you through the whole process. You'll be in safe hands.

How UK Enterprise Schemes can benefit a female founder

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 13:58:13 GMT

If you’re a female founder raising finance in the UK, you have a UK-registered company (or have a branch or subsidiary in the UK), and you’re a UK resident, you may qualify for the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and/or the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). Early-stage investors are much more interested in those companies that qualify for SEIS/EIS because they can get attractive tax breaks whilst supporting high-growth UK companies. 80% (i) of the total UK angel investors' portfolio is in SEIS/EIS eligible businesses, demonstrating just how important this is to them.

In September 22 the UK government extended the SEIS scheme. In challenging times, investors tend to put their money into their existing portfolio or in less risky later stage businesses, where there are far fewer women-led start-ups in play. So, by encouraging money to flow into the pre-seed venture stage businesses should in theory mean we fund more female founders.

Key benefits of the scheme

Some key benefits of the scheme are that investors can claim back up to 50% of their investment against income tax, offset any losses they make against capital gains or income tax, and don’t have to pay capital gains tax when they sell their shares if they’ve held them for at least 3 years, nor pay any inheritance tax if shares held for at least 2 years. (Win-win!)

Note that you must use any qualifying investment to grow the business through trading activity or investing in research and development; you can’t use EIS funding to pay back loans. Employees, major shareholders, and family members who invest in your business don’t qualify for the scheme. If you’re raising money using an ASA this can still be done within the SEIS / EIS investment scheme if your ‘priced’ investment round happens within 6-months. Here are the key differences between the two schemes:

SEIS

• Focused on very early-stage companies

• Your business must have been trading for less than 3 years

• Only the first £250k you raise can qualify

• Investors get 50% tax break

• Investors can put in a maximum of £200k total per year into SEIS start-ups

• Investors can’t take more than a 30% stake in your business to qualify

EIS

• Designed with small and medium-sized businesses in mind

• Your business must have been trading for less than 7 years, or have raised

some EIS funding within the first 7 years

• You may raise up to £5m per year of EIS funding

• Investors get 30% tax break

• Investors can put in a maximum of £1m total per year into EIS start-ups

Do check all the latest rules and qualification criteria on SEIS and EIS with HMRC.

Most investors will want to see you have Advanced Assurance that you qualify for SEIS/EIS before they invest, which you can apply for from HMRC. You’ll need to have all the information about your business (for example, your financial forecasts and pitch documents) ready to send in with your application. It’s possible to make this application yourself, although you may wish to get the support of your financial advisor if you feel your case might be complex or to be certain you’ll get it all right.

So female founders if you think you qualify, it may be a great opportunity for you and your business. For further information or need help during the application process, please get in touch with us!

E58. Alexandra Pluthero, Freedom Underwear - Challenges Of Funding A Non Tech Business

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 21:03:55 GMT

#ecommerce #friends&family #femaleproduct #consumer

Alexandra Pluthero is the founder and CEO of Freedom Underwear which is renowned for creating innovative non-wired bras in D+ cup sizes. She started her brand after experiencing the many pain points of bras and learning how to use a sewing machine on YouTube. Alexandra used her own savings to take the risk of quitting her job and developing ‘the world’s most comfortable’ bra.

Alexandra needed investment early on to launch, buy stock and begin marketing. Interest from family and friends led to her first round of £50K. Freedom Underwear launched in 2020 and Alexandra went for a second raise 6 months later. She realised the responsibilities as founder change as soon as you’ve launched from making bras… to finance, ops, and everything in between.

Finding investors to commit to her second raise was a challenge, and finding female investors was especially hard. Alexandra raised over £100K via the ‘next layer of the onion’ - her further-extended friends and family network. While it was scary opening up to more people, it worked!

Alexandra would like to see more transparency about what investors actually want so that entrepreneurs don’t have to spend the little time they have stumbling around in the dark.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to take the risk and put yourself out there
How to build your story and have effective conversations
Why being authentic will win over investors

Should you raise investment or not?

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 18:36:24 GMT

If you’re in the first few years of running your start-up, you’re probably thinking about how to finance the growth of your company. Investment is something you may be considering. But is it right for you?

What is investment?

Investment, often also known as 'equity finance' is where you sell shares in your company in return for a cash investment. This investment usually comes from angel investors / high net worth individuals (HNWIs), venture capital firms (VCs), corporate venturing arms, or via private equity firms (PE). Equity Crowdfunding platforms are also increasingly used to bring together these types of investors on a deal.

When might equity finance be the right funding choice for you?

1. When you’ve got traction - Investment is best suited for those businesses that are already proving traction in their market and are ready to scale, which is the point at which seed venture investors are most likely to be interested in backing you.

2. When you want senior level support - Typically, those people who invest will have voting rights, so you need to be comfortable knowing you’re giving up some control when you take on investors (although you can negotiate how much). The benefit of bringing on the right investors means that there are others who are sharing your risk, and others who also have a vested interest in helping you grow the company. If you bring on investors with valuable skills and experience, this can be very helpful.

3. When you’re ready to scale towards exit - Investors will also look for return on the money they’ve invested, typically within 5-10 years. So that means once you take on equity investment, you’re effectively on a route to exit. If this is in alignment with your own goals, and one day you plan to sell your business and realise the value that you’ve created, then equity finance could be a great route for you.

4. When you need significant investment to get to your next milestone – Raising equity investment can be an involved process, so if you’re raising less than £50k, there are other routes to consider. But if you’re raising £100k+, then equity funding can enable you to secure finance to that level or way beyond.

When might investment be the wrong route to take?

1. If you’re still at idea stage, or in early development – At this very early point in your business journey, you’ve not yet validated the market. This makes the venture much riskier and therefore more challenging to secure investment for.

2. If you’re building a ‘lifestyle’ business – If you have no plans to scale your business into being something much bigger, then investors won’t be interested as they simply won’t get a return

3. If you’ve no plans to sell your business down the line – If you plan to keep your company as an income generator for you and your family for years to come, that’s fine. But in this scenario, investors won’t be able to get their capital out, so the opportunity won’t interest them.

What are the other options on finance you might consider?

1. Boot-strapping – At the beginning of your business growth journey, back yourself as far as possible, and beg, borrow and steal (not that I'm actually recommending theft!) the cash you need to get you out of the blocks. Look to your savings, credit cards and Friends, Family and Fools (FFF) to help you on your way.

2. Rewards-based Crowdfunding – This can be a great way to launch a new product, because you’re effectively pre-selling it to the market to raise the funds you need to produce it. That means that you get market validation and finance for development. However, you may need to invest some money in marketing your campaign, in the same way you would to sell any product; you've got to drive people to your crowdfunding page, and make sure your page effectively markets the product. Check out Indigogo , Kickstarter or Crowdfunder.co.uk

3. Debt – A great o p tion for early stage businesses is the government-backed Start-up Loan, where you can get up to £25k on a personal loan basis; try Virgin Start-up , who can help you with the loan plus plug you into their start-up network. You may also want to try your business bank, or you could even crowdsource your loan through a service like Funding Circle . Don't forget, you will probably need to personally underwrite any loan you take out, or secure it against your assets.

4. Grants – This can be a good route if you’re developing a technology based business, or one that will have significant impact in scientific or social developments. Speak to Grant Tree who may be able to help you on your way, or search for industry-specific government or quasi-government grants.

5. R&D Tax credits – If your business requires research and development investment in the early days, then check out the tax relief you can get from the government on this.

6. Invoice Financing – If you have large confirmed orders from clients who have lengthy payment terms, you can look to secure invoice financing so that you get the cash now for a fee, instead of waiting for that invoice to be paid 30, 60 or 90 days down the line.

In conclusion, for businesses with good signs of traction, strong potential for growth, and ambitions for exit over the next 5-10 years, then equity finance can be an excellent way to unlock significant amounts of funding for entrepreneurs. If you're not at this point yet, then there are other options to pursue to get you on your way.

E57. Farah Kabir, Hanx - Funding for condoms

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 17:43:56 GMT

#consumer #sexualhealth #angelinvestment #familyoffice

Farah Kabir is the co-founder of HANX, a leading sexual wellness challenger brands in the UK. As a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, Farah’s entrepreneurial journey started with being seen purchasing condoms by her boss and feeling embarrassed, to co-founding the company with her childhood friend, Sarah who is a gynecology doctor.

They both felt strongly that the current offering isn’t fit for purpose and wanted to create sexual wellness products to address the problem. They went about starting the passion project with thorough market research and surveyed 2,000 women on sexual health and buying habits.

Funding the business as two female entrepreneurs and Farah being from a Bangladeshi Muslim background, came with an array of challenges, naysayers and inappropriate comments from “old school” male investors. While the consumer brand is tech-enabled, it’s not tech/ SaaS which is typically “sexy” for many VCs so this type of investment didn’t work out early on. On reflection, Farah believes everything happens for a reason and is happy to have angels, micro funds and family offices as investors as it has allowed them to learn the true definition of ‘capital preservation'.

In this episode you’ll discover:

Why you’ll always be raising investment
Tips for reaching out ‘cold’ to potential investors
How to get a thick skin

E56. Nicole Smith, Flytographer - Accidental entrepreneurship

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 16:45:39 GMT

#consumer #traction #angelinvestment #photography

Nicole Smith is the Founder and CEO of Flytographer, a global marketplace that connects people with hand-picked local photographers for fun, one-hour photo shoots.

Before starting up Flytographer, Nicole was happy in her global marketing job at Microsoft, but had the idea and simply couldn't shake it. What started as a side hustle has grown into a global business, selling over $20 million in photo shoots and capturing millions of priceless memories.

There was an inflection point for Nicole when she needed to make a decision - to take the leap from side hustle to giving it everything. She asked herself, “what would my 85-year-old self say about this situation?” and went full force into the startup.

Nicole’s first experiences with pitching were demoralising with many male investors saying they simply didn't “get” the product. Nonetheless, Nicole secured angel investment and has raised several rounds since. While Nicole feels that there's a lot of pattern matching in Silicon Valley, it can be positive: it forces you to build a stronger business because you don't get the pass that others might get.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How accelerator programmes can kick start your fundraising journey
The level of traction you need to secure a “yes” from investors
How important it is to master your pitch

Why financial literacy is crucial for female founders

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 13:58:58 GMT

Do your eyes glaze over when you think about preparing your finance stuff for fundraising? Well, you are not alone! Yet, without having a strong handle on your numbers and understanding how business is performing, female founders won’t have a chance of getting an investment. As a female founder in today’s world, it’s time to fully grasp that handle on the numbers, and never more so than when raising investment. We know that female founders hold back from asking for funding if they’re not confident with their financial skills and will often come under more scrutiny on their financials too.

However, there’s no need to panic! You don’t need to be a finance expert, but you do need to know what drives the performance and growth of your business and be able to structure your investment deal. You also need enough financial literacy to be able to hold your own in a conversation with an investor. Otherwise, it’s unlikely they’re going to trust you with their money.

Here's what you're going to need as a minimum:

Why is it that female founders struggle with finance?

Culturally, we treat women differently financially from men. There are three key factors:

Conditioning: we treat boys and girls differently from an early age – from pocket money to talking about money, men were historically in charge of the finances. It is a deep cultural belief that finances are more a men’s domain.
We don’t speak to girls and women as much about finances. Many women have drilled into themselves that they’re ‘not good with numbers’, which can be a self-perpetuating myth.
We assume men have competence in funding and that women don’t.

None of this cultural conditioning is fair, right or easy to deal with. In fact, research shows that female led businesses are often more profitable than those run by men. But rather than getting stuck in the injustice of this, we’re here to help female founders to turn this around.

Financial forecasts - your business plan told in numbers.

Financial forecasts are so important for high growth founders as “cash is queen”. What we have in the bank may not be enough when we project forward to the lumps in our cash flow: VAT returns, corporation tax, PAYE, outstanding customer payments. You need at least a three-month projection of your finances to give an unobstructed view.

For a high growth potential business, use your forecast to determine whether you have the means to generate the revenue over time to meet your goals. Consider what new products, services or projects you require to meet your longer term financial targets.

You are your biggest investor. Your own time, sweat, tears, and money are going into your business. If you’re doing this blind - without a financial plan - you’re doing yourself a disservice as the prime investor.

Where to start

You’ll get a clearer view of the future by getting numbers down on paper, even if that’s just in a word document. This gives you a quick sign of patterns to help drive your decision making.

It’s worthwhile having a robust spreadsheet that shows your assets and debts, profit & loss along with a cash flow forecast to see how much money you have. This should have your historic data and your forecast. This becomes a daily dashboard that can help drive your decision making and prioritise your tasks. You can build one yourself at a basic level, or better still, engage an accountant to help you put together a format that will work for your specific business.

A good finance specialist will ask the right questions and help you stress test your assumptions to ensure your predictions are robust.

Three financial reports you must have and understand

It’s so important that founders know their finance. Investors are entrusting you with their money, so you’ll need to have a handle on the finances to ease their peace of mind.

Before speaking with investors, ensure you have and are deeply familiar with the following three reports. You can expect to be questioned on these and each report provides a unique microscope on your finances.

Profit & Loss
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet

Some tips on what you should look for from professional financial support

Many founders have a handle on their finances and easily manage these in the early stages. Be aware of your limits as finance can get technical and it’s important to recognise the point at which you need to engage a professional to help.

When you’re selecting your financial expert, consider:

Do they communicate in language that you understand? It’s important that an accountant speaks in your language and works with you to increase your financial knowledge.

Are they trying to help you understand your figures and build your ability to communicate these? Don’t accept a ‘leave it with us’ approach.

Does your accountant ask challenging questions? These will help you improve the financial position of your business and add value that you hadn’t considered.

Do they understand high growth business? Your average tax accountant rarely addresses the financial requirements to scale for growth. You should look for a commercial, forward-thinking financial director who will help you try to solve the problems that haven’t yet happened.

Know your numbers

Knowing your numbers is a critical element to successfully raising investment, and it’s important that as a founder you feel empowered to discuss your finances with potential backers. This is a key step in our Fundraising Academy programme for female founders. If you think you need some help and you want to quick chat about it, book an Intro Call and let's get you on your way.

Are you ready raise investment and fly?!

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:43:29 GMT

For those that suffer from aviophobia, otherwise known as the fear of flying, be encouraged. The statistics for flight failure have decreased 12 fold since 1970, from just over 6% to only 0.5%. That's only around 40 fatal plane crashes per year... nothing considering how many commercial flights there are globally. Yet, when that plane takes off, many of us are still petrified.

The risk of dying in a plane crash is almost nothing compared to the risks involved with building, funding and scaling your own business, where the chances of catastrophe are so much higher. In the UK, 20% of businesses fail within the first year, 50% within three years . Or the success rates around raising investment, where only 2% of those who seek funding secure it. Which makes you wonder why the hell anyone would embark on the intrepid path of entrepreneurship and raising investment.

The thing is, for many of us, entrepreneurialism is kind of in the blood. A love of taking an idea and making it happen, a constant journey of learning and growth, building a business that you always dreamed of, and taking control of your own destiny.

Getting in the plane, taxiing out of the hanger, and gaining momentum on the runway as you get your start-up off the blocks is one thing. Building, funding and scaling a start-up involves personal risks, of course. But like flying, there is great joy and reward once you're on the journey soaring high above the clouds, and there are many things you can do to mitigate risk and increase your chances of a smooth flight and a soft landing.

Here's our top tips on how to get your 'wings'...

Sign up with a reputable instructor

When embarking on the challenge of a lifetime, an excellent instructor can impart their experience and knowledge to give you the best chance of success. You wouldn't get in a Boeing 747 and try to fly across the Atlantic unless someone's shown you how to fly. So why try to raise investment without expert support? Work with the best; make sure they have significant experience in building and funding high-growth start-ups, and a proven track record of helping female founders just like you.

Develop and sharpen your skills

Like a pilot, you'll need to have excellent communication skills, in-depth knowledge of your terrain and the environment, lead with vision and bring others with you, be able to strategise and plan, be decisive and quick thinking, remain calm in a crisis, have confidence and self-discipline, be creative and analytical, and know when to break the rules. You'll develop many of these skills naturally along your business journey; in fact, every day will be a learning experience as you build up your 'flying hours'. But if you really want to be a top gun, invest time and resources in sharpening these skills.

Work with the best co-pilot and crew

Taking the fundraising journey on your own is hard. It’s far less lonely and a great deal more motivating when you have someone you can bounce ideas off, help you navigate your way through challenges and push you to achieve great things. It doesn't matter how experienced you are, I'd never recommend flying solo. This is true for both sole founders, and those who have a co-founder; it's about having external experienced support. A trusted advisor will be worth their weight in gold if you find the right fit, along with a peer network who really 'get' you.

Study the weather report

You wouldn’t take off in the middle of a hurricane. Equally in business, you need to get a strong sense that the market conditions are good before you leap. Which ways might the wind might blow, what's your route, and where will you land? Understand the competition, the gaps in the market, the size of the potential, and whether there's an underlying demand from consumers for your offering. Understand the investment ecosystem, the approach that might be right for you, and how to secure funding. Seek advice from experts who can guide you. Capture all of this in your business growth and fundraising plans, and keep on checking the weather report all the time, as the wind can easily change direction.

Check your equipment

To make your business work, you need to have the right people, product, technology and systems. But you also need to take small steps. You wouldn’t fly a fighter jet until you've learned the basics in a slower and less complicated plane. Work out what is business critical and what you can outsource. Plan how you can keep things lean and watch your cash until you’ve got more proof points; test things out before you make major investments. Fund your business on your own resources as far as you can. Get your business in the best position possible before you take the leap to raise investment and scale.

Get in the plane

Eventually, every pilot who wants to fly high and far needs to speed up to full power and start the climb. So buckle up, stop talking about it, and get on with it. Whether that's getting your business ready for investment, embarking on a fundraise, or committing to growing your business faster. Remember, you’ll never have all the answers before you get started; recognise what you don’t know and get the expert support you need to take to the skies.

Enter The Arena is here to empower you to fly through your fundraise. What are you waiting for?!

E55. Gayle Harrison, Untagged - Baptism of Fire

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 17:04:49 GMT

#fashion #sustainability #angelinvestment #VCinvestment #technology

Gayle Harrison is the Founder of Untagged, a gamified fashion resale platform that launched in February 2022. It saves you money, and you get rewarded for being sustainable through your carbon savings.

Gayle has raised around £200k in investment mostly from angels after a stellar career in consumer behaviour change and is currently raising again. She started her fundraising journey with a friends and family round, which she found difficult, conceding, “it was horrible asking for money”.

Gayle was repeatedly told by investors that she wouldn’t get investment as a single female founder and needed a co-founder. Since then, she realised through a “baptism of fire” that this isn’t true. Gayle is fully capable of succeeding and taking the sustainable fashion world by storm with Untagged.

In this episode you’ll discover:

Why confidence really is everything
How powerful your founding team is
When the best time to raise investment is

How investors assess a female led business

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 19:09:22 GMT

As a female founder building a high growth potential business, raising investment for growth is probably high on your agenda.

But what's on the agenda for investors? How will they assess you and your business as an investment opportunity?

Here are the 13 key areas they'll be considering:

Vision - What's your personal vision for what you want to achieve with the business, and why?
Problem - How large and acute is the problem you're trying to solve?
Competitive landscape - How are people trying to solve this problem right now, and why isn't that good enough?
Solution - How does your offering solve the problem, and why is it the best way?
Opportunity - Are you serving an identifiable, large and growing market?
Competitive Advantage - What's your unique selling proposition and how will you maintain this?
Customers - Who specifically are your early adopters, and which customers will then follow?
Business Model - How will you make money and what's the lifetime value of a customer?
Route To Market - How will you reach your customer, and what are the costs and timescales involved?
Traction - What proof do you already have of product to market fit?
Team - Does your core and extended team have the right skills, experience, and drive to take this idea forward?
The Promise - What are you going to do next and what results do you expect to deliver?
The Ask - What are you looking for from investors?

All this sounds simple, but there's a lot that goes into each of these areas. You've got to know exactly how investors are going to interrogate your specific plan, and how they might perceive the opportunity you're presenting.

Unfortunately, female founders can often come under a lot more scrutiny on all of this than their male counterparts. When reviewing your investment proposition, investors spend 44 per cent more time on the Business Model section than they do for male-led start-up, 107 per cent more time on the Opportunity section, and 65 per cent more time on the Traction section (i) . These are the areas you'll really need to focus on.

Their biases will also kick in when reviewing your Team section, as they'll need more convincing that you've got what it takes, because of their preconceived ideas of what women are capable of in the business world. So be mindful of this and make sure that you get your skills and credentials across well.

As founders, we're all convinced we're building the best thing since sliced bread. But will investors feel the same? Where are the strengths and weaknesses of your proposition? Where do you need to present a more convincing argument? What kind of investors might be a fit?

Before you test your plan out in the 'real-world' with investors, there's immense value in having an independent assessment of the investability of your business, as well as support in understanding the best strategy and action plan to follow for your raise.

You only have one shot at this. Let us help you get it right. Our mission: to empower you to fly through your fundraise and beyond. book a Accellerator Session for us to work with you on a full assessment of how investable your business is; your strengths, areas for development and action plan to move forward.

E54. Tersha Willis, terrible* - Is it a pitch or is it a date?

Thu, 05 May 2022 20:55:14 GMT

#angelinvestment #VCinvestment #technology #entertainment #genderbias

Tersha Willis is the co-founder and CEO of terrible*, a MusicTech business that enables bands, artists, musicians and content creators to produce and sell merchandise.

Since 2017, terrible* has worked with 500+ creators, who’ve used their data and technology to manage their entire merchandise supply chain, helping them generate five times more revenue and 50% more profit than they would anywhere else.

As a female founder, Tersha experienced every single fundraising horror story: being asked out on dates by investors, constantly interrupted and undermined mid-pitch, and told she didn’t have what it takes to succeed.

With all that being said, Tersha has learned a huge amount from two successful raises and getting the company to £127k in monthly revenue. During the most recent round, Tersha secured £300K out of the £1m they were trying to raise via angels and a boutique VC in the US. Interestingly, working with investors across the pond highlighted serious differences in the music industry and how business is done in the US.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to deal with female founder bias from investors
What to do when you get rejections
How long you really need to raise investment

How to prioritise your wellbeing when fundraising

Thu, 05 May 2022 14:36:09 GMT

Any entrepreneur, female founder or not, will tell you that they have far too much work to do. Our modern addiction to "busyness," which involves packing our days with never-ending errands and to-do lists, may be doing you more harm than good. We know from our work at Enter The Arena that so many female founders believe that their primary caregiving responsibilities are the biggest obstacle to their professional success, which is ironic given that getting flexibility with family care is the main reason women start a business in the first place!

It's crucial to have measures in place to assist you in managing the potential overload in life, regardless of your particular circumstances, whether you're a parent or have other significant duties aside from running your business. As female founders, we must surround ourselves with supportive people and carve out time to take care of our own needs. The reality, believe it or not, is that working 100 hours a week is not necessary to lead a start-up; instead, focus on working smarter, not harder. And the process of raising investment falls under this premise as well. Everyone needs some downtime to unwind as you’ll ultimately burn out if you don't properly look after your body and mind.

Self-care has never been more crucial for female founders than while you're fundraising. When talking to investors, you need to be at the top of your game. It's not a good idea to show up to a meeting with just two hours of sleep, malnourished skin that is grey and pasty, and a physique that is stiff as a board. Therefore, plan some "me-time" in your diary and don't allow it to be changed. Do whatever works for you. Exercise, meditation, artistic endeavours, interaction with others, enjoyment, or simply binge-watching your favourite TV show. In this manner, you'll be energised and prepared to give your all when you go out to invest.

So here are some strategies to manage overwhelm:

1. Know what you're doing when it comes to fundraising.

It is very, very easy to get overwhelmed because you're doing lots of fundraising activities that aren't really working or aren’t a fit for you as a female founder. For example, spending hours in isolation, stressing over your pitch deck and financials, pinging off hundreds of ineffective emails to investors that really aren't the right fit for a female founder, or having meeting after meeting with investors that lead nowhere because you don't know how to have effective conversations and close your deal.

2. Prioritisation is critical - learn how to do it now

When it comes to overwhelm, you have to know how and when to prioritise, because you can't do everything and if you try, guess what? You’re asking to be overwhelmed, as you have probably already experienced. So start by asking yourself, ‘what’s the most important and urgent thing on your list?’ And if you're raising investment, that is usually your number one priority. Set aside an hour or two first thing in the morning before you open your e-mail and get distracted with other things, and delete all non-essential apps from your phone. Stay away from the rabbit hole of social media because that will definitely lead to overwhelm.

3. Look after yourself

Most obvious, but probably most overlooked. If you're not sleeping well, if you're not feeling nourished and relaxed, and if you don't have at least some time for some fun and rest with friends and family, you will burn out. It’s not easy for female founders when it comes to ‘looking after’ ourselves. Yet overwhelm can be managed with mindset training, meditation and by focusing on the end goal - raising investment so you can grow.

4. Get the right support

Remember, getting the right professional support with fundraising can really make or break what you're doing. With the very best help, overwhelm can be reduced and your wellbeing can be prioritised. So if you're a female founder thinking about raising your investment, we'd love to help you.

10 signs your female founder led business needs investment

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 19:27:43 GMT

Less than 3% of VC investment goes to women-led businesses, yet women start one in three businesses in the UK, and they have serious potential for success. Female led businesses generate 10% more revenue , deliver double the return on investment for their financial backers, plus only 23% fail as opposed to 34% of male led businesses. So, if that’s all true, then why are female founders struggling with investment?

Not enough females are scaling their businesses. In fact, £250 billion of new value (equivalent to 1 SME million businesses) could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.

This untapped potential is so great that it’s important we take the time to dispel some myths surrounding equity investment.

Funding is vital for many high growth potential businesses - it’s hard to scale without cash to support your growth. Ensuring you have enough to rocket fuel your growth can be the difference between success and failure. This is something our own female founder community knows only too well - in a recent poll we ran on our Female Founders Fly group, our members told us that money is the one thing they need more of in their businesses.

But how do you know if investment is critical for your own start-up success? What are the key triggers to look for as a catalyst for seeking equity funding?

Sign #1 - There’s pent up demand for your product, but you can't reach customers effectively because you have no sales or marketing budget.

Without investing in sales and marketing, it’s going to be extremely hard to grow a business effectively. Whilst organic growth can work sometimes and is great at the very beginning, it’s unlikely to be all you need to build a high growth company. If your business is already growing and there’s a distinct demand for your products or services, yet you feel you don’t have enough cash to put together a complete marketing strategy, this is a good sign you’re ready to consider your funding options.

Sign #2 - You're a marketplace business and need to attract a critical mass of audience to succeed.

Raising external investment will probably be required if you’re a marketplace business and you’re looking to get on the growth ladder. That’s because a marketplace has both buyers and sellers, for example, Airbnb, which has those letting their properties and those looking for somewhere to stay. Ultimately, you need enough people on both sides of the equation to generate success. Acquiring customers rarely comes for free, so brand awareness is key. You’ll also probably need to build your marketplace before you acquire customers, and so external funding may be critical.

Sign #3 - You need to hire great people, but you can’t afford it.

This is a Catch-22 situation and it may mean that you're ready to start your fundraising journey if you’re looking for highly skilled people to take the business forward. You may work 100 hours a week, getting caught up in all the different areas of the business that you really ought to delegate to those who excel at those things. Funding your team is a priority and whilst you may be fearful of the hours in the day that fundraising could take, it’s an important next step and you can get support.

Sign #4 - Having the right technology can be a game changer, whether you're a 'tech' company or simply tech-enabled.

So many companies these days have technology at their core. The quality of your tech can actually mean failure or success. R&D credits and grants may be options to fund technology, but you can’t claim this money until you front the initial investment. Counterintuitive much?! Securing equity financing can be a good option if you have an attractive business built around innovative technology and can prove the ROI for investors.

Sign #5 - Are you looking to get to profitability sooner rather than later?

Once you turn a profit, you become self-sustaining. Hurrah! But, it's hard to get there. If you’re a product business, it’s likely that your unit costs will be lower when you have larger order sizes, giving you a higher margin. Raising investment can help certain businesses lower their costs and get to profitability quicker. It’s not for everyone, but it can rocket fuel some companies. Work out when profitability should hit and how much investment you might need to cover the shortfall.

Sign #6 - Do you need a cash injection to fund operational requirements?

There can be quite a significant lag with a business’ outgoings and getting paid by customers. Larger cash injections through equity funding can not only cover operational cash requirements but also help kick start growth. With a good markup, you can achieve a profit, but you’ll have a lot of costs to cover during the gap between buying the product and selling it to your customers. You may have a few options for funding, such as bank loans, but equity funding could give you much more cash to grow your business faster.

Sign #7 - You may want to capture market share and do it quickly!

It’s called first mover advantage and may be the key to success in many industries. Beating your competitors to it often means pushing for growth over profit. A lot of successful start-ups take this approach, e.g. Facebook and Uber. The only way to fund this type of market share is through equity fundraising. It will be extremely hard to get it elsewhere at such an early stage.

Sign #8 - Building innovative and unique IP can be expensive and may mean your business needs investment up front.

Do you have really innovative and unique intellectual property? Copyrights and trademarks can be really costly. Typically, if you’re developing IP, you’ll need equity funding to help you along. Some of our Fundraising Stories podcast guests in this category include the incredible companies Secret Saviours , Built ID , Grow Up Urban Farms and Loowatt . If your IP is at the heart of your business, fundraising may be right for you.

Sign #9? Do you have competitors? Do you need a competitive edge?

Most likely, yes, and if you don't, you’ll probably have them at your heels soon. Investment can help you get ahead of competitors. Having an edge and a great marketing story will help. It’s impossible to compete without money. Once again, consider equity funding if there’s not enough cash in the bank.

Sign #10 Is it speed... that you’re looking for?

More fuel = faster results = a higher return. Instead of growing slowly, you might consider scaling to sell the business, moving onto another venture or... Anything else. It’s as simple as that!

What pitch events are there for female founders?

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 13:43:34 GMT

Pitch events can be an effective way to build out your network while also getting live experience presenting your business. They can be nerve-racking, but worth braving to strengthen your pitching skills, get useful feedback through the questions that investors ask, plus exposure to investors and other influencers in the start-up ecosystem.

Some offer cash prizes or mentoring for the winners, and occasionally the offer of investment (although watch out for the T&Cs on these, as the deals aren’t always that great).

Choose wisely which ones you apply for, as pitch events can be a real drain on time and resources. It’s important to understand who the audience is, what exposure you’ll get, and what the pitching environment will be like, to see if it’s a potential fit for you.

And most importantly, be aware that these pitch events are seriously competitive! Don’t even think about applying unless you’re confident you’re investment ready. We’re here to help you do that with our Fundraising Academy for Female Founders , which not only prepares you for pitching, but supports you right through the fundraising process.

Our favourite pitch events for female founders

AllBright’s Pitch Day for Female Founders – We’re big fans of this long standing regular event, where female founders pitch either at the AllBright Club in Mayfair, or at one of their online events. Finalists get to attend a free Pitch Clinic with our founder and fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown .

Playfair Capital’s Female Founder Office Hours – This is a great one that gets you exposure to many investors who are interested in backing women-led start-ups – runs a couple of times a year.

Entrepreneurs Collective - Regular female founder’s pitch event at Home Grown that kicked off in 2022. Our founder Julia is a regular judge on the panel.

Other pitch events

Also worth checking out these other major pitch events, whilst although not exclusive to female founders, have a good track record of picking female founder winners:

https://thepitch.uk/ - Runs annually, with regional plus UK finals. Applications open in the Spring. Previous female founder winners from our network include Emilie Vanpoperinghe from Oddbox and Farah Kabir from HANX .

Dragons Den – the eponymous TV show – great opportunity for exposure, but beware, this is TV and you have no control over how you’ll be edited for the final show! Don’t expect an amazing deal, but you can always turn it down once the show is over. A number of female founders in our network have had successful exposure going down this route, including Cecily Mills from Coconuts Naturally and Heinin Zhang from yHangry .

There are also many funding platforms and networks that run pitch events showcasing the founders they’re working with to the investment community. We can connect you with these organisations once you’re investment ready.

Know a great pitch event for female founders that we've missed off the list? Drop us an email at fly@enterthearena.co.uk as we'd love to hear about it!

E53. Yang Liu, JustWears - Every No is a step closer to Yes

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 22:46:06 GMT

#ecommerce #angels #VC #consumer

Yang Liu is the co-founder and CEO of JustWears, a direct-to-consumer brand that brings biodegradable materials and ergonomic design into everyday men’s underwear, with the strapline of "The only underwear your balls deserve.”

Yang previously worked for a VC fund and realised as an entrepreneur, the tables were now turned. Seeking VC investment was the plan after a successful Kickstarter campaign landing JustWears £150,000. But, without ‘enough traction’, VCs just weren’t ready to invest. In hindsight, Angels were the better route as their expertise and passion for supporting entrepreneurs made Yang grateful to have gone down this path.

Since then, Yang has turned down Dragon’s Den investment and closed a huge £2.6million round from Pembroke VCT. By having a crystal clear strategy and answers to every investment question, including the exit plan, JustWears are killing it and got that VC investment they deserve.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to stop taking rejection personally
Why there’s no downside to trying
How to create a winning strategy to fundraise quickly

E52. Krisi Smith, Bird & Blend Tea - The ideal blend: financials & storytelling

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 22:10:31 GMT

#ecommerce #crowdfunding #retail #financials

Krisi Smith is the co-founder and Creative Director of award-winning tea company Bird & Blend, who are on a mission to spread happiness and reimagine tea, with innovative and exciting flavours.

Krisi and her co-founder Mike started from small beginnings. After meeting at university and wanting to become entrepreneurs rather than going into the corporate world, they began selling blended tea from the kitchen at local markets.

They now have a team of over one hundred staff, 15 retail stores and a thriving international online business. Krisi always dreamt of having a direct to consumer model and brick and mortar stores and vehemently believes it's all about building the business you truly want. Even if that means turning down lucrative wholesale deals from supermarkets like they did.

Krisi has learnt a thing or two about successful crowdfunding. During their first campaign, Bird & Blend was overfunded in just 24 hours and most recently, they raised over £1m with over 1,600 investors.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How building the business you actually want will give you success
Why you should anticipate the impact of an investment raise
Getting the right blend of your financials and storytelling

You don't know what you don't know

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 20:38:11 GMT

When I first started out as a female founder many moons ago, I tried to do it all myself for a while. I looked at how other people were doing it, and I thought I was doing the same thing as they were.

What I didn't know what that all I saw was how things looked from the outside. I didn't really have a clue what successful founders really did behind the scenes to get the results they were achieving. What strategies they were using... the skills they'd developed... how they had programmed their mindset.

When I hired a business coach, that's when I started seeing results.

Why?

Because you don't know what you don't know.

And you know what? I've had multiple coaches since then. Each of them helped me through a distinct part of my entrepreneurial journey.

Here are just a few of the people I hired...

I hired a branding coach to help me really understand how to build true value in my business and be crystal clear about how I presented my company to the market.

I hired a marketing coach so I could discover how to best find my ideal customers and communicate effectively with them.

I worked with a mindset coach to get my mindset right, help me focus on priorities, and work out how to get through the challenges I faced.

I took on an expert in public speaking, to help me raise my game on presenting to a room of people.

I worked with a leadership coach to support me on structuring and managing my team effectively.

I hired a sales coach to teach me how to feel completely differently about selling, to see it as solving my clients' problems, so neither me nor my clients felt 'urghhh' about the entire sales process.

Most of these coaches I hired when I couldn't really afford it. Why? Because I knew that because I couldn't afford it, I needed it even more. I could not afford it because I didn't know what I was doing! But I took the risk, I worked with the best, and every single time it paid off.

Every one of these coaches played a huge role in getting me to where I am now. Each one catapulted me forward with the knowledge and skills I needed to succeed way faster than trying it alone. Investing was the best thing I ever did because it paid off many times over. Because what you don't know is exactly what you need to know to get the result.

Growth and fundraising coaching

Over the years, I've raised finance multiple times for my own business. And I didn't use a coach to help me do that. And it look me a long time, and lots of mistakes, to figure out how to get it right. But eventually I mastered it.

Why didn't I use a coach to help me with fundraising? Because I couldn't find one!!!

And that's why I set up Enter The Arena. Because I saw an enormous gap in the market, for women entrepreneurs like me to have the support they really need when they go out for investment for their business.

What makes a brilliant coach?

You want to make sure you hire the very best coach you can. So, here's what you need to know to hire the coach you need right now, to help you build, fund and scale your business. They need the following 5 things:

Direct experience doing the thing you need to get good at
Total understanding of the challenges you face
A step-by-step system for fast results
A track record of amazing results
The ability to provide you with genuine support and accountability

Consider the results you want. If you want to be successful, hire someone that has done that same thing over and over for themselves and helped others do the same.

The most important thing is to decide and commit to your results and then take right action by learning the skill you need to make it a reality.

When you invest in yourself, you invest in your personal growth and development, and that is something that will never be taken from you. Nothing is bigger than you. You decide who you want to be and step into becoming it by getting out of your comfort zone and doing it. I'd love to chat with you if you feel this resonates - book an Intro Call and let's get to know each other!

E51. Priya Downes, Nudea - The value of an advisory board

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 23:17:44 GMT

#angelinvestment #fashion #ecommerce #advisoryboard

Priya Downes is the Founder of Nudea, a sustainable underwear brand creating beautiful designs focussed on fit, comfort and looking great. The digital-first brand has grown exponentially since it started in 2019, acquiring over 15,000 customers and generating half a million pounds in revenue in the process.

Priya has raised £750K so far from angel investors after self-funding to launch the brand and get it off the ground during the pandemic. By researching and mapping out investment deals in the same industry, Priya was able to approach the most suitable investors. After nailing the first one, Cornerstone Partners, she found it so much easier to get other investors on board.

Priya highly recommends putting an advisory board together as soon as possible. Not only do advisers bring their expertise, they’re great ambassadors and will shout about you and your brand.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to create an investor map
Who your advisory board should be made up of
How to build confidence for your fundraise

99 questions investors ask female founders

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 11:21:30 GMT

Any serious female founder that wants to scale their business will be thinking about the funds they need to get there. Often that involves getting external finance from investors, in return for equity.

The truth is that investors are usually looking for a reason to say ‘NO’ whenever an investment proposition comes their way. So, it’s critical you understand where an investor might see risk in your business and address their concerns up-front.

Whether you’re considering angel investment, crowdfunding or any other route to early stage funding, these 99 questions are the ones that any investor worth their salt will be asking before they put money into your venture. So, head them off at the pass, and get prepared in advance.

Vision

1. Why are you in this business?

2. What journey have you been on that has led you to launch this start-up?

3. What personal connection do you have to what it is that your business is doing?

4. Why you and not somebody else?

5. Do you have what it takes to be a great entrepreneur?

6. What do you personally want to achieve with this business?

Problem

7. What problem is your product or service solving?

8. How does your target market experience this?

9. How acute or pressing is this problem for your target market, and what evidence do you have to support this?

10. Why is this a big problem for your target market?

Solution

11. How are you solving the problem you’ve identified?

12. What are the benefits your solution?

13. Why is your solution the best way to solve the problem, and what evidence do you have to support this?

14. Does your solution completely solve your target market’s problem?

Market

15. Is the market new, emerging, or already existing?

16. Is the market trend declining, stable or growing, and what evidence do you have for this?

17. How is the market segmented?

18. What is the total annual monetary value of your domestic market?

19. What other geographic markets are you targeting?

20. What is the total annual monetary value of your all target markets?

21. What is the demand for your product and what evidence do you have to support this?

Competitive Advantage

25. Who are the key competitors in your target market?

26. Do a few players dominate the market, or is it fragmented?

27. How rapidly are your competitors growing? How entrenched are they in the market?

28. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?

29. What does your business have that nobody else does (technology, processes, quality, cost, contacts etc.)?

30. What are the key benefits of your solution versus your competitors?

31. How quickly could a competitor copy your offering if they wanted to?

32. How do you plan to maintain your competitive advantage over time, so that your customers will stay with you rather than switch to a competitor?

Customers

22. Who are the early adopters of your product or service?

23. What is the profile of early adopters (age, location, size of business, position, etc.)?

24. How well do you know your target market?

25. What are the target follow-on adopters of your offering?

Business Model

33. How does your business make money?

34. What is the pricing of your product or service? How have you determined the price point?

35. Is your product or service offered as a one-time purchase or a subscription model? Why?

36. Are any types of discounts, rebates or free trial periods in operation?

37. What is the lifetime value of a customer?

Route To Market

38. What does your customer journey look like?

39. How easy is it to identify and contact your target market?

40. What are your distribution channels?

41. How much support (technical, training etc. is needed to get a new customer up and running?

42. What marketing activities are you undertaking to generate leads and conversions, and why?

43. How long and difficult is the sales cycle?

44. How do you manage your pipeline of leads?

45. What is your sales forecast for the next 12 months?

46. What is your Cost Per Acquisition Cost (CPA)

47. Is there a delay between your costs and the revenue you earn from a sale?

Traction

48. How many customers do you have?

49. What is your monthly revenue from these customers?

50. What are your customer and revenue growth rates?

51. What are your repeat purchase / usage rates like?

52. How engaged is your target market? Do you have any data to show strong engagement through marketing and/or social media campaigns?

53. Do you have any strategic partnerships that will help you achieve your goals?

54. Have you received any press coverage?

55. How else have you generated excitement in your start-up and momentum in its growth?

Intellectual Property

56. What patents, trademarks, copyrights, domains, and trade secrets do you have covering your technology or product?

57. In which markets are they registered?

58. Is the company’s logo trademarked? In which countries is it registered?

59. If you do not have a patent or trade secret protection, who owns the Intellectual Property? Do you have a license to use the technology?

Team

60. Who are the founders and what is their background/experience? How will this help the business to grow?

61. What is the ownership structure of the business?

62. Is your management team complete or are you still recruiting? What gaps do you have in your management team’s ability and experience?

63. How many employees does the company have?

64. What key recruits do you need over the next 12 months?

65. Describe your company culture.

66. Do you have a Share Option Scheme in place?

67. Who are the key advisors helping your shape the strategy of your startup? Have they invested?

68. Who are the members of the Board of Directors and what is their background? How are they compensated?

69. Who are the key professionals (lawyers, accountants, etc.) working with the business?

Finance

70. What have the revenues, costs, gross and net profits of the business been in the past?

71. What are the financial projections for the next 3 years?

72. What is your burn rate for the next 3, 6 and 12 months?

73. Is the company profitable? If not, when do you expect to break even?

74. What are your operational overheads and how do these break down?

75. How long can you continue operations before needing more funding (your runway)?

76. How has the business been funded to date – funds raised, timing and from whom?

77. What is the breakdown of your capitalisation table?

78. Do you have any debt? If so, what are the terms?

Risks

79. What are the key risks that could undermine your success?

80. Are there existing or potential regulations that could limit your ability to operate?

81. Would a breakdown of your existing supply and/or sales chains disrupt your ability to deliver?

82. What is the likelihood of the risks materializing and how big is the potential impact if they do?

83. How will you mitigate against these risks?

84. Who is responsible for each of your mitigation strategies?

Investment Proposition

85. How much money are you looking to raise?

86. When do you plan to raise this money by?

87. How will the funds be used and when will you spend the money?

88. What milestones will this let you achieve?

89. What length of runway will this provide?

90. What is your pre-money valuation and how have you determined this?

91. Are you offering equity, or a convertible note or something else? Why?

92. How much equity are you offering on this round?

93. What are the main terms?

94. Do you expect to have further investment rounds?

95. When do you expect to exit the business?

96. How will you exit the business?

97. If you plan a trade sale, who are the likely buyers?

98. What are the key drivers of the future valuation of your business?

99. What multiple returns do you expect to make?

It's a lot to think about!

If you'd like to road test how you'll answer these questions with investors, we're here to help. Book a Discovery Session and we'll go through it all together.

E50. Claire Copeman, Adventure Tours UK - Not just any money

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 23:11:03 GMT

#angelinvestment #travel #consumer #pandemic

Claire Copeman is the co-founder of Adventure Tours UK, which offers holidays focused on adventures in some of the UK’s wildest spaces. After 18 years in marketing, starting the business with her husband culminated soon after a dinner with friends discussing their shared love for adventuring in nature.

Adventure Tours UK was initially self-funded whilst Claire focused on building the brand through partnerships and PR trips that told a story and made it clear they were “going places”. With immense support from a business mentor, they went out and successfully found investors who really understand their goal to firmly stamp the UK onto the adventure travel map.

Then, Covid hit in 2020 and travel was cancelled. Amazingly, the investment didn’t fall through because they had the right investors onboard who felt a strong moral commitment to them. When your investors feel more like partners, you know they’re the right fit!

In this episode you’ll discover:

The importance of building a strong brand at the start
What a business mentor can do for you
How to find investors that feel like partners

Who invests in female founders?

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:05:24 GMT

There are an increasing number of angel networks and funds focusing specifically on under-represented founders, with some investing in women-led start-ups, recognising this untapped potential in the market. Although the sums available are still modest, it is encouraging.

These progressive investors know that female founders are a great bet for investors, outperforming our male counterparts when it comes to building, scaling and growing value in our start-ups. Companies with female founders perform 63 per cent better than those of their male peers in delivering value for their investors (i) , generate 10 per cent more revenue, and deliver double (yes, double!) the return on investment (ii) .

Key investors backing female and diverse founders

Here are the investors we know and love, that back women led businesses in the UK, including many of the great female founders we've worked with and supported over the years. Their founding partners and senior leadership teams are equally female or diverse:

You can also look at those organisations that have signed up to the Investing In Women Code , making a commitment to support equality, publish their gender diversity statistics, and adopt internal practices to address gender bias in the fundraising process.

It's not enough to be a female founder

However, nobody is going to invest in your business just because you're a female founder. Firstly, you'll need to be a strong fit for their investment thesis, matching their requirements for stage of business, sector, funding amount required, traction achieved etc. Once you've jumped that hurdle, you'll still face significant challenges in securing funding as the competition for capital is intensive. Only the very best female founder led businesses will get funded - those who tick all the boxes in terms of having an investable company and founding team, a strong commercial plan and deal structure, outstanding communication skills, the ability to connect with and secure commitment from investors.

Are you investable?

To benchmark your current potential to raise investment and identify how to increase your chances of securing funding, we'd recommend you take our 10 minute Investability Scorecard ™ test , which will measure you against the 5-steps to investment success. Your unique score will reveal your personal strengths and weaknesses and deliver practical, actionable tips to improve your results and help you secure the funding you need.

Connections can help

The truth is, you’re 13 times more likely to be invested in by these organisations that back female founders if you get a warm introduction through your existing network (iii) . If you want to fast-track your investment raise, and learn exactly how to seek connections with appropriate institutional investors and funding organisations, plus get one-to-one expert support in preparing, running, and closing your investment deal, then join our Fundraising Academy .

E49. Martha Keith, Martha Brook - Communication is the secret weapon

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 09:19:56 GMT

#crowdfunding #ecommerce #consumer #pandemic #crowdcube

£200K raised

Martha Keith is the founder of the award-winning stationery brand Martha Brook which she founded in 2012 after a corporate career in the healthcare sector. Starting out with just a printer in her bedroom, the company has grown to 250,000+ pieces of stationery sent to customers in over 50 countries worldwide.

Martha started the brand on a shoestring budget and grew it to 7 figures with no external investment. She recently raised £220,000 through crowdfunding for the first time. With an amazing community behind the brand, they were fully funded in just two days with no lead Angel investor money. Incredible!

Seeking investment is no longer something that makes Martha feel daunted and she’s excited to do it again in the future. We love to see it! But looking back, could or should Martha have considered raising sooner, boldly stating her ambitions as a female founder to scale the business faster?

In this episode you’ll discover:

The importance of communication for a successful crowdfunding campaign
How to test the waters with ‘expression of interest’
How to start your fundraising journey and get support

E48. Virginia Gardiner, Loowatt - When the VC money falls through

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 17:23:11 GMT

#angels #crowdfund #cofounders #manufacturing

£7.5m raised

Virginia Gardiner is the founder, CEO and inventor of Loowatt, a waterless toilet addressing the fact that 40% of the world doesn’t have a toilet, and the rest of us are using solutions that aren’t sustainable.

Virginia has been on quite a journey. She started the business as an engineering and humanities graduate with three male co-founders who came from experienced corporate backgrounds, and who are now ex-co-founders. Loowatt received initial investment via innovation grants, angels and then mostly recently, via crowdfunding. Crowdfunding was Plan B when agreed VC investment didn’t come though a “blessing in disguise”, as Virginia feels moved by the 800+ individual investors now supporting Loowatt’s mission.

In this episode you’ll discover:

What to look out for if you’re considering using “introducer” services
How to avoid VCs leading you down the garden path
The increased sense of responsibility when crowdfunding

E47. Kike Oniwinde, BYP Network - Valuing your true growth potential

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 18:02:59 GMT

#angels #tech #app #crowdfund

£900,000 raised

Kike Oniwinde is a Forbes 30 under 30, World Economic Forum Shaper, and has won three national pitch competitions. Kike has been a high achiever since she was raised in East London, throwing the Javelin for GB whilst crushing her grades. In 2020, she raised £900,000 through crowdfunding for her business, BYP Network, a platform that empowers and connects black professionals to each other and to corporations.

As a black female founder, Kike’s achievements haven’t come easy though, and she experienced push back from VCs making her feel like they “just didn’t want to invest”. However, Kike met Angels who believed in her venture and decided to get her community investing through a crowdfund.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to set your valuation based on growth potential
How to control timescales during your investment round
Why you should take part in pitch competitions (even if you hate the idea!)

E46. Tiffany Kelly, Beyond Bamboo - Funding a passion-based business

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 22:00:02 GMT

#consumer #B2B #friendsandfamily #angels #tech #sustainability

£400,000 raised

Tiffany Kelly has always been deeply passionate about the environment. She saw an opportunity for an online marketplace where consumers and businesses can source ethical and sustainable goods. This includes upcycled, restored and recycled as well as new products.

Over two years in the making, Tiffany quickly realised that in order to grow, it was time to develop new technology and scale the team. With the goal of attracting an audience who normally purchases from Amazon, she knew how important it was to replicate the brand experience: from customer service to search to providing a seamless customer experience.

Having had great success with a friends and family investment round, Tiffany shares some practical tips on approaching your pitch and the effortlessness of securing investment from investors with a shared passion.

In this episode you’ll discover:

How to pitch on your friends and family round
Challenging limiting beliefs and thinking big
Tips for creating your pitch deck

E45. Kim Palmer, Clementine - Knowing when to bring in expert help

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 13:34:48 GMT

#consumer #app #venturecapital #tech #health

£1m raised

Amidst a sudden onset of panic attacks at work, Kim Palmer discovered the power of hypnotherapy as a game changer for staying calm. As a passive option for busy brains, hypnotherapy provides a relaxed and accessible way to find calm and change habits.

Realising that she could help women worldwide, Kim achieved her long-held dream of building a business and launched Clementine in 2017, a hypnotherapy app to help achieve calm moments throughout the day.

After huge initial success, growth plateaued and Kim decided it was time to fundraise. Daunted by pitching, Kim set her own rules and approached pitches as conversations with the goal to find a good fit.

What happened next was a huge call for any founder. This masterful manoeuvre has freed Kim up to use her strategic skills to stay ahead of what’s happening and get creative about the next phases of the business.

In this episode you’ll discover:

The resonance of building a product out of life experience
Playing to your strengths and knowing when to engage help
Taking charge of your pitch

E44. Jessica and Louella Alderson,
So Syncd - The importance of a lead investor

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 16:57:03 GMT

#cofounders #consumer #venturecapital #tech #app #friendsandfamily

£700k raised

Jess and Lou Alderson have tapped a fresh niche in the online dating market using Myers-Briggs personality profiling for a perfect match. They've taken their market by storm and in a short time, managed to raise over £700,000 in investment.

Launching in January 2020, the sisters have gone from strength to strength despite the global pandemic. With the goal of building a marketable product as quickly as possible whilst they were still holding down full time jobs, Jess and Lou started with a 'friends-and-family' round. Then, with some early traction under their belt, they were ready to quit their jobs and undertake a more significant raise to launch a paid membership package and expand within the US market.

With some big last minute hurdles including extreme money laundering checks, a disappearing investor payment and various unexpected hurdles, they managed to close their investment round on the very last day of the tax year.

In this episode you’ll discover…

The benefits of fundraising through friends and family for your starting round
Different questions from different investors – why you need to be prepared for varied points of interest
The importance of a lead investor to kick start your investment rounds

E43. Heinin Zhang, YHangry - KPI-based Fundraising

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 16:46:29 GMT

#cofounders #consumer #pandemic #pivot #foodandbeverage

£1.1m raised

Heinin Zhang and her co-founder Siddhi Mittal recognised that people no longer entertain at home. In Heinin’s words “Millenials, as ‘Generation Convenience’, have killed the dinner party!” They established YHangry as a private chef service at an affordable price, offering an in-home complete service to take the hard work out of entertaining.

Just as the business was taking off, the Pandemic hit. It would have been easy to admit defeat, how do you maintain a business with social gathering at the heart during lockdown? But Heinin and Siddhi pivoted quickly, recognising that eating and cooking were two remaining pleasures still possible during lockdown. They began virtual cooking classes and batch cooked delivery meals, cultivating their network of chefs while building their brand in the most unlikely time.

As lockdown eased, the business began growing 40-70% month-on-month. Demand exploded and it became clear that the business needed to scale quickly. Heinin and Siddhi put together a very detailed plan to execute their fundraising goals, and it paid off with a raise of over £1M.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How to organise your fundraising like a military operation
Strategies to find relevant investors rather than wasting time chasing all possibilities
Using KPIs to manage your investor CRM

E42. Hele Väärsi, 9Plus1 - Answering Preventative Questions

Fri, 07 May 2021 16:15:44 GMT

#cofounders #venturecapital #consumer #sustainability #investorfit

£300k raised

9Plus1 is an innovative start-up in the growing space of apparel rental and sustainable fashion, focusing on baby clothes.

Hele Väärsi raised money early on after founding 9Plus1, when she and her co-founder were still at the idea stage.

Bravely seeking investment so early on, Hele strategically contacted VCs who she thought might have an interest in the product. This strategy proved successful as Hele secured investment from Voulez Capital in 2020, a specialist VC for female-founded businesses.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How to ensure you don’t waste time on VCs who won’t be a good fit

Strategies for getting investors to connect with your product or service
How to answer prevention-based questions from investors effectively

E41. Anushi Desai, Plant Pops - Commit And Take Flight

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 15:17:04 GMT

#angels #pandemic#cofounders #friends&family #SEIS #consumer

£300k raised

Anushi Desai, Co-Founder of the award-winning snack brand Plant Pops, started making snacks with popped lotus seeds as a side hustle whilst working as a management consultant at KPMG. She bravely handed in her notice with the “do it now or it might not happen” mentality and a sense of knowing it was time to do something else.

Anushi and her Co-Founder self-funded to begin with, but as a product-based business, they needed investment early on. VCs offered them money - unusual for a young start-up - but they declined, as it didn’t feel like the right time.

Anushi puts successful fundraising down to changing your internal narrative from ‘asking for money’ to ‘investors are welcome to join our journey. I’m offering them something of value’. Like many entrepreneurs, Anushi's always brimming with new ideas and gives tips on how to commit to new things so your ideas are executed.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How to discover what type of investment you need
How to shift your internal fundraising narrative of ‘asking for money’
Why you should say it out loud in order to commit to fundraising

E40. Pip Wilson, Amicable - Timing is Everything

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 13:38:59 GMT

#angels #pandemic#cofounders #friends&family #SEIS #timescales

£1m raised

Pip Wilson is the co-founder and CEO of Amicable, a lawyer-free alternative to divorce, separation and co-parenting changing the way people separate for the better. Pip brought her background in marketing and technology to the table whilst her co-founder, Kate, brought knowledge of psychology and family consulting. Their blend of skills were a perfect match for scaling the market changing business.

Pip is an angel investor herself so had insider knowledge of how investors operate and what they look for. She reached out to those known to have an interest in companies impacting the world. After an SEIS friends and family round plus their first angel round, Pip and the team were preparing for the next angel funding round when they ended up in the high court! Court turned out to be a positive, cementing the business’ potential and Amicable raised investment during 2020, bringing the total to £1m.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why the blend of skills between co-founders matters so much
How to use angel investors’ different interests to your advantage
The significance of timing in your investment funding round

E39. Jenifer Lam, Stitch & Story - Due Dilligence on Investors

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 13:32:16 GMT

#advertising #consumer #sustainability #narrative #prelaunch #crowdfunding

£3m raised

Jennifer Lam, CEO of Stitch & Story, co-founded a digital crafts brand that’s reinventing the traditional concept of knitting to inspire a new generation of hobbyists. After growing the business organically for the first few years, Jennifer found an angel investor who not only invested money into Stitch & Story but mentored Jennifer and supported her to raise further investment rounds.

In 2020, to help fast-track growth, Jennifer went on the hunt for venture capital investment, and made sure she did her due diligence on potential investors to get the right fit. Through all of this, Jennifer learnt to master her limiting beliefs, and nail the balance of building a start-up along with parenting and family commitments.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How investors can help you grow your mindset
Why it’s important to conduct your own due diligence on investors
How to recognise when your limiting beliefs might be holding you back

E38. Ashleigh Bishop, Bagboard - Nailing Your Investor Narrative

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 13:19:45 GMT

#advertising #consumer #sustainability #narrative #prelaunch #crowdfunding

£3m raised

Ashleigh Bishop is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Bagboard, an AdTech company that makes smart paper shopping bags and sells advertising space on them to conscious brands. Ashleigh founded Bagboard as one of three co-founders who had never raised or run a business before. They initially funded it pre-launch through a ‘friends and family’ round of £500K, before raising £600K via crowdfunding in 2020.

But the investment journey wasn’t easy. At the start of their crowdfunding campaign, they just weren’t getting the response they needed from investors. Why? Because their narrative simply wasn’t resonating. Ashleigh also found there were some differences in how investors treated her male co-founders, compared to how they treated her as a female founder, and wanted to face up the challenge.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why it’s important to understand what investors are looking for
When it’s okay to react and respond to investor feedback
How scrutiny can be a positive thing

E37. Sophie Baron, Mamamade - Don’t let perfection be the enemy

juliaelliottbrown@gmail.com (Julia Elliott Brown) — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 16:50:05 GMT

#Food&Drink #Angels #Seed #Pandemic #pregnant

£300k raised

Sophie Baron founded Mamamade after having a baby and going back to work whilst struggling to find baby food she felt was good enough. To fill the gap, Mamamade was born in March 2019 and Sophie bootstrapped the business for around a year. Instagram was incredibly powerful in getting the word out and growing the start-up organically. Sophie didn’t let “perfection be the enemy” - brilliant advice from her husband to just get the product out there and refine afterwards.

In 2020, at the start of lockdown, Sophie started raising investment via angels, meeting them online via Zoom calls. They raised £300K and the virtual experience was positive; with Sophie wondering, “how many meetings would we have had in person to get it over line?”. Sophie had thought about seeking external investment since she started the business, but now thinks it’s wise to wait until the business is at the right point and you have happy customers on board.

In this episode, you'll discover...

Why you shouldn’t let perfection be the enemy

What it’s like to raise investment virtually

How you’ll know the time is right to seek investment

E36. Nicki Philips, Niix - Raising during a pandemic

juliaelliottbrown@gmail.com (Julia Elliott Brown) — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 15:56:32 GMT

Raising during lockdown, feeling exposed when crowdfunding, and juggling responsibilities effectively.

#Fitness #Crowdfunding #Seed #Motherhood #Pandemic

£150k raised

Nicki Philips is the founder of Niix, a fitness app for women approaching 40 and beyond. Niix launched in 2018 and the app has gained 1,800 paid subscribers and tens of thousands of online followers across the globe.

In 2020, Nicki raised over £150,000 of investment via crowdfunding to help her rocket fuel the growth of the brand, and she did it right in the middle of lockdown! Crowdfunding certainly isn’t a quick fix; it can be just as time-consuming as the traditional investment round, although it often happens faster. Nicki managed to juggle motherhood, run her business and raise investment all in tandem by getting super structured with her time.

The exposure from crowdfunding can feel scary, and even more so when you’re raising investment during a pandemic, but Nicki pushed her fear to one side and kept positive by focusing on her ‘Why’; there’s a lot to be learned from her approach.

In this episode, you'll discover...

How to raise investment during a lockdown

How to manage feeling exposed when crowdfunding

How to juggle responsibilities and stay focused

E35. Patricia Salume, VeeLoop - It’s Not All About The Money

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 12:15:45 GMT

#cofounders #bootstrapping #venturecapital #angels #investorfit

£300k raised

Patricia Salume is the Cofounder and COO of VeeLoop, an innovative online approval and payment service to help young people shop online, whilst keeping parents in the loop. Patricia worked as a management consultant before starting VeeLoop in 2017 with co-founder Randa Bennett.

Patricia and Randa met through a local Facebook group, showing how it’s possible to find business partners in unlikely places. They attempted a first round of investment early which didn’t work out because of the common investor feedback “We need to see traction”.. They bootstrapped for some time, building the product and getting several retail customers onboard.

After multiple successful rounds totalling £300k, Patricia learnt that being pregnant whilst raising investment is possible and it’s best to address the elephant in the room transparently.She also learnt that it’s not just about money when it comes to finding the right investors; there are other factors.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why it’s best to address the elephant in the room
What investors bring beyond money
Why you always need a plan B

E34. Catherine Bedford, Dashel - Go Big Fast or Take It Slow?

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 11:39:48 GMT

#fitness #SEIS #valuation #startuploan

£425k raised

Catherine started Dashel in 2017 when she spotted a gap in the market for a helmet that cyclists would want to wear with their regular clothes to get around town.

She started the business with her own savings initially, then got a start-up loan from Virgin which was useful, not only for the cash but for the help they gave her with the business strategy. Some entrepreneurs feel nervous about taking on debt, but Catherine believes in being relentlessly optimist.

Before the cycling helmet launched, Catherine received a £150K investment from Angel investors from her extended network. Dashel qualified for SEIS, a scheme making it tax efficient to invest in start-ups. Catherine highly recommends using this as investors will get an added incentive to invest.

Some investors suggested that Catherine may have undervalued the company and was asking for too little investment. The decision to go big fast, or take it slow can be difficult, but Catherine is happy that she chose to grow slowly.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why the start-up loan should be on your list of options
The benefits of SEIS to you and investors
How to make a balanced decision on valuation and investment amount

E33. Claire Ransom, Lazy Flora - Can Crowdfunding Give You Confidence?

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 09:35:05 GMT

#Seedrs #ecommerce #crowdfunding #subscription #growth

£85k raised

Claire Ransom is the founder and CEO of Lazy Flora, the UK’s leading subscription box service for urban garden plants. In 2017, from her parent’s home in Nottingham, Claire self-funded the business and over two years, rapidly grew her customer base. At that point, it was time to raise pre-seed equity investment via crowdfunding, totalling £85,000.

Before Claire went through the crowdfunding process, she didn’t feel confident in her ability to grow from a backyard business. After going through the stringent checks Seedrs perform, Claire realised Laza Flora was a very credible business.

Summer 2020 was to be the big investment round for Lazy Flora, but that took an unexpected turn when Covid hit. Thankfully, there’s been an enormous demand for urban garden plans as more people spend time at home.

Claire has benefitted from both the Fundraising Masters programme and The Arena Peer Advisory and believes in the power of learning from others through a network.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How crowdfunding can improve your confidence
How it feels to manage intense and unexpected growth
Why you can learn from and network with other female founders

E32. Joyce & Raissa de Haas, Double Dutch Drinks - Drinks With Investors

Fri, 24 Jul 2020 09:29:33 GMT

#investorconnections #valuation #Angels #food&drink

£4.5m raised

Joyce and Raissa de Haas are the co-founders of the premium tonic and mixers brand Double Dutch.. Only 6 years into their business journey, Double Dutch now sells over a million bottles every month to 26 countries across the world.

Joyce and Raissa began their entrepreneurial journey with few industry connections, after doing a Master’s at UCL in Technology Entrepreneurship, where they won an award that gave their new business a funding grant. By connecting with around 500 potential investors via LinkedIn, they managed to bring on five individual investors for their first round.

They’ve now completed three funding rounds totalling £4.5m, including the most recent, from their “dream investors”, global drinks giant, Heineken. Joyce and Raissa believe that you should get on with potential investors on a personal level before agreeing to accept their money and that it’s key to share the same vision. Being co-founders helped them through the lows, by having someone they could always be 100% honest with.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why you should get on with potential investors on a personal level
How you can stick by your valuation
Why you shouldn’t hold back from sharing company financials openly

E31. Merilee Karr, UnderTheDoormat - Doubling the Raise with Future Fund

Fri, 29 May 2020 22:04:14 GMT

#FutureFund #advisors #crowdfunding #Seedrs #Crowdcube

£600k raised

Merilee Karr is the CEO and Founder of UnderTheDoormat – an award-winning luxury short-term rental company, enabling modern travellers to enjoy the comfort of a home with the professional service of a hotel.

Merilee founded the business in 2014 and brought on board advisers. Their value was twofold: they invested and were experts in their own areas, advising on aspects of growing the company. She made the decision to raise multiple crowdfunds as opposed to taking a larger sum of money from VCs. Merilee highlighted that raising investment and selling equity needs to be a strategic long term decision.

Recently, UnderTheDoormat closed a round of £300K, using the Future Fund. The Future Fund is a convertible loan where the government matches the amount committed by your investors. It serves Merilee as protection for the business, and the ability to capitalise on potential opportunities. In an industry highly affected by Coronavirus like Travel, this is the perfect time for a strong business to consider government funding options like the Future Fund.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why strategic board advisers are so valuable
Why you might consider multiple crowdfunds
What the Future Fund is and how it can be used to raise capital

E30. Kristina Komlosiova & Stephanie Johnson, Pollen + Grace - Healthy Food & Healthy Financials

Fri, 15 May 2020 21:43:34 GMT

#financialforecasts #crowdfunding #Seedrs #familyoffice #food&drink #wellness

£600k raised

Kristina Komlosiova and Stephanie Johnson, founders of Pollen + Grace, a natural food company that is stocked in many stores, have the ambition to become the most trusted healthy food brand in the UK. In 2019 they raised just over £600,000 in equity finance to help them achieve that mission.

The business started from humble beginnings when Stephanie discovered she had several food intolerances in 2015 whilst working with Kristina in events management. She began making home-made gluten and dairy-free lunches to bring into work. Realising they could turn these lunches into a business, friends Stephanie and Kristina launched Pollen + Grace.

They self-funded the business from their home kitchen for the first 18 months before seeking equity investment. They secured a number of Angel investors and then, later on, launched a crowdfunding campaign in which over 600 individual investors pledged. After this, a Family Office also invested in Pollen + Grace which will help them with new launches and products and more interaction with their customers.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why you should always have an ask at a meeting
How finding a higher purpose helps during the tough times
Why setting clear boundaries with investors is key

E29. Pip Jamieson, The Dots - Building an Investor Network From Scratch

Fri, 01 May 2020 21:17:13 GMT

#financialforecasts #crowdfunding #Seedrs #familyoffice #food&drink

£5.7m raised

Pip Jamieson is the Founder and CEO of The Dots, a professional network for people in the creative industry. Pip has raised £5.5m in investment finance in the last few years, with two major funding rounds and the platform has over half a million members.

In 2009, Pip co-founded her first business in Australia, called The Loop, a network to help people in the creative industries network and find jobs. After selling her share of the business, Pip returned to London and decided to start all over again - by building a UK creative industries network.

Pip had no professional investors in her existing network in London, so started a serious round of networking, going for coffees with anyone who might be able to help. Whilst there were lots of ‘no’s, Pip secured a cornerstone investor which led to herding in the rest of them successfully and raising £1.5m in the first round.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why you should always have an ask at a meeting
How finding a higher purpose helps during the tough times
Why setting clear boundaries with investors is key

E28. Francesca Hodgson, Good Box - Charity, Tech and Funding

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 21:04:01 GMT

#Charity #Seedrs #crowdfunding #confidence

£5.7m raised

Francesca Hodgson is the co-founder and Managing Director of GoodBox, which helps non-profit organisations to take cashless donations, by providing them with contactless charity donation boxes, along with software to help them track, analyse and grow the amount of money they raise.

Francesca and her business partner founded GoodBox after spotting a major gap in the charity sector. They secured an Angel investor at the start, who supported them with the money to create and test the tech which allows charities to take contactless donations. Further funding was secured via Crowdfunding following the success with the initial concept and trial.

Francesca’s approach to investment was to take networking to the next level to find supporters for GoodBox, and benefiting from being part of three accelerators that helped the business with invaluable guidance and access to investors.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why you should share all of your ideas openly, without being shy or fearing copycats
Why you shouldn’t let confidence stop you, you’ll always wonder ‘what if
Why it’s okay to fail

E27. Sarah Merrick, Ripple - 1000 Investors

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 21:54:47 GMT

#Seedrs #crowdfunding #energy #consumer #sustainability

£850k raised

Julianne Ponan is the Managing Director of superfood brand Creative Nature, a company that creates raw superfoods, snacks and food mixes suitable for everyone including those who are nutrition-conscious, vegans and those who live with a food allergy or intolerance.

Julianne started her career in investment banking and was shortly asked by her father, a businessman, to do due diligence on a company he’d invested in that was failing, Creative Nature. He asked if she was interested in taking over the business to try to turn it around.

She decided to turn it into a food brand due to her severe allergies to a large number of foods which had caused much distress over the years. Julianne first tried raising investment for the business and failed, unfortunately, so started growing the business organically and landed a contract with supermarket giant, Tesco. She appeared on Dragon’s Den, and ended up turning down investment from Deborah Meaden, a difficult decision to make. However, Julianne realised she was now confident in her mission and was ready to go out and seek investment through crowdfunding. Julianne raised over 500K, smashing her target of £350K.

In this episode you’ll discover…

What to learn if you fail a funding round
Why sometimes turning down investment is the right decision
How to get over being scared of growing your business

E26. Julianne Ponan, Creative Nature - From Failed Round to Supermarket Success

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:16:30 GMT

#angels #venturecapital #technology #B2B #food&drink #crowdfunding #DragonsDen

£500k raised

In this episode you’ll discover…

What to learn if you fail a funding round
Why sometimes turning down investment is the right decision
How to get over being scared of growing your business

E25. Sarah Henley, NextUp Comedy - Putting the Fun into Fundraising

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 21:23:29 GMT

#Seedrs #Crowdcude #crowdfunding

£1.5m raised

Sarah Henley, the Founder and COO of NextUp Comedy started a comedy video subscription business three years ago to fill a much-needed gap in the video-on-demand industry.

Previous to founding NextUp, Sarah worked in comedy for over a decade along with her three co-founder friends. Sara’s ultimate vision is to build NextUp into the worldwide home of live comedy, using her passion for diversity and equality in the arts to make a mark in the comedy business.

In 2019, Sarah and her co-founders raised £760K in investment finance to grow the business from a mix of angel investors, venture capital and crowdfunding. Crowdfunding made perfect sense as a strategy for Sarah as it meant comedy performers and the enthusiastic audience fan base could all chip in and t ake a stake in the success of the company.

In this episode you'll discover:

How a "rolling close" strategy can benefit both you and potential investors
The ways you can approach investors directly through social media platforms
How you can take a positive approach to fundraising by treating it as part of your job description

E24. Savannah de Savary, Built-ID - Leave Your Ego At The Door

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 23:11:35 GMT

#angels #venturecapital #technology #investorfit #B2B

£3.7m raised

Savannah de Savary, founder and CEO of Built-ID started a revolutionary property technology start-up after graduating from the University of Oxford in 2013 and working in the real-estate development industry for two years.

Built-ID is a proptech company which enables collaboration through innovative technology and

empowers communities to have a meaningful impact on property development in their neighbourhood.

Savannah brought her idea to life by working on the technology platform whilst still being employed full-time. She was just 23 years old when she took the plunge and gave up her employed role. Asking for investment didn’t come easy to Savannah, but she realised it was necessary to ask for what you want and leave your ego at the door. She initially raised around £1.7m through high-net-worth Angels and a specialist proptech VC that enabled the business to get off the ground, before a further equity raise of £2m.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why being willing to listen and learn is an underestimated quality
The real benefits of having a professional coach
How to switch your mentality to thinking not all investors are right for you, rather than you not being the right investee

E23. Julie Chen, The Cheeky Panda - Eco Toilet Paper - A £25m Business

Fri, 22 Nov 2019 23:06:11 GMT

#Seedrs #crowdfunding #sustainability #consumer

£2m raised

Julie Chen, from The Cheeky Panda, thought of using bamboo as an eco alternative to using paper for creating toilet tissue. Why cut down trees when bamboo is sustainable and grows back every year? Julie went to her home country of China, where bamboo is in abundance and mapped out how to logistically turn bamboo into toilet paper to be shipped to the UK market.

Julie’s first crowdfund was a rewards-based campaign for £12K and enabled her to get the business off the ground and start selling online. After some initial success and interest from traditional retailers, Julie raised a significant £500K through equity crowdfunding and carried on taking the business from strength to strength as the world’s interest in being eco-friendly developed.

Julie’s last investment round was a whopping £1.5m, with The Cheeky Panda valued at £25m! The success of the business proves that products - even as simple as toilet paper - can be innovative and highly valuable businesses.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why crowdfunding is also a marketing tool
How hiring others to help grow the business also helps you grow yourself
How product businesses can be just as appealing to investors as tech is

E22. Joy Foster, Tech Pixies - Think Big and Grab The Courage

Fri, 08 Nov 2019 22:57:40 GMT

#technology #confidence #femaleproduct #timing #B2B

£150k raised

Joy Foster started an award-winning social enterprise helping women to upskill with social media and digital marketing skills in 2015.

After equipping over 100 women with digital skills, through a mix of online and in-person training, Joy realised she needed to get external investment to take the business to the next level. Her extraordinary funding experience started with feeling stressed from trying to manage the business without external investor involvement, to being told she was worth investing in. This fuelled her to have the courage to think big and go for it. She raised £150K from a female-led group of investors and is now scaling her business for the next stage of growth.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How to know it’s the right time for external investment
Why you should be confident when talking money
How to think big and then act upon it with courage

E21. Jenny Costa, Rubies In The Rubble - Sustainable and Commercial - Possible?

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 21:50:16 GMT

#sustainability #Seedrs #crowdfunding

£2m raised

Jenny founded Rubies in the Rubble in 2011 after learning that one third of food is wasted. Her vision was to produce “conscious condiments” in a world where throwing away food has become the norm.

Jenny started the business as a passion project, creating small batch chutneys and jams from surplus ingredients that would otherwise go to waste. She went from selling them at farmer's markets to then scaling her business by creating condiments that are now available in supermarkets. Jenny took her time to realise she wanted to turn this conscious venture into a nationwide business. She raised investment from purpose-driven VCs and then had a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign that resulted in having to close the campaign and turn down investment!

In this episode you’ll discover…

How it's possible to create a sustainable but commercially viable company
How video can be used to ignite the crowdfunding campaign
What it really feels like having to turn down investment

E20. Louise Doherty, Yoller - The Power Of Storytelling

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 21:40:50 GMT

#crowdfunding #Crowdcube #technology #ai #app

£800k raised

Louise Yoller built a tech business that helps people organise real world get togethers more easily, through an AI social planning platform. She left her career in strategic consumer marketing to create an app start-up that simplifies any kind of social event, after realising how complex it can sometimes be. Yoller has been featured by Apple and Google as one of the best apps for socialising in over 100 countries.

Louise successfully raised £380K via Crowd Cube. She found the crowdfunding process much easier to understand compared with seeking VC investment. This approach also meant finding early users of the Yoller app.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How storytelling is just as important for securing investment as your pitch deck and financials
The truth about crowdfunding and why it's a good option
The benefits of using mixed routes for funding a business

E19. Sophie Hooper, Secret Saviours - Finding Angels With A Connection

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 21:31:57 GMT

#angels #femaleproduct #confidence #investorconnections

£500k raised

Sophie Hooper left a successful career in advertising at Saatchi & Saatchi to build an innovative business that helps prevent stretch marks in pregnant women with a wearable band.

A major challenge in her funding round was facing skepticism from potential investors and some women who didn't believe in the product. However, Sophie pushed through and made it work by finding an Angel investor with an emotional connection to the company’s mission. Her Angel gave her the confidence she needed to secure her £500K round of investment.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why having confidence is so important to get people to believe in you and your business
How to get investors onboard who have an emotional connection with your business
Why setting a deadline for potential investors to adhere to will help secure investment

E18. Lina Chan, Adia Health - Funding and Fertility

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 21:24:13 GMT

#wellness #femaleproduct #confidence

£250k raised

ILina Chan’s personal story of difficulty with conceiving and pregnancy loss led her to starting a FemTech business that supports women with their fertility. Adia provides women with education, fertility testing tools, and other support to aid better reproductive health.

Lina worked in private equity before she started Adia. She soon realised that funding an early stage start-up is completely different to the world of private equity. From getting her foot in the door of a mission-driven accelerator, to hiring her first technology hire, Lina explains how the tables turned from a career in private equity to being the founder of a FemTech company.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How Lina shifted her mindset from being an Investor, to being a start-up Founder seeking investment - two very different things!
That not every investor is the “right one” for you - and that’s okay
How being kind to yourself and honest about what “fills your bucket” is even more important when fundraising

E17. Emma Sayle, Killing Kittens - Getting Naked With A Crowdfund

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 21:18:30 GMT

#crowdfunding #Seedrs #confidence #investorfit #pregnant

£600k raised

In 2005, Emma Sayle saw an opportunity to change the male-dominated adult industry to make space for women to safely explore their sexuality. 12 years later, Emma is at the helm of a global movement for female sexual empowerment.

In 2018 KK became the first brand of its kind to crowdfund publicly, via the Seedrs platform. This move, a necessity in order to develop the digital arm of the brand, was perfectly with the #MeToo movement in the zeitgeist and the rapid rise in the sex-tech sector. Though perhaps not so perfectly timed with Emma’s pregnancy due date!

In this episode you’ll discover…

How to make the most of the community and transparency in crowdfunding
Why having a good team is the key to having it all
An insight into blazing a trail in the very public crowdfunding arena

Dealing with Venturesplaining

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 13:54:14 GMT

Female founders are often seen by venture capitalists as less experienced than their male counterparts, even with the same number of years working in an industry.

This unconscious bias can show up directly in the way investors speak to female founders. It’s a common complaint among women seeking funding that male investors will patronisingly explain to you how your industry or business works, or how your customers think and feel – when the reality is that you know significantly more about this than they do. They assume you don’t understand because you’re a woman; they talk at you, don’t ask questions, don’t listen or show real interest in your opinions.

This insidious (and incredibly annoying) behaviour displayed by many men in the venture industry – especially those who believe themselves to be in a position of power – is a term we have coined: ‘venturesplaining’. You’ll probably recognise it as a derivation of ‘mansplaining’, a concept outlined by feminist writer Rebecca Solnit, who wrote an essay on how ‘men explain things to me’ in 2008.

Why is venturesplaining such a problem?

The dangerous outcome of venturesplaining is that female founders can leave the interaction feeling ‘less than’, with their skills and experience minimised, confidence chipped and questioning their own expertise. This perpetuates the problem of female founders’ lack in confidence and struggle to raise investment.

Three tips to deal with Venturesplaining

How we deal with these challenges is important. When we feel threatened, our reaction might be one of flight, fight or freeze. But becoming aggressive or defensive, running out of the room or doing nothing are unlikely to serve us well in this situation – and might perpetuate the old investor world viewpoint that women ‘aren’t really up to it’.

So we must deal with challenges in a productive way, using your intelligence and smarts to open the investor’s eyes to what you have to offer as a female founder – and perhaps to their own prejudices in the process.

Here are some tactics which can be very effective at stopping venturesplaining in its tracks, and switch the focus back to you:

Challenge their expertise with grace. For example, you might say: ‘Thanks for your views. Could you tell me more about your specific experience in this area that’s led you to think that?’

Step in and tell them why you’re qualified , with a statement such as: ‘I wonder if I could stop you there? I’d really like to share with you some more about my experience on this issue.’

Use humour to switch it up in a non-aggressive way, with a gentle prod such as: ‘Have you heard of the term ‘mansplaining’? I kind of feel like I might have been mansplained to a little just then! I wonder, could I tell you more about what I’ve learned about this area over my years working on this?’ (Note that this approach is only for the brave! It needs to be done with the right level of cheekiness, not to rile the other party.)

Always make sure you strongly emphasise your credibility and knowledge. Blowing our own trumpet may not come naturally to all of us, and many female founders worry about coming across as too arrogant. There’s no need to feel that way, as long as you’re speaking about yourself in a genuine, authentic manner – this is not the time to hide your light under a bushel. As you showcase what you’re really made of, the chances are you’ll win them over.

And if you don’t? Well, it’s their loss. Quite frankly, if this is how a person makes you feel in an initial meeting, do you really want them on board in your business?

Smile, nod your head and swiftly leave!

E16. Amanda Thompson, Thomson & Scott - Stupid Questions - No Such Thing

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 21:12:38 GMT

#crowdfunding #SEIS #food&drink #EIS #Crowdcube

£1m raised

Amanda Thomson threw herself into the entrepreneurial depend, leaving a career in broadcast journalism and moving her family to Paris in pursuit of her vision for an honest bottle of bubbly. How did she do it? Passion for h er purpose led business. Which has grown from strength to strength, riding the trend for healthy and low impact lifestyles.

Now a multi-award winning founder and CEO, Amanda is on a mission to not only develop her own business but also change attitudes across the outmoded wine industry. One of few F&B divisions not required to publish what’s in the product,

wine has long been focused on its rich history and elitist audience. Not for much longer …

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why “stupid questions” don’t exist – whether asked by entrepreneurs or investors
Why gathering a strong team around you is key to creating the groundwork for success
An insight into using government tax relief initiatives (looking at SEIS and EIS) to get your business off the ground

E15. Bonnie Lister Parsons, Seen On Screen - Investing Like A Woman

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 21:04:20 GMT

#femaleinvestors #genderbias

£2.1m raised

Bonnie Lister Parsons’ dance career boasted credits including One Direction, Florence and The Machine and X Factor Live. At the height of this success, she founded Seen On Screen (SOS) OS as a means to get the dancers we see on screen into classes for professional women looking for an empowering work out.

After two years of rejection by male investors despite self-funded success, Bonnie capitalised on the steely resilience and self-belief that a career in dance had taught her. She opened a female only investment round that quickly proved women can

and will succeed in the world of investment.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why breaking down rigid preconceptions of what entrepreneurs and investors look like is key to opening the floor to women
How knowing your financial worth is fundamental to pitching with confidence
Why resonating emotionally with your audience – investor or client – is the best way to build a business

E14. Emily Bendell, Bluebella - Raising Investment for a Business Pivot

Fri, 24 May 2019 20:43:00 GMT

#femaleinvestors #crowdfunding #femaleproduct #Crowdcube

£2.1m raised

Lingerie - not the typical career route for an Oxford PPE grad. Emily Bendell stood out from the crowd, took her degree and built an underwear business made for and by women.

Bluebella started out as a direct selling model backed by an all-female investor group plus match funding. Spotting potential elsewhere, Emily raised a crowdfund round

on a pivot while taking on the official 50 Shades of Grey license. Sound too much like hard work? Emily, now both a business mogul and a mother, has steered the business into international and profitable success. Doubling in growth every year, this is an enterprise that shows no signs of slowing down.

In this episode you’ll discover…

The highs and lows, ins and outs of raising capital when you’re pivoting a business
How hustling to find the right investor audience is crucial when you’re peddling a provocative, female focused product
Why we need to reframe the question of having a family to acknowledge the power of motherhood and the father’s place in the family

E13. Celia Pool, DAME - Rewards Based Crowdfunding Uncovered

Fri, 10 May 2019 22:14:37 GMT

#crowdfunding #rewardscrowdfunding #femaleproduct

£500k raised

Period products represent a significant proportion of plastic pollution worldwide. On a mission to change this reality, save our planet and turn our bathrooms green, Celia Pool co-founded DAME. In a business swerve last year, she developed the world’s first reusable tampon applicator, ‘D’.

Celia kickstarted her move into product-based business with a rewards-based crowdfunding campaign. This alternative approach saw DAME splashed across the media. One year on and DAME is already stocked in Waitrose and sold in 50 countries worldwide. Celia swears by the pre-purchase backers who got her here with honest feedback and on-going advocacy.

In this episode you’ll discover…

The risks and rewards of taking the alternative route and trying the rewards-based crowdfunding approach
Why narrative is king when you sell B2C and want to push for fundraising PR
How to protect your purpose-led business from fierce and unforgiving bottom lines

E12. Riham Satti, MeVitae - Pitching - Dialogue Or Monologue

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 22:03:15 GMT

#technology #AI #recruitment #pitchdeck

£500k raised

A self confessed ‘accidental entrepreneur’, women in tech advocate Riham Satti is a neuroscientist and two time postgraduate. She’s also co-founder of MeVitae, a tech company that uses big data and machine learning to tackle unconscious bias in the world of recruitment.

Riham took MeVitae through four years of D&R with grant funding from institutions including the European Space Agency and Innovate UK before swapping academia for the fundraising arena. In 2018 Riham kick started the company’s growth with a half million raise that brought in Angels and VC investors plus plenty of learnings.

In this episode you’ll discover…

How dedicated organisation is key when you’re growing a company, working double time and persuading investors to take you seriously
Why pitching is not a dialogue but a monologue - a dynamic conversation focused on whether you’re the right fit for each other
What pitch events can be useful for other than raising investment

E11. Daisy Hill, Zzish - Crowdfunding Laid Bare

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 21:53:46 GMT

#education #crowdfunding #CrowdCube #networking

£2.1m raised

An international Edtech platform, Zzish helps to identify students’ learning gaps and fill them with educational apps and resources. In just five years, Zzish has grown to support over 2.5 million students worldwide. That growth has been fuelled by three funding rounds the latest of which raised £1m in less than 24 hours.

Daisy Hill joined the Zzish founder in 2016 to manage crowdfunding over £2,000,000. Daisy brought with her a decade’s experience in tech ventures and the energy to oversee the research, networking, marketing and admin that crowdfunding demands.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Strategies for navigating the complicated terrain of crowdfunding - why you might choose this route, where you need to put in the groundwork and how you can achieve momentum
How the UK compares to other countries in terms of investor risk profiling
Why utilising your, your colleagues’ and your investors’ networks may hold the key to your success.

E10. May Al-Karooni, Globechain - Where's The Value In Valuation?

Fri, 29 Mar 2019 18:41:48 GMT

#valuation #charity #venturecapital #confidence

£500k raised

Award winning marketplace Globechain is an online platform that allows corporates to distribute their unwanted items among SMEs and the charity sector. An enterprise for social impact with positive environmental implications - what’s not to love!

Former financial industry expert May Al-Karooni bootstrapped for three years, winning contracts with world-leading brands and mentorship from retail giant eBay before turning to fundraising to fuel her company’s growth. VC funding with equitable venture Kindred has done just that.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why flaunting your fundraising figures could do your business more harm than good
When in your business trajectory you’re best placed to seek a VC raise
The power you hold in picking your own investors and why you need to wake up to that authority

E9. Ilana Lever & Cecily Motley, Motley London - Is Fundraising Like Dating?

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 18:34:48 GMT

#venturecapital #financialplanning #retail #narrative

£365k raised

Motley London collaborate with the world's leading jewellery designers to create exclusive yet affordable, design-led jewellery disrupting a long outmoded sector.

Longstanding friends and co-founders Cecily and Ilana brought together 20 years’ experience in consumer goods and high-end jewellery to form Motley. Having declined VC funding and networked hard for angel investment, these entrepreneurs are eager to question the traditional fundraising narrative.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Why female founders are pushing back against traditional VC funding structures
How networking close to home could be your secret to success
An insight into financial planning – the positives and negatives of cutting your budget

E8. Bea Warner, Exaactly - Converting Casual Nods Into Yeses

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 18:28:17 GMT

#accelerator #retailtech #angels #ecommerce

£360k raised

Exaactly is an innovative addressing system refining the logistics of home deliveries through provision of detailed property data.

A first time entrepreneur and solo founder, Bea hit the ground running with a search for angel investment, a process advanced by winning a space on the John Lewis accelerator programme JLab. Since then, she’s secured business with the likes of Iceland, Waitrose and Yodel.

In this episode you’ll discover…

Strategies for turning your investor’s casual nod into a formal yes
How the support of formal advisors can make all the difference when you’re facing jargon heavy meetings and significant decisions
The truth behind tales of fundraising horrors and heroics you hear from fellow entrepreneurs

E7. Emilie Vanpoperinghe, OddBox - Crowdfunding for wonky fruit & veg

Fri, 15 Feb 2019 18:09:21 GMT

#crowdfunding #Seedrs #sustainability #subscription

£530k raised

Oddbox is London’s first wonky fruit and veg box subscription service, reducing food waste, by sourcing slightly imperfectly shaped produce directly from farms, and delivering them directly to customers.

As a business with a purpose, it was crucial that Emilie secured investors that shared her values.

In this episode, you'll discover...

How crowdfunding can build brand awareness and encourage your customers to be strong ambassadors
Why using clever commercial terms can give you the funding you need in the early days of the business
How to use advanced subscriptions on your funding round to get cash in the bank faster

E6. Kate Briscoe, Legal Beagles - £1m raised but we nearly failed

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:59:22 GMT

#ai #angelsyndicate #InnovateUK

£1m raised

Legal Beagles is a free legal forum that's helped over 1.7 million consumers, and a powerful dataset that's being used to develop Artificial Intelligence applications for the legal industry.

After seven years of running the business as a side hussle and funding it through donations and the help of a generous patron, Kate went to secure £1m in funding over two rounds, from angel investors and through an angel syndicate platform.

In this episode, you'll discover...

Strategies on how to step out of your comfort zone, and manage the chaos and stress involved in raising finance.
What to do when your gut feel about an investor is bad, but you’re desperate for the money.
Why being your authentic self is so important in building engagement and connection with potential investors

E5. Cecily Mills, Coconuts Naturally - Dragons Den The Lowdown

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 22:49:39 GMT

#DragonsDen #angels #food&drink

£180k raised

Coconuts Naturally is an exciting new brand of award-winning organic, non-dairy ice-cream.

After an initial 'friends & family' investment round, Cecily took the plunge and went on TV's Dragon's Den to raise further finance... but that's just the start of her story.

In this episode, you'll discover...

A behind the scenes look at how Dragons Den really works, and what you need to prepare for both before and after the show
How to overcome the challenges of raising finance when you live outside London and aren’t tapped into investor networks based in the capital
How to get your head around investment jargon, and make sure you get the right support to help you with mental challenges in running your campaign

E4. Kate Hofman, Grow Up Urban Farms - Raising £1.9m pre-launch & pregnant

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 19:01:33 GMT

#financialforecasts #InnovateUK #grants

£1.9m raised

GrowUp Urban Farms produce sustainable salads and herbs by growing them in a controlled environment indoors, in vertically stacked layers.

This was a capital intensive business to get off the ground, which presented some particular challenges in fundraising.

In this episode, you'll discover...

How to raise money for a capital intensive business, and use innovation grants to get you on your way
The challenges of raising money whilst you’re 7 months pregnant, and the need for the right support around you
Why having professional financial forecasts is absolutely essential for effective investor conversations

E3. Sarah Bertram, Smile Tribe - What To Wear To Meetings

Sat, 05 Jan 2019 12:25:21 GMT

#AI #preseed #technology #consumer #app

£50k raised

Smile Tribe's product is an app called Sophie - a personal lifecoach that improves your mental health and wellbeing using Artificial Intelligence.

Raising pre-seed finance was a challenge for Smile Tribe, at the point where the business was yet to prove any traction.

In this episode, you'll discover...

Why convertible loans can be a great way to raise finance quickly on an early stage first funding round
Strategies to sustain your energy during your fundraising campaign
Why deciding what to wear to an investor meeting can be tough when you're a female entrepreneur

E2. Diana Greenhalgh, MyBespoke Room.com - 3 Years Bootstrapping

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 23:21:04 GMT

#interiordesign #bootstrapping #angels #property

£800k raised

MyBespokeRoom is the UK’s first affordable online interiors business, and the go to place when you think about doing up your home or refurbishing a property, whether you’re looking for help, advice, design services or simply inspiration.

After funding the businesses herself for the first 3 years, Diana and her co-founder Laura secured their first funding round from angel investors.

In this episode, you'll discover...

The importance of bootstrapping, and how to mitigate financial risk around that
How customers can be a fantastic source of early investment, as they already love what you do
The importance of planning your round, timing, and 'stress testing' your investment offer and pitch

E1. Martha Silcott, FabLittleBag

juliaelliottbrown@gmail.com (Julia Elliott Brown) — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 10:26:12 GMT

#sustainability #manufacturing #angels #femtech #consumer

£400k raised

FabLittleBag is a period disposal bag that not only solves the perpetual problem women have of what to do with used sanitary products, but also at its heart addresses the significant environmental issues that come with people flushing these products down the loo.

Possibly not the easiest product to raise investment for you might think! But Martha found a way.

In this episode, you'll discover...

How your warm network can be a great source of investment, including your suppliers

Some creative ideas about how to pitch a 'female focused' product to the 'men in suits'

How easy it can be to waste time speaking to the wrong investors, and strategies on how to avoid this sucking up all your time

Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

Paying Your Board Isn’t Optional; It’s the Price of Serious Governance

Why free boards, unpaid advisors, and investor-only oversight are holding founders back

Ready to Grow? Ask Yourself These Hard Questions Before You Plan 2026

This isn’t a year-end review. It’s a reset. ﻿

��‍♀️ How to Approach This (Gently)

1. The Hour Alone

2. The Voice-Note Walk

3. The Founder-to-Founder Debrief

✨ My 2025 in Five Honest Moments

�� Part 1: What’s Worth Celebrating?

�� Part 2: Where Did I Get Stuck?

�� And Then… Something Shifts

What the Best Boards for Scaling Businesses Actually Get Right

Why the boardroom can become your growth engine - not just a governance checkpoint

1 | Start with Strategy, Not Just Share Papers

2 | Challenge That Supports, Not Critiques

3 | Be Agile, Not Just Quarterly

4 | The Chair as Board Architect

5 | Relevant Experience > Impressive CVs

6 | Values & Vision Alignment as the Bedrock

7 | How It All Comes Together: The Board Growth Engine

8 | Special Considerations for Female Founders

9 | To-Do List for This Month

10 | Final Thoughts

The Boardroom Edge for Female-Led Businesses

Scaling isn’t just about funding - it’s about who’s around your table ﻿

The Power of a Good Board

Why Founders Hold Back

What a Great Board Looks Like

The 4 R’s of a Growth-Ready Board

When Should You Build a Board?

What We Can’t See Hurts Us

Final Thought: No One Scales Alone

Is My Board Dysfunctional Or Is This Just Normal?

How to Spot the Red Flags and What To Do About Them

Why Boards Go Off the Rails in Startups

The Red Flags You Shouldn’t Ignore

1. Toxic behaviour

2. Money distortions

3. Big names, small value

4. No psychological safety

5. Hidden agendas

6. Overreach or absence

What’s Just “Normal” Scrappiness

How to Fix a Dysfunctional Board

1. Get the right chair

2. Reset purpose and roles

3. Build for values, not just CVs

4. Refresh the table when needed

5. Create healthy process

For Founders, Investors, and Directors

Final Thought

What’s Your Growth Strategy Really Missing?

A diagnostic for ambitious scale-up founders

1. A Clear and Compelling Vision

2. Culture as a Growth Engine

3. Pricing and Positioning Power

4. Leadership Structure That Matches Your Stage

5. Talent and Performance Management

6. Building for Long-Term Value

7. Financial Clarity

8. A Strategy That Connects the Dots

Final thought

The Messy Middle: Why Scaling Feels So Hard

Surviving – and thriving – through the toughest stage of growth

Why the Middle is Messy

Why It Feels So Hard

How to Survive – and Thrive

Closing Thoughts

VCs Should Step Away From Start-Up Boards

A founder-first case for rethinking the default board structure

1. Conflicted Interests

2. Lack of Operational Relevance

3. Defensive by Default

4. Power Dynamics That Muzzle Openness

So what’s the alternative?

But what does the data say?

But what about the counterarguments?

It’s time for a new board model

This isn’t a year-end review. It’s a reset.

Scaling isn’t just about funding - it’s about who’s around your table