Our Expert Speakers’ Top Tips When Raising Investment as a Woman Founder
We finished both our fireside chats at our first AwakenHub event on 6 July by asking our speakers Anne Ravanona & Joyeeta Das to give us their top investment tips (2 x Dos & 1 x Definite Don’t each) and this is what they said.
We finished both our fireside chats at our first AwakenHub event on 6 July by asking our speakers Anne Ravanona & Joyeeta Das to give us their top investment tips (2 x Dos & 1 x Definite Don’t each) and this is what they said.
Anne’s first tip was to really do your homework on potential investors (what sectors they are actively investing in, what else they’ve invested in, what they’re interested in this year, if they’re even investing at the moment) and don’t approach anyone without doing this first. Also as part of this, speak to the founders of other companies in the investor’s portfolio and ask them how the experience has been for them. Sounds obvious but so many founders don’t bother to do this.
Her second was to make sure you’re really ready and have all your information in order as this will get you to the real conversation with a potential investor much quicker. Key to this is your pitch deck which should include a polished & kick-ass executive summary and which should follow the standard pitch deck format – no deviations from the norm please – investors hate that if they have to read a lot of business plans or decks.
Anne’s definitely don’t is a bit of a double negative – it’s don’t go into the investment process lacking confidence in yourself and don’t take any investor feedback about your business proposition personally. As I always say, this is a process that requires you to kiss a lot of frogs. So – be confident in your proposal and your chance of success and pucker up!
Joyeeta has raised over $6m for her London based data science company Gyana. Unsurprisingly for a data scientist, her first tip is for you to research the industry metrics and really know your numbers. Check Crunchbase and Angellist, research the median analysis. This will give you confidence in your investor discussions and in your term sheet negotiations. If you aren’t comfortable doing this sort of analysis then get some help. Then – when a prospective investor suggests they’ve valued your company at £750k or whatever, at least you’ll have a view and opinion you can stand over.
Her second tip is to remember that raising investment always takes much longer than you expect. Lots can happen along the way and even after you have a term sheet that investor can often fall away. Conserve your cash and behave more camel than unicorn when you’re fundraising and remember that the deal isn’t done until the cash has been in your bank account for 24 hours. Be careful with your money when you’re early stage and don’t get carried away in your spending. Linked to this Anne made a good point in her chat which was to make sure you raise enough money. In the current situation you probably need 24 months runway.
Joyeeta’s definitely don’t was around the PR & hype that’s flying around just now in terms of investment in women founders and improvements claimed in inclusion. A lot of this hasn’t actually materialised yet so be careful what you believe. Women founders still have to overcompensate and work a bit harder to raise investment. Is that fair? Of course not but it’s the reality of what you’re dealing with so be prepared.
Once again, great to have such interesting and high calibre speakers at our first event. They’ve set a high bar which our team will endeavour to match.
If there are any speakers you’d love to hear from at one of our future events then send us a note and we’ll try to bring them to you.