How to find investment for your business – with Gemma Whates

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:08

Welcome to the, Bring Your Product Ideas To Life podcast, practical advice, and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products. Here's your host Vicki Weinberg. Today, I'm really excited to invite Gemma Whates back to the podcast. Gemma helps mothers to start and grow business alongside raising a family via startup courses and the All By Mama community. So Gemma was on the podcast back in 2020, talking about starting a business. Today she's back to talk with us about seeking investment. Um, Gemma has raised a lot of money over the years. Although she tells me that compared to some investments, it really is a drop in the ocean, um, for All By Mama. And she's going to talk about how, the reasons that she sought investment, how she did it, and importantly, how, and when you might want to think about seeking investment for your business, and if you do how to go about it, what you need to do, what you need to be aware of. And. All of all of the details. Um, I say all of the details, obviously it's a huge topic, but I would say this is a really good starting point. We kind of aimed for this episode to be a really good introduction into investment, um, who might consider it, why you might consider it, what you might use it for and just the basic to get you thinking about it. And then of course, if you need any further information, you can, um, do some investigation from there. Or you can also contact Gemma via the show notes for this episode. As you know, she's got loads of knowledge to share. And as I say, I only went into this really lightly on this episode because it is a huge, huge topic. Um, I think you're going to find it really interesting. Um, hopefully perhaps inspiring as well. And, um, yeah, with all that said, I would love to introduce you to Gemma. It's always dread that I might forget. I haven't never forgot to do that. I might forget. So I am going to, again, I'm going to record the introduction separately. I think I got know what I did last time. I've started doing them after we've spoken so I can kind of pull on what we've actually spoken about. Um, Yeah. So if you're, if you're good to go, I will ask you to introduce yourself. And obviously you can choose how you want to introduce yourself. Because obviously last time we were talking about, All By Mama, and now we're talking about something different. Although I think All By Mama was still relevant to this audience. Say, you introduce yourself. However you'd like to introduce yourself and then we'll take it from there if that's okay. Oh, sorry. No, that's fine. Say hi Gemma. Thank you so much for being.

Gemma Whates: 00:02:44

Hi there. Thank you for having me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:02:46

So can you start off by giving an introduction to yourself?

Gemma Whates: 00:02:49

Yeah. Sure. So for those of you that don't know me, my name's Gemma, um, I am a founder of a business called All By Mama. Um, I'm also work in marketing and I'm a VC scout for Ada Ventures and I'm a mum of two boys so there's a few strings to my bow.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:05

Definitely. And today we're going to talk about the investment string on your bow. So we want to talk, but investments, um, because I know it's something that can be needed either at the outset of starting your business or to grow your business. But until really, really recently, I knew nothing about investment, about who could seek investment types of in fact, I still know very little about the sort of types investment available and that's what you're here for. But I just think there'll be lots of people who have never even considered getting investment for their business, whether it's to start it or grow it. And, um, yeah, I would love if you can share all about the world of investments with us. And I know there's a really big topics that we're literally gonna be skimming the surface today, but I think it would be a really good starting point of this.

Gemma Whates: 00:03:45

Okay. Yeah. Sure. Um, so shall I share with you kind of what I did, um, and how I learned, what I, what I know, and maybe we can go from there.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:54

That'd be perfect. Thank you.

Gemma Whates: 00:03:56

Okay. So, um, when I had the idea for All By Mama, which is an online marketplace that supports, um, mothers in business, I had a little bit of savings from my full-time job, but I didn't quite have enough to build the tech that I needed to support the marketplace. Um, and I thought, well, I'm gonna need to get some money from somewhere. So I ended up just researching all of the different ways that I could fund my business and started off really not knowing anything, either at all. Um, and went to, um, some contacts of people that I knew. So it wasn't really within my immediate friendship group, but I kind of thought, who do I know that white might know someone? Cause I didn't have friends or family money, which is what sometimes people rely on to get their first round. And you'll find in the world of investment, it's, um, very privileged world and it's also very um, it's full of unconscious bias and bias. Um, and women are not genuinely the ones funded. There's some shocking statistics. I think the latest was just around the 2% mark of, um, solo female founders that are receiving investment against male founders. So. What I did was go, who could, I know, who do I know that might know somebody that might be interested in paying some money to this business, because right now I can't even really get it off the ground. And that's what I did first. And I did find someone and I got a little bit of investment. Initially. They really loved the idea they knew of me. And obviously I went and met him a few times and talked me through what the plans were and they invested to help us get the business launch. So after that point, um, I thought, okay, Um, it, it was so difficult to build the tech and to get the first year kind of up and running and underway. And, um, I thought, right, I'm going to need to get some more information about how to run a business and how to potentially fund a business. So I joined an accelerator and at the time the one I joined was called Entrepreneurial Spark. And it was since acquired by NatWest. So some people might know it as the NatWest accelerator. Um, and I joined, I did it just before it, it turns to be NatWest. And through that process, I learned a little bit about via the mentors there and via the community there. What other investment options there were and starts to like learn and understand about crowdfunding. So for those that don't know, there's two different types of, well, there's lots of different types of crowdfunding, but broadly there's equity crowd funding or reward crowdfunding. So equity crowd funding is where people, um, put money into your business and you'd give them a percentage share of your business and reward crowdfunding is where people put money into your business that, you know, Um, reward them with something. So be that the product at a reduced price or something, else like something promotional or something, um, merchandise. So those are the two kind of main types of, of crowd funding that I was looking at with the business. Being a service business. I didn't really have anything that fits into reward. So that's platforms like Kickstarter. So it was going to for equity crowd funding, which is where I tried to raise a little percentage or some money. Um, and, um, yeah, I would people, the people that invested would get a share in the business. So, um, I learned a lot about that. Um, then decided to give it a go and, uh, raised 75,000 pounds with a platform called Crowdcube. That's one of the equity crowd funding platforms in the UK. So, um, after that, I kind of thought right now, learnt a little bit about crowd funding and investment. Um, what other ways are there to fund the business? And once you go on a investment kind of trajectory, it's different than if you're either self funding obviously, or you're kind of running off the profit that your business is generating. So. I was kind of on this investment trajectory and thought, what other ways are there that I can raise money? Um, so, um, I looked at Angel Investment and that was essentially finding people it's, I wouldn't really say in my network, some people might be able to find people in their network, but I really didn't have anyone in my network other than the people that I'd found via crowd funding, um, that I could go to. So I thought, right, how do I find a network? And that was a case of attending lots of different events. Again, talking to people that I knew slightly, um, or people that could introduce me to somebody that they knew. And it was a really, a lot of. No, so, and a lot of please can you introduce me a lot of conversations around, would you even be interested in a conversation, um, and finding people that I could talk to you that were high net worth that might have some money to invest in the business. And I did find a few, three or four angels to invest. Um, and then I did another accelerator and this accelerator was called ignite. And this accelerator also put investment into your business as part of the accelerator, some do some don't. Um, this one did. Um, so I got some VC funding via that, um, that accelerator only a very, very small amount. Um, From that community. I then met some VCs, um, which are venture capitalists for anyone that doesn't know, because why would, you know, if you're not in the, in, not in the world. Um, and, um, I met a, an amazing woman called Check Warner, who is, um, she has a fund. She started a fund with a guy called Matt called ADA Ventures. And over time getting to know, Check and Matt. their vision and their mission is all about supporting underrepresented founders. I became a scout for them, which means I go out and look for businesses that want to raise VC investment and see if they're appropriate or relevant to ADA Ventures and if they are make an introduction. So I suppose that's a slight whistle stop tour of all the ways that I have raised or learns about investment over the past five, six years.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:10:12

That's amazing. Thank you. And wow, you've done a lot. Gemma I hadn't realized if you don't mind. Um, don't tell me if you don't want to answer this, but do you mind giving us an idea of how much money you've raised over that over that time? Cause it looks like you've put in a lot of work.

Gemma Whates: 00:10:25

Yeah. No Problem. Yeah. I mean it's hard, really hard work. I've raised a total of £250,000. Um, and that's spread out over time. In the investment world, that is really nothing. And especially if you were looking at raising VC, you know, that it's, it's not, it's not a lot at all. Um, but obviously for me trying to start my business, it felt, it feels, it felt like a lot. Um, but it is a it's a hard process and there's lots of things I didn't really know at the start that I wish I'd knew that I know now. And I think with investment, it's something that you should learn as much as you can about before you do.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:11:01

Yes, definitely. So let's talk about a bit of that and then we'll come back. Some of the things you wish you wish you'd learned. Look, I definitely don't want to let that one go, Gemma. Um, can we just, so you mentioned lots of different ways of finding funding. So you talked about VC and angel investors and crowdfunding. Can you just give us a really quick run through of what all the different options are just for anyone who missed it when they were listening to your story? Would that be ok?.

Gemma Whates: 00:11:27

Yeah, sure. I mean, there's loads of different options and for funding, business funding your business. So I'll leave that side of the funding to the financial professionals, but in terms of what I've done on equity, raising equity, investment, um, so you've got venture capitalists or VCs. So they will typically invest in something which is highly scalable from say, 500,000 up. I mean, you can find some of them, that's more, some of invest less, but broadly you're looking at something highly scalable. Um, if you're going into a VC, um, you've then got things. Uh, angels say angels are generally high net worth individuals, um, who wants to invest money in businesses. Um, and that's a case of approaching kind of finding and approaching them. Pitching to them. And, um, for that it, for them to make an investment, you need to agree on a valuation. So you'll put a valuation to your business and then they'll say yes or no. Um, and then that's broadly how that works in terms of angel investment and then crowdfunding. So crowdfunding, equity investment crowdfunding, generally you'll find a platform where you can, um, put your business on to, um, there'll be lots of, kind of due diligence prior to that. And then you will put your business or your pitch onto the platform. And that would be a video pitch decks, um, key facts. Um, and you wanna invite people to come in and invest in your business for percentage share. And again, that's done on an evaluation, agreed with you and the crowd funding platform.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:00

Perfect. Thank you for that. And when it comes to angel investors and VC investors, just so I've got this really clear in my head as well. So is what they get from it. A percentage of the business. Is that typically how it works?

Gemma Whates: 00:13:12

Yeah, exactly.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:14

Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about, um, when you might be thinking about seeking investment for your business, because, and you spoke about getting some investment to get started. So I guess that's one time when it might be good, but when, when the other times that people might want to think about getting investments or, um, yeah. And what different things can you use investment for? Cause you mentioned you did yours to invest in the tech. What are some of the things that people consider getting investment for?

Gemma Whates: 00:13:44

Yeah, I think that was massively varies depending on what kind of investment you're getting. Say for instance, if you're going for VC investment, you're looking at scale. So scaling your business or getting your business off the ground. If it's something like you said, that's got high amount of really expensive tech or something like that, that you need to actually up and running before you can scale or acquire customers. Um, if you are, um, If you're looking at, you might need, if you're looking at friends and family rounds or angels, again, that can be right at the start. So you just actually need some funding to get the business off the ground that might be to buy stock and it might be to, yeah. Do some tech. It might be marketing. So maybe you've got a proven track record in marketing and you can show your ROI. Um, and you know that if you pay X and you'll get X out, so you want, you want some funding to scale that marketing, um, or it might be to bring people on board. So you need some resource or you'd want some resource to help you scale again, um, and run the business, but you can't do that out of the turnover or the profit rather that the business is generating. So, um, you'll look there. Um, you can look to investment for that. Um, there's so many different reasons, and I think the main thing to do is to have a think about why you know, like you've just said you you'll considering investment. What the output is that you think you're going to get. If you do get the investment what's, what's it going to look like? What are you gonna use it for? And what's it gonna like after you've spent it and just make sure you spoken to somebody that really understands what it means to give away shares in your business. Obviously, obviously you speak to your accountant about that, or, um, a lawyer that understands. That and how that, how that impacts your business. Um, so I know if a lawyer is the right word, um, I would just recommend that before you take on any investment you're in a position of, of, of slight knowledge or not slight knowledge of knowledge.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:15:43

Yes. Yeah. That definitely makes sense because I guess it's a big commitment by size of the you're giving away a share of your business, but the other party or parties are giving away a chunk of their money. Um, what happens. I'm interested, as I was saying, there's a question just popped into my head, Gemma, what happens if it sort of goes wrong? What happens if you, you know, you don't see a return on the money that's been invested or is that something that's agreed up upfront? What happens there?

Gemma Whates: 00:16:09

Well, generally. I think you you'll see, you seek investment with the intention of it, of your business scaling, obviously giving a return to your investors, but ultimately you need to make it clear to anyone that's investing. That capital is at risk. And as part of a crowdfunding campaign, you'll say capsule at risk, but underneath any promotional activity, because, um, you have to make sure people realize that. And essentially, you know, you can't, you can't guarantee a return. Um, so. If it's at the risk of loss, essentially.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:42

Okay thank you. Then let's read. I just think that's really good to know. Um, so I'm thinking that most people listening will be people who are perhaps looking to either create their first products or maybe bring on some, some new products, their product range. Someone in that situation, what kind of things would you need to be thinking about? And I guess what I'm trying to ask is how would you go about seeking investment? So let's say you've got this brilliant idea for a product, but you need some money behind you to actually get it, get it developed and made. What would you need to do and have in order to sort of go and seek investment? I know from sort of friends and family, it's one thing, but let's see. So you think, okay, I need to go and find some angel investors or venture capitalists. What would you sort of need to be armed with as such to do that?

Gemma Whates: 00:17:29

I think the first thing is a real clarity of why you need the money, what for, and then I think you also need to make sure that you've looked at options for, for self-funding and that doesn't have to be money in the bank. That can be things like loans, or it can be personal debt and stuff, and those kinds of options. So I think. Initially the you'd have to have, you'd have to think to yourself what all the ways I could potentially fund this. So there's a really good, um, resource, um, from a company called Swoop. Um, so if you look at that company, they'll go through and tell you, put in what you're trying to do. They'll, they'll go through and tell you all the different ways that you can look to get money into your business and investments just one of those. So I think that's the first step deciding what, what you need. Money-wise and why you need it and what you think is going to happen when you've got it, um, is really important. Um, and then in terms of, if you decide that raising investment is the right way to go, you'll need to prepare some projections and financial projections. So, um, normally that's three years out and sometimes it's five years out, but normally it's three years out. Um, in terms of what you think you're going to get from cash flow perspective. So all the things that you're going to generate revenue for you, your costs, what your marketing activity will, will bring in, um, costs like resource and, and that kind of thing. Um, so you'll need to have a cashflow projection. Um, and then you need great pitch deck, which will essentially tell somebody it doesn't know anything about your business, what your business is. Um, so you'll have. A one pager that would introduce what your businesses know that include things like your team, what you've achieved to date, what you want the money for, what you think the money will do. Um, anything else notable about the business? Like if you've got IP or anything like that, um, and what you're trying to raise, how much you're trying to various, so you'll create a pitch deck. Sometimes when you're looking at raising investment, if you're going to through a pitch, a pitch day, um, so you can apply to pitch to organizations, um, that have pitch days, um, they'll sometimes ask for what's called an executive summary, which is, um, all the information in your pitch deck in a one pager, not, not all the information, a summary of the information in your pitch deck on a one-pager. Um, and I think it's good to have that anyway. Cause it will streamline your thinking about what goes into the pitch deck. And then you can create a. Kind of boiler room of information, which has got your pitch deck. It's got your financials, it's got your exec summary. You can include a list of investors that you're trying to improve approach. You can include any kind of press that you want to get, or any press that you have got. Um, you can include any feedback that you've had previously from investors that have, or haven't invested or any that if this is your first time that as you go, people will say yes and no. So you can include that. What's a what to change. And I think it's good to have an editable pitch deck because, um, especially if you're talking about to everybody, but if you're speaking to Angel investors and they're often going to be have different motivations, um, so having, uh, an editable pitch deck will help you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:40

Okay by that. Do you mean sort of say that you can pitch so you can have it that, that maybe aligns with that person's interests or their motivations, for example?

Gemma Whates: 00:20:50

Yeah. Say for instance, if he knows something about the particular investor, the type of thing that he liked to invest in, or if the, if you think this is like an emotional investment, perhaps it's something that they have that has impacted them in their life or that they know about particularly. Or if you think that that it's, if it's not, if it's, if, if, if it's they're very. Data lead investor. And they might know, you might want to just see what the numbers are like even when you're talking to different people. It's quite hard to know sometimes, but sometimes you might know something about that. Those people you're going to be talking to. And therefore you must like, what's it slightly change how you, how you share the same information.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:21:23

That makes sense. Yeah. And it sounds like you need to know a little bit about who you're talking to anyway. Um, ahead of time, how do you do that? So how do you, you know, if I wanted to fight to get investment with something today, how would I go about finding people.

Gemma Whates: 00:21:39

I think that's really hard part of it. And I think this is one of the reasons why, um, investment is, is so hard if you're not in a world of high net worth or, um, you're, you haven't, you know, you don't come from a background of a lot of wealth because it's all about networks and, and there are opportunities to apply to different kinds of organizations where you can pitch your business. But if you know, people who have money. It's a lot easier to find an angel investor than it then if you don't. Um, so if you don't, it's a case of networking. So I think accelerators are really good place to do that. I mean, that's always been my number one place to find networks and learn about investment and has been accelerators. I've done. I think they really good opportunity. Um, and if not, you've got LinkedIn as well, so really use LinkedIn. Um, you can type in angel investor. So some people put that in their profile. You have to do a little bit of a, do a little bit of due diligence to look you're here. You're here actually here. You're actually looking out, but you can use LinkedIn. You can also look at, um, businesses that, you know, have investors and have a look at who their contacts are to get an idea of the kind of investors. I'm not saying steal you're, you're competitors, you're competitors, investors, but some investors like to invest in a certain industry so they might be interested if you are looking at if your food and drink brand. You are looking for an investor. You might find a few, some investors come up, you want to get other food and drink brands, contacts. You might find the same person comes up a few times. And that might be because they're an interested agent and investor in that industry. And the other thing is to speak to other founders. Who've raised investments. Sometimes there'll be people that it's it's, uh, that they can share like angels that they have in their business that they're happy to share. Sometimes it will be appropriate and sometimes it won't be, but just building that network, I think is, um, another way to do that. It's hard and it is about getting, getting the word out. Really.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:35

You were mentioning pitch days before Gemma, are there sort of websites or, or networks where people can go to find out information on those?

Gemma Whates: 00:23:47

Yeah. Um, I think the best thing to do and your best friend is Google, Google, and also speaking to other, um, small business owners that you know of raise investment to see what ones that they viewed. So, um, the a great one to took to share is Angel Academy. So I think if anyone's looking. Have a look at Angel Academy. Um, some of the VCs also run days where they will, um, talk to founders that are looking to raise and you have to apply. And, uh, if you get accepted, you'll get like a 15 minute slot and you can either use that time to pithc or a great way to use that time. If you're at the beginning of a journey is for advice. So you can share a pitch deck, or you can ask, how do I do this? How do I do that? Um, Forward Partners do a great one. Um, and there's lots of others as well that do it. So, um, The temporarily forgotten what the name is of them. Um, but if you, if you search your fines research, um, VC, what would you search? Search? Uh, gosh I've forgotten the name. Sorry after I'll have to tell you I have to come back.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:51

And, uh, that's fine. Um, that has led me on to another question though, which is, um, when it comes to sort of advice and having opinions on your business, do either VCs or angel investors in your experience anyway, want to have any kind of input into your business, into decisions you make, or is it simply they're happy to give you the money and let you get on with it? Because obviously if they have got to share in your business, I'm just wondering how much input they want to have. I know it will vary from person to person, but I'm just wondering if there's a group of investors that tends to be more, wants to be more involved than others.

Gemma Whates: 00:25:25

You're right, exactly. That it will vary. So you might find an angel that wants to be involved. And again, that will be part of what you discussed before, you know, you taking the investment. Um, and there might be some that they want to be involved in. The financial investment. So it is definitely case by case, um, with VC, again, it, those vary, but they'll tend to have more of an involvement, um, in terms of just making sure you're hitting targets for growth, whereas angels. Well, it depends on who they are, but often. It's less of a, how's it going conversation all the time and it's more supportive. Um, this I've only really, I mean, I can't really say that about angel investors as a whole, um, because yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:11

no, thank you. And with that in mind, um, do you draw up any sort of contracts when you get investment that sort of states how much involvement someone might have. What's required of you what's required of them. Is that something you would do at the outset?

Gemma Whates: 00:26:24

Yeah, absolutely. It must have contracts. Um, so, um, you're looking at putting a contract in place. Um, you're have, um, bits depending on what type of investment you're raising. You might also make changes to your articles of association, which are something that, articles in your business. Um, Yeah, you need to make sure 100% that you've got contracts in place.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:26:51

Okay. Thank you. I thought so. It's always good to clarify. Um, so let's come back to something you mentioned earlier, Gemma, you said that there were lots of things you would have perhaps done differently. Had you known when you were seeking your first rounds of investment, what are some of those things? If you don't mind sharing them with us so that other people can learn from them please

Gemma Whates: 00:27:12

um, I would, I wish I knew more than what I knew. So in terms of all the different types of investment, what, what, what all the options are? I knew a little bit, but I didn't know what I knew now. And I just think it would have, I would've made better decisions if I had, um, I think also in terms of the financial management of the investment, like. I think you can. I just know a lot more than what, what I knew, um, back then, because I think it's a case of, of me. Working with mentors via accelerators and coaches that I've just become, I just, I've just learned more over time. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything, actually that advice that, which is actually something which someone can take on board. Um, I think for me, it's purely, it's purely knowledge.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:28:17

That's great. Thank you. Because I think what I'm getting from that, you know, the entire conversation we've had is it's not something to jump into. So I mean, if you're listening to this and think, oh yeah, this sounds great. Um, it might not necessarily mean that you want to go out tomorrow and look for an investor. It sounds like it's something that you need to do a lot more research on and be absolutely a hundred percent committed that this is the right thing for your business.

Gemma Whates: 00:28:39

I feel like that. Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:28:41

And are there any downsides to, to investment that you can, that you can think of or things that people need to sort of have at the back of their minds? Looking at it.

Gemma Whates: 00:28:50

I mean, again, it's a bit, it depends on what type of investment you're raising. But for instance, if you take crowdfunding, I mean, it takes it's at six months from me saying I'm going to raise money via crowd funding to actually getting the money into my bank account. So, and during that time, it will just take you out of date day is very time intensive, um, and all the way through the process. So you have to consider the time that it will take you to do that. And equally with angel investors, It takes, you know, when you might be talking to somebody who's about to buy your product instead, you're talking to an investor. So it does take you out of some of that day-to-day running, so that either doubles your workload, or if you're only got one or two people in your team where it's just you, then you can't do, you can't do it all the time. Um, so you're making a decision to spend that time that you might've been spending on marketing activity or sales or something else I'm talking to investors. So I think that is a real consideration about how long, how much time it takes. And it's very often it's not, and it's not quick. So you also need to think about what I'm going to do between now and when I'm planning to raise. So normally I'd say maybe like a six month period. You give yourself, I'd like to raise X by say six months. Um, so yeah, it's, it's something that takes a bit of time. It requires a bit of planning, but, but yeah, ultimately, um, it does take your time as the founder.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:30:18

Wow. I hadn't even considered the time element either that it would take or could take so long or that it would take so much of your time. I've definitely been getting a sense of it. As we were talking that you was talking about the things you had to prepare. And then I guess there's a lot of research, you know, finding people, having conversations, but I hadn't actually considered the, yeah. That could be a full-time job in itself.

Gemma Whates: 00:30:41

Yeah. And I mean, I don't feel like I've talked about all the positives yet too much, but I have met. Some incredible people, um, via the world of investment, be that other founders. Be that investors that haven't invested, but have given me some amazing mentoring or advice along the way. And I've got some great non-execs in my business that have just been nothing but totally supportive. And I've learned a lot from them, um, and have been that to kind. Of guide me during difficutl times. Um, That that has been some real, real positives for me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:31:11

That's brilliant. Thank you. Any other positives you want to share? Cause you're right. We'd be talking a lot about that. The harsh reality of it, but it would be good to talk about. I mean, obviously for you, it'd be fantastic. You had that money to raise, you have raised that money that you could invest back into your business, but what have been some of the other positives you've seen over for you or for others?

Gemma Whates: 00:31:30

I mean, definitely. Um, the fact that could actually get launched. So that was a real positive. Um, I think, yeah, sometimes it's a case of. You can't do it if you don't have the money and it's that simple. And if you don't have the money. And savings or you can't, haven't got access to it, then you just can't go any further with your business. So yeah, you know, there's that obvious positive. Um, and I do think if you can, um, work with investors that can act as advisors, that is again, really important benefit and a great benefit to have as part of your business, someone that's actually got an invested interest in your business and is able to act as a mentor or advisor, um, in that capacity.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:32:12

Yeah, it does definitely sound like it could be a really good way of if you're prepared to do the work a really good way to give your business a bit of a, I don't want to say a headstart, maybe a kickstart is the best way of phrasing it, but to get you a little bit further ahead in terms of financially, and as you say, the knowledge from someone who's perhaps got ahead, or yeah, I think that sounds lovely. That sounds really beneficial. I can definitely see the benefits of. So are there people out there, Gemma? Um, and actually, well, I know that you're one of them that could help with finding investors and actually let's do this as part of the answer. Maybe talk a little bit more about what you're offering at the moment.

Gemma Whates: 00:32:51

Um, yeah, I mean, uh, People that will, you can work with to help you raise investment. I don't offer that, but there are people advisors that do offer that. Um, there's, uh, the best communities are, are ones. I find either accelerators or founder communities that kind of create themselves. Um, and then there are events hosted by various different kinds of companies that you can, um, could go to for networking, which I think are really beneficial often, obviously with COVID that's been slightly, there's been quite a lot of change in that, but, um, you will find them. Um, and I think that they're great to go and to learn and to listen. Um, so in terms of. Well, I'm trying to do so I do have a power hour where you can ask me anything about raising investment and I'll just share with you the knowledge that I, that I have. I think that's helpful for people that don't really know where to start. but need some help. What goes in a pitch deck, or I think I want, can you talk to me a little bit more about grant funding or for that kind of, um, person, um, And I'm a VC scout for Ada Ventures. So if you have got a business where you're looking to raise a seed round, um, definitely share your pitch doc with me, you can find me. I'm sure Vicki will link actually in the, in the, uh, uh, notes where you can find me. Um, but yeah, I do look at pitch decks as well for people that are looking to raise VC investment and I'm working on an investment community, which really with just the kind of ambition of connecting founders that are trying to find out about how to raise and are raising their first rounds and are looking for supportive place to do that. And a little bit of an info sharing, um, and, uh, Networking opportunity. So I haven't got that live yet. I'm still working through that, but, um, hopefully I'll be able to offer that soon as well

Vicki Weinberg: 00:34:38

oh, perfect thank you. And of course I will link, um, for a direct link in the show notes so people can contact you if they're what's the name or by any of this. So thank you so much, Gemma. I've just got a few final questions if that's okay. Yeah. Um, so one thing I, in the back of my mind, and I think it could possibly be, you know, in the back of some others as well, is that if you're a tiny, tiny business, let's say it's just you, you're selling one product or a small range of products. Um, you really, you know, you consider yourself a really small business. Can you still seek investment? Are there people out there who want to, to invest in small businesses?

Gemma Whates: 00:35:12

Yeah, absolutely. And I would say yes, if you've got, if you're, um, you know, what you want to achieve at the investment. I think ultimately if you're looking at investment it means that you want to grow and you want to scale because that's how your investorwill likely see a return. So I think. Everyone starts small. So if it's that, you are, you are small right now and you're one person with one product, but you think, well, actually I want to, to grow and scale this then. Absolutely. Yes. And there's lots of angel investors that get involved at a really early stage, um, and really small businesses like that. You know, either have an affinity to the type of business or an emotional connection, or just really can see the opportunity financially. Um, but yes, I think if you're like that, if you're small now, but you've got the ambition to grow and scale, you can absolutely look at seeking investment.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:36:03

Oh, that's amazing to know. It's really, reassuring. Thank you. And one final question before we wrap up Gemma, what are the key things you'd like people to know about investing? What sorts of things would you like people to take away from?

Gemma Whates: 00:36:16

I think, um, in terms of key things to take away, it would be one. Get some knowledge, start learning a little bit about it before you make any decisions. The second thing would be, be really clear on why you need the money and what you're going to spend it on and what the potential return is for an investor and how do they get their return? Um, make sure you've looked at all options for paying funding into your business. Not just investment. And, um, consider how you can get additional advice for any investors that you do bring in. So be that as non-execs, or be that as advisors and investors, um, make sure you have a think about how either them or their network might be able to help you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:36:59

That's brilliant advice. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing all of this. I appreciate that it is an overview because it's such a huge topic and I'm sure there's lots more we can cover, but I think that's given us just the right amount for people to get started. I will link to your website in the show notes. If people want to book a power hour with you or they've got something they want to discuss, they'll be able to contact you easily. And yeah. Thank you so much for being here.

Gemma Whates: 00:37:23

Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely to chat to you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:37:25

No problem at all. I always thank you so much for listening all the way to the end of this episode. If you enjoyed it, please do leave me a review that really helps other people to find this podcast. Make sure you subscribe. So you don't miss any future episodes. Do you tell your friends about it too? If you think that they also might enjoy it you can find it at vickiweinberg.com, there you'll find link to all of my social channels. You'll find lots more information. All of the past podcast episodes and lots of free resources too. So again, that's vickiweinberg.com. Take care, have a good week and see you next time.