Liesa Miller’s Post

“How to Talk to Investors" Three great pieces of advice from three #startup / #scaleup ecosystem players in a side panel at yesterday's marvellous #FemaleFoundersGrowthSummit in Edinburgh. 🚀 From Rhona Campbell of Investing Women Angels - "When you send your initial outreach to us, keep it short ... no more than 2 or 3 sentences, but make sure you articulate your value proposition and include your growth opportunity/ambitions. Please don't send a long & detailed email at this stage" 🚀 From Danae Shell, co-founder of Valla - "When you're raising investment, it's a lot easier on you if you have good inbound interest from investors as well as undertaking outbound outreach yourself. In order for this to happen, you need to spend a couple of years doing the hard yards of building out your trusted network but the effort is worth it" 🚀 From Elizabeth Pirrie, CEO of AccelerateHER - “Do your homework when you begin looking for angel investors and don’t send cold messages via LinkedIn to investors who are not aligned to you - for example, male founders bombarding angel investors who quite clearly state they only invest in women founding teams” I can certainly relate to that last point Elizabeth. 😡 It was great for AwakenAngels to be at yesterday’s event & thank you Ana Stewart Jo Forster Emmie Faust Hazel Nabarro & Hannah Thompson for making Clare McGee & I so welcome & for all your hard work via Pathways Forward & Female Founders Rise - we really enjoyed our day.

✨ Thank You, Alma Angels ✨ Wednesday evening, I had the honor of being asked to present a deep-dive webinar for the incredible Alma Angels community. A special thank you to the brilliant Roxane Sanguinetti and 😃 David Fogel for having me. I shared my insights on #secondaries including how planD helps investors optimise their portfolios 🌟DM me if you’re an #investor looking to exit an illiquid investment and free up capital in the form of losses that could be recycled into new exciting venture opportunities like those supported by Alma Angels! Or if you’re a #founder struggling to raise/doing a downround and want to clean up your cap table so you can refocus on growth. 🚀 The work Alma Angels is doing to back underrepresented founders and foster collaboration between angel investors is exceptional. Check more details about how they have been working on a mission to generate $1 trillion in women-led wealth by 2050 here: https://lnkd.in/enijqSUa. Thank you for creating such a supportive and empowering space. #AngelInvesting #Secondaries #PortfolioOptimisation #VentureEcosystem #planD

Are you having doubts about raising capital in today's market? 💡Join our friends at Philly Tech Entrepreneurs for an exclusive event featuring Josh Devon, an entrepreneur who secured millions from top VCs, and David Luk, a veteran investor turned "rescue capital" provider at Palm Venture Studios. They'll be dishing the REAL on fundraising: 📌Pros & Cons of raising from VCs, strategics, angels & more! 📌Unveiling lessons learned from their experiences. 📌Decoding the current market and its impact on fundraising. Open forum Q&A to follow - get your burning questions answered! Don't miss this chance to gain valuable insights! Register here: https://lnkd.in/dZAciMfy

👼 Last week we brought an amazing panel of angels together to talk the #RadiaAccelerator cohort through raising from angel investors. Thank you Edwina Johnson, Matthew Roberts and Roxane Sanguinetti for sharing your insights, tips and tricks.   📌 Here are some of the key points we touched on during the panel discussion:   💍 Will you be my angel? -Create a spreadsheet with your industry heroes and reach out to them. Even if they don't end up investing, they can still open a door to someone else, become an advisor or even a chair. -If the person has never angel invested before, it is still worth asking if they would invest in your business. -You can also look at similar companies' cap tables to identify potential angels interested in the space (that being said, you don't want angels that are invested in a competitor). -Syndicates like Alma Angels find their deals through community members or founders can apply directly. Nodes Ventures similarly relies on their community bringing deals.   🧠 Is gutfeel the angel DD? -Angel communities and syndicates will collectively look at deals. These groups typically consist of a mix of experts in different industries and fields, meaning they can 'crowdsource' a view on a market quickly. -But back to the gut, most angels will only invest if they believe in the founder. Relationship building is key. -However, don't let angels take up too much of your time. Time should match the check size and/or value add. -To save yourself answering the same questions over and over again, create a bank of FAQs.   💸 Investment terms & valuation -For angel-only rounds, terms are typically set by the largest investors or the most experienced angel. -It's important to think about equity runway when setting your valuation, i.e. thinking about future funding rounds. -SAFEs are a very founder friendly way of not setting your valuation at pre-seed, however be careful with 'stacking' them up.    🛠 Cap table construct -Diversity on the cap table is key, both in terms of representation and investor incentives (i.e. a fund will have very different incentives from a strategic angel). -Invite potential customers or design partners to be an angel investor. -Be wary of 'party rounds' - where all angels have similar ownership and not much skin in the game.   🔥 Any angels out there who have more burning tips for our Radia founders? 🌱 Anna Torrents Saldo, Lydia Taranilla, Beth G., Ebony C., Emily Pilsworth, Jessica Liew, Sungjung Kim, Krupa Modi, CFA, Marta Grzeskiewicz, Philippa Dunjay, Polina Kyriushko, Roma S., Tara Ramdonee, Tara Sakhuja, Julie Gabriel, Ines Clark cc Katya Pogudina, Lauren Apostolidis - AlbionVC and Deepali Nangia -Speedinvest

Please join me next week for the 8th Annual Women Founders and Funders Breakfast @Fox Rothschild hosted by Elizabeth Sigety, Delaware Crossing Investor Group, and Marc Kramer for a panel conversation on strategies and best practices for raising capital for high-growth startups! ♟️💡🚀 #FemaleFunders #womenEntrepeneurs #VentureCapital #FemaleFounders #StartpLife

If investors shared their decision-making secrets, would you know how to align with your ideal investor? These are 3 essential tips to help YOU walk into Reverse Pitch Day with confidence so you can leave with a list of potential right matches for your business.  This event, in partnership with Black Entrepreneurship Alliance, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and National Bank of Canada, is your chance to evaluate the perfect funding partner for your vision. Remember, the choice is in YOUR hands.  Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to take control of the conversation and land the partnership that will elevate your venture!  Registration link in bio!  #ReversePitchDay #InvestorPitch #StartupGrowth #YSpace #YRTech

I'm doing a live webinar in partnership with Founders Live this Thursday at 10am PST / 12pm CST, speaking to the theme of pitching with purpose: the key that unlocks values-aligned pre-seed and seed stage investment for your venture. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gw4uncn3 This comes on the heels of my client, the awesome Elizabeth Arnold winning first place in the global Founders Live pitch competition a few months ago. I've spoken to more than a dozen accelerators and communities and 1,000s of founders globally over the last few years on this topic, and it's helped my FFL community raise millions - by approaching your raise with grounded, anchored energy, a clear (and investable) story to tell, and the ability to hold a strong "container" (amount, timeline, intention) of fundraising. If this calls to you as you raise your first or second rounds of capital, make it a priority to attend live - the energy of being in the room often activates unseen elements of your mindset, energy, and strategy in a way that doesn't make logical sense. See you soon! Register here: https://lnkd.in/gw4uncn3 #venturecapital #founders #socialimpact #femalefounders #femalefounder

Register for Thursday's #FoundersLive Conversations session with Nilima from the The Female Founders Lab by Nilima Achwal for a whole new level of pitch awareness and purpose. Nilima joins Luis live - and she'll take questions from the audience, too. If you've been building your venture for a little while, chances are, you are feeling tired, under-resourced, and pretty lonely. The good news is that there are values-aligned investors out there for you - you just have to learn to "pitch with purpose" - to anchor deeply into your highest vision for humanity, and then communicate it with authority and clarity to invite others to join you. In this session, you’ll experience a shift in: • How to re-frame your pitch deck to become compelling to any outsider who doesn't understand your business • How to re-frame your strategy so you can magnetize values-aligned supporters - and keep out the rest • How to stay grounded, anchored, and powerfully connected to your own vision as you shift, grow, and transform yourself and your venture. Register via link in comments… #founderstories #founder #startup #entrepreneurship

A VC fund exclusively for founders age 60+ 👀 Talk about disruption!!! Cheers Katerina Stroponiati. I will be watching this closely. Ageism is an American passtime. All power to you and your team. #femalefounders #ageism #VC #intersectionality

A novel (and wonderful!) approach to #longevity investing. And according to the data, likely a more successful one, as the most successful founders, at least by age, tend to be over the age of 45. Can’t wait to see what Katerina Stroponiati does with this. #founders #startups #VC