Crowdfunding Review – Violet – A ‘smart home’ dashboard for all your devices

It’s another Crowdcube Pitch Review! The point of this is to give BOTH founders and crowd investors some perspective on what ‘professional’ investors think when evaluating projects to invest in. For founders, the intention is to give some advice and framework on what to include and what not to include when crafting a crowdfunding pitch. […]

COLD READ – Personal Fav – Sexual Health Products

Ah here we are! Time for another dish of brutal honesty on someone’s #pitch deck. My friends, it’s a Cold Read. This time we have the US-based ‘Personal Fav Co.’ – a range of sex-related products aiming at making good-ole love-making’ a safe, pleasurable, and adventurous thing. Now, subject matter aside, let’s discuss the #pitchdeck. […]

Startup Fundraising Bootcamp – How to have a conversation with a potential investor

That’s right, founderlings! There’s too much advice out there telling you how to ‘pitch’ – but nowhere near enough telling you how to ‘talk’. I’ve attempted to condense my 13 years of startup fundraising experience into a short and snappy ‘bootcamp’ – covering things I wish someone told me on day one. There’s of course […]

WTF is Startup Fundraising? The importance of understanding ‘Owner Motivation’

Hello chums. When a founder ‘raises money’ through investment, they’re essentially inviting another individual or company to become another *owner* of their startup. Obviously, for the privilege (and I really do mean that word – privilege), they pay a price to become an owner. But – why? What are they motivated by when it comes […]

WTF is Startup Fundraising anyway?! Part 2: Know who you’re talking to…

Raising investment is hard. But I believe it’s hard because people follow too much advice on *how* to raise money, instead of asking for advice on *why* people invest in startups in the first place. it’s a big topic – obviously – and this is only a few minutes. In these few minutes, I speak […]

WTF is Startup Fundraising? Part 1 – think of it like changing momentum

Ah. Fundraising. A commonly misunderstood topic. In today’s small little nugget, I make the comparison that fundraising is like using money to change your project’s momentum. Momentum is made up of ‘stuff’, ‘speed’ and a ‘direction’. When you fundraise, you kinda take a punt on how much of those things might change as a result […]