Episodes
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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 sheetsWhy you need to do due diligence on investorsHow to not take investor rejection personally -
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 with £225K 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 startWhy you should think of raising investment as a sales processHow to select the right route to investment -
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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 investorsWhy it's normal to feel confused by the investment worldWhy storytelling during pitches is the key to getting investment -
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 -
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.
How to keep moving forward when it’s tough raising investmentHow to get the most from PR opportunities when fundraisingWhy too many voices can hinder your funding journey -
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 investmentWhy you need to market yourself and your brand constantly to raise successfullyWhy the investors who get it, will champion you in every way! -
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 teamStart with your brand positioningWhy you need to stay nimble in your fundraise -
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.
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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 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 - reaching out to 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 everyoneHow important advice from the right people isWhy there’s no shame in failing a funding round and starting over -
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.
How to use your passion to win investors overHow to remove a ‘fearful’ mindset Why you should never neglect your health and wellbeing during a fundraise -
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.
What champions of your business can do for youHow expressions of interest can give investors confidenceWhy finding the right investors is fundamental for success -
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.
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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.
How your valuation can impact the success of your crowdfundHow to communicate your unique edge to investorsThe value a lead investor can bring beyond just money
In this episode you’ll discover: -
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.
How facing your fears can show you what’s possibleHow to use founder passion to succeed at raising investmentWhy mentorship and coaching make all the difference
In this episode you’ll discover: -
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 thereHow to build your story and have effective conversationsWhy being authentic will win over investors -
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 investmentTips for reaching out ‘cold’ to potential investorsHow to get a thick skin -
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 journeyThe level of traction you need to secure a “yes” from investorsHow important it is to master your pitch -
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 everythingHow powerful your founding team isWhen the best time to raise investment is -
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
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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 personallyWhy there’s no downside to trying How to create a winning strategy to fundraise quickly - Show more
