Raising investment: advice from founders

For most start-ups and scale-ups, investment is part of the story at some point. How much you need, when you go after it, who you take it from and on what terms: these decisions shape the business in ways that go well beyond the balance sheet.

A lot of funding advice is generic. It tends to arrive too early, too late or from people who haven’t had to do it themselves. What tends to be more useful is hearing from founders who have been through it, made mistakes and come out with something specific to share.

As part of our Product | People | Potential interview series, we asked every founder and leader the same question about investment. Here’s what they had to say.

Tom Ridges, the founder of Herdify:
As obvious as it might sound, get to know your business. And I mean REALLY know your business. Especially in terms of financials. A lot of people can struggle to understand them – or even feel scared to approach them (which is very common) – so if this is you find yourself a great FD or advisor who can teach you what you need to know. You have to be able to rattle off figures and forecasts with ease if you are going to impress an investor. And it speeds things up, because they are all going to ask you for this kind of detail eventually. Nothing bad ever came from fully understanding your own forecast.
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Cat Jones, founder and CEO of Byway:
Having a good pitch deck is crucial. For our recent Series A, we invested in a slick, professionally designed deck, which isn’t something we had ever done before, and which made a big difference in securing meetings with investors.

Another important aspect is having a monthly update – something that not enough founders find time to prioritise. We send out a detailed update every month to our existing shareholders, potential investors, partner companies, and our team. We detail our wins, our challenges, our next steps, and report all of our results. This transparency keeps everyone informed and engaged, generating opportunities and support.

One of our investors in our last round was someone who had been quietly following our updates for three years, and when we announced our raise, they reached out with an immediate offer of support. They had been really impressed by our results every month for the past three years, and so were keen to get onboard as soon as we began the fundraising round.
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David Greenwood, PhD, founder of hppypeople.com:
Navigating investments for start-ups and scale-ups can indeed be a challenge. While I wouldn’t claim to have all the answers, having been on the investment side, I can offer a few insights.

Firstly, getting noticed is key, so leveraging warm introductions can be incredibly valuable. Secondly, understanding your investor audience and what they prioritise as critical success factors is crucial. And finally, having a clear ask and offer is vital. Any pitch should be supported by a compelling team and some evidence of traction in the market.

Participating in pitching competitions, accelerators and embracing feedback as invaluable insights can also be a great initial strategy. SetSquared & EngineShed support such events in the South West.
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Joshua Steer, Founder and CEO of Radii Devices:
Getting investment can be tough, with market conditions and investor priorities often out of your control. My advice: research funding sources that match your mission, polish your pitch to show your solution’s impact, and explore grants, partnerships, and revenue opportunities. Also, raise the right amount of capital to reach specific goals and value inflection points rather than comparing yourself to other startups. Show investors you can use capital wisely by setting realistic targets and milestones. This’ll make your startup more attractive and help you grow sustainably.
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Alvin Orbaek White. PhD, Founder of TrimTabs:
Understand your vision, define your vision, and if you believe in it, you will find others who believe in it too. Build your team, and then remember that you just need to keep talking to people and keep going. A piece of advice would be to take a course on scaling your company. The first session I took was about branding, which I didn’t think applied to me. However, branding is important just as much as the technical aspects.
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Find the full ‘Product | People | Potential’ interview series here.