Raising capital – and finding the right investors – is a vital aspect of building a business.
However, gender bias means that if you’re a young woman building a company, the odds are stacked against you. We can’t control that part. But what we can control is learning from those who’ve actually done it.
Over the last few months, our team at Missing Perspectives have been interviewing female founders including Di Challenor (Constantinople), Camille Goldstone-Henry (Xylo Systems), Annie Liao (Build Club), and Freya Berwick (Sense of Self) who have predominantly gone down the venture capital path and raised money for their businesses. We thought it’d be helpful to get their advice around raising and what that experience was actually like – because hey, it can look scary sometimes (particularly if you’ve watched Suits).
So we’re all speaking the same language, let’s take a step back. Typically, a capital raise is when a company raises money to grow and scale its operations – by bringing in outside investors. Think of it as kind of like investors taking a piece of the pie – they put in money in exchange for partial ownership (what is often referred to as ‘equity’). Investors hope that their piece of the pie grows in value as the company itself grows – so it’s a win-win situation.
In today’s climate, startup founders can go down several paths when raising money. There are angel investors (i.e., individuals), or venture capital firms (like Blackbird, the content partner of this series). Venture capital firms are a team of professional investors with diverse, specialised backgrounds who support early-stage companies with big potential to grow – by giving them money in exchange for some ownership. It’s usually the goal of venture capitalists that at least some of the smaller companies across their portfolio will experience intense growth and profitability. But let’s save that chat for another day.
Dream big, let’s go, presenting… How I Raised.
Founder: Michelle Gilmore
Company: Juno is an AI-led research platform. Juno aims to pay better attention to what people think and feel – and why they think and feel that way – in ways that help its users including childcare centres, RSLs, and wedding planners better understand what their parents, customers, and guests truly need.
Capital raised to date: $2.8 million in a round led by Blackbird
Michelle Gilmore is the co-founder of Juno, an AI-led research platform that builds on her 15 years experience working in industry.
Juno is Michelle’s fifth business, and it’s the first time she’s raised venture capital as a source of investment. She says she and Blackbird were very aligned on their ambitions for Juno, so it was a good fit from a founder-investor POV.
Here’s a contrarian hot take: Michelle didn’t use a pitch deck when raising.
As a woman who grew up in Orange, and hails from a different background to many of the people typically fluent in #finance, Michelle says it’s important to get the message out there that people should raise in a way that feels authentic to them.
Founder: Di Challenor
Company: Constantinople is a banking software platform. Constantinople wants to create the equivalent of what Shopify has built for small and medium merchants, but for the long tail of small and medium banks.
Capital raised to date: $82 million from funds including Prosus Ventures, Square Peg Capital, and Airtree
Okay, so Di holds a fairly unique title in Australian business history – along with her co-founder Mac Duncan, she has raised the largest seed round to date of $32 million. Since then, Di has continued to attract the interest – and backing – of major investors.
She makes it look easy… but we had to ask her… was it?
“Yeah, so my first comment is it’s not super easy,” she says. “And I’m glad it’s not, actually, because you’re asking a venture capital fund or a venture capitalist to believe in you and to impart their precious capital to your business and trust you. It was definitely an experience that tested me. And coming out of a banking environment, where capital was pretty easy to get, and then coming into a world where capital is not freely given, was a real test of myself and again, I put myself in quite an uncomfortable position.
“Firstly you’ve just got to back yourself and realise that those people evaluating you have very little information. So, you must know your business and how that model works and how you’re going to execute better than anyone. You must not leave any stone unturned. We spent hours preparing for every investment committee that we went to for every Series C and Series A, and we were meticulous. We know our business.
“We also knew where our risks were. You can’t go in and say look, I’m going to start this and it’s all going to be rosy, and I think I could be a unicorn in five years. I’m not saying people do that, what I’m trying to articulate is there’s that story, and then there’s the other story, and be really clear as a founder and anyone who is going to go on this journey, I think an investor wants to know how you’re going to deal with challenges. Have you thought about the risks? What’s around the corner? The ‘what if’ scenarios?”
There will ‘inevitably’ be challenges when running a business, Di adds, so being able to articulate those to investors and identify how you plan on dealing with them can make you more attractive to back.
“You can have the best idea in the world – but can you execute? Execution means managing risks. It means understanding what could happen, and plan for it. I think back yourself, and never ever give up.”
Founder: Annie Liao
Company: Build Club is an online community and platform for AI builders. Build Club aims to onboard 1 million users by 2026.
Total raised: $1.75 million in a round co-led by Blackbird and Airtree
At 23-years-old, Annie has one message for other young women wanting to pitch to venture capitalists: back yourself.
“When you seem nervous people know you’re nervous,” she says. “Rejection is normal – we were rejected by my previous employer [when pitching]. You just need one person to back you and then that can change your trajectory. Be as resilient as possible. Surrounding yourself with people who back you.”
Annie practices what she preaches – having leaned on leading female mentors here in Australia. She says pitching to venture capital firms was made easier by the support of some leading women in the industry here in Australia.
“Getting the money was actually more stressful than I thought it would be, particularly raising as a solo founder and having to build a team, and hire a Chief Technology Officer [CTO],” Annie says.
“It’s easier now that I have a CTO that I can trust. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to build what we want to do and not have to worry about food, etcetera.”
Founder: Niamh Mooney
Company: Matilda is a modern migration agency that combines world-class migration practitioners with cutting-edge technology.
Capital raised to date: $1 million led by AfterWork Ventures, with support from Victoria Denholm’s Wollemi Capital, Everywhere VC, Co-Ventures and Startmate
Niamh Mooney highlights three important aspects when raising – understanding how venture capital firms actually work, knowing the economic climate and the ‘price’ of money, and how to do your homework so that you’re prepared when you go into pitch mode.
“We’re not in 2021 anymore – money is expensive – so investors are far more disciplined,” she explains.
“Educate yourself on venture fund economics and your investors’ incentives, and particularly how they align and differ from your own. This will help you go into funding conversations understanding what they’re solving for. Know (or at least have a view on) the unit economics of your business and a clear pathway to profitability. Why you? What gives you an edge, or an advantage, to build this business over anyone else?”
The most common question Niamh was asked by prospective investors was how she and her co-founder Damien Png would “productise” what is traditionally a professional services business.
Finally, preparation is key.
“Stack rank your investors based on who you most want on your cap table and work up the list, pitching first to investors that you are less attached to so by the time you are pitching to your top priority you have refined your pitch and you have responses to all questions. You are going to get rejected. A lot. Don’t take it personally. Understand that investors are looking for a specific profile of business and have their own fund economics to solve for,” Niamh says.
“There are two skills to pitching: 1) the content of your pitch; 2) your ability to sell and present. Practice both so you are confident.”
Founder: Freya Berwick
Company: Sense of Self, a Norwegian-inspired bathhouse that makes communal bathing more accessible to a modern audience.
Initial capital raised: $2 million from bank funding, a small amount of equity, and Freya and her co-founders’ own money
Freya took a mixed bag approach to raising capital for SOS.
She drew from what she knew about the range of different ways to start a business she was familiar with and jammed them together to fund her idea for an all-new bathhouse and spa hybrid in Collingwood, Melbourne.
“Ultimately, the capital mix in the end, for Sense of Self, Collingwood was bank funding, a small amount of equity, and then putting in our own money,” she explains. “It was about $2 million and we just scraped it all together. And it wasn’t like we could raise a pool of capital to roll out three. We’re sort of paving a category, so you have to be a bit slow. You can’t just iterate versions, you know. You have to build it and then iterate.”
Berwick shares that one of the greater challenges of this process, of not only launching the first SOS site, but paving a new category, was proving to investors and her potential market that a brick and mortar business like SOS would indeed pay off.
“There was this massive resistance to it, [because] you can’t prove it until you’ve spent all the money,” she says.
“It’s not like a piece of technology that you start to test. So we just needed to find people that understood that – and communicating what Sense Of Self is before it existed and before there was a bathing market was super hard… it still remains hard, because you have to experience it to really feel it.”
As a non-investor in SOS but fulltime lover of modern bathing experiences – we think Freya’s onto something.
Founder: Camille Goldstone-Henry
Company: Xylo Systems creates a SaaS-product that helps companies and governments track biodiversity.
Capital raised to date: $1 million
Camille’s hot cap raising tips include start early and build genuine relationships, build resilience, and dream big and sell the vision.
“Think of raising capital as a marathon, not a sprint,” she reflects. “Begin networking and building relationships with investors well before you’re ready to ask for funding. The best investors are those who not only believe in your vision but are also aligned with your mission and values. Building these connections early ensures that you’re not scrambling for capital when the time comes. It makes the process faster and more targeted. It also allows you to filter out those who aren’t a fit, so you can focus on the ones who will truly invest in your growth, not just your company.”
Only half-joking, Camille’s next word to the wise sounds like something your Greatest Generation grandpa might say: “Have a spoonful of cement for breakfast”.
“This journey requires resilience. Learn to take feedback in stride, stay focused on your mission, and never let the rejections shake your belief in what you’re building. Your perseverance will inspire the right investors to back you.”
And finally, don’t be afraid to show just how ambitious you are.
“If you want to take over the world with your startup, make that vision crystal clear,” Camille says.
“Investors are drawn to founders with audacious goals who can tell a compelling story. Why does your company exist? What impact will it have? Why are *you* the one to make it happen? When you weave your story with confidence, passion, and clarity, the right investors will want to join you on the journey.”
