Welcome, everyone. So week 10 of our GBR masterclass. I am excited to have this masterclass because
we are having a conversation specifically for founders. Last year in our GBR program,
I think you all remember me talking about one of the members who was pitching. Her name
is Veronica, and she was pitching for a grant. But Arian was so impressed by her knowledge
and skills and her business that she deemed her to be venture ready and invested in her
business. And so I'm excited to bring Veronica up here to talk to you all about what it looks
like for founders after you get that investment. I think sometimes we are so eager to get that
venture investment that we don't necessarily think through what that looks like. So Veronica
is going to talk to us a little bit about what it looks like after they invest in your business.
Now what? What do they expect from you? Lessons that she learned. So Veronica,
welcome to our Get Venture Ready masterclass. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Okay. And I guess I'll just go ahead and take it from here. So thank you, ladies.
Thank you so much for having me. I would love to tell you a little bit about myself and a little
bit about my journey. So I'm Veronica Woodruff. I'm a mom, a CEO, a daughter, sister, cousin,
just like you, I'm regular. And my journey started off as a flight attendant to having
a seat at the table with leaders in corporate travel innovation for over a decade. So when
we first launched Travel Assist, it was 2018, and we went to market with a B2C solution,
providing baby gear rentals to families arriving at Atlanta airport. And since then we've evolved
into something much bigger. Now we're partnering with some of the biggest airports and leading
airliners in the world by creating seamless travel experience for all who travel and need
assistance. And we do this through automation, AI, machine learning. And I can go on and on and
talk to you about Travel Assist because that's my baby. But today I'm here to share with you
my founder experience, my experience from my journey as a founder and where I'm at right now.
And what I hope for is that you can take something away from this conversation, whether it's a lesson
learned, inspiration to keep going, or motivation to bridge that gap between female founders
securing funding for their companies. What I like to do is I want to tell you a little bit about
what led me to our first investment. As Siobhan said, there's nothing more than having a woman,
a Black woman, investing in an Afro-Latina. I consider myself a Black woman. So another Black
woman investing in another Black woman. There's nothing more powerful than seeing and receiving
that. So again, I like to tell you what led to that first investment, what it was like actually
receiving that investment. Because you all know that the offer publicly was one number,
but we were able to even receive more than what was originally offered. And I cannot have done
that without my team. And what it's like now, after raising capital from additional investors
and building your team, you raise all that money so that you can hire more people, so you can scale
your business and grow from there. And the reality is that we do all this work just to pitch,
and pitching never ends. You're going to constantly pitch throughout the lifetime of
your business. So I'll just get right into it. Just like you all may or may not be, but I was
at a point in my company where we were, in order for us to hit our next milestones, we needed to
raise capital. I was bootstrapping. We received non-dilutive funding. But all of that was coming
to an end. And in order for us to secure our first customer, our first partner, we needed to have
money and financial backing to support us and scale from there. So I did the GBR program,
just like the one that you're in today. However, the difference was that program was 12 months,
and I think yours is a little shorter. I think yours is maybe 12 weeks. I'm not sure.
But the biggest benefit about being in that program was that I was able to build relationships
with the Fearless team by asking questions. And as I was asking questions, I was giving them a
bit of knowledge.
about myself and my company and where we were.
So it was more like an update.
It was a question and an update.
And I was also able to utilize the chat
and connect with founders and actually
take that initiative of building relationships with them.
So when I say, I would see certain names in the chat,
and I would connect with them on LinkedIn and just say,
hey, do you want to meet for virtual coffee or stuff
like that?
And I would meet with them, and I would just
listen to what they're doing, where they are in their company
stage, what investors they're talking to.
I would get to know what they were going through,
and I would share what I was going through.
And then we would keep in touch.
And the reality was that what we were doing,
we were building this relationship that ended up
turning into a friendship.
These connections, these peers, they're real life relationships
because I know that you all are very similar to me,
where the company is like your baby,
and it takes on a large percent of your time.
And so no one loves to hear more about you talking business
than other female founders, because that's what they do.
They're talking about their business all the time.
So I surrounded myself with female founders.
Sorry about that.
My computer went out.
So anyway, I was at the time where I was hungry,
and I was committed to actively participating in this cohort.
But at the same time, I had went through the Women's
Entrepreneurship Initiative.
I had went through Techstars.
So I went through the Techstars Female Founder Catalyst
Program, it was Techstars and JPMorgan and Chase.
And I'm just going to spend a little bit of time
talking about this program, because when
you think of Techstars, you think of Techstars
being one of the leading global accelerators,
and they invest in founders.
A lot of founders, they go through Techstars
to get their first check.
So I'm going to talk a little bit more about Techstars,
and then I'm going to talk a little bit more
about Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative,
because a lot of founders, they go through Techstars
to get their first check.
But I want to make sure that all of you
know the difference between accelerators
and versus incubators.
And the difference between incubators
is they help companies start from the ground up.
So you have an idea, and they help you formulate that idea.
And most of the time, as you're formulating that idea,
your mindset has to change.
You're not thinking of a small mom-and-pop business that's
generating only a million dollars in revenue
or hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
What you're building is a sustainable, scalable business
model, so that way you can have a successful exit
and so that you can be venture ready.
And so I was lucky enough to have coaches and mentors
to push me.
Sorry.
OK.
I was reading the chat, but I was
able to have coaches and mentors to push me
and to give me the idea that, OK, I
have to go to market with not just one,
but several different revenue streams
to see which one was going to scale and scale
the largest and the furthest.
And so if I didn't have those mentors in the beginning,
I would have been a mom-and-pop shop running baby gear
rentals out of the airport here in Atlanta.
And that's not what I signed up for.
I went through way too much going through a divorce
and sacrificing a lot just to keep this company,
so that way it can be something that I can pass down
to my daughter, something that I can actually
exit from and walk away from and walk away from
by creating opportunities for not just me,
but many other people.
And that's the goal, ladies.
That's the goal with our businesses.
It's not just for us to take care of our family,
to create generational wealth for our immediate circle,
but it's to build and create legacies for other women
to follow.
We have to break these barriers, so that way it
can be easier for the next group of women
to raise venture capital.
Because right now, you hear all of the,
if we listen to all the statistics,
if we see all the data, and I don't live like that.
I live off the grid.
I hate when people tell me stuff like,
you need to only pitch to investors
that will invest in women or women of color.
And you need to, I remember early stage,
there was a coach who came up to me and he told me,
you need to focus on.
on creating social capital.
If you focus on social capital, then people will invest.
Or why don't you consider donating half of your revenues
to a nonprofit?
And it made me question what I was building.
And you have to be so confident, and so absolute, and so sure.
Because we're creators.
I knew that I was creating a sustainable, scalable business.
And I knew that I was providing an exit to not just one,
but many investors.
And I was creating a lot of opportunities
for not only myself and my team receiving a good contract,
but we were also creating economic.
We're aiding economic development.
We're creating jobs for the city,
creating jobs for the community.
We're doing a lot of things that had more
to do than just driving revenue.
And sometimes you have to block those opinions.
You have to block those feedback.
And you have to stay on course.
And that's very hard when you're participating
in a lot of accelerators and incubators.
And people don't really get what you're building.
So you have to learn how to filter out
the good and the bad.
And I'm not saying that it's bad,
but it's not going to elevate you to your next level.
And so the difference between incubators are simply,
they help entrepreneurs with their business ideas
from the ground up.
But accelerators, they're like consulting firms.
So they invest in you.
And they invest in you.
And they're not giving you money for free.
They're investing in you for equity.
So they're on your cap table.
And usually that equity is very expensive.
But what it does for you is you're
able to leverage their network.
You're able to get access to mentors.
You're able to have access to their strategic partners.
So if your customers are larger corporations,
if your customers are, you wonder
how people reach the CEO of Coca-Cola,
or how certain people is able to be three people away
from Obama.
It's because they go through, they're
a part of those networks.
And if you're like me, I didn't have that.
I didn't have these networks.
I didn't have this community.
I didn't come from wealth.
My parents, they worked.
And they worked very hard.
We are a middle class family from California.
But I didn't come from a family where my dad was a CEO,
or we're millionaires, and we live this certain lifestyle.
I had to make a name of myself.
And I had to build those relationships on my own.
So when you hear about those white boy founders who
are in the Silicon Valley, and they
raise all these millions of dollars just based off
of their ideas, what you don't know
is that their father was so-and-so, and so-and-so,
and so-and-so.
And because their father is all these people,
or their mother is all these people,
then it de-risks an investor from investing in them.
And so for most Black female founders, we don't have that.
But we're getting access to that because there
are more funds like Fearless Fund, and Zane Venture,
and Collab Capital, and all these different funds.
But even outside of that, we're making some waves
with our ideas.
We're making some waves with our businesses.
And people who wouldn't normally invest in us,
now they're looking at us.
And so it's very important for you
to not accept the statistics and the terms,
and not get discouraged, but to keep going.
So anyway, that's the difference between an incubator
and an accelerator.
When we did the JP Morgan and Chase and Techstar's
accelerator, they didn't offer us any money.
And a lot of people went to Twitter with that.
We were the first ones here in Atlanta.
A lot of people went to Twitter.
And you know how Twitter gets.
You get the good, the bad, the ugly, the people
crying and complaining.
But what it did for us is we didn't
have to give away any equity.
But what we had was access to their network.
So I utilized the hell out of that network.
As soon as they had their mentor calendar call,
I booked meetings for the whole entire time
I was in that call.
I think it was three months.
I booked meetings every week.
And every time I met with whoever would meet with me,
I kept giving them updates.
And I would set my meetings with airports and airliners
right around that time, because I
knew I was getting ready to meet with a certain mentor or coach.
And I would be able to ask them questions.
OK, what should I do?
And what I learned is these people,
they gave you so much knowledge through their experience.
Because the mentors that were in their program,
their founders.
who had not just one exit, but multiple exits. They're investors who were founders, you know,
who raised their own funds, and they still had an entrepreneur mindset, you know. And what I was
lacking when I was going through these local accelerators were people who were able to give
me advice that was a good, clear distinction between travel and tech. I couldn't find those
people. But what I realized is the people in Techstars, they were just, they just had a
different level of communication, you know. It wasn't like you had to be pretty and polished,
you know. It was, you know, you're speaking on a call with millionaires, with people who are
lending you their advice, their wisdom, you know, that want to meet with you, that will work for
you. I had a woman, a mentor, she wrote my whole branding strategy with me. We did like a two,
two and a half hour workshop, you know. And she did that for me. And that's her business,
that's what she charges people for. But she did that because Techstars has this give first
mentality where they help other founders in their community because these people helped them,
you know. And they helped them be successful. And when you think about it, every leader that's
successful, they didn't reach their level of success alone. It took a village. So,
it made it clear. Well, that time, I was running out of money. And it was so important for me to
raise money. So, what I did was I pitched to all these people. And I let them know my situation.
Like, if I don't raise money in the next 30 days, then I don't know what's going to happen. But I
can't play my employees. You know, we're not going to be able to scale. We're not going to,
sorry, I'm going off slides. But we're not going to be able to scale. I'm not going to be able to
feed my family. I'm a mom. I have my daughter. And I'm a single mom at that. So, I wear all
these different hats. And everything was coming to an end. And what I did was I pulled my team
from their normal roles. And I said, look, you know, I was honest with them. I was like, if we
don't raise this money, we're not going to be able to continue. You know, we have to get an
investor to say yes. Because everything before then was no's. And so, we ended up, you know,
working and honing in on our pitch. And we went through tech stars. We graduated. And it was
around the same time that Fearless was offering, you know, the pitch competition for a 5K non
dilutive grant. And at that time, I was like, it's, you know, it's 5K. And I had all my doubts,
you know. But I just kept getting signals, you know. I kept getting emails from Fearless to
apply. And so, I finally applied. And we went through the pitch. And it was it caught me off
guard. Because I don't know, that day, a lot of different things were going on. You know,
things weren't going quite my way. And I still pitched. And I, you know, and then I didn't win
the 5K when Ariane announced the winner. I didn't win the 5K grant. And I still remained positive.
I was like, okay, you know, that person must have needed it more than I did, you know. And
then they even offered a $2,500 grant. And I still didn't win. And I just thought again, okay,
you know, maybe they just didn't get it, you know. And then when Ariane came to the stage,
it was like they had it planned. And she was like, you know, we want to invest in you. And
like my heart hit the ground. Because I don't know if you guys know, when you pray for something,
like I was literally on my knees praying every night, like on my knees praying, like, God,
why did you give me this idea? Like what, you know, I need, we need, we need funding, you know,
we need, I need, there's so much that I needed. And to actually have that happen, I didn't know
what to do. Like I was shocked. And it was like shocked, exciting. And, and my team, everyone was
screaming, and I was screaming, you know, of course. But I want to tell you one thing.
One thing is, if you are serious about raising money, you need to do everything that it takes
to get to that yes. And when I say everything, I mean, and we'll go back to this slide. But I mean,
you have to get your legal, you have to get your legal in order, your counsel. So start building a
relationship with your, your legal team, because whether you're raising on a safe note, or a
convertible note, or if you're, you know, if you're that advanced, and you're, you're raising a price
round, you want to be able to have your advisors, you know, have your, your loyal, your lawyer,
you know, you want to have your team.
together, where when you're accepting that money, you're able to make a wise decision.
You know, luckily, you know, Fearless Fund, you know, they invest on founder, founder,
founder, they're, they're pro founders. So their terms aren't, you know, they're not
aggressive or predatory. But there are some other investors who they smell your desperation,
they will come to you, especially angels, you know, they'll come into you because you need
money. You know, I remember this, this, there's this one investor, and he offered $10 million
for our company, 10 million to invest $10 million for 50%. You know, and that's what you call
predator, predatory lending. And that was just that was just a big red line. There were more
details in that term sheet that were so wrong. There, I couldn't believe that, that that that
investor tried to invest in us so early with those terms, you know, but they're out there.
And we call those we call those people tigers. So you know, you have your sharks,
but those are a tiger, like that person, he was a tiger. And those tigers, they always come around,
because he's come around again, and again, and again, still trying to invest, but on different
terms. But what you have to remember is that those tigers, they never lose their stripes,
right. And you have to always trust your gut. Because even when I was meeting with him,
something wasn't right. You know, and, you know, I had the whole team meet with him, you know,
and the majority of my team are men, you know, there's still investors who are male investors
that try to take advantage over, over women, and you have to make sure that you have your team
to be a shield for you, you know, so it's okay to have, you know, if you don't have a team member,
you know, bounce, bounce, be open and honest with your investors, let them know what those
conversations are that you're having. I'm sorry, with your advisors, let your advisors know what
type of conversations you're having with these investors, because if they're really a truly a
good advisor, they're going to give you feedback, and they're going to help you navigate through
those conversations. So that way, when it comes time to, to signing your term sheet, you know,
you're making the right decision for yourself and the company. And also pray, you know,
when I tell you that things happen faster, and I'm not all weirdy spiritual, but when you manifest,
you know, when you when you when you actually bring your thoughts on paper, when you're praying,
when you're communicating with your team, when you're driving that momentum to a yes to a win,
to a customer to a contract, you know, you have to pray I before my feet hit the ground in the
morning, I'm constantly praying because this life that we chose to live is not easy. You know,
all of the stress that we take, we carry it in our guts. And the own that the reality is,
is it's unhealthy to keep it there. So in order for us to release it, we have to pray or we have
to write it down, we have to release all of all that we take in, and we take in a lot,
we take in a lot just being black women, you know, we take in a lot just being mothers,
we take in a lot being CEOs, we take in a lot having to make every decision that we have to make,
because at the end of the day, we're responsible for all of those things and nobody else.
We can't blame our team member, we can't blame, we can't blame our employees, we can't blame our
counsel, you know, the only person that we can blame is ourself for making the wrong decisions.
And I'm not saying that we make the wrong decisions, but that we're not going to make
the wrong decisions because you do, but you have to turn those mistakes, those wrong decisions
into gains. And when I say gains, I mean, you're, you know, you learn from them, and you keep going.
So at the end of that program, back to that, you know, we got our first investment, right?
And we ended up receiving more than what the initial offer was. And now that you have your
money, you know, let's talk about what other people think. So Pete, everyone's exciting,
it's very exciting. It's a very exciting feeling to read, you know, to be a part of that small
percentage of female founders who actually raise money, right? But what comes with that is everyone
knocking on your door, you know, and everyone thinking that, okay, you know, you have all this
money, you can hire me, you know, and that's why it's so important to build those relationships
before you have money, you know, converting the people who are your mentors into sponsors,
because the reality is, is
You want to hire your mentors because they are so familiar with your business, you know, they understand what you went through and what you're going through now what you're facing. And these ended up being the, they end up being, you know, the perfect, you know, team members or employees to get your, your company to the next milestones that you're trying to reach. The only downside about that is sometimes you have to let those people go.
So everyone wants to come in and they want to be a CMO, CTO, you know, all of these big, you know, C-level, they want this big title, right?
Because not only does it look good, you know, professionally on their resume, but it looks good on LinkedIn.
You know, everyone wants to be a part of a thriving startup, you know, but not everyone is, is not everyone is qualified.
You know, they may be qualified to get you to your next milestone, but they're not going to be qualified to scale your company once it reaches a level where you have product market fit to the next level after that.
And so, you know, there's a lot of weeding through, there's a lot of testing. And for me personally, it was very hard to let go of some of my, you know, first employees.
But, you know, that's necessary to get, get a right fit. The downside of that is everyone wants to work for you.
Okay. Everyone says that they'll solve your problem, especially when it comes to technical development.
And what I found is key is to have a product roadmap built out already, you know, and when you hire your technical development team, whoever's leading that team, whether it's your CTO, or whether it's your head of engineering, or whether it's just, you know, a senior developer,
you want them to write out a product roadmap and you want them to follow it. Because what that does is it saves you, they're on a schedule, they're hitting their KPIs, they're hitting their targets, you know, and it saves you a lot of time from, you know, from wasting time, you know, and it saves you a lot of time from losing money.
Because what I had very early on was dev shops, you know, saying they can do all of these things, you know, yes, of course, they want to build our platform, they want to do all these things. But then, you know, when once they got into the middle of the term, they couldn't build out a solution, you know, and then hands were in the air, and I lost money, you know, and I can't afford to do that. You can't afford to do that even after you raise money.
The other thing is, is also, you know, now that you have investors, you feel like you have all of this pressure, okay, now I have to close this contract. Now I have to get, you know, reach $100,000 in revenue, you know, you have all of these things going on that, that will stress you out. But really, these investors, if they're, if they're pro founder, they want to do everything that you want that they can do for you to succeed.
So you're no longer the relationship is no longer, okay, these are my investors, I report to them, I work for them, you know, your relationship is these are my partners. Now they own a piece of my company. And now we together have to do everything so we can reach the next milestone so that we can succeed, you know, and it's, it's, it's being open and honest with them, it's being able to, you know, to let them know when you're giving them updates, you know, what you need help on what you need them to do.
They now own a part of your company. And, and it's not, they, you don't work for them, you know, you're, they're your partner. So you have to be able to ask them for things and, and talk through things, you know, the good, the bad, the ups and downs, and the ugly. The other thing is valuation, valuation matters. So a lot of people tell you to take money from anyone who's ready to invest in you.
That's not a good idea. Because that's how founders end up losing or selling half of their company. And, you know, they raise all this money, you know, I don't care if it's 150 million, and then their profits are only 600k, and they have to close up their company. That's, that's not healthy. That's not true. That's not a good start.
You know, and you hear that from you hear those stories from a lot of other non black founders, but that's what happens, you have to listen to the experiences you have to, you have to listen to when people talk, when they when they're sharing their, their journey, their stories, how I built this was like my church, my Bible. So I listened to that every Sunday when I was hiking or walking, I still listen to it now.
You listen to these founder stories. You know, just like you, you know, we we hear from Tope all the time with Calendly and how long it took him to reach
his first customer, or even, you know, Arthur Blanks in Home Depot, you know, he didn't
have a customer for months. And finally, his first customer came in, and they only spent
a dollar. But that was that drove momentum for him to keep going. And, and sometimes
it's like that, you know, but you have to continue to believe and you have to continue
to feed that energy to your entire team to keep going and, and watch what happens. Um,
so I know I'm running out of time, and I can talk to you forever. But I want to really
stay focused. So you know, Jay Z talks about this all the time, there's the grind in this
the glory. And the reality is, is that even though after you receive your first check,
it is not the glory, you are still grinding, you have to keep creating traction, you have
to keep reaching your milestones, and you have to keep sending updates. Because what
those updates do is those investors that told you know, when they see an update, they're
like, Oh, she's still there. You know, they tell you no to test you, I just want to let
you know that. And you need to know that they're meeting with you for a reason. You know, it
takes a lot for someone to give you the time to listen to you, right. So that means they're
somewhat interested. When you have that chance to pitch to them, that is your opportunity
to convert them, convert them the minimum, even if they tell you no, you convert them
into a supporter, you get them so interested in what you're doing, that they're going to
want to meet with you and meet with you again, and meet with you again. And they're going
to be damn that they did not invest in you the first time when you're when you're priced
that first time was probably a three or $2 million valuation. And today's price is 26
or 25. You know, so you have to, you know, it's fun, because let me tell you, those
people, those same nose, they come back around, and they come back around again. So, so it
all goes back to building relationships. And at the end of the day, you know, whether it's
the investor testing to see if you're ready, whether it's you pitching and communicating.
Yes, Julia, these are from my own experiences and also experiences from other founders.
Okay, I'm going to keep going. But whether it's your investors, communicating, communicating
from I lost my train of thought, but whether it's, you know, anyway, you, you have to,
you have to keep going, keep sending updates, keep building those relationships. Because,
you know, again, you know, at the end of the day, these investors are going to invest in
you because you're you and because they believe that you can actually do what you're saying
that you will do. So diligence goes both ways, you have to vet your investors, you have to
vet your stakeholders. So I mean, any advisors that you bring on, and you add them to your
board, you want to do background checks, you know, you want to you want to even your first
employees, you want to do background checks to make sure, you know, nothing will tarnish,
you know, the integrity of your company. That's very important early stage, because when
you're early stage, you want to just hire on anyone that will work for you. And, you
know, traditionally work for you for, you know, a non competitive salary, because you
don't have enough money to pay them. And you're getting them to buy into what you're
building. But a lot of times, you know, we overlook things, because we just need someone
to come in and, and take on a job for us. So it's very important to vettie these people,
especially your investors. And a good way to vettie your investors is by asking, you
know, following up seeing, you know, looking on Crunchbase, looking on PitchBook, and
seeing who what other companies that firm invested in, and, you know, reaching out to
them on LinkedIn and saying, Hey, can you have a quick conversation, and most founders
are very open and willing to sharing, you know, what their experience was, receiving
investment from that firm. And don't forget that everything is negotiable. So whether
you're hiring on your first employees, whether you're, you know, bringing on an advisor
for equity, you know, all of those terms are negotiable, and make sure that all of all
of everyone is on the vesting schedule. So anyone that you bring on your cap table, make
sure they're on a four year minimum vesting schedule. And if sometimes they want to
negotiate, that's up to you. But I suggest four years, it takes a long time to know
someone. And that's, again, why, you know, it's important to have legal, because your
attorney is going to know things, a good attorney is going to do everything that it'll
take to protect your company from being sued in the future. You know, everything
happens for, you know, everything happens, you have to plan for the unexpected. So I've
been through
divorce. So I know what it's like to separate from a relationship from a person that you
once loved. And so even though you have your employees whom you love and they're
outstanding, you have to be prepared that this person may or may not want to walk away
someday. And at the end of the day, it's up to you to protect yourself and the company.
So sometimes legal is a very expensive price, but there are some things that you need to
have legal advisement on. There is also Rocket Lawyer and Canva. I put Canva, I'm sorry.
It's not Canva, it's CARTA. So CARTA allows you to draw issue states, you know, and
manage your cap table. So you can issue states without a lawyer. But it's, you know,
very highly advised that you still have, you know, a legal team review your documents in a
good way of not making, not having to pay so much for legal services is to make friends
with your attorney. So that way, you can just bounce off, you know, ideas or what you're
currently going through with the attorney, if they're your friends, you know, sometimes
they'll just give you advice without charging you their hourly rates. Some of the ups and
not so ups, I don't like to say the downs. You know, the, you know, the reality is, is
that, you know, we do all this work to pitch, and you're always going to have to pitch, it's
going to be a continuous basis. You know, you're always going to be pitching for sales or
competing for sales, you're going to have to consistently fundraise. And then also, you're, you
still have to pitch, you know, whether it's employees that you're hiring or development team,
you have to pitch to them so they can, they can understand and validate your idea. And they can
build technology based off of it. So pitching never ends. And so the best way to go through,
you know, your whole founder journey is to learn from experiences, not just yourself, your own
personal experiences, but also listening to what other people went through, you know, and
being open, you know, and vulnerable and sharing what you're currently going through,
because it allows people, you know, to the opportunity to give you feedback on, you know, what
they went through, and, and what to watch out for. And sometimes that's hard, you know, everyone
thinks that you have to be perfect, and, you know, 100% ready. But for most of us, we're
startups, you know, and this is our first time doing this. And for a lot of people, this is their
first time, you know, they're breaking into their first adopters into the industry. So no one is
going to be able to coach you and tell you how to do things. You know, you have to actually walk
through your experience on your own. And the only way that you're going to be able to navigate that
is to get advice from other, you know, other coaches or other people who actually did it, not
people who studied it in books, and have Harvard degrees and all of these things, you know, they
have, you know, they went to Stanford, they went to Harvard, you know, they, they worked for all
these corporate companies, you need people with startup experience who been able to build a
company from the ground up to be able to help advise you and help you have a mindset that's going
to help you scale and get through these hurdles. So some of the lessons that you know, I've
learned from raising capital is when you have to be fearless, like you, you can't have fear, you
know, before people would tell me, you know, you're lacking confidence, you need to be more
confident. And the reality was, it was a battle for me to understand it, because I was confident in
so many other things, you know, I was a confident mom, I am a confident mom, you know, I'm not that
bad looking, you know, and I, I, um, you know, I, there's a lot of things like I'm an athlete. So
I'm naturally I was born an athlete, I'm naturally competitive, you know, and I know, you know, when
I know I'm gonna win, I know that I'm gonna win, you know, and so I knew, like, I believe in
travels is 100%, 1000%, you know, and I knew, and I believed in what I was doing. But what, there
was something blocking me every time that I pitch, you know, where I would get timid, or if I was
speaking with a man, a white man, you know, I would have all these doubts and fears, like, he's not
gonna invest in me anyway. And it, it just it displayed itself in the rarest forms where all of a
sudden, I had a shaky voice, or, you know, all of a sudden, I started blanking out and, you know,
things that just happen, you know, when we get fearful. And so because, you know, what I know now
is, if God gave you this idea and put this on your lap, you better go with it. Okay, you listen to
the signs, there's a reason he will bring you the customers, he will bring you the investors, he will
bring and drive
have everything that you need to scale this business forward.
You just have to respect.
I mean, you have to listen to the signs.
You have to do what it takes.
You have to take that first step.
If God gives you an opportunity, take action.
Do it.
And at the end of the day, pitching all of that stuff,
all of these fears, it's all psychology.
It's all something that's not real.
All of this doubt is something that you're making up
in your head, and it's just not real.
The other thing is, the other lesson,
other huge, big, hairy lesson is to do your diligence.
So don't be desperate for money.
Don't take money from anyone.
Once you receive your first check,
people are going to want to come to you
and they're going to want to invest in you
because they think, oh, you have one yes,
one investor invested.
OK, this is something that I don't want to miss out on.
And it's that whole fear of missing out the FOMO.
And you will have money come from you
in different forms.
It's very important to do your diligence
on where that money is coming from,
and really, really, really hone in and research the terms.
If you don't understand something,
I tell my attorney all the time, I don't understand it.
Explain it to me.
And that's what you're paying for, right?
So tell them to break it down for you in simple terms.
Because a lot of times, we're building,
and we're doing a lot of things fast.
And it's very important to know what you're signing away on.
And oh, the other thing is tribe.
So I surround myself with women who are also raising capital
because it's not easy, right?
It's not easy to get rejected so many times.
And even after you raise, you still get rejected.
They still play that game.
This game, it goes on forever and ever.
But what ends up happening is you get smarter,
and you know how to reach the nose faster.
And you know more how to answer questions
and how to get a yes.
So I didn't tell you that my other two investments came
from TechStars and building relationships with TechStars.
So some of the mentors that were investors
that were on the mentor deck for TechStars,
they were an investment firm.
And that firm invested in us after Fearless.
I went to a TechStars event, and I ran into an angel.
The next day, he wrote a check.
He wired a check for $100K.
When I tell you build these relationships,
utilize the network, really, really, really, really
be a part of the community, it makes things a lot easier.
So some of my favorite books are The 48 Laws of Power.
We Should All Be Millionaires.
You guys haven't read that with Rachel Rogers.
That's one of my favorite books.
I sent it to all my friends, and I
feel like she's my imaginary sister.
And then Move.
Move will help you with go-to-market strategies.
So it's very important that when you're
finding product market fit that you launch a few different
revenue streams just so that you can see what's scalable
and what's not.
That was also a huge game changer for us.
And that's about it.
I'm running out of time.
But again, I'm Veronica Woodruff.
Happy to connect with you.
I'm a champion for women, especially
women who are fundraising.
We can have real coffee and conversations
offline if you're in the Atlanta area.
Link in me or meet with me.
I work out of the Lola Switchyards.
And yeah, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
I hope I can be helpful to some of you all.
OK, so I'm going to go ahead and start
answering some of these questions.
So this is from Francesca.
What are your best practices when
you feel like you're getting fearful,
especially when you're not seeing the results?
So I had an advisor.
She just told me not too long ago, probably
like a couple months ago, she was
like, when you feel like you're being fearful,
you need to laugh, like laugh in its face.
Because psychologically, you're accepting like, OK,
this isn't real.
It's a fear.
So when you laugh at it, then you're releasing it.
You're letting it go.
And now, I love to prove those fears wrong.
It's a whole different type of thrill.
It's just like a whole different energy.
But also, what I also do is I'm very,
with my immediate team members, so when I say immediate,
I mean my partners, I let them know, hey,
this is what I'm going through right now.
I'm being fearful.
And they call me out on it.
And we walk through it.
And I cannot be grateful for those people on my team
because they break it down.
And we go through it together before I
have to either meet with an investor
or meet with a customer.
I hope that answers your question.
Oh, what type of plan B options, loans, et cetera,
had you thought through?
So before we raised capital, I applied to everything.
I set days out where I applied to any free.
There's a lot of free money still floating.
Do not listen to the hype saying that investors
are stopping.
They're going to stop investing as much.
Do not read into that.
And even if you do want to read into that,
they're still investing in the UK.
They're still investing.
There's investors in other places.
So please do not read into that.
There's still a lot of non-dilutive money
out there that you can apply for.
People are always interested in hearing your story,
hearing what you're building.
So my strategy before was applying to everything,
applying to any free program.
Because what I had was the ability
to be able to get all those people, all those teams.
So if you apply into Accelerator and you get accepted,
you get five more people who are a part of that Accelerator
to become supporters.
And then you get the whole cohort to become supporters.
And it gives you a chance for them
to get to know you and know your heart
and what you're building.
And you convert all those people into supporters.
So guess what?
At the end of the day, that's 30 more supporters
that you now have.
And these people, they're advocating for you.
What you want to do when you convert these people
is for them to be able to advocate for you in rooms
that you're not in.
And that helps you drive deals.
That helps you secure money.
What are key questions you prepare for in a pitch?
Listen, these investors, they want
to know that you're building something that's
sustainable, scalable.
And they're going to have a nice, healthy exit.
And so I don't know everyone's company is non.
We all come from different industries.
But that's the game.
These investors, they're not investing in you.
They're not giving you money.
They need to see how their money is going to grow
and to what extent.
So that's the most important piece of the pitch.
And if you don't have that traction,
because I didn't really have that traction,
you have to explain how you're going to get that traction.
Where did you get the information for events?
So I signed up on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is gold, you guys.
I follow people who are always posting.
I look at who people who are in my network are following.
A lot of my opportunities I got from people on LinkedIn
literally sending me or forwarding me these events.
And if you go on How I Built This
and you listen to Mark Cuban, Mark Cuban
says that the majority of his investments
that he made, the most successful ones,
were from cold calling.
So when I tell you I utilize LinkedIn,
it's so easy to get access to the people
that you want to reach.
And when I tell you I get access to the people who
are the actual decision makers, utilize the hell out
of LinkedIn, guys.
Just be a part of so many communities.
I know you guys are from all over, but we're virtual.
Apply to stuff that's in Atlanta.
Apply to stuff in California.
Reach out to Sequoia, all of the big VCs in California,
the big VCs in New York.
Reach out to these people.
And when you're sending updates, ask your investors
or your stakeholders to specifically meet
with those specific people.
You have to ask them.
I want to reach out to Henry with Harlem Capital asking,
hey, does anyone know Henry?
Can you make that introduction for me?
Don't be afraid to ask because closed mouths don't get fed.
And people want to help you.
We have to take out that mindset out
from our thinking that we're competing with each other.
OK, sorry.
Yes. Do we have any advice for pre-revenue fundraising?
So, if you're pre-revenue, you have to tell the story.
You have to tell the story how you're going to reach your first profits, you know,
how you're going to reach revenue.
You have to, you know, you have to really execute and hone
in on the problem that you're solving.
You have to talk through, you know, the traction that you've made so far,
and then how you're going to, how you're going to generate your first, you know,
your first revenues and scale from there.
So, you have to, you have to tell that.
And an easy way to tell that is to be able to tell that story through your financial model.
So, if you utilize your financial model, you're able to walk through those early revenues,
you know, how much money you're spending on technology, how much money you're spending
on operations and marketing, it just helps you tell the story easier.
How often would you recommend to apply for funding?
I do weekly and a few times a week, but I wanted to know if you,
if I should be pushing for it more.
It depends, like, how bad you need it, you know, because if you need, if you need money,
then you need to apply for every opportunity that you can.
And what a lot of these, what a lot of these companies or corporations are doing is
when you get the denial letter, they're also giving you feedback.
So, listen to the feedback and maybe changing, you know,
a sentence or two when you're applying for those things.
Also, like, don't be afraid to get help from people, you know.
So, you know, what I do with my circle, with my circle of founders is, you know,
the founders who did receive a grant the year before me, you know, I asked them,
what did they put in their, you know, that, there's always a paragraph that allows you
to tell you more about their company, you know,
what was something that they did differently.
And, you know, it's just good to bounce ideas off of other founders who either had a grant
that you're applying for, or, you know, have received investment from an investor, you know,
because they can tell you what they're looking for and what they're not looking for.
Okay, how do you go about asking when rejected, how can, how can you do better?
I don't, I don't know when, let's see, when you get rejected.
Um, you know, it's sometimes it's really hard for, it's hard for people
who are rejecting you to give you feedback, you know, sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't,
you know, but if they do give you give you an opportunity to ask, you know,
a lot of investors that I met with, luckily, they told me, you know, why they wouldn't, why,
you know, you sometimes you have to ask them, okay.
So what I do when I meet with investors, I asked them, I said, you know, are you willing to invest
in me now? Or if not, what will it take for you to invest in me?
The other thing I did not mention is, it makes it a lot easier when you have an introduction to an
investor than to cold call them, in most cases, you know, but unlike, you know, what Mark Cuban
stated on how I built this, you know, he he loves cold calls.
So you just have to spark his interest through your value prop, you know, make it very interesting
where he's going to want to meet with you.
And once they give you, you know, that 15 minutes, it's up to you to convert them in that 15
minutes. But I hope I'm answering the questions to your liking.
Or, you know, I hope I'm answering them in a way that you find value.
But I think I answered everything.
Oh, what what are your tips for evaluating your own company?
So they have you mean when it comes to investment, they I don't know if you all know about the
Abaca, the Abaca scale, they have that where it comes, you know, where it shows, you know,
different levels of different ranges where your company is ready to receive investment from
either angels or VCs or, you know, Series A investors.
So, like, I, I needed we needed a we needed capital.
So I didn't go off of that.
I just started meeting with VCs and I met with them early.
So I met with VCs out of, you know, when I was in,
when the company was in, you know, very early in ideation
and I didn't even have a team.
I met with American Express when I didn't have a team.
You know, I met with, you know, airport leaders
when I didn't have anyone.
You know, it was just me, you know,
pushing baby gear rentals by myself
off of Facebook Marketplace.
And what that did was it built relationships.
And at the end of the day, you know,
you can mark off all those check boxes
that would say you're investor ready for a VC
and they still won't invest in you
because they don't have a relationship with you.
You have to build those relationships.
That's what matters and go off the grid.
Like, don't let these, you know, do, you know,
if you feel like there's an investment,
like I really researched VC firms
just like when this GBR program came out,
I really wanted to have received funding from Fearless.
And I remember writing an email to my mentor at the ATDC.
He sent me the opportunity.
And that's the other thing.
You wanna get everyone involved
because they're looking out for you.
They're sending you grants.
They're sending you conferences.
They're sending you networking events where investors
and, you know, people who, you know,
are strategic partners for you,
they're gonna be at so that you can,
so your business can succeed.
So it's important to convert supporters however you can
because that's how you get access
to all these opportunities.
But I remember emailing him.
I said, I'm gonna go through the program and, you know,
hopefully they'll invest in me, you know?
And we went back and forth.
And it was funny because he was one of the first people
outside of my team that I let know
that we received investment from Fearless.
And, you know, it's just, you know,
everyone wins when you do it that way.
Okay, well, thank you so much.
And I wish you all the best, you know, keep going.
And, you know, be fearless.
Because this is the life we signed up for.
And, you know, if God gave you your idea,
he is going to make a way for you to succeed.
All right.
Thank you so much, Veronica.
That was an amazing, inspirational masterclass.
I really, listening to the comments
from the founders in the chat,
they were really just encouraged by your energy,
your empathy, you being so sincere and genuine
with the information that you were providing them.
So we are so thankful.
I am still trying to work on getting Veronica
time allowed for a coaching session,
because I feel like she just has so much,
so much to offer you all.
So we'll keep you posted on that.
But thank you so much, Veronica.
You all, before we leave,
I just wanted to highlight a few things.
One, make sure that you complete the survey by tomorrow.
So tomorrow is the deadline for the survey.
Make sure you complete that.
Also, Friday is the deadline for you to submit to pitch.
So you have Wednesday for the survey
and then Friday for the pitch.
I encourage everyone to do both.
Also, our next masterclass, as I posted into the chat,
Ally Bank is doing another masterclass
and they want it to be very interactive.
It's really a dry run of a pitch.
So this is your opportunity,
even if you don't want to pitch,
even if you're not gonna pitch this time,
for you to get in front of your peers,
but also others to be able to talk about different lessons,
to be able to help you get your strategy right for pitching.
So this is a great opportunity to come with your pitch decks,
give you some practice before the actual pitch,
but also just for pitching in general.
If you are raising capital, as Veronica says,
you have to be fearless and ready for every opportunity.
Veronica, when she got the investment,
we weren't even there for investment.
We were literally there to award grants.
And so being able to come and be ready, to be ready,
because I think, I'm not even sure Veronica
was one of the people who had applied to pitch.
I think that Arian said,
is there anybody who wants to pitch right now?
And on the spot came up and pitched her business.
So it's really getting all of the practice that you can
so that you can be ready,
and you can be ready for those moments.
So thank you all so much.
Looking forward to next week
and moving forward to our final pitch.
Have an amazing night.