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Hey everyone!
I’m starting to work on fundraising for my beauty tech start-up and could really do with some advice from people who have already been there and done it! I’d love to speak to some Founders who have been through the process or VCs/Angels that can give me a view of what investors are looking for. Really want to make sure that I’ve covered all of the bases and that I’m over prepped to have conversations with potential investors.
If there’s anyone in the community that has 30 mins to spare for a chat (or has any connections that I could speak to) that would be super useful!
11 Comments-
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Amazing, thanks Fiona Chorlton-Voong!
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Also adding to Ella Bernie’s tags – Ilaria Vilkelis has been doing some amazing pitch development work with Kevin Withane – I’m sure the Diversity-X community would be able to provide some support too.
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Jade Phillips – firstly, we love to have you join the Diversity X Founders’ Community. Secondly, would love to chat and share what advice and support I can
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That sounds great Kevin Withane! I’ll DM you so we can chat. Would love to find out how I can join the Diversity X community.
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We’re just about to start and SEIS funding round. Happy total to you about that if you’re interested.
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Thanks Niall Brady – I’ll DM you now!
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Hi Jade, Happy to help with this. Please feel free to book a call here: https://calendly.com/zarir-zed-vakil/30min
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Hey all! I’m looking for a freelance social media manager to help a health technology company. Message me if you’d like to know more and tag anyone you would recommend
2 Comments-
Hey Jade, thanks for sharing! Barry Hunt, Mia Rodriguez, Jenny Varley, Hazel Brown might be interested in this opportunity!
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Hey all, I’ve been looking for a CTO/technical lead for the beauty tech platform that I’ve created and it’s been a bit of a struggle far 😅
Does anyone have any experience in recruiting a CTO? Any tips (or recommendations) would be much appreciated!
P.S. I was advised to have a nose around Indie Hackers but that’s an invite-only platform. Does anyone who used IH mind inviting me?
8 Comments-
Hi Jade, our CTO @jesus might be able to make some suggestions on where to look when recruiting a CTO!
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That would be amazing!
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Thanks Fiona Chorlton-Voong, Jade Phillips I have recruited CTO’s for the last few years. Lots of ways we can go about this, if you have 15minutes we can discuss F2F virtually via zoom?
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Thanks Fiona Chorlton-Voong!
Tristan Dugmore, I’d love to have a call. I’ll send you a DM to arrange a day/time
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Jade, Dare I suggest that maybe you look at this in a different way. Unless you have deep funding or are likely to give a lot of equity away (neither things I would recommend) have you considered outsourcing CTO responsibilities? I have done that before very successfully and I know someone who could/might support you really well. If you fancy a quick chat get me here https://calendly.com/zarir-zed-vakil/30min
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Zarir 'Zed' Vakil, thank you for replying to the thread. Someone has mentioned outsourcing CTO responsibilities before but I would like to have someone that I work quite closely on this. Would love to have a chat so I’ll pop some time in your diary via Calendly
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Has anyone started/launched a Substack newsletter? I’ve been writing mine for a couple of months and I’m looking for opportunities to build my audience but finding that a bit challenging.
I’m essentially writing about my experience of launching and scaling my tech start-up in real-time to help other founders that are going through the same thing. Any advice on building audience numbers and general feedback from the community would be much appreciated. You can take a look at the newsletter here 👇🏾
22 Comments-
Hi Jade, hope you’re well! Nika Talbot writes a weekly substack newsletter so might be able to give you some advice! Sounds like a really interesting topic – from a quick look I love how you’ve used memes/GIFs on the landing page and from reading your latest post your writing is really engaging and humourus! I know building audience members can be a long process so definitely hang in there!
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Lexi Radcliffe-Hart do you have any advice?
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Thanks, Ella! It would be great to get some advice from Nika Talbot – I started off with a bi-weekly newsletter but time caught up with me and I’ve gone with monthly for now. Any advice would be much appreciated
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Also having a look at Substack so signed up to both yours and Nika Talbot’s newsletters. I need to do ’something’.
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Thanks Pete 🙂
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Hi Jade Phillips – I’d also talk with @peter-fayle who was building one too and may well be able to help/discuss the technicalities further. I know Caroline Marsh is also building a more traditional newsletter following, and doing so in various different ways – sharing content on LI and then focused email messages with helpful guidance. Also, I’d talk to Charlie Hyde as she’s tracking her journey as well but doing it via YouTube.
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I love the format – the lessons and takeaways make it clear how to move on from what you’ve experienced whilst also feeling like ”we’re not alone” in facing these things as a founder. The humour, humility and grace in sharing your experiences and ways to learn together is going to be what keeps people along for the journey. How are you sharing it with others who aren’t subscribed yet?
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Hi Jade, I can share loads of experience with you – newsletter writing, YouTube, blogging. Let’s have a chat!
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Charlie Hyde thanks so much for the offer! I’ll send you a DM and we can arrange a chat 🙂
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Lexi Radcliffe-Hart thank you for the advice and feedback, Lexi! And really appreciate all of the people you suggested I should speak to, I’ll definitely reach out to some of them. I’ve mainly been sharing the newsletter on Twitter as I have a larger audience there (around 4k followers).
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You’re so welcome! By the way, I really appreciated the ”thanks for signing up message” – really clear and engaging (which isn’t surprising coming from you!)
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Hi Jade Phillips curious why would you choose Substack for that? Not challenging you, just wondering why you’d pick that platform vs many others.
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Hey Michal Bohanes, I chose Substack as I like that there’s the option to monetise later (after building subscribers organically). I also find it pretty simple to use/collaborate with others with.
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You have improved your substack audience by one now))
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Thanks Tomas, really appreciate it!
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Sure, [email protected] 🙂
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Great stuff Jade, will check it out. Have a look at Substack Grow – lots of tips on their blog. No quick fix with newsletters, a long-haul game with consistent posting and sharing everywhere. Social platforms, Indie Hackers, Product Hunt. FemStreet is a good resource and Women in Tech. Tiffany Phillipou works with startups and has a coaching newsletter on Substack. Happy to chat newsletters and growth anytime! Nika Talbot or email niccitalbot.io.
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Thanks so much Nika Talbot! I really appreciate all of the suggestions – I’ve signed up to FemStreet and will take a look at Indie Hackers this week. I’ve used Product Hunt before but not for a newsletter, so I’ll look into that as well. It would be great to have a call sometime to talk about newsletter growth – I’ll drop you an email later this week 🙂
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Hey all, I’m looking for a brand/communications specialist that can help me with a re-branding project for a social good technology company. Let me know if you’re interested in finding out more and I’ll send you a DM!
4 Comments-
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Hi Jade, it’s great to hear from you- hope you’re well 😊 Some people who may be good to reach out to are Amy Chao, Linda Peanberg King, Oliver Fitz-Gibbon, Kelly Cuesta, Tanmayi Reddy, Annabel Lee, Hazel Brown, Jenny Varley, @emmajanevarley, Angela Jane Smith
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Hi Jade, first of all congratulations on getting to the fundraising stage with your beauty tech-start up that’s amazing
Selin Yigitbasi-Ducker, Frederick Leuschner, SYMMIE Swil, Mau Messina, Drummond Gilbert, Darren Kirby, Rebecca Saunders, Nicola MacPhail, Mark Whitby, Kevin Withane might be able to offer you some advice!