Lowri Tan is CEO of Little Tummy. They have raised an initial £625k in seed funding in October 2018 and are currently fundraising for a further £1M.
Here are Lowri’s 5 top tips for fundraising:
Direction and Vision
Ensure you have a clear direction and vision of what you as a company are trying to achieve, how much you need to fundraise and how it will be used.
Remember the latter point will be absolutely critical to your success; investors want to know that their money has real purpose, and that the investment will ultimately yield a solid return.
A well thought out pitch deck which puts across the key message, USPs and vision as succinctly and visually as possible is important. Often, you won’t have huge amounts of time to garner the interest of a potential investor; make the deck snappy, exciting, something they cannot say ‘no’ to.
Networking
Networking and building up an investor pipeline are crucial. Look for investors that will complement your team and bring a skillset that you don’t currently have.
It can be of benefit to have a diverse group of individuals from various sectors with differing viewpoints.
Be clear on your expectations of them and understand how involved they are willing to become. Some prefer to be silent and some more active. This is a two-way process.
Ties
Fostering and strengthening these ties and creating the foundations of a solid investor relationship based on mutual trust is essential. This is especially so with lockdown, as it can take longer to build up and establish that trust and connection.
Homework
Do your homework on the potential investor as best you can, to ensure that they are a good match for your company, and to be aware of their key investment criteria.
This will help to tailor your pitch accordingly and highlight the key elements that may be of interest to them. They will want to see that you have a good understanding of their business interests, and previous investments.
This tailored approach differentiates a well considered pitch versus a ‘cold call’, the former being a much more appealing prospect to any investor. This all helps to create a dynamic dialogue rather than a tedious monologue.
Figures & KPI’s
Everything should be underpinned by a sound business model that is aligned with your story and goals. It is vital that you are well versed in your key figures and KPIs with a thorough knowledge of the market, your competitors and your unique positioning.
As with the other points, it’s all about thorough research. Knowing where your business sits relative to competitors and the wider market will be vital. Investors will want to see that you know how big the market potential is, and you need to communicate this to them; this illustrates what they can expect to see by way of a return.
Transparency around sales figures will be expected; make sure to highlight any major successes you have had, for example landing retailer listings; customer retention; sales peaks etc.
Finding Investors
So, with all of this in mind, how do you go about finding investors? There are so many routes. Working closely with mentors is a great route – our own business advisors were really happy to make introductions to people within their network, and that opened doors for us.
LinkedIn can be an invaluable tool when used properly. Our management team each use LinkedIn to grow our networks, and over time have built relationships with some fantastic business people. Either directly, or via introductions, we have secured investment.
Lowri Tan Bio
Lowri’s career took a rather circuitous route from a gap year Zookeeper to a baby food producer, via Chemical Engineering, working on the design and build of chocolate production lines, setting up her own silk painting business and on to Little Tummy. It has been a route from the corporate to the entrepreneurial and a fascinating learning curve for her. Lowri is finding her role as CEO in Little Tummy to be one of the most exciting in her career to date.
Little Tummy
At Little Tummy, we are a young but growing company with a strong commitment to producing nutritious, healthy, convenient and honest baby food for busy parents, to make their lives easier and babies’ lives healthier.
We deliver more than just meals; we have already developed a strong connection with our online parent community which enables us to respond quickly to their concerns and changing needs. We aim to provide an educational, reassuring and welcoming platform for parents.
