Our fundraising journey - so far!
This week Hanai’s founder writes about our mind boggling, exhilarating, exhausting, sometimes hair-raising fundraising journey.
You have to be thick skinned. That is the gist of fundraising for us at Hanai.
In the two years since setting Hanai up, the word I have heard more than anything else is “no”. In varying forms, of course. Not yet, too early, too late, too tech, not enough tech, too long term. We have heard it all.
I am going to break this down into the mistakes we made and potential advice for anyone else starting out. Not that we have secured the millions (yet), but a hint that we are getting there.
The mistakes:
No real strategy - I did not know what to raise money for and jumped into it. It took a long time to learn how to think strategically when it came to money and how to look ahead.
Not getting our story straight. Not being sure whether to lead as a social impact company, a tech company, a female-led company, a BIPOC-led company - we are all of that and more. What we have become is attuned to who we are speaking to. Play the story to the audience.
Not aligning values. Watch out who could be financing you. Just as they will dig all the dirt on you, take your spade out and dig away. Will not do to be championing women’s access to health and realize the VC also supports movements against contraception.
Spending too much time fundraising. As a start up, you are required to stretch yourself thin - everything from loading the proverbial copy machine to ensuring the taxes are filed. As weird as it sounds, get the work done first, the money will have to follow next.
As I write this, I realize I could write the next ten articles on mistakes, but moving on.
Advice:
Tap into your network and ask for help (ping me or any of the team, anytime)
Have monthly catch-ups with other founders (or at least make an attempt to)
Emphasize how big the market actually is, that there is a vision and plans for action
Be proud, I have noticed myself downplaying all that we have achieved.
Pick your battles. There will be those who give useless feedback, move on
Show up. At the very least. Just show up. I am not sure how much of Hanai’s success is attributed purely to showing up, but we definitely would not have become tech-focused had I not showed up at a hackathon. So, show up to every potential investor
Spend the effort and time to get the right people on your team. Or pay attention to those who are interested.
The last bit of advice is actually what has landed Hanai its first investment. More on that and the new team mate in our upcoming posts!