Meela’s Post

As we gear up to raise our pre-seed round, I've been delving into the intriguing world of investor psychology. Beyond the typical factors like greed, fear, ego, biases, and envy, I'm keen on understanding the unique traits that define investors during early-stage funding. 💡 So, here's my question to you all: What traits of investor psychology have you observed or found crucial during the pre-seed fundraising stage? 🌱 What insights can you share from your experiences that could help us navigate this landscape? 💬 Drop your thoughts, stories, or any valuable resources that shed light on the mindset of investors during the pre-seed phase. #PreSeedRound #InvestorPsychology #StartupJourney #FundraisingTips #EntrepreneurialInsights #techstartup #digitalhealth #dentalinnovation

🌳 better Summit 2023 🌳   Two weeks ago, over 30 entrepreneurial angels came together for the better venture summit to build meaningful relationships, have fun together, create lasting memories - and to make a real difference for people and planet! 🙌   From early morning runs to workshops on improving our impact investment approach to some friendly competition in a game of curling, our Summit was action-packed and insightful.   Here are my key takeaways: 🤝 We have built strong trustworthy relationships in the last +2 years within the better ventures club 💡We are there for start-ups we are supporting, when they need us, with experience, mental support, brainpower and an exceptional network ⏭ We have a clear agenda how to get better ventures to the next level 📢 To raise awareness for your vision you sometimes need to take a non-ordinary approach, like York Hovest did with “Heroes of the Sea”   Big shout-out to the better ventures team and especially Tina Dreimann, Dr. Cedric Duvinage Christoph Behn!   What were your highlights?  Johannes Plehn, PhD; Willi Tscheschner; Hanns-Christoph Leisewitz, Nicolas Weber   #DoingGoodBetter

Amazing collab claxon 🔊 We are buzzing to announce our partnership with Angel Investment Network - joining forces as their global founder mental health and wellbeing partner. Angel Investment Program (AIN) is an online platform that connects startups with angel investors globally. With 40 networks extending to 90 different countries and nearly 2m users, it is the largest angel investment community in the world. AIN has helped tens of thousands of businesses worldwide with investments ranging from £10,000 to £1m. The AIN mission is: Connecting the world to enable investors to back the great businesses of tomorrow. This gives us the opportunity to pursue our mission to help every entrepreneur in the world avoid the dark side of success. If these founders break, their businesses break - and the angel investment is lost. We want to help back these great businesses by sharing The Groove and ways to Stay in The Groove! Our partnership is kicking off with: An in-depth interview with our founder, Dan Kirby. A post-Christmas Survival Campaign. A January webinar, “How to avoid the dark side of success” - which will be running quarterly. A discount offer for all AiN members for The FAM! We LOVE the Angel Investment Network team - we share values and good vibes. Founders have to deal with a lot of BS. The FAM is designed to help you keep peace of mind - and have some fun - while building your business. Workshops are held online and in only a few hours a month you can stay 'good mental', together with a tribe of fellow 'Mental Founders'. Launched in October 2023, we already have an international membership.  DM us now for more information. It’s £250 a month but we’re offering 50% off for the first 3 months of 2024, if you sign up by Wednesday 20th December. This means you can start in January and hit the ground running in the new year! #StayInTheGroove  #FoundersJourney #businesscoaching #AvoidTheDarksideOfSuccess #AngelInvestment #FounderLife

Today is a big day for Spring Impact Capital as we announce the first close for the fund. When we launched Spring almost 10 years ago, we established our vision to change the world through innovation. We believed that a Fund would be an integral part of the realization of that vision. Our Fund sits at the intersection of people and planetary health, and this is born out of Spring's experience and expertise we've developed in working with over 2,000 entrepreneurs and 900 investors. Why? At the end of 2023 we look at today and the future and we see the critical needs for climate and health innovations to solve the world's most pressing issues, and to reward those willing to invest early in the innovators who will make a better future a clear and measurable reality. This first close was not easy in 2023 and as first time fund managers. However, our track record as Spring and the opportunities to invest in a better economy have allowed us to tell our story and reach this important milestone. Thanks goes to Olivia and Graham, to passionate co-founders that I'm thrilled to share this journey with. Thanks also goes to my co-CEO at Spring, Caroline von Hirschberg, who has walked with us on this journey to-date. We're looking forward to sharing the news of our first investments and I hope you'll join us as we invest with intentions for impact and returns. #venturecapital #canada #impactinvesting #earlystage #healthtech #cleantechnology #circulareconomy #alternativeinvestments #familyoffices #foundations #digitalhealth https://lnkd.in/gSTyU7Kn

🚀 Exciting times at AizenFlow! As the co-founder and CEO, I'm thrilled to share our journey and seek your invaluable insights. It's been a whirlwind three weeks into our fundraising efforts, and here's where we stand: 💸 Fundraising Update: We have 15% of our $1,000,000 target committed. Delighted to announce our first angel investment of $18k. Currently in discussions with a potential lead investor for 50% of the round. 🤝 Engagement with Investors: Held 15 investor meetings in 3 weeks. Despite 3 passing on the opportunity, I'm learning and iterating on our approach. 🔄 Reflections: Acknowledging my need for more practice and preparation to better convey our vision and value. 🔍 Seeking Guidance: I'm turning to my VC and Founder friends on LinkedIn for advice: How can I increase the number of investor meetings? Any tips on refining our pitch to better resonate with potential investors? Your experience and insights would be immensely helpful as we navigate this journey. Looking forward to your suggestions and support! #StartupJourney #Fundraising #Entrepreneurship #VCs #Founders

As General Partner in Afulezi Capital, I am the friends and family, angel, seed, Series A co-lead investor in three amazing, unique, inevitable unicorns. They are pre-revenue, and still working on product market fit, but starting to find traction. Two have been admitted to a premier unicorn accelerator starting this fall, the third is right behind them fine-tuning discovery, with plenty of bumps and uncertainty. I am aware that there will be additional investors and partners as they hit growth stage, with my role as primary diminishing with time, but they will always be MY unicorns. Here’s to all the General Partners aka Fathers developing and nurturing unicorns aka their Children. We keep working, we keep pushing. No matter what. #happyfathersday

Tonight, as a part of our Seattle Angel Conference workshop efforts, we will host a "Meet the Funders" event to help our alumni investors and our participating startup founders to build connections with the different pre-seed groups in the Seattle area. https://lnkd.in/exH_z9vS This helps us connect together the different parts of the ecosystem as people move through their Angel Investing journey. I often see questions coming through social media that are of the form "How do I find Angel Investors?". This seems relatively easy to me (being in the midst of things). We have lots of alumni that have put Angel Investor into their Linkedin profile. As an active Angel Group, we are members of the ACA - Angel Capital Association. We also have membership in EBAN, the European Business Angel Network. We have a profile on Crunchbase, we have membership in NFX, we have a twitter address where we tweet about Angel Investing, we have a Youtube channel about our workshops. We have a Gust application page for each of our programs. A little bit of googling should find our efforts. Which brings up the question for me about new Startup Founders. If you are a startup who is engaging in your Fund Raising Journey, How do you expect the Angel Groups to find you?

I recently hosted my monthly Lunch with Angel Open Office Hours.  In my latest blog post, "Mastering the Investor Relationship: A Founder's Guide to Partnering with Angel Investors," I dive into how to determine the right fit between founders and angel investors. Drawing from my 17 years of experience in angel investing, alongside my experience as a founder and in investment banking, I've outlined key considerations and questions to guide your conversations with potential investors. From investment thesis to tougher topics, this guide will help you navigate the angel investor landscape with confidence. Check out the blog post in the comments section below to gain valuable insights into conversations to have with angel investors covering topics such as: 🔍 Investment Philosophy and Approach 📈 Experience and Track Record 🤝 Alignment of Values and Vision 📣 Communication and Support ⏰ Decision-Making Process 💪 Risk Management and Resilience 🔄 Exit Strategy and Long-Term Partnership Remember, building a successful partnership with angel investors goes beyond securing capital; it's about forging meaningful connections that support YOU and your startup's journey. To learn more about early stage fundraising, join Angel Club's upcoming Ready to Raise bootcamp co-hosted by Robbie Crabtree and me this Thursday and Friday. Registration link is in the comments section. #startups #founders #angelinvestors #entrepreneurs #relationshipbuilding #community #AngeltheAngel #AngelClub #AngelsGems #RedaytoRaise

Struggling to raise capital as an early stage founder in the current market? Here’s what helped us: Casting a smaller net for investors who truly understand the startup grind isn't just about what is the hot topic that month but about building something meaningful. As a result you gain partners who empathize with the journey and the struggles because they have been there themselves. At Rainfall Health we're fortunate to have investors who not only believe in our vision but also comprehend the challenges we face on the path to success. Their support goes beyond financial backing; it's a shared commitment to overcoming obstacles, celebrating milestones, and growing together. To all founders out there, remember: Surround yourself with investors who not only invest in your business but also invest in you. #StartupLife #InvestmentPartners #GrowthJourney