Week 5 of GC Angels investment accelerator for underrepresented founders from across the North was focused around advice from early-stage founders from our portfolio.
Too often we see founders looking to raise for the first time being addressed by founders who have reached series A stage or beyond. While there is no doubt that these successful entrepreneurs have huge amounts of experience to pass on to a cohort like ours - the fact is that they have probably forgotten the granular detail of just how hard life becomes in the 12 months AFTER they have raised a pre-seed round.
It is one of those things that founders have to experience for themselves to truly understand the horrible reality that growing a 'proper' business has very little similarity to the great story that they pitched to pre-seed investors! 😬
Our cohort were lucky enough to get a detailed explanation of this part of the founder journey from 2 of our best portfolio female founders - Laura Pomfret (Financielle) 💸and Bella Trang Ngo from Brarista.
Both founders delivered a sometimes brutal message about how life has been since they secured pre-seed funding.
Neither pulled any punches when describing the dark days a founder often faces - but they both exuded the passion and resilience needed to get past those barriers.