whatsyourask

Today, we continue doing something a little different!

Welcome to Part 3 of a four-part series to tackle the ghosts of your numbers past, present, and future. Today we talk about the numbers of your present - the KPIs of your business. 

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are:

• The short term measures of specific actions that move your business forward.
• Measurements of the small decisions you make every day.
• Designed to help you quickly access whether you're on target to ultimately reach scale & profitability.

By learning what numbers matter in your business you are able to make better decisions in moving your business forward. KPIs are not without pitfalls. You need to track the relevant numbers for your business and be open to shifting based on your teams' actions and performance.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Elizabeth Yin's Twitter thread on metrics
• Elizabeth Yin's Twitter thread on selecting the metric that matters

Sponsor for this episode...

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there’s anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, we’re doing something a little different!

Welcome to Part 2 of a four-part series where we talk about the Ghost of Numbers past. 

We take a look at:

• Why you need to review the past numbers in your business. They provide you the story of how to adjust your current business structure.
• Where you obtain your financial history and which numbers matter.
• How using these past numbers helps you make better decisions.

The bottom line is learning your numbers helps you become a better decision-maker. By doing so, you move your business forward faster.

Sponsor for this episode...

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there’s anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, we’re doing something a little different!

Welcome to Part 1 of a four-part series to tackle the ghosts of your numbers past, present, and future. 

We take a look at:

• Some of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs are afraid of their numbers, and how to get past those roadblocks
• Set the stage for how past, present, and future work together to build your confidence in your own decisions AND accelerate your business growth
• Give you two frameworks for thinking about your numbers that don't require a CPA or extensive Excel knowledge.

Walk away knowing which numbers matter, what it takes to build a quality financial projection, and how to become your business's best investor.

Sponsor for this episode...

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there’s anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Melissa Lamson is an executive coach, author of six books, and speaker who has worked on projects in over 40 countries. She has built and run companies both in Europe and the US. For over 20 years she has developed leadership strategy, designed and taught leadership programs for companies like 3M, IKEA, Linkedin, MTV and Space X. Melissa's signature program for women leaders was the most highly attended program at SAP for 10 years. Melissa has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Forbes. She is a former columnist for Inc. Magazine. She sits on the board of Girls in Tech and the ASU Art Museum.

Kimberly Mylls spent over 20 years in marketing and advertising as a publisher and Regional Sales Director. A serial entrepreneur at heart, Kimberly left the corporate world, co-authored her own book, and at the same time, rose to the top of a network marketing company. She is a certified leadership coach, trainer and speaker and has coached hundreds of women to start their own businesses. She's a master at creating high-quality events, building online brands, and starting companies. Additionally, Kimberly is co-founder of a non-profit for kids, and co-hosts the popular podcast, Kiss Corporate Goodbye. She is a mentor for the national organization Seed Spot and contributing writer to several books.

In this episode…

In asking, the anticipation of the answer makes you more nervous than the ask itself. Kim Mylls and Melissa Lamson of RecreateNow.org are all too familiar as this was true in their scary ask getting RecreateNow to where it is today. They also quickly learned that one ask can have a compounding effect.

When you find someone with whom you develop a deep relationship it allows for the big ask to be less fear-based.

Let those you are asking get to know you. Let them see how you are thinking beyond yourself and your inner circle. Open conversations with investors lead to greater possibilities. 

Listen for more on how to be bolder in how you act with the world.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Kimberly Mylls LinkedIn
• RecreateNow.org
• Finance-Ability
• Stephanie Sims
• Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there’s anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Andrea Heuston is the founder and CEO of Artitudes Design who has been in the tech industry for 30 years.

Her company, Artitudes Design, is a full-service creative services and experiential design firm that specializes in providing high level speaking and design support to top executives.

Andrea is a respected business leader and entrepreneur who is sought after as a board member, a keynote speaker, a prolific voice on women’s and leadership topics in the workforce as well as a LinkedIn Social network influencer.

In 2018, her article, “Lead Like a Woman” became the 3rd most viewed article on
LinkedIn.

Andrea is passionate about helping close the gender gap for women in business and hosts the Lead Like a Woman podcast where she interviews top women leaders as they share their stories on life and leadership.

In this episode…

Andrea shares how she finds the first step in getting started is mindset - know you belong at the table with an enterprise company at the C-Suite level. They may be high-powered but they do not have your product or your knowledge. You have a lot to give. You provide value. 

Reach out to people you have a previous connection with as they are more likely to be open to the conversation rather than a new connection. People are receptive to helping others. And, surprisingly, the people who are farther away from your day-to-day work are more likely to help.  Adam Grant says there is power in that connection. Those close to you are part of the story, not as likely to help grow the story. 

Learn more about making confident asks in this episode of the What's Your Ask show with Stephanie Sims as she hosts Andrea Heuston, founder and CEO of Artitudes Design. Andrea discuss with Stephanie how to spend your time on what you're good at and passionate about.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Andrea Heuston on LinkedIn 
• Lead Like a Woman
• Artitudes Design
• Adam Grant Give and Take
• Melinda Gates The Moment of Lift
• Finance-Ability
• Stephanie Sims
• Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Sponsor for this episode...

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there’s anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Stephanie Sims is a Capital Strategist and the Founder of Finance-Ability, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping entrepreneurs get the funding they need to grow their business.

Stephanie founded Finance-Ability after more than 20 years of working on both Wall Street and Main Street. Now she teaches entrepreneurs to paint a picture with numbers that helps them make confident decisions and captivate people with money to say yes. 

In this episode…

Taking an idea to build it into a business is a leap of faith. Having supporters before you are even ready for the ask makes it that much easier to get going. 

Crafting a product and business based on a need and lessons learned from family, Emeline created a business worth supporting. And, then speaking about the opportunity even before it was truly an opportunity allowed Caitlyn to ask to join. By seizing that moment, together, they have created a business that is now ready to go out and ask for more investors.

The support of family and friends allowed them to create a value-based company that could craft their product prior to needed the ask. But, now that it’s time, they are preparing to make the ask. By surrounding themselves with those who have already accomplished those asks, it provides motivation and the mindset to be prepared.

P.S. Here’s their takeaway for you: find balance between the inspiring lack of fear in reaching for the lofty goals by finding partners who can put legs to your ideas.

Stephanie Sims is a Capital Strategist and the Founder of Finance-Ability, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping entrepreneurs get the funding they need to grow their business.

Stephanie founded Finance-Ability after more than 20 years of working on both Wall Street and Main Street. Now she teaches entrepreneurs to paint a picture with numbers that helps them make confident decisions and captivate people with money to say yes. 

In this episode…

One critical mistake that startup companies make is failing to captivate potential investors—and ultimately losing out on the funding you need. Because the founders aren’t ready or prepared to seal the deal, this same mistake ends up making startup accelerator programs look bad on Demo Day. Are you doing this? If you are, Stephanie Sims is here to help you in this episode of the What’s Your Ask show. 

According to Stephanie Sims, founders make a (huge!) mistake when they don’t know their numbers since they’re unable to show investors why investing in their company is a potentially profitable investment. So, how do you rectify this? Which numbers are critical for founders to know and how can you get it right? Listen to this episode of the What’s Your Ask show with Stephanie Sims as she breaks down the details of knowing your numbers, why it is crucial for your success on Demo Day, and how to go about learning your numbers.

Sonny Patel is the Founder and CEO of Insurmi, an AI-based engagement platform for insurance carriers. He started the company just three years ago at the age of 21 while working as a Sales Director and Financial Advisor for a top life insurance company. During that time, he realized the process of buying and selling insurance was unnecessarily cumbersome and outdated. 

Determined to change the process, Sonny worked to develop a solution that would simplify the task and take the guesswork out of insurance buying. That solution would eventually become Insurmi. Now, Insurmi is being used by top tier global insurance carriers to generate new business online, streamline customer claims, and deliver excellent customer service through conversational AI.

In this episode…

The fundraising ask requires you to prepare yourself on how to present and position the opportunity in a way that excites your investors. And to do that, Sonny Patel, CEO of Insurmi, says you have to approach it like a sales process. That involves qualifying investors to reach out to, being confident about what you’re doing, and knowing how to convert undecided investors, just to name a few. 

Listen to this episode of What’s Your Ask with Stephanie Sims as she interviews Sonny Patel, the CEO of Insurmi, about his experience of raising a million dollars in seed funding. Together, they talk about fundraising as a sales process, how to convert undecided investors, carrying out due diligence, and more.

Keith Ippel is an ecosystem builder, keynote speaker, and advisor to incubators, accelerators, donors, and governments. With over 20 years of experience as a leader in technology and impact businesses, Keith has helped accelerate the growth of small and large companies alike and has raised over 30 million in angel investment and venture capital. Moreover, his background has given him an unparalleled ability to collaborate with entrepreneurs, employees, and investors to grow businesses and change the world. 

Keith now leads Spring, a global incubator and accelerator that empowers entrepreneurs and entrepreneur ecosystem organizations to build better businesses and change the world. To date, Spring has supported entrepreneurs in over 30 cities across five continents, while its impact programs have helped over 750 entrepreneurs launch more than 350 businesses and raised over 24 million in early-stage capital. 

In this episode…

The single biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make when raising funds is to treat investors like a bank account that they need to access. According to Keith Ippel, this creates an unbalanced power dynamic which leaves the entrepreneur feeling vulnerable. As a result, entrepreneurs try and regain this balance by keeping investors at an arm's length the moment they get the check. Keith says that this is far from ideal because the reality is, the relationship between the entrepreneur and the investor being equal is a choice that they make from day one.

Find out more about balancing the entrepreneur-investor power dynamic in this episode of the What’s Your Ask with Stephanie Sims, as she discusses with Keith Ippel of Spring. They’ll be talking about how entrepreneurs are mismanaging relationships with investors, best tips on how to better understand how investors think, and more. Stay tuned.

Leslie Goldman is the General Partner and Co-Founder of The Artemis Fund, a female-founded, female-focused venture capital fund that invests in tech-enabled seed and series A companies. 

Leslie is also an active Angel Investor, Board Member of The Houston Angel Network, Investment Committee Member of Blue Ivy Ventures, and Strategic Advisor for Rebel Fund among other advisory and board positions.

Leslie is also a frequent speaker on venture capital, diversity in startups, unconscious bias, and angel investing. Before founding Artemis, Leslie practiced law and worked to recruit legal and board-level talent.

In this episode…

Venture capitalists are looking for the right company to triple their investment within the shortest time possible. To get the funding you need from VCs, you will have to show the cold, hard numbers on how your business can help them achieve their goals. To accomplish this, Leslie Goldman says you would have to get as comfortable with your financials as your CFO. A big part of knowing your financials is showing your investors where the exit or the potential exit is located.
 
In this episode of What’s Your Ask with host Stephanie Sims, you’ll hear from Leslie Goldman, General Partner and Co-Founder of The Artemis Fund, about powering your investment asks through your financials. They also talk about how founders should research VCs before asking and why founders should know just as much about their financials as their CFO. Keep listening.

Eric Smith has over ten years of experience in Technology Commercialization and a passion for entrepreneurship. Eric came to the University of Arizona Center for Innovation after serving as the Commercialization Network Manager for Tech Launch Arizona (TLA), the University of Arizona's office responsible for moving UA research and technological innovation into the marketplace. 

While Eric was at TLA, he focused on building and leveraging a network of domain experts and business leaders who consult on university technologies to help reveal their commercial relevance. He also managed the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps grant program, or NSF-I-Corps, which teaches inventing teams about Lean Startup methodology and customer discovery. 

An entrepreneur in his own right, Eric started, developed, and sold his first company to embark on a career in various technology startups. He holds a BS, BA in Business Management, B.S. in Entrepreneurship, and an MBA from the University of Arizona.

In this episode…

First-time founders are always eager to pitch even before figuring out who their customers are and what they want. According to Eric Smith, Executive Director at the UA Center for Innovation, these founders often have one thing in common: they fail to carry out useful customer discovery. The result is an ask that does not inspire confidence in the customer or a potential investor. 

How, then, do you carry out useful customer discovery? Eric says ultimately, you need to have a clear understanding of what exactly you're asking for and why you're asking for it. Armed with that information, you should ask your prospects questions that’ll help you discover their pain points and identify who's giving you the money.  

Learn more about making confident asks in this episode of the What's Your Ask show with Stephanie Sims as she hosts Eric Smith, Executive Director of the UA Center for Innovation. Stephanie and Eric discuss what to do before you ask, how to conduct better customer discovery, common mistakes made when preparing a pitch, and more.

Leart Zogjani is a talented graphic designer, teacher, and serial entrepreneur. He's worked in design since the age of 14 and first had his work published worldwide when he was only 17. Leart's first startup was an open-world game for iOS, which won second place out of 118 companies at Techstars Global Startup Battle. 

He then founded Skins Agency, a brand strategy and development agency that specializes in global brands and successful investment pitches. Leart's latest venture, Symbolt, is a creative design space for marketing teams that struggle with lengthy document revisions, allowing graphic designers and marketers to collaborate on a project without interrupting each other’s work. Symbolt is part of the StartupYard Accelerator program and is gearing up for a funding round. 

Leart has spoken at International Motion Festival in Cyprus, has exhibited at Ars Electronica festival in Austria, and has had his work published in several scientific and design books. These days, he splits his time between Prague and Kosovo, where he still teaches graphic design at two colleges.

In this episode…

Asking is hard. As entrepreneurs, we want to figure things out on our own, so we feel uncomfortable reaching out for help. And when we do get out of our own way, we don't want to come off as too demanding, desperate, or like we’re demanding a favor. Could there be a better way to ask? What if instead of seeking favors, you could present opportunities to people who need them? 

For Leart Zogjani, the best way to do this is by finding a fit before making an ask. And that entails empathizing with the person, understanding the value they are looking for, and framing your offer in terms of mutual benefit. Listen to this episode of What's Your Ask with Stephanie Sims, and Leart Zogjani of Symbolt.io, to learn more. 

Geralyn Breig is the Founder and CEO of AnytownUSA.com, the first eCommerce marketplace for American-made goods which she launched in 2018. She's also the host of the American Made Marketplace podcast. 

Before founding AnytownUSA, Geralyn ran operations for Fortune 500 companies, specializing in leading consumer products and specialty retail brands. She also previously served as President of Clarks Americas, a $1 billion division of the global footwear company. 

Geralyn has a leadership style that has helped many iconic brands to excel, having previously been the President of Avon North America, President of Godiva Chocolatier International, and VP of Marketing for Pepperidge Farm. Today, she serves on the boards of 1800flowers.com and Hanesbrands Inc. 

In this episode…

As an entrepreneur, you often feel pressured to figure things out by yourself. This can prevent you from asking for help, even if it’s about your much-needed funding. Then, when you overcome those constraints and try to raise funding, you’re usually unsure about what to expect. Geralyn Breig has gone through this process, having raised seed funding from family and friends to institutional funding for her startup AnytownUSA. She shares insight on what you can expect throughout the process.

Listen to this episode of the What’s Your Ask Podcast with Stephanie Sims and hear from Geralyn Breig, Founder and CEO of AnytownUSA. She talks about how she overcomes the fear of asking and will touch on raising seed capital from family, friends, and institutions. Geralyn also shares her insight on how to manage your expectations and better handle the “no’s” until you get your “yes”. 

Mark Moeremans is the Senior Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Venture Development at the Arizona Commerce Authority, a public-private agency focused on economic development across Arizona. 

In this role, Mark runs the Arizona Innovation Challenge, one of the largest pitch competitions in the country, as well as the Venture Ready Accelerator Program. He has long been interested in the intersection of the private-public and social sectors, and throughout his career, he has looked at entrepreneurship, technology and business as a way to drive economic development. 

Mark has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a background in management, consulting, and private equity. Before joining the ACA, Mark was an Operating Executive with Alpine investors. Mark has vast experience, including global transformations of Fortune 50 companies and successful turnarounds and exits from small boutique shops. 

He has consulted on behalf of governments and NGOs from Bosnia Peru and has launched and helped build social enterprises in Ghana and South Africa. Mark is excited about building community and helping founders and entrepreneurs take their businesses to the next level.

In this episode…

There’s a tendency to panic shop and take the first thing that comes along when you’re looking for opportunities. But if you’re discerning and intent on getting what you want, those significant opportunities exist -- it’s just a matter of doing the work to find them. For Mark Moeremans, one of the most important work you have to learn is to master the art of asking people for coffee. Why is it so important? And how can it help you make the asking process easier?

Tune in to this week’s episode of What’s Your Ask with Stephanie Sims as she interviews Mark Moeremans from the Arizona Commerce Authority about how you can seek the opportunities you need for your business. Listen in as he discusses tips on how to structure your ask the importance of overcoming the feeling of embarrassment when making an ask, how to best avoid missed opportunities, and knowing when it’s time to stop asking.

Andrea Guthrie is the co-founder of Gyde & Seek, a disruptive travel tech startup connecting discerning travelers with rigorously vetted guides and specialists in 20 global destinations across four continents. Andrea is also a board member of Shoe Carnival, a $1 billion footwear retailer, and she is also the Chairman of the Board of Panda Labs in Park City, Utah. 

Previously, Andrea was Senior Vice President of Strategic New Businesses at Claire's Stores, and a Principal at Boston Consulting Group where she focused on the retail consumer and travel industries. Andrea has lived on four different continents and is an avid supporter of entrepreneurship particularly, female founders.

In this episode…

Going out to raise money is one of the scariest things for many entrepreneurs to do, and this is especially true for those who don’t have a lot of experience. Andrea Guthrie shared that fear but she knew she couldn’t let it cripple her desire to raise capital. She and her business partner, Vanessa Guibert Heitner, had to do the groundwork to feel confident that they had a viable and scalable business and that helped them become comfortable with their ask. 

What’s the groundwork you need to do before you make that scary ask? How do you get over the feeling of vulnerability when asking? And in the process, how and when should you show kindness to yourself? Tune in to this episode of What's Your Ask as Stephanie Sims gets answers to those questions and more from Andrea Guthrie of Gyde and Seek.

P.S. Here’s Andrea’s questions for you: how are you thinking about meeting your need for capital? Are you either initiating a new funding round or adjusting your business model to need less capital and grow more slowly now and post COVID-19? Leave a comment or send your answer to Andrea through her email address, andrea@gydeandseek.com.

Cameron Herold is the Founder of COO Alliance, where he masterminds growth that helps his clients double both revenues and profits in three years or less. He is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and author, and he’s also known as the CEO Whisperer. By the age of 35, Cameron had already built two $100 million companies, including 1800-Got-Junk. 

Cameron is a top-rated international speaker and the best selling author of Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years, Less and Meetings Suck: Turning One of The Most Loathed Elements of Business into One of the Most Valuable.

In this episode…

When it comes to raising capital, many founders often start their search from friends and family. Well, Cameron Herold says that’s the wrong group of people to start asking from. Instead, it would help if you went after the hard money first, and when you do, you want to make sure that you don’t take the wrong kind of money. 

How do you know which investor’s money to take? Cameron Herold says to use the threat of reference check technique. But what does that entail and how do you ask for help when you’re desperate and feeling vulnerable?

Tune in to this episode of What’s Your Ask with Stephanie Sims as she asks Cameron Herold of COO Alliance about finding the right investor, making an effective ask, and more. Stay tuned.

Gloria Chou is a US Diplomat turned PR guru. She is the master of the cold call, creator of the first PR-in-a-box solution for early-stage founders called the PR Starter Pack, and she is a pitching guru to startups. Her mission is to help early-stage founders get featured in top tier outlets and gain recognition as industry leaders without having to buy into the agency model of doing things. 

In this episode…

Whether you’re an early-stage founder or not, if you haven’t done PR already, it’s something you should consider doing. And coincidentally, now is the best time to do it. But there is a required relationship-building when it comes to public relations, so the earlier you start, the sooner you get to share your story with the world, even if you think your product isn’t such a big deal.

Gloria Chou says to overcome your fear of rejection, you need to give yourself permission to offer your product to the media and show how you’re contributing to the world. Because in the long run, earned media will put you online for decades as opposed to pay-per-click advertising that goes away in just a few clicks. So how can you leverage PR today? 

Join Stephanie Sims and Gloria Chou of Gloria Chou PR on this episode of What’s Your Ask Podcast as they discuss how PR works and how you can use it for your company’s advantage. They also talk about why companies need to look into how they do public relations and the common mistakes early-stage founders make when they first approach the media. Stay tuned.

Ben Chiarelli is the co-founder and CEO of Cellibre. Cellibre is a cellular agriculture company that employs an organism-agnostic approach to turn cells into specialized, sustainable factories for the manufacture of globally significant products at scale. He is also the Founder, and Managing Partner of Divitempus Ventures, a venture capital and private equity firm that’s focused on investing time to create value. 

Ben has held roles at Synthetic Genomics, Millennium Health, and spent nearly a decade with JP Morgan's Healthcare Investment Banking Group where he executed over $20 billion of transactions. He is the Founder and director of the 3221 Foundation, a scholarship charity founded in his brother's honor. 

In this episode…

It’s not easy to get funding for your business idea but imagine needing to get funding for a business idea that poses a barrier on venture capitalists to invest?

Ben Chiarelli had to raise capital for a federally illegal business. He knew it would be tough because of the vice clause that makes it impossible for institution-funded venture capitals to invest in tobacco, firearms, and cannabis-related business. Ben began his search for funding in 2017 and in July 2019, he finally raised the money he needed after getting 384 NOs. So how did Ben turn the tide in his favor?

Join Stephanie Sims as she speaks with Ben Chiarelli of Cellibre on this episode of What’s Your Ask where they discuss Ben’s fundraising journey, the lessons he picked up along the way, what founders can do when they get a no for an answer, and how they can get investors interested enough to look at their deck. Stay tuned. 

Kimmy Paluch is the managing partner of Beta Boom, a pre-seed fund that invests in founders who've been overlooked due to gender, race, or background. Beta Boom uses an academy approach that provides an intense hands-on apprenticeship structure focused on developing the founders, not just the businesses. The majority of Beta Boom’s investments are in companies based in rising U.S tech hubs like Salt Lake City, Chicago, and the Midwest as they seek to change the patterns of old venture capital and close the access gaps that founders in those regions face. 

Before joining Beta Boom, Kimmy worked as a founder, product manager, and product experience designer for dozens of startups. She holds a BA in Computer Science from Dartmouth and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

In this episode…

When founders want to meet with investors, they often come from the premise that they are meeting with them for an ask; but according to Kimmy Paluch, says that needs to change. Why? Because if you present an investment opportunity rather than a pitch, you’re not only going to feel more confident about yourself, the chances of piquing the interest of potential investors increases as well. Shifting the conversation from a one-sided ask to a mutually beneficial engagement makes all the difference for that particular meeting.

Kimmy Paluch says that how you frame your mind, whether you’re pitching for the first time or pitching for the hundredth time, will determine the outcome of your ask. But how can you shift your mindset into one that invites a positive outcome? How do you battle feelings of vulnerability in the process of making your ask?

Join Stephanie Sims in this episode of What’s Your Ask as she interviews Kimmy Paluch of Beta Boom about the best practices for fundraising and why you need to focus on shifting your mindset in order to have a confident and effective ask. They’ll be discussing the telltale signs of investor interest, why the sports academy approach is helpful when looking to improve your pitch, and the true value of human capital in a successful business. Stay tuned.

Eric Miller is the Principal and Co-Owner of Tempe-based PADT Inc., a company that provides tools and services to companies who design and manufacture physical products. He's the Chairman of The Arizona Technology Council, Member, Board of Directors of the BioAccel. He is also on the screening committee of Arizona Technology Investors where he's also an active angel investor on behalf of PADT Inc. He also regularly contributes to the Phoenix Business Journal and hosts the All Things ANSYS podcast. 

Eric holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and has lived in Arizona since 1986. After over three decades in the industry, Eric is often called upon to write and speak on simulations, design and 3d printing, as well as on startups in the high tech sector.

In this episode…

Where does the ask for investment begin? Are pitches enough to help founders raise the capital they need to grow their business? For Eric Miller, the asking part isn’t just about one single individual pitch, it’s about the relationship you build with a potential investor. By building a genuine relationship with the person you’re making the ask to and by leveraging on the value that you can add for them, the decision to invest becomes easier and more doable.

But the key questions are, how do you build relationships with investors? What’s the best way to approach the founder-investor relationship? Eric takes a case study of the biggest ask he and his partners at PADT Inc. has ever made to offer insights into the process. 

Tune in on this episode of What’s Your Ask as Stephanie Sims interviews Eric Miller of PADT Inc. about the best approach to building a genuine founder-investor relationship, understanding the role of the investor in any business, and why founders actually need to be choosy about the people and/or groups that they approach for a potential investment.