How I raised 300k investment in 6 weeks

With Dan Sherrard-Smith, founder of MotherTree

MotherTree is the UK’s first and only money carbon calculator. For example, did you know that £10k in a high-street bank account can create about two and a half tons of carbon a year, just by how that bank invests your money? MotherTree helps you to find out how what impact your savings, pensions and investment are having on the environment, and then helps you to switch to greener suppliers.

In this masterclass interview, MotherTree founder Dan Sherrard-Smith shares how he raised £300k in investment for MotherTree in just six weeks.

What you will learn in this masterclass:

You are asking investors to place a bet on you as the company founder, so highlighting your skills and track record with previous businesses helps you secure funding for your current one.
You need money to build a product to generate revenue, but you also need to show you can generate revenue before you can get money to build the product – meaning that can be a very hard circle to break.
How you can start very simply with your business to prove a concept.
Go back to people you have previously worked with to talk about investment (including your past bosses) then you are starting with people who already know you and your skills.
The first £150k Dan raised came exclusively from people who already knew him. Some of those in his wider circle of family and friends.
Specific individuals you meet by sheer luck can play a really key part in your company or fundraising. So don’t be scared to have those conversations, even if you meet these people in the most unlikely of places!
Try and find someone who has real experience of getting investment who can help advise on your pitch deck and approach.
Practice your pitch first on people you know, so that when you are talking to a potential investor you are a lot more confident on running through the proposal.
MotherTree collected over 300 leads by using online software that collected people’s email addresses before they could see the slide deck. The same software also showed how far they got through it and where the fall-off points were etc.
Dan developed a format for investor meetings where he would get each objection out on the table first so that he could work through them.
Dan overcame his initial reluctance to ask for money by focussing on the positive change to the world that money could bring and how it would support he circular economy.
Slack groups, investor forums and other online places where people ask for investment are just too overcrowded to get through the noise.
It’s never too early to make friends with venture capitalists – even if your company is too small for them right now, it means they will know you in the future.
You also need to be able to take rejection and keep going!
Why you should get out to market as soon as you can with funding – your thoughts and fears will hold you back from starting to find investment but that will just use up time.

The best way of saving the planet? Your savings.

Your current account and pension could be having double the carbon impact of going vegan, quitting flying and choosing the bike over the car, COMBINED.

MotherTree calculates your money’s carbon footprint and helps you switch to a greener way to save. For free.