Raising finance for a vegan business: with Mike Hill, One Planet Pizza

Raising finance for a vegan business

with Mike Hill, One Planet Pizza

One of the questions we get asked the most on Vegan Business Tribe is how can you raise money to build your vegan business?

One Planet Pizza was the first vegan company in Europe to go through equity crowdfunding. In this interview, Lisa talks with their founder Mike Hill about how to run a successful funding campaign and his advice for any vegan business looking to raise money.

In this session:

How different the vegan market was when Mike first turned vegan over 35 years ago.
How Mike and his son Joe launched One Planet Pizza, going from supplying local restaurants to now being sold by Ocado and over 500 other stockists.
Why it’s important to have a purpose and mission behind your business.
Why you legally can’t just put an advert in the paper looking for investors.
What the difference is between equity crowdfunding (where you sell shares in your business) and donation-based crowdfunding (where you usually give rewards).
The importance of building a base of your own vegan supporters before you try to crowdfund.
How One Planet Pizza managed to raise £20,000 before they had even sold a single pizza.
What different crowdfunding platforms are available for vegan businesses and how much they charge.
How crowdfunding platforms protect the investors who put money into your business and also handle all the legal paperwork for you.
Why One Planet Pizza chose equity crowdfunding over other ways to raise money.
Finding an ‘angel investor’ as an alternative to crowdfunding.
Why running a crowdfunding campaign doesn’t just give you money, it gives your vegan business much-needed exposure.
The dynamics of running a business once you have shareholders and investors onboard.
How having investors involved leads to better business disciplines and habits, making you more accountable to both yourself and your business.
How investors and shareholders can bring more than just money into your business, they can bring their experience and contacts also.
What the first steps are for starting a crowdfunding campaign for your own vegan business.
Why you need to have more than an idea to get accepted by a crowdfunding platform.
What documents you need to have in place before approaching a crowdfunding platform.
Why a well-produced video will really help you run a successful crowdfunding campaign.
How to work out how much money you need to raise and how much your company is worth.
The huge role that social media plays in a successful vegan crowdfunding campaign.
Why getting seen at physical events will also help you build up an audience for your crowdfunding campaign.
How collaborations with other companies who have a large audience are key to building your own, and why brands are currently reaching out to link up with plant-based companies.
How One Planet Pizza promoted their successful crowdfunder once it was launched.
How to get influencers and vloggers to help promote your crowdfunder and spread your story to their followers.
What needs to be in your investor ‘pitch deck’.
Why investors need to know exactly where the money is going before they will invest.
How much of a budget you need to put aside to fund your crowdfunding campaign.
How One Planet Pizza’s crowdfunding helped them grow their business quicker.
Why you shouldn’t go into crowdfunding thinking it’s going to be easy.
Why crowdfunding is well worth considering as long as you are prepared to take it seriously and put in the hard work.