My name is Laura Phillips and I am the founder and CEO of ProperPlan. 

ProperPlan is the world’s first integrated online learning and project management platform powered by AI - allowing you to learn whilst you take action. 

I've been in the e-learning and coaching space for the past 10 years. 

It's no wonder people only finish 10% of a course because it's too overwhelming. 

I was trying to solve this problem by combining a launch plan with the training that I'd given them with some bespoke elements in there.

I started this journey in August 2023 — started putting together my pitch deck, the legal aspects and understanding the process. 

My knowledge of investors and fundraising was very small.

I needed a small cash boost to get this off the ground. All I needed was £300k. I gave away 25% equity. The pre-money value was £800k — post was £1.1M. 

Given that I only needed a small amount, I spent time working on my financials — taking into consideration what a future round looked like. 

It's tough because you don't want to overvalue and make it harder for yourself to raise more in the future — but if you value it too low and investors don't see the value in the business. 

It feels like a dance between the two.

We wanted to be profitable early on so we didn’t need to do a second raise. 

We know how to make money.

It was about utilizing our avenues of monetizing as early on in the journey as possible.

We've launched and made another $70k in our first month — which has eased my fears of running out of cash!

I just wanted to find the right people who were going to allow me to do what I wanted to do.

We ended up only having people that we know invest — which was amazing. 

It was essentially all angel investors — which was quite nice because they just let me do my thing.

I also opened up small investment opportunities for angel investors from my community to help them get their first investments under their belt.

I'd spent the past 10 years in this industry, serving people who are entrepreneurs that wanted to find things to invest in — I got some amazing connections with industry peers. 

Because I built those relationships and I'd never really asked them for anything, when I put this in front of them and they saw my energy and passion — it was pretty easy for me to get the yes.

We had 21 meetings and 20 said yes.

We found a problem that hadn't been solved by any other piece of technology. 

I know the industry intimately. I'd served 900 customers already.

I told the story of how the ICP was struggling and what they needed to be able to solve that problem.

The market size was the biggest selling point — it showed we could then scale vertically.

We started off with the vertical I know — the e-learning space. Other verticals were possible to build into such as health, wealth, and fitness.

When people can see the micro and the macro, that's where they get excited. You're showing them the next step, but you can also show them the top of the mountain. 

We would communicate the interest we received in a short amount of time. If we didn’t close this in a week, then we’d need to look for other investors to work with.

We had genuine urgency because I raised £150k in the first few days!

You've got to be really sure you can say something like that.

We treated this process like a launch campaign. We let people know the week that we were going to be raising investment.

It feels really daunting as a woman going into fundraising. Recognize that as women, you're far more likely to get women backing you because of that. 

Don't let the stories you hear that women only get like one cent on the dollar put you off. You've got to flip it and kind of see the positive side of that. 

If you are in the female investment circles, women are far more likely to invest in you because they get you and understand you. 

I personally don't feel like it held me back — I've got lots of male investors. Probably more women than men, though.

What was super interesting was the men also wanted to back me because I was a woman and because they felt like this space needed more women.

I feel like being a woman was actually a massive strength because women think about things differently. 

One of our investors brought her financial advisor to watch the pitch. I was nervous about this because it was the first time I had pitched at all. 

I know now that it is a bad idea to pitch your most desired investor on your first try — but she was someone I knew.  

She announced she was bringing her financial advisor on the following call — I spent more time learning the numbers and really being able to back myself on that call. 

I did have to tailor my pitch deck for that particular one — he was so impressed at the end of it. 

He said that was the best pitch he’d ever seen. I was shocked. I guess I was just prepared to answer the questions that I knew he was going to ask.

The financial advisor told my investor that she should invest. The financial advisor also wanted to invest, and he got his other friend to invest as well.

Half my investment was done off one call.

Knowing who you're talking to and being prepared and able to switch up your pitch deck is really helpful. 

Tell the story with your pitch deck and spend time on that. 

We bought a template off Creative Market for $20 — people we spoke with said this was the best pitch deck they'd ever seen. 

It’s very important to know your numbers intimately, but being able to share the right amount of information. If you overwhelm your audience with fluff then they will disengage.

It's a very fine balance between simple and overwhelming — just make sure you're prepped.

My best advice is always to make friends along the way and always give more than you get. Don't ask for anything until you need it.

The Investable Entrepreneur by James Church is a really good book.