I am very very close to closing the book on my first successful fundraising journey for Tutti.
I've been sharing the experience with a few other founders on one to one calls and it seemed like my experiences were really helping them (my honest re-telling of events probably helps), so I thought I might share them here on LinkedIn over multiple posts.
So, to start off here are some key facts:
🚩 I officially started "working" on this raise in October 2021.
-- (I thought I could get it done before Christmas 2021)
🎯 Original target was £750k (can't remember what valuation) to:
-- Build mobile apps
-- 20X listings
-- Improve SEO
-- 100X traffic
-- Prove the unit economics work
👽 Original focus: marketplace only
🤯 Plan: raise some money from professional angels, then use that momentum to do a crowd raise (the only bit that stuck)
What ended up happening:
▶ Raising to build SaaS, to become a SaaS enabled marketplace.
🏁 Raised £140k at £1.5m pre from friends, family, and some founders & angels in Apr 2022
-- Priced round, mixture of direct investors and SPV wrapped, using Odin.
🏁🏁 Raised another £155k still at £1.5m pre from more friends, more family, a lot of fellow founders, and a few professional angels, via Seedrs in Q4 2022.
-- Same price round in order to make the most of crowdfunding, mixture of direct investors and nominee wrapped, using Seedrs.
To close the book finally in the next couple of weeks, I am wrapping up some final paperwork and then I can consider that chapter closed. We're almost there!
But yeah, if you think fundraising will be easy or fast, think again. This journey has taken me 16 months, there have been extreme highs, devastating lows, and everything in between.
I have spent months focused on just fundraising and nothing else. And some times trying not to think about it...
And I've learned a hell of a lot along the way, so I figured I'd share that in a series of #tuttifundraising posts. But I haven't written them yet, so don't expect them in any sort of timely fashion - I have a business to build.