20. Marcia Dawood: Transforming the Funding Journey for Women Founders
EPISODE 20
Julie Ellis converses with Marcia Dawood about the funding challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. They discuss the importance of bootstrapping, strategic fundraising to avoid equity loss, and the trap of constant fundraising. Marcia highlights the disparity in venture capital funding for women and the need for more women to become angel investors.
Catch the Conversation
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Marcia Dawood is an author, TEDx speaker, Podcast host, and an early-stage investor who serves on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. She is a venture partner with Mindshift Capital, a member of Golden Seeds, and the chair emeritus of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), a global professional society for angel investors. She is also an associate producer on the award-winning documentary Show Her the Money.
You can find Marcia's podcast here, and specific episodes below:
You can connect with Marcia through her website or check out her book.
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Julie and Marcia discuss...
The Funding Landscape for Women (00:02:08)
Marcia shares data on angel funding, the poor venture capital statistics for women entrepreneurs, and the complications female entrepreneurs face in securing funding.
Making a Difference as an Investor (00:06:02)
Marcia reflects on her journey to angel investing and how recent changes have made investing in funds more accessible.
Developing an Investment Thesis (00:12:44)
Marcia advises on maintaining due diligence to prevent emotional decisions in investing.
Strategizing for Entrepreneurs (00:17:05)
Julie and Marcia discuss how entrepreneurs can strategically approach potential investors, including the importance of bootstrapping and avoiding desperation in fundraising.
Women Entrepreneurs' Funding Issues (00:24:04)
Highlighting the cultural misalignment in venture capital with women's business needs.
Fostering Femtech Companies and Finding Trusted Advisors (00:28:30)
Addressing barriers faced by Femtech entrepreneurs, the need for advocacy, and identifying reliable advisors.
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Julie 00:00:04 Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you are in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them, and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and a growth in leadership coach who co-founded, grew, and exited an eight figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things. And that led to my book, Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes, and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going. Hello and welcome to this episode of figure eight. Today I'm speaking with Marcia Dawood, and she's an author. She's a TEDx speaker, podcast host, and an early stage investor, and she has lots of experience.
Julie 00:01:18 She serves with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, and she's a venture partner with Mindscape Capital, which is a member of Golden Seeds, an angel group in the US. And she was the chair of the Angel Capital Association, a global professional society for angels. She's also an associate producer on the film show Her the Money, and I'm very excited to talk with her today because her book Do Good While Doing Well, is coming out in just a few days next week. And she's really diving into what is angel investing? Why should we all be considering it? And I think that as women, we want to consider how to fund and grow our businesses. So welcome, Marcia.
Marcia 00:02:06 Thanks so much for having me.
Julie 00:02:08 Yeah, I’m so excited to talk with you today. I really love the work that you're doing in the world. And I think that, you know, we know that the venture capital stats are bad for women. it's something that I've talked about before on this podcast.
Julie 00:02:24 And so I think it's an important conversation for all of us, women entrepreneurs to understand what the funding landscape looks like and what the possibilities are for us and why we should consider that.
Marcia 00:02:39 Sure. you're absolutely right. The stats for women entrepreneurs getting funding are horrible. when you hear those stats, about 2%, 3%, they're usually talking about at the venture capital level. So that would be, you know, even higher dollar amounts that would go to an entrepreneur. And so when we look at it in Angel world, the stats get slightly better. we at the Angel Capital Association do a data report every year and can pretty consistently. For the last few years, we've seen about 25% of funding going to female founders. But that's at the very, very early stages. And what I'm finding is that's kind of the the middle ground, if you, if you will, because the venture capital money is like the much more established companies. And then you have women who are building businesses and they're just getting started.
Marcia 00:03:33 And there's a lot of female founders who are at that level. And then you kind of have this middle ground where angels might come in for like 1 million to $3 million. So that very, very early stage is so, so complicated and very challenging for women. And I always am encouraging women to try really outside of the box things, which is one of the things I put in the book is a lot about like, how can you do things to a not necessarily give away any of your equity early or too early or too much too early? And then also, how can you get your company built up enough, scaled up enough so that you do start to attract those, what we'll call them institutional funders. But angels are really the nice guys. We're the ones who will surround the company with not just capital, but also surround it with expertise, the type of things that might help the company to grow in scale. So at these levels, you know, we really do need to help more underrepresented founders get the access that they need.
Marcia 00:04:39 And I think the more we can get people that look like them into the game, that means getting more women, more people of color as investors and as advisors. Then we're really going to start to move the needle at all levels for those founders.
Julie 00:04:55 Yeah. And I think, you know, I mean, that's one of the the reasons that I do this podcast is the idea of, you know, seeing stories of seven and eight figure women entrepreneurs lets other women see a path they can follow to get there themselves. And, you know, we go for 3% of women. And yeah, when you get to people of color, indigenous entrepreneurs, those numbers get get really terrible. so how do we educate people, tell more stories and build some momentum towards I think, I, you know, from your book The One ripple makes the bigger change theme that you have throughout that you talk about is really, I think, important.
Marcia 00:05:42 Yeah. I mean, I used to think, well, how can I as one person really make a difference? Well, okay, I could donate to charity, which is amazing and wonderful, and charities do such amazing work, but they really don't have the ability to do some of these very big things that we're looking to have done in the world.
Marcia 00:06:02 And entrepreneurs are out there doing things all the time, except they just don't have the funding for it. So how can we kind of get past this? Well, I as one person was thinking, well, how can I really help with that? I thought this was for like these big guys that you see on Shark Tank or like big VC people you hear about in Silicon Valley. I didn't think it was something that I could actually do. And then one day I got invited to a meeting, an angel investing meeting. I didn't even know what angel investing was. And I thought, wait a minute, this is really fascinating. I'm seeing all of this innovation that's happening near me in my town. You know, I'm meeting entrepreneurs who are working on amazing things, and I can be a part of that. And then over the last 12 years that I've been doing all of these various things and I've tried everything, I was one of those people like, I'll try this and I'll try that. I'll try investing through a fund.
Marcia 00:06:52 I'll try investing with equity crowdfunding and all of these various things. And I go through each of them in the book, but I'm really just trying to educate myself. And then once I started to see, like the whole landscape, from being a board member of the Angel Capital Association to chairing the board and then being on an advisory committee to the SEC, you know, I'm starting to realize, hey, there are a lot of ways that we can get more people involved. The more people we get involved, the more funding we can actually start to get to these entrepreneurs.
Julie 00:07:24 Yeah. And I think it is like that idea of having more avenues to getting to funding as opposed to, you know, the one path that I think everyone thinks about and certainly the advent of things like equity crowdfunding, have, you know, sort of started to push that forward. I think some of the funds as well, just because, you know, people, it's more accessible for investors?
Marcia 00:07:49 Absolutely. I mean, even 6 or 7 years ago, you if you wanted to invest in a fund, you had to have probably a quarter of a million to a half $1 million to do that.
Marcia 00:08:02 And that really eliminated just about everybody except for the ultra wealthy. But now you can invest as little as even 5 or 10,000, $25,000 into a fund and get exposure to, let's say, 10 or 15 different companies. That's a total game changer when it comes to the investor actually feeling like they can participate in this asset class and they can really start to drive change. And the risk, yes, the risk is high because you're investing in in private early stage companies. statistics show that probably about 50% of them don't ever go anywhere. They all go out. Those go out of business. But when you're in a fund and you have that diversification now, you're not putting all your eggs in just 1 or 2 baskets.
Julie 00:08:49 Right? Because, I mean, when you're investing individually, it really rests on, you know, you and the group you do the due diligence with to understand and and ensure that you sort of covering all those bases so that you will have a successful outcome.
Marcia 00:09:04 Absolutely.
Julie 00:09:05 Yes. Yeah.
Julie 00:09:06 Yeah. But the fund can also give you that diversification. I mean, you talk in the book about 30 investments as a diversification point as opposed to ten. And I mean, that's a lot of work and time and effort for people as well as resources.
Marcia 00:09:22 Absolutely. But nowadays you could invest in, let's say, just 2 or 3 funds over a five year period even. And you could get that type of diversification into 30 to even 50 different companies. I mean, when I go through and look, I am a huge fan of funds and I've tried a bunch of them and I've been on investment committees for different funds. So when I go through and I look at all of the companies that I have exposure to, even if it's just a tiny, tiny bit of of equity that I have in those companies through the fund, I just think to myself, oh my gosh, this is great, because now my exposure is spread quite wide and my risk has now been lowered for, you know, losing all my money.
Julie 00:10:04 Yes. Which is, you know, I think often an impediment for people and something that they think about, you know, the that stops them from, you know, maybe going forward as an angel is that idea that it could be a, it could be an all or nothing kind of a proposal. Yeah.
Marcia 00:10:22 And when we think about the word investing, you know, I'm trying to get people a little bit away from that word and associated associating it specifically with financial returns. I mean, yes, when we invest we expect a financial return. When we donate, we do not expect anything in return. But yet when we donate, we feel good. We feel like, oh, I did something to help XYZ move forward. whether it's a cause or a founder or a company or something like that. Well, investing can be like that too. you just have to kind of change your mindset a little bit. Like when I think about investing in early stage companies and again, we're only talking about using maybe like 5 to 7% of your investable assets.
Marcia 00:11:06 This isn't like put everything that you own on black or anything crazy like that. We're talking about using a small amount of money, but finding those companies where they're doing something that really matters to you, they're doing something that is for cause they could be curing a disease. They could be helping with something that is going to make our climate better. There's lots of different things that could be they could be working on. And so for me, I think to myself, wow, if I could be a part of that and I could get a financial return, possibly, that's great. But just being able to say, hey, you know, I invested in a company that's working on a treatment and hopefully someday a cure for Alzheimer's disease, and that links to other neurological diseases as well. And if you read the book, then you know that I lost my mom to ALS. So I feel really good as an investor in that company. And you know what? At this point, for as much progress as they've made and the jury's still out on, you know, whether or not this will actually get to market and will help people.
Marcia 00:12:07 We're still in the trials and all those things because it takes a lot of time and a lot of money. But I feel great that I helped move that along. And even if they don't get to the point where they have, you know, helped people with that particular drug, they've advanced science enough to help the next. So somebody else is going to pick that up and move that ball forward. And that's the type of thing that we're talking about. You know, these things take a long time. They take a lot of money, but one person or one group isn't necessarily going to get it there. We we all have to kind of come together and be able to make that happen as a group. Yeah.
Julie 00:12:44 Well, and that's where I think it's interesting. And you talk about the Halo strategy, like getting your investment thesis together, deciding where you want to put your own resources, both financial as well as your capabilities in terms of experience and mentoring, you know, areas and those kinds of things.
Julie 00:13:04 how does that kind of intersect with. Because I think that, you know, like you talking about your experience with your mom and how that led you to an investment. how do you make sure that you don't dive down the rabbit hole and make the investment and, and forego kind of that due diligence phase because your heartstrings have been tugged on?
Marcia 00:13:28 Okay. That is such a great question, because that was definitely me at the very beginning. So I felt like as I was writing this book, I was actually writing it for my younger self, and it was the book that I wish I'd had when I started angel investing, because I did have, I call it in the book, A Shiny Halo Syndrome. But it was like that. Oh wait, squirrel, squirrel. Oh, this is so neat. This is cool. I really love this entrepreneur. Oh, they're doing such amazing work. And you start to get this, you know, overall sense of like, oh my gosh, I want to help all these companies.
Marcia 00:13:58 So I'm just going to do everything I possibly can. And I probably invested too quickly. I invested in too many things too soon. so in the book, I'm trying to give the reader an idea like, hey, let's come up with a thesis on a strategy so that when you actually start to make investments and I always encourage people to look before you buy kind of thing, you want to look at a bunch of different companies, really start to see what's happening in your own local ecosystem before you start writing checks. And if you do that, that will help form your strategy. That will help you to say, hey, you know, wait a minute, I really do care about this particular area more than anything else. And this particular company, I like them, but they really aren't aligned with what my values are and what I really want to use my money and my time to invest in. So you know what then? That to me is a no. So now I'm going to move on to look at another company.
Marcia 00:14:55 Those are the types of things I'm trying to encourage people to really start to think about, because there are a lot of companies out there that are fundraising. A lot of companies are doing amazing things. I want people to get behind those entrepreneurs, but we need to be very thoughtful about how we get started. I've seen too many people, and I actually give an example in the book who who got started quickly. And then I gave an example of two people. One each made three investments only, and the one person ended up having great success. Two of the companies did really well, and in a short period of time, you made a bunch of money, and that guy thinks angel investing is the greatest thing that ever happened, and the other person lost all the money like within two years. Thinks angel investing is the worst thing that ever happened. But they really had very similar experiences going in. It was the outcome that was very different, and I just think if we could get more people to slow down, really start to look at how can I do this for the long term? This isn't a short term game that we could really start.
Marcia 00:16:00 That's when we really start to move the needle to help the entrepreneurs who are out there doing good in the world.
Julie 00:16:06 Yeah. And I think it's also about like figuring out like, I know, I know, when I started angel investing, I would be like, oh my God, I love them and I love them and I love them. Though the pitch is all I love all the pitches and I, I know about myself that I am endlessly fascinated with why people start businesses. Yes. And so starting to hone that theory, starting to bring in that thesis for me, create create the Halo strategy. It really helped me to be able to say, I love what you're doing, but it's not where I'm investing my money right now.
Marcia 00:16:45 Yes.
Julie 00:16:46 Yes. You know, because because you do once people know also like the unsolicited pitches, the people who want coffees, the like it really it does. It can really snowball. And so having those like really quick hit things where you can be like yes or no to like the next gate is helpful.
Julie 00:17:05 so to not get overwhelmed really.
Marcia 00:17:07 Right. Not get overwhelmed as an investor. But I'm always also coaching entrepreneurs to say, hey, let's not have you wasting your time as an entrepreneur. Let's have you really focus on the places that you think you could get an investment. Because I've seen so many entrepreneurs, especially women who will just they'll meet with people. They'll spend 30, 60, 90 minutes with somebody explaining their whole business, and at the end of it the person says, or the group says, well, you know, we don't really invest in XYZ. And you're like, why did I just spend 60 minutes with this person? Like it was? It was crazy. So I always tell entrepreneurs like, be super careful upfront and don't feel bad if you say to somebody, hey, do you invest in this? And they say, you know what not not usually just say, okay, fine, that's great. Thank you for telling me. And let me move on to the next person.
Marcia 00:18:01 Because yes, we hear these like stories like, oh, you know, almost like I had to walk uphill in snow both way, you know, like it's awful. You know, being it's so. Yeah. It's so terrible.
Marcia 00:18:12 I had to get 100 no's before I could get to one yes. And I spent all this time like, okay, try not to be that statistical.
Julie 00:18:20 What if you could have only done 15 no's to get to right like and so how do you really smartly go about strategizing of what paths to take.
Marcia 00:18:31 Exactly.
Julie 00:18:32 Yeah, yeah. And I think for entrepreneurs too, it's figuring out how to I think the biggest feedback I give people around pitching is how they tell the story of what they're doing. Yeah. and yes, there has to be underpinnings and you have to be able to support that with data numbers, you know, intellectual property, whatever those pieces might be. But but it's how are you going to tell me the story of the journey of, you know, seeing the need, cracking it open, figuring out how you could be a have a solution to it and building that solution and take me on that journey.
Julie 00:19:11 because I think it's a really important part, the storytelling.
Marcia 00:19:15 Absolutely. And it needs to be a big problem that you're solving. I've seen entrepreneurs who have a solution in search of a problem. And then I will ask them, well, how do you really think that customers are going to change their behavior? Because that's like the hardest thing that we as humans do. We don't like to change our behavior. So if if you have something that's so great that I want to change my behavior for it, the problem that and the solution that I'm using right now better be pretty bad for me to want to move over to this new solution. So I'm usually, you know, very careful with entrepreneurs to say, hey, make sure that you are really telling that part of the story and and hooking people at the very beginning of the pitch.
Julie 00:19:57 Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really, really great advice because otherwise it, you know, you lose interest and off they go.
Marcia 00:20:06 Yes. Yeah yeah.
Julie 00:20:07 Yeah.
Julie 00:20:09 and so I think one of the great things about the book and what you're talking about is the different paths for entrepreneurs, as they start to think about raising funds and, you know, what are the ways to, you know, the conversations about, okay, but your valuation is low. If you're going to take investment right now, you're giving away a lot. You know, how can you get to the next threshold? Maybe with, with alone or with some other kind of an arrangement where you can keep as much equity as possible?
Marcia 00:20:40 Right, I completely agree. In fact, I also have a podcast called the Angel Next Door where I'm trying to encourage people to become angel investors. But I also am trying to teach entrepreneurs like, hey, there's all these different ways that you can possibly raise money. And so I've had several episodes on equity crowdfunding, on raising through funds, on bootstrapping, you know, all kinds of things like that. I did I did record an episode not that long ago on friends and family rounds.
Marcia 00:21:10 And if you don't have friends and family, how do you get that money? So you may want to go back. We can put a link in the show notes to listen to that episode. but I do think it's really important for entrepreneurs to be thinking about how can I bootstrap this company as long as possible, and I know nobody really wants to hear that. They do want to hear like, hey, I'm at a point, I need money, I need money, I need money, I need to, I need to pay these people. I need to pay myself, I need to, I need marketing, I need to get customers. But if you can just ask yourself, well, what if I didn't get the money? What would I do? And then kind of see, like, can could you spread this out, you know, a lot more so that you don't have to get to that point where you have to fundraise and you're coming at a point of desperation, because too often that's when I see entrepreneurs actually say, you know what? Now I'm giving away a huge amount of my company and not realizing that.
Marcia 00:22:13 Yeah.
Julie 00:22:13 And I think, you know, or they give it away. And then they realize that when they get to the subsequent rounds, they're going to have a problem because they're going to lose control really quickly. Yeah. you see that happen? and so it's all it's all really about strategy. Like you have to really think about the strategy. The other thing I think is that you get you see entrepreneurs get into the trap of constant fundraising because they're not raising large enough rounds. Yes. You know, you talk in the book about, you know, do you have 18 to 24 months of runway? And that is, you know, if you're only gaining 6 to 12 months of runway every time you raise money, you're not raising enough money.
Marcia 00:22:53 That's right. And you'll be fundraising constantly. And and.
Julie 00:22:57 It's so.
Marcia 00:22:57 Distracting. So distracting. Yes.
Julie 00:23:00 Right. Growing your business and fundraising are like two full time jobs.
Marcia 00:23:04 Absolutely.
Julie 00:23:06 Yeah. No I think that's interesting. And it's I can say from the due diligence sessions I've been through, that's a common question of I don't think this entrepreneur is asking for enough money.
Marcia 00:23:18 That's, that's very true. I've seen that very often as well.
Julie 00:23:21 Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting. I know I'm seeing a lot of groundswell for, you know, women entrepreneurs who are trying to form together and, and help the sort of funding problems that we see. I think we need to we need to do more. We need to talk about this more and, and look for even more solutions, because for some reason, you know, the culture that exists within venture capital, certainly to some degree within the angel world, is not aligning with what women want or the kinds of businesses they're starting. I'm not sure.
Marcia 00:24:04 No, I completely agree with you talking about it, just bringing awareness to it. I, I would I've talked to people for the last 12 years and I'll say especially to women like, hey, this is what I'm doing. I'm helping these entrepreneurs. And they're like, oh, that's so fascinating. And I'll say, well, would this be something that you'd be interested in? And they would just say, well, me, like I didn't think I could do this.
Marcia 00:24:26 I thought this was for the ultra rich and well-connected. And it wasn't that they necessarily didn't think they'd want to do it. It literally never crossed their mind. So building that awareness on who can and who should be investing is one thing. But also we have to get the narrative, in my opinion, away from women only get 3% of the funding and change the narrative to women are making a lot of amazing businesses who are they're getting the revenues. They are getting to a point where they are cash flow positive. They are getting exits and getting returns for their investors. Those are the types of stories we need to keep telling over and over again. And then that 3% number is going to start to change.
Julie 00:25:16 Yeah, it is interesting though, I, I'm thinking about a recent guest that I interviewed, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone. on on my pod. And she just raised money for her AI startup. And they're doing their matching grant money and academic and researchers together to ensure that the money that's actually available is actually getting used and going to people who need it.
Julie 00:25:43 and she's using AI for this, and she just raised a round of 1.3 million, and she did end up with some male investors. But when she made the rounds of the angel groups, notwithstanding her four exits and her cryptographic mathematics background, she struggled to raise the money, and she raised it by really reaching into her network of women who had never angel invested before and brought them on board to write checks to her.
Marcia 00:26:12 That is awesome. A that she was able to do that be. I'm just terrified that she had four exits and could not fundraise easily. That is terrible. but honestly, I hope my my hope. And even if I don't, you know, necessarily get a lot of money for it or whatever, my hope is that this book will help entrepreneurs be able to make their fundraising process easier. Because the thing that has driven me crazy, especially in the last couple of years, is I would stand there and I'd be thinking to myself, well, I really want to invest in this company, but I am personally tapped out.
Marcia 00:26:49 I am not an ultra wealthy person, so I cannot keep investing and keep investing and keep investing. And as we know, the exit market has been a little slow lately, or very slow for several years now, so haven't been able to get those returns. So me as one person, I can't keep doing this, but I thought, well, what can I do? Well, I have all this experience in all these different places. I ended up living in five different cities between 2010 and 2020. I saw five very different ecosystems and how entrepreneurs were fundraising. Well, maybe I can take this knowledge and try to help other people be able to, make their fundraising journey a little easier. Help to educate some people, to say, hey, you know what? You can. You know that, entrepreneur that you just mentioned, you know, she's going after people who've never angel invested before. You could be like, okay, here's a book. Here's your after you read this, you'll understand a little bit better.
Marcia 00:27:47 And then we can have a conversation about my company. But then they don't have to. Entrepreneur doesn't have to sit there and be like, well, this is what angel investing is, and this is what you would do and why you would do it. And you know.
Julie 00:27:57 Yeah. Well and that and that prompted actually Sherry and two other women to found a group called Women Funding Women. And so bringing together both sides of the equation, women who are in the industry, women who are angels and women who are entrepreneurs, and bringing them together to try and create more synergy for investment.
Marcia 00:28:17 Love that.
Julie 00:28:19 Yeah. So I think and I do see a lot of that actually. I see women, you know, you've got a story in your book about, Femtech company called Joy luck.
Marcia 00:28:29 Joy, luck.
Julie 00:28:30 Yes. And it made me think of in Canada, we have Femtech Canada, which is a, an association for all the Femtech companies that are coming up. And, you know, but just looking at, at some of the barriers that that entrepreneur faced with, you know, being called pornographic and being banned from Amazon and banned from Facebook, like the the climate.
Julie 00:28:54 Also we need you know, and it's unfortunate as an entrepreneur when you also have to be an activist because you don't go into business thinking that that's going to happen, right. but, you know, changing the story, changing the, the, the narrative for others who are coming behind as well. So what's next? The book is coming out in just a few days.
Marcia 00:29:16 The book comes out, September 10th. And, there's a workbook accompanying workbook that will come out at the same time. It you can get the ebook and audiobook format. E-book format. and really the idea is like, how can we get more people to act? So I did a talk at TEDx Charlotte. People would come up to me afterward and say, hey, this is great. We're really inspired. Now what do we do? So that prompted me to write the book. And, you know, so I've had some early readers. I've, I've had some people who were like, hey, we're really excited. We're going to read the book.
Marcia 00:29:51 And and then I'm like, okay, but are you going to do some, are you going to act? And they they're like, well, so I thought, okay, the workbook can help, you know, just trying to get people to see, okay, this isn't so daunting because I know it does seem if you've never really even heard a pitch from an entrepreneur before, that can be very daunting. So how do we take that and make it more mainstream? And I think it's just like what we're doing right now. We're talking about it. We're getting more awareness built. And, you know, I have the podcast, about becoming an angel. And I'm hoping that between that and the book and the workbook, we can get more people to get in the game. Yeah.
Julie 00:30:33 Well, and I think it's this piece of like, how do we help entrepreneurs to pitch better, especially women up the game, level up with the pitching, find their story and, you know, put themselves out there.
Julie 00:30:49 And then how do we on the angel side bring more women to the table, get them to understand how to, you know, how to do the due diligence on those pitches, how to break them down and understand. Because let's face it, a pitch is filled with the best of. Right. So then how do we build these critically thinking angels to bring the skills that they have from their lives and their careers to the table. And, you know, how do we just start lifting up on both sides?
Marcia 00:31:19 Absolutely. I mean, building a company is really hard work, and we need to help these entrepreneurs in a lot of ways. So you're absolutely right, getting the expertise to surround these companies, to really support them and getting them the help that they need in order to grow.
Julie 00:31:36 Yeah. One of the things I really liked that you talked about in the book, was advisors for entrepreneurs and how to they really need to figure out who their cornerstones are in their advisors stable, because they are going to get so many people who just walk through the door and land advice on them.
Julie 00:31:55 And if they start chasing their tail on that there, it will be very difficult to land anywhere, because and I see that in the, in the, you know, space where people are just like, I don't know, you're saying this and they said that and, and I thought it was really great advice that like, know who are the cornerstone advisors, that when you get into the like tailspin, you go and say, okay, I see two paths here. What do you think?
Marcia 00:32:22 Absolutely. Yeah. I think in the book I called it drive by advice. You know, you'll have this like one advisor comes in and they look at your pitch deck and they say, well, I think the beginning is terrible in the middle. Middle seems okay and the end is great. And then, you know, the next person comes in and they're like, well, the beginning seems lovely and, you know, and then you're like, wait a minute. Like, I don't know. So, you know, kind of take the advice for what it's worth.
Marcia 00:32:46 But those people that have the expertise that you really want to be trusted advisors, you know, surround yourself with those people and and just be careful when you're listening to somebody who comes by for like, you know, a coffee and wants to tell you exactly how to run your company and you're like, I don't think so.
Julie 00:33:04 Yeah. No, it's and it's true. Like they're just there is a lot of advice out there and discerning which is the which are the ones that are really, really in your corner. And thinking about the big picture in the long term for you is it's really important.
Marcia 00:33:19 Yeah.
Julie 00:33:20 Yes. Yeah. Good. Well, I thank you very much for joining me today. I think this was a great conversation. And we'll put the link to buy your book and find your podcast, and also the link to this specific episode.
Marcia 00:33:35 Well, I'm so happy that you have a podcast like this, because we need more women who are hitting that eight figure mark in their business and that they are creating, really amazing and a big, incredible companies.
Marcia 00:33:50 And we need those CEOs to be highlighted.
Julie 00:33:54 We do. And and I think that that, you know, generates the next, the next generation of entrepreneurs who sees people ahead of them doing it.
Marcia 00:34:02 Absolutely good. All right. Thanks.
Julie 00:34:05 Thank you. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you won't miss any episodes. Figure Eight isn't just a podcast, it's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book, Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www.Julieellis.ca to see how we might work together. Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again, that's www.Julieellis.ca When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure Eight.