# Raising $125M and the 2% stat for female founders - **Episode:** [155](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/155.md) (2024-12-19) - **Type:** interview - **Tags:** fundraising, 125m, female-founders - **Time:** 29:54–36:18 (start 1794s) - **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/155?t=1794](https://truthliesandwork.com/155?t=1794) --- [29:54] Al Elliott: At what point do you recommend that someone who's growing a business should start thinking about culture, about teams? Is there a point that's too early? [30:02] Louise Hill: No, day one. What are you trying to build and why are you trying to build it? It's not just the product and the business model. It's how do you want to work? You know, actually, I'd not thought about this before. That's a good question. You've made me think about something else. If you're building a business, what other opportunity will you ever have? To build the place that you want to work and to surround yourself with the culture that you want to be part of and work in. I'd never thought about that before. That was a very good question [30:39] Leanne Elliott: There are several inflection points of a growing business. The first comes around employee number 13, when the original team dynamic seems to shift. Then the next milestone is likely between 30 and 50 employees, where more management layers often need to be brought in. But Louise has moved past all of that and is now at over 200 employees, and a huge percentage of this growth was raising investment money. But would raising over $100 million change the culture at all? And did working with legendary entrepreneur and prolific fundraiser Sir Philip Green help as well? [31:14] Al Elliott: I asked exactly that. So when you were at Next, was that Sir Philip Green era? [31:19] Louise Hill: Yes [31:20] Al Elliott: Yeah. So I don't know if this is a good question or not, but did he in any way inspire you in the way you've built GoHenry? Because he was very good at like low margin raising money. Any thoughts? [31:32] Louise Hill: Yeah. I mean, an incredible businessman. Yes. Yes. I can, do you know what? I can remember, it's so long ago. Both of my parents have passed away now, but I can remember going home to my parents one weekend and saying to my dad that I'd been in a meeting with Philip Green and, you know, had proposed something, had put a put a proposal for how to do something to him. And my dad, you're always kids, aren't you, to your parents? He sort of looked at me and he went, but did he listen to you? And I'm like, yeah, Dad, I'm quite good at what I do, you know. Yeah. Yes. No, he absolutely was an inspiration. He is an incredible businessman [32:22] Al Elliott: Let's talk about growing and expanding because I've got a note down here. You raised $125 million as part of your funding rounds. I want to know, what are the tips for someone who does want to seek funding like that? Did you find it more difficult perhaps raising cash? Tell me your story. What happened? [32:40] Louise Hill: Yeah, I think the stats last year were that only 2% of venture capital funding went to female founders, which is Tragic. There are so many good, strong, competent female founders out there, all looking for funding, or many of them looking for funding. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna go back to my answer that I answered to a previous question. You can't go into anything thinking you're not gonna get funding because you're female. Otherwise, you might as well Go home. So you have to approach it that you have a great business. It's got, you know, it's nothing to do with what gender you happen to be. You have a great business, you can articulate it well, and you're gonna go for funding. That figure you quoted, yes, we have raised $125 million over the years. It was achieved in several different stages. So I, the founding team, we raised about £750,000 to get the company off the ground. And I will always be grateful to those pre-seed angels who put that money in, their belief in what was basically a business plan and a passionate idea with nothing, nothing to show at that point. We really relied on angel funding for the first 3, 4 years. And then when we were ready to go for venture capital funding, I met the team from Crowdcube and they suggested to us that we should try some crowdfunding, which was quite a new thing back then. This was 2016. We had 2 very successful crowdfunds. In 2016 and 2018. And in the first one, we actually were the first company in the world to hit what was then the legal limit for equity-based crowdfunding, which at the time was €5 million. And then we went again in 2018 and raised another £6 million. Since then, we've done a Series A, which raised $40 million and a Series B, which was $55 million. I think the important thing, if you want to grow your business to scale, you need to make sure you're building for scale from day one. And you're always thinking about what is, what are the funding requirements going to be and when are you going to need to go out for funding? It's always sooner than you think, because the money goes through faster than you think. I don't think when I started this journey, I can't say I don't think, I absolutely did not realize how much of my time and the senior team's time would need to be taken up with fundraising. It's a major part of the company's journey, and it's a major part of my workload, or it has been up until a couple of years ago [36:04] Al Elliott: Let's talk about the culture implications of when you inject cash into a business. Um, you've said that your job changed and you were like, you know, spending a large percentage of time on the actual funding side of it. But what happened to the team?