🎙️ EP05: How Leading Aperitif Brand Haus is Getting Funded — The Story Behind… | InvestHer Podcast

Investor Podcast is for you, the female founder who has a product, a service, or a message that you believe in and need to get funded. Or for you, the investor who wants to learn more about the huge untapped investment opportunity that gives you a higher return— women entrepreneurs. My name is Anne Ravanona. I'm an entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and women's advocate, and I'm passionate about helping women entrepreneurs get funded. In each episode, we'll take a behind-the-scenes look into real-world funding tactics and strategies to help you get the funding you need faster. Let's put the fun into funding. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let's get started. So welcome everybody to this episode of InvestHer Podcast, and I am so, so thrilled to have you with us and to invite today Helena Price-Hambrecht. And she's the co-founder and co-CEO of Haus, which is the brand creating products for how we gather today. So prior to Houzz, Helena was a Silicon Valley creative who's helped amazing brands. She's helped shape them like Facebook, Fitbit, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, Nike, Pinterest, Slack. Gosh, I could go on forever, Helena. Square, Twitter, Uber, you name it, you know them, you name them, she's kind of worked with them. And her work has been featured on ABC, CNN, New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, Glamour, The Guardian, and Inc. And she's currently going through a seed fundraise, so we thought it would be a brilliant time, didn't we, Helena, to kind of catch you right in the thick of it and learn from you what's going on, what's it like to be raising.

Yes, thank you for having me.

Oh, we're really happy to have you, and a shout out to Marissa for connecting us. So, Helena, can you kind of start off by Telling our listeners, how did you become an entrepreneur? 'Cause you've worked in creating incredible branding experiences and branding for those amazing names. So tell us a bit more about yourself and how you came into the entrepreneur shoes.

Sure, so my first, I've lived many lives, okay? My first career was in launch PR for startups. If you wanna count the career I had before that, I was touring with bands as a photographer and a MySpace blogger. I used to be a bartender and then ended up building a production company that focused on Silicon Valley that went very well. And if you look at that at first glance, it's like, that is a crazy career trajectory. It doesn't make sense. But it's amazing that now that I'm the CEO of what's more or less an alcohol company, all of that background has ended up helping me tremendously. Like in retrospect, it actually all makes sense. And it equipped me to be the CEO that I am today.

Amazing. Because like when— yeah, you're right. Like, tell us, like, if you think about the key skills that you will have acquired throughout that vast career before, what are those kind of arms that you're using already with Haus?

Well, when we had the idea for Haus, me and my husband, co-founder Woody, you know, Woody's a third-generation wine and spirits maker. He makes beautiful products that people drink. And he's a master at creating recipes and production and compliance. And when I looked at my own background, I realized, you know, I have experience launching startups, getting press, acquiring users. I'm a salesperson. I know how to build a brand. I know how to produce creative campaigns. I had all of this disparate experience, even bartending and touring with bands. I learned so much about interfacing with people and how to tell a story And all of that came together for us to be like, you know, we can do a lot ourselves. It's kind of that magical— the magical thing that gets people from 0 to 1 is in some ways being a generalist and having ownership of many, many different things and being able to do good enough at all of them that you can get from 0 to 1 without hiring a robust team. Though at some point that ability to do everything yourself can bite you in the butt, and then you have to learn to delegate. But that's a whole other conversation.

That's a whole other conversation. So tell us more about Haus. What is it you do?

So Haus came out of a, a bit of a personal problem that you might be able to relate to. I married this wine and spirits guy And at the same time that I was working on my own production company and traveling, I was experiencing this dilemma specifically around drinking, where part of being a business person and participating in society is going to dinners and meetings and industry events and conferences, and drinking was always there. And drinking's been a tradition that brings people together since the beginning of time. It's a beautiful thing in many ways, but there were downsides that were really starting to get to me and they didn't actually make any sense to me. Like, it's not my goal to be drunk at any of these things, right? But it happened sometimes because the drinks are so boozy.

Yeah.

And it was never my goal to be hungover, but it happened because the drinks are full of sugar and sketchy ingredients. And there were just, you know, the calories that I had to work off and there were all these downsides that just didn't feel that necessary? And it made me really question, why is there not a better way to drink? Like, why are all of these drinks so boozy and so bad for you? Naturally, the first person I went to was Woody, a third-generation wine and spirits maker that I was married to, and started talking to him about this. And I also started doing my own consumer research to see, well, what does our generation want out of drinking? Are they the same as me? And turns out, Yes, there's staggering research that millennials, plus or minus other generations, are really looking for a better way to drink. They don't care about getting drunk. They really care about what goes into their bodies. And alcohol just isn't providing them with the options that they're looking for. And so instead of migrating to a new product, they're just fumbling with ways to solve it themselves, like taking a month off of drinking or only drinking on the weekends or drinking soda water in between high-proof cocktails, or they're just kind of fumbling with solutions. And so obviously that was a very exciting opportunity. The downside is that no one's ever innovated in alcohol because it's a bit of a monopoly.

Mm-hmm.

It's a 3-tier system. It hasn't changed since Prohibition. And in order to launch a product in the spirits space, space, you have to go through this 3-tier system with all of these different gatekeepers. And ultimately, these big corporate players kind of control everything.

Hmm.

So it's kind of why you haven't seen any products in the space that have real market share. So I was lamenting to Woody about all of this, of like, what an amazing opportunity for someone to create a brand for our generation that's new and better and better branding, better product, like just something with our generation in mind. But you can't because you have to go through the system and you ultimately need to be a corporation to win. And that's when Woody actually told me there's a loophole that no one's ever used before and he didn't even think about until that moment, where if you're under 24% alcohol and you're federally, or if you're under 24% alcohol and you are made mostly of grapes, You can choose to be classed federally as a wine and you can go around the 3-tier system and you can build a direct-to-consumer company. So that's my very nerdy long story around, we realized we could build the first direct-to-consumer company ever in the liquor space. And what does that mean?

And because—

So—

Direct-to-consumer, so just for some of the people who may not know that term.

Direct-to-consumer is this new kind of league of company that's really disrupting other industries, right? It's Casper for mattresses, it's Everlane for clothes, it's Away for luggage. It's these companies that are made by people in the millennial generation who saw that the existing legacy corporate brands just weren't providing products for them. And by deciding to sell on the internet and bypass all of these traditional gatekeepers, the distributors, the big retailers, choosing to not play in that system and simply sell on the internet to the user, has created this entirely new league of players. And we're the first people to ever do it in the alcohol space. And what's exciting about that is instead of needing a distributor to think we're cool enough to distribute and then a bartender to think that we're cool enough to serve and trusting all of these gatekeepers to even let us through and tell our story and use us in the right way, it's pretty hopeless. And instead, We're able to just create a website, sell it on the internet directly to the drinker who's been waiting for a product like this forever and have a direct dialogue. So it's very exciting for us because we get to know our customer. We're able to have a direct dialogue and a direct relationship and continue to make products in this space around drinking and eating and gathering that are actually just what people want.

I love it. It's really exciting. And I love it because yet again, you have spotted a gap in the market. But what I love is that you are renovating, you are revolutionizing a dinosaur market and say, hey, we can do it differently. We are a new generation, we have different wants and needs, and we're going to bypass the old way of doing it. Move over, guys, we're going to show you how it's done. And I love the way you say, you know, that we are We're in a whole new league and we want, we want, because young people care about what we put in our bodies and so on. And it's true, I think this generation now we have so much more information that we may not have had in the past. But I think it's wonderful the way you are leveraging all of your past branding experience and customer experience, you know, to give the customers what they want. So just on a beside, do you export to Europe? Is it only for the States or do you export international? Just get the plug in.

Yes. Right now we're US only, but we have our eye on expanding as quickly as possible. I would say somewhere between 5 and 10% of our web traffic actually comes from the UK.

Okay.

And a lot of the original research that I saw around drinking trends actually came from the UK. The Guardian's done a ton of reporting. Obviously Seedlip has done very well in London. And it's really exciting to see that not only is this change happening in the States, But it's happening in other places too. I would say Europe is where we got our original inspiration for aperitifs in the first place. We used to live in Berlin and that's where he discovered aperitifs. So in a lot of ways, a lot of Europe is way ahead of the game.

So we've got to bring you back.

No, we're really excited. I mean, obviously we want to build a huge company that sells internationally. and that has multiple products. And, you know, we have really big dreams for this company. But, you know, when you look at every successful direct-to-consumer company, focus is so key in the beginning.

Yes.

And so for us, it's this amazing thing that we found that no one's doing what we're doing here in the States. No one has created an aperitif for the modern American palate. No one has gone direct-to-consumer. And so we need to blow that space out of the water before we get too ahead of ourselves.

I love it. But I love your ambition. I love your clarity of focus. And that's cool because you know what? That's one of the things that investors often say that women entrepreneurs don't have, that we lack ambition, that we lack focus. And so it's amazing. You know, it is funny because we know that's not true. So that's why I love it that you're a living, breathing example of that, Helena. Now tell us, let's get to the nitty-gritty. You're in the middle of a seed round. Can you just kind of bring us back to the beginning of your fundraising journey? You know, how did you start to raise money? What— how much did you raise? And what was it like? Walk us through those key steps first so that we can kind of learn and get a feel for what the reality is.

Yes, so we've raised about $3 million so far, which is a lot.

Yay!

Our first raise was $1 million and it was very hard. It took me about 8 months and about 500 pitches.

500 pitches! Oh my God, so were you like the biggest pitch machine? Were you out there every single day doing 20 pitches or how did you do 500 pitches?

Yeah, it was, it was roughly between email and phone about 20 pitches a day.

Wow.

And so a lot of our initial pitches obviously were nos for a variety of reasons. I mean, we had some people who said, oh, this is an interesting idea, but it's too early. Or, oh, this is an interesting idea, but I don't invest in alcohol. Or, this is a stupid idea and you're crazy and this will never work. You know, it's a total hodgepodge. of nos. But again, I kept persisting and kept persisting, and I would slowly get introduced to people who were like, you know, this isn't a fit for me, but I think it could be a fit for these people. And at the same time, I was constantly scouring Signal and AngelList and these investor databases for people who've invested in anything that would indicate that they might find us interesting, whether that's a direct-to-consumer company, whether that was food and beverage, like just researching and researching it and making just, you know, a list of 500 people that I could go to. And slowly but surely, we ended up filling the round. And as it happens for most people, it all came in at the end.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's funny how that happens.

Did you have one lead investor that helped drive it to the end, or was it really hard going? It always sounds easy when in the end, like when you say, oh, I got a million. It's not that easy, Helena. Walk us through that.

So we were stuck around $250,000, $300,000. We were stuck. And we had a lot of people that were like, hmm, interesting, like keep me in the loop. And we had one guy who had a $100,000 check for us, but he wanted to be the last check in. And we were just stuck. And so I actually called a friend of mine who's a professional investor. He has a fund and he's actually invested in us and said, look, I can't get to this million dollars. I'm stuck. And this person wants me to let him know when I'm closing. Should I just raise $500,000 instead? And he was like, sure, try it. And it was this funny thing where I've heard from a million people, Start with less, raise less, and then you can always add on more at the end. And so I decided to switch it up and say, you know what, I'm raising $500,000. I know I need more than that, but I'm just gonna say that, and I'm just gonna say that I'm closing. And the second I said I was closing, that $500,000 filled up, and then literally everyone wanted to come in. It's just, it happens that way.

Mm-hmm.

And so within a week, we had another $500,000 added on. And that's the moment when I realized, oh, this is a game. This is a game.

Yes, yes. And that— oh, I'm so glad you said that because that's something I'm always saying, that this whole funding lark, it's a game. You gotta know how to play. You know, you need to know the rules, you need to know the lingo, you need to know who are the players, and then you need to know how to get around some of those rules to get the prize. So, I mean, so tell us a little bit more. That's, that's I think that's so true what you said, because sometimes, particularly women entrepreneurs that I've spoken to, and honestly I've interviewed and spoken to hundreds and hundreds of female founders from around the world, and often they kind of get a bit squeamish at the idea of saying, oh, I need a million. So, or, you know, sometimes they'll go for $500K, um, and, and that's it, and they don't think beyond it. But what I love is that you were thinking beyond it already, and then when you saw that it was kind of losing momentum. You created the momentum by saying, right, we're closing at $500K, and the rest came flooding through. And, you know, there's another entrepreneur that I've been working with as well, and a similar thing happened. And she's in the garment industry, and she's got a very innovative— she's in the health tech kind of garment industry. She's got a very innovative fiber material. And she both said, I want to raise a $1.2 million round. And I said, well, why don't you just say you're doing $500K now and then see how that goes? And then go, because she was having struggling again because she had so much educating to do of the market. It was a new, a very innovative product. And so that's what she did. She could— she made the run smaller, closed that faster, and then she's got like people lined up for the next phase. So, so it's interesting to what you said. It's an interesting tactic. That, that's why I wanted to catch it while you said it.

Yes. I mean, something that I've, you know, I feel like I've learned 10 years' worth of, you know, experience in the last year. I think people don't realize that with pre-seed, and with fundraising in general, you can raise in chunks, especially prior to a priced round.

Yeah.

And so I think in a lot of ways, it's good to explore multiple avenues, right? Like, say, say, you know, that it would probably take you $2 million to get to a point where you've launched and you've had traction, if you're building a physical product and you need to build whatever, right? Like for us, it really was, we needed about $2 million to build out our production and get to launch and build headcount and that sort of thing. It's good to break it into milestones because I learned the hard way very quickly when I first thought I would go raise $2 million pre-seed, like, No one— everyone thinks you're crazy when you say you're raising $2 million at just an idea prior to building the brand.

Hmm.

So it's really helpful to break it into milestones. And for us, we had to do that the hard way, right? It's like we were literally living investor paycheck to investor paycheck. We agreed to work with Jen Lane, the best direct-to-consumer brand agency in America, on building the brand. We couldn't afford to pay them, but we had just enough to pay them their first payment, right? But we knew that working with Jenn Lane would also open a lot of doors for us because they'd already built some of the best direct-to-consumer brands in the world. And we were correct. But a lot of that was very chicken and egg for us. I think when I talk to founders now who are looking to raise, a better— just a more strategic way of thinking about it is like, what could get you to this first milestone that would be important to investors? And that is probably like a physical manifestation of the brand, the early brand system, a prototype of the product. Like, what will it take you to get to that point? And then from there, you know, what will take you from that point to an actual launch on the web? And just think of it, break it into those milestones if you can. And that will make raising a lot more manageable. And I think investors appreciate that transparency of like, look, here's what we need ultimately, but here's what I need to get to this point. And there are— and again, this is a game. It may or may not be true where it's like, there are many investors who are interested in us if we get to this point.

Yeah.

And if you invest now, like, we'd be happy to let you invest at the same terms later. Like, whatever it takes, it's all negotiating and it's a game. And so, you know, for us, when we launched, We had— I decided to raise another pre-seed that week when we launched, and we raised $1.25 million in 4 days.

Wow.

And it was from quite a few people that had said no or said maybe check in later. And, you know, for a lot of them, their perspective was, look, it's nothing against you. It's that we have people pitch us these grand visions that sound great all the time, but a lot of them don't follow through. And you followed through and you did what you said. And so we now trust you with our money. And that's valid, right? But I think with that in mind, investors do want to see any early indicators that you're gonna do what you say.

Yeah.

And so if that's like, hey, we plan on getting a physical prototype by this date, or we're gonna set out and work with one of the best branding agencies in the world or whatever. show that you can do the things that you're gonna say, that will build you a lot of credibility quickly in a space where most people are reluctant to fund first-time founders.

Amazing, amazing. And like, what would you say was the most challenging thing then as part of that fundraise? You've mentioned like having to kind of reduce the size of your round, but just basically it meant chunking it down. But what are the other challenges? I mean, how did you How did you keep yourself going through 500 pitches and getting so many nos? I mean, that takes a lot of tenacity.

I think therapy helped. And that's, you know, that's something that most people I know have been doing for years, but it's quite an emotional thing having people that you barely know tell you your idea is stupid. Or, you know, there's a range of people that you encounter in the fundraising process. Kind, smart people who, you know, say maybe later. There's going to be, you know, people who don't actually have the same expertise as you but want to give you advice even though they're wrong or they don't know what they're talking about. And then there's going to be people— I can't speak to the experience of men, but I can tell you as a woman, you will occasionally meet with men who are so triggered by your existence that they just want to rip you apart for 60 minutes.

Yeah.

And that can be very traumatizing at first, but I think with the right resources and the right support system, and perhaps investing in a therapist while you're fundraising, you'll realize over time that it has very little to do with you or your idea, and it has a lot to do with them and them being triggered by a confident woman who's sharing a table with them. And so You know, for me, over time, it became less triggering, even though I still have those meetings. I had one of those meetings this week. And while I was, I was able to walk away and be like, man, that guy is just an asshole, and I'm not going to work with him, I still couldn't go to sleep very easily that night because I was still a little bit upset over the way that I was treated, right? And I've already launched a company that's doing well.

Hmm.

So it never stops. You just have to Really remind yourself that a lot of meetings that don't go well, they might have a little bit to do with you, and you can take that and you can use it to refine your pitch. You can use it to just as a data point of like, oh, what did this person get stuck on? Oh, the way I answered that may have not resonated well. You can learn a little bit from every meeting, but there's also a big chunk of it that's about the other person.

Mm-hmm.

And if they're just unkind to you and mean to you or saying things that aren't true just to hear themselves talk, That has a lot to do with them. And you, as a founder, shouldn't forget that there's so much money in the world, and there are so many investors in the world. And you, if you really believe in your product, and that you have product-market fit, you can evaluate those people just as much as they evaluate you.

Absolutely.

You can decide that that is not a person that you need on your cap table.

Yeah.

And you can just keep going.

Yeah.

And eventually, you'll find people who get what you're doing and they're great people. And, you know, if you have meetings with people that you don't feel good about, they're going to feel bad on your cap table. So I think if you can just remember that over time you'll find your people, you'll weigh each meeting less, and it's ultimately a good thing for your psyche.

And, you know, I just really want to capture a couple of the things that you've said there because there are amazing tips and tactics. Number one, The tip about having a therapist, honestly, I think is really key, and your support system. And as you say, some people are, you know, less open to that, but the point being that you've got somebody who you can talk to, that you can work through your feelings, because, you know, as you said earlier, this whole entrepreneurial journey is a real roller coaster, and there are ups and downs in one day, and actually being able to to get some distance from it is a sign of a strong leader, and that's super, super important. And, you know, thankfully, I think there are some more investors who are actually realizing that the mental health of the founders is very important, and that when they put too much pressure on them, it's not going to do the founder and therefore their investment any good. So there's a little bit of an awareness growing on that, and I've been part of panels talking about that at investor meetings and so on. So I'm glad you brought I love that you brought that up. And I think the other thing as well that you've said, which is a really cool tip, is you get to choose your investors. If they are not the right people for you, you do not have to say yes. There is never a question of being that desperate, and there is enough money out there. And I think it's, it's really great that you're saying that because we need to hear that. And, and I love the way you say it's over time you'll find your people. So I think it's being clear about the type of investor you want, the type of value fit that you want. It's not just the smart money and so on. Like you said, you're going to have them on your board, you know, in the board meetings every month or whatever, you know, however often you're going to see them. You need to get on with these people and, you know, being transparent with them, like you said earlier, that's super important. So I love those tips and tactics. I think it's very, very important. And the fact that you said, remember, it's not always about you, that, you know, a lot of the time it's— you're triggering them and there's something going on in themselves. And that is super important because I know from a lot of the women entrepreneurs I've spoken to, you know, sometimes female founders can take feedback very personally, as if it's a personal attack against them. What it, you know, not— it isn't necessarily. Of course, sometimes it is, unfortunately, but it isn't necessarily. So those are great, great tips and tactics. And so just on that point, how do you deal with the ones who are really terrible, like the ones who tear you apart for a 60-minute meeting? I mean, is there some tips that you can give now that you've got this hindsight as to what you could say or do in that situation?

Yeah, I mean, I will say it's gotten easier over time, right? And I also, you know, my first career was in PR where, you know, you get declined in unkind ways all the time. So I had already had a little bit of background of being comfortable with being told no in a variety of rude ways. But I will say I've almost started to view it as like a sports match or something. And if I can remember to just kind of keep my adrenals level, like really say, okay, all right, I'm in one of these meetings.

Hmm.

It's less about, oh, I You know, I have to fight to survive in this meeting. It's like, oh, all right, I'm in a meeting with one of these guys. Okay, let me put on my, my, you know, tennis match outfit and like go and do this sport with this person for—

Go Serena Williams! Yay!

Let me, let me enter this, this tennis match and, and just play to play because I'll get better at playing next time. Yeah. And so For me, it's less about winning this person over, especially as soon as I get any indicator that it's, it's an unkind person. It's like, okay, this person wants to play sport for 60 minutes. I'm going to play sport with 60 minutes, even though this might be a waste of my time.

Mm-hmm.

At the very least, I'm going to get better at this sport, which is just going head to head on a person who just wants to grill me with quick questions, maybe pepper me with some insults, just poke and prod me to see how I stand up to it. Because the reality is, you know, you're going to meet those people at a variety of stages in building your business, whether it's a potential vendor or a reporter or like, who knows, you know, there's, there's going to be gatekeepers at various points in your life that will have that same set of qualities. And, and the more you meet those people and the more you just view it as practice for how to deal with these people, Yeah. then suddenly it becomes just like a quick little Sporting match, and then you can walk away and say, oh, so nice to meet you, it was a pleasure, and walk away knowing I am never going to work with that person. And you can take satisfaction in that, and that you had power over that choice.

I love it, and you say it so eloquently, Helena. You say it so eloquently. So given your experience so far, and you've raised $3 million, and you're in a current raise at the moment, What needs to change in this world of funding? I mean, what would you say, like, if you had a magic wand and say, right, this is what needs to change in the funding game, what would you say needs to change?

I mean, I think what is exciting to me is the idea of people who weren't born in the game being able to learn about the game, right? I grew up in rural North Carolina. I did not grow up knowing about this game. And I think I also had an inherent kind of idea taught to me that, you know, everybody deserves what they have. And so if they're super rich, they deserve it. And if they're super poor, they deserve it. And it's a very kind of a rural, antiquated—

Idea.

way of thinking, but it can really sit with you, especially, you know, if you're coming from underrepresented communities. Like, there's just this idea that all of those people who are really successful and rich, they possess something that we don't.

Hmm.

And I think there's something very— I mean, it was very much a turning point in my life to realize, like, oh, these networks that I'm starting to become adjacent to, A lot of it, you know, these people aren't any different in terms of talent or intelligence. And of course, it's just a range like there is in every community.

Mm-hmm.

And so they just have their own language and they have their own economy, and, and it's just about getting to know that community and that economy and the way that they talk and the way that they act and the way that they pass money back and forth. And so I think what is— what could really change the trajectory of a lot of people is just the general understanding that it's just another community with another language, and they need to learn that language.

I know.

And, you know, it's not like— you could easily be very pessimistic about it and say, God, it's just a game. This is so stupid. But at the same time, it's like, okay, well, You can either reject it or you can go and play it. And I would love to see just more underrepresented communities and women know the tools of how to play the game and then just go get that money.

Oh, I love it. And that's the very reason why Global InvestHer exists, particularly for the women front. I mean, that's 150% our mission, is to help give the female founders those tools to learn the funding game. And as you say, I love the way you say it, just Understand it's another community with another language and you just gotta learn it, you know, if you want to make way in this community and in another network.

I love that.

It's really, really clear. So, okay. Now, coming into the final round of questions, what would be your kind of your other practical tips to the female founders about, you know, raising money? Like things you would have loved to know. You said like, I've learned 10 years' worth of stuff in the past 2 years. So what would you, that you've learned in those 10 years, let's say, what would you kind of say the key tips, the dos and don'ts now to the female founders?

Yeah, well, you know what's funny is there are a lot of overlaps between my philosophy with PR and my original career and my philosophies with fundraising. And a lot of it has to do with, at the foundation, making something that would be interesting to other people, right? We wouldn't be pursuing the companies that we're pursuing unless we've already done the research to know that there's a potential for product-market fit. You have to be making something that's interesting to other people, and if it's not, then it might be time to re-examine another idea. But presuming that you have this thing that you're building, you've done the research, you can tell there's a market for it, you've looked into what will make this very compelling and interesting to your potential customer. You've done all that work. Then it's all about doing the research of what gatekeepers would find that thing interesting, right?

Hmm.

In PR, that was doing the research, looking at different reporters who are writing articles in the space that you're releasing a product into. Those people might find your product interesting because they're writing about similar things in that space. You can tell that their value is aligned, that sort of thing. And you pitch those people. You obviously wouldn't pitch like a furniture product to a sports reporter, right? Like, that's not a fit. So it's about finding people that would presumably find your product interesting. And there's a lot of research that would go into that, right? Blindly pitching funds doesn't make a whole lot of sense, or pitching a fund just because you've heard it's great, but there's really no indicator that they would be into what you're building. Like, obviously, that's gonna be a waste of your time.

Mm-hmm.

But really doing the homework, not just of the firm, but of the individuals at that firm, firm, like participating, like following them on Twitter, following them wherever they're posting content, and really starting to find those people that might be into your space. That's gonna help a lot. I mean, so much of the early work that I did was just constantly hunting and hunting and hunting for people that I presumed would be interested in what I'm building through proxy. It's not that they were an alcohol investor. We weren't looking for alcohol investors.

Yeah.

We were looking for people that were interested in millennials, building challenger brands for a dinosaur industry who are really into brand, who are really into just the pillars of what is interesting to the millennial consumer. So that worked for us. And then being very tailored with your pitching. It doesn't make sense to send one blanket pitch to 500 people.

Yeah.

You really need to put care into every pitch. Get a warm intro if you can. Really treat every single individual pitch with care because people can smell it if you're just trying to save time and blasting everybody with the same pitch, or like they want to see that you're putting care into the relationships that you're building. And all of those little things, they take a little bit more time, but at the end of the day, it's about putting a personalized approach into presenting this thing that you're building to someone who would find it interesting.

Yeah.

And all of that initial work up front is going to make it much less painful later, right?

Brilliant. I love it. And there, I hope you really, really take on board, listeners, what Helena is saying, because these are the things that make you successful when you are fundraising. You need to do your homework. You need to personalize your pitch. You need to be tenacious. You need to make sure that, you know, you are tailoring the pitch each time, and that you really spend the time upfront on the research. And I really love the way you've emphasized that, because sometimes I think first-time founders looking for funding, they kind of skip through that process and they just kind of go through the motions very quickly instead of really spending the time to do the research. And I'm really glad that you've highlighted that. So any key messages you'd give to investors, Helena? Like, what would you say to them?

I mean, it's tough, right? It's like investors are going to do what works for them at the end of the day. But I would love to see more people in positions of power who are typically men to just pay more attention to the female partners at their firms.

Yeah.

Because chances are they worked 10 times as hard as some of the men on the team to get where they are. And they're going to continue to work 10 times as hard because that's just what we have to do to survive in the world. And chances are we're doing tons of research. We have a robust community. And if we bring an idea to you that may not be in your exact wheelhouse of what you would buy for yourself, say that's something related to women's health, women's consumer, just anything that might not be in your immediate wheelhouse of what you'd buy for yourself, There might be legs. And to just be more open to the perspectives that other people at your firm bring. Because one thing that I've noticed over the years, just meeting different founders, getting to know the investment ecosystem, is that investors tend to invest in what they're personally interested in.

Absolutely.

And what could make sense just in the context of their own life, and, you know, what they see as something interesting. And the reality is there are many more communities outside of your own that have massive ecosystems, massive markets, and you just have to be open to that. And, you know, it will probably make you richer. There's more and more indicators of women building unicorns these days, and it's because somebody gave them a chance. And it's just amazing to think of how there's so much room for other communities, whether it's women or people of color or other countries. It's just, there's so many markets out there that are largely untouched because most of the products getting funded are products for men working in tech in Silicon Valley.

Yeah.

And what a massive amount of potential that's still yet to be realized.

I love it. And I'm so glad you've said it. Like, investors, you're leaving money on the table by not looking at, you know, and not listening to the great great ideas that come from female and underrepresented founders. And I think that's a great, great message. And the last thing I'd ask you, I'd love to say, Helena, how would you put more fun into funding? Have you any tips on that? Because that's what we want to make sure that we can help do as well, make this less tough, a game.

Yeah, well, you know, I think for anything, whether it's fundraising or even just networking, if you can just focus on the positive, it's gonna help a lot, right? Like, so many of the meetings that I've done in fundraising, I've chosen not to view it as, this is life or death, is this person in or out? It's more like, I'm gonna go and make friends with this person. I have 60 minutes with them, I'm gonna get to know them. I'm gonna ask them their story, I'm gonna tell them my story, and we're just gonna, like, we're just gonna talk, you know? I just did that this morning. I met with an investor at a firm who I would love to invest in us, but I didn't go in thinking, This is— I need to know today whether or not this person invests. It's more like, this looks like an awesome woman. I'm really excited that she reached out and I'm going to go and make friends with her. And we can decide over time whether or not it makes sense to work together. But chances are we have a lot in common because she works in the same world that I work in. And so if you can view it more as more from an anthropological perspective of like, I'm going to go make friends. And if I meet people that I don't want to be friends with, I just learned a little bit more about a different kind of person than me. And if you can just treat it as meeting a lot of people and practicing your pitch and everything's valuable, right? Even the bad experiences. And so that has made fundraising for me go from something that's quite scary to something that's more just an exercise in getting to know A new ecosystem.

I love— oh, I couldn't have said it better. Oh my God, thank you so much, Helena. I love the way you say it. Move from scary to getting to know it, to move from scary to it being an exercise in getting to know a new ecosystem. Absolutely wonderful. And build the relationship. Thank you so much. So can you please, as a closing statement, tell us where can our listeners find you? Where's the best place to find you? On which social channels? And to learn more about Houzz? And about your fundraising round? There could be some great investors who are listening who say, I love, I love what Helena is saying and I want to talk to her.

Oh sure, well, the best way to interact with me is probably on Twitter. I can't say that I tweet anything of much value, but I'm just @Helena on Twitter. It's quite easy. If you'd like to see our product, you can go to our website at drink.house, so just drink.house. Somehow we got that domain name. And yeah, I mean, those are honestly the best places to start. I'm on Instagram @HelenaPriceHambrecht, but that's mostly like just pictures of my life, so take it or leave it. But yeah, if you want to buy alcohol on the internet, we're your people. And if you are on Twitter, just say hi and I'll say hi back.

That's so awesome. So thank you so much for being with us today, Helena, and for sharing your Really valuable strategic tips and tactics to help more female founders get funded. You know, we can't wait to hear how the rest of this round goes. So very best of luck with it. And hey, we hope to have you again in a future episode to say, I raised X million, and now here's the latest update from the last episode, because we'd love to hear, you know, what more products and amazing services that you have in store for us.

So congratulations.

Thank you. Congratulations on all your success so far. We know you're gonna go very far, and thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Thank you for listening to InvestHer Podcast. Don't miss more great funding tips and insights by subscribing to the podcast on Apple or your favorite podcast host. And while you're there, I'd love you to rate and review the show. We'd love to hear from you, so if you'd like to send in some questions, To ask questions, interact with our guests, or suggest other great people we should feature, join our community on the Flick InvestHer group. Or send us a message on investherpodcast.com. Want more great resources for female founders about funding? Check out our InvestHer Academy at academy.globalinvesther.com. I'm Anne Ravanona and look forward to having you with us again for our next episode. Let's put the fun into funding and get more women entrepreneurs funded.