🎙️ EP38: Raising Funding for Sustainable Pregnancy Tests - The Hoopsy Story… | InvestHer Podcast

Welcome everybody to our latest episode from Investor Podcast. I'm Anne, your funding friend, and here to welcome you to this special episode with Lara Solomon, founder and CEO of Whoopsie. Now Lara is going to share her journey about how she's raising funding for a sustainable pregnancy test. How do you get all of that plastic waste out of pregnancy tests? Because this is a big, big problem— plastic waste in all the oceans, etc. And Laura took us through her journey on how she built Hoopsy and how she's building a sustainable pregnancy test to help other women manage their fertility in a more sustainable way. So this is a really, really interesting episode where you're going to learn all about her funding journey, the ins and outs. And what's super exciting is she is one of the pitch winners of our very first InvestHer Summit 2023 in the femtech category. So take a listen, learn from Laura and her great advice and her scrappiness, her grit. I love it. I think you're going to enjoy this one.

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, TED I'm a 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 latest episode of InvestHer Podcast, and I am thrilled thrilled, thrilled, thrilled beyond to welcome you to one of our first global pitch competition winners from Investor Summit. Welcome, Lara Solomon from Hoopsie. Welcome. How are you, Lara?

Good, thank you. Thanks for having me. It's all very exciting.

It's really exciting. And honestly, we're thrilled because just so that the listeners kind of have some context, in Investor Summit, it was our very first summit we did in Paris this year. We had a global pitch competition. We had over 118 entries from 27 countries in 6 different sector families, and Lara rose up to the rankings in our medtech, femtech, healthtech segment. So she is our global winner. And congratulations, Lara, you really are deserving and what you're doing is fantastic. And that's why we're here, because I want everybody to know about you, about Hoopsy, and how you're changing the game For women entrepreneurs and just for women in general.

Awesome, me too. All of that, definitely. Yes, this is a great opportunity, and I was just sad I couldn't be there at the event. But it looked amazing.

It was really good. But you know what? Hopefully you come next year. It's to all of you listening. I'm gonna give you like an avant-première. Normally, it's gonna be in Dublin next year.

Woo hoo hoo!

So the date is not confirmed yet, but it will be Dublin next year because in Paris next year we have the Olympics and there's no way we're going to do our summit in an Olympic year in Paris. That's just not happening. It's going to be great.

Yeah, well, Dublin would be great. I love Dublin. It's a great city.

It is a great city. I can't say country. I am Irish from Dublin.

Oh, exactly. Yes.

Yes. But anyway, this is about you. This is your podcast. So Laura, can you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming an entrepreneur first of all? How did you get here? And then tell us more about Hoopsy.

Well, how I got— well, I've been— I've run lots of different businesses over the years. Growing up, my dad always had his own business and he basically always taught us to challenge things and think about things differently. So rather than just accepting what was— what we were told. So I started out in FMCG marketing, but I got very frustrated quite quickly because it was a case of, oh no, this is the way we do it. And it was like, well, can't we do this? No, we just do it this way. And I found it very annoying. And so I set up my first business back in 2004. And it was a mobile phone sock cover. So it was the sock that you put on your phone to decorate it. And basically since then I've had I think 5 other businesses. Some of them I sold, some of them I just stopped because of personal reasons. And I also helped a UK brand, Omelette Pet Products, get into launch into Australia. So it's always kind of been in that startup space and I really enjoy the startup bit, although it's hard, although it's stressful. It's, yeah, it's a big challenge and I really enjoy that. So Hoopsie came about because before Hoopsie, I had a personalized children's book business, and which I got funded, I did through Antler, and I sold that in February 2021. And I was then kind of trying to think, what shall I do next? Wasn't really sure, but I knew that I wanted to have a baby. I was single, but, and I just, it'd been one of those things where you think, oh, someone's gonna turn up, it's gonna happen, and it hadn't. And I was just like, well, I've So I went to Spain and did 2 donor embryo transfers. And through doing that, I joined lots of Facebook groups, and I found that people were posting loads of pregnancy test pictures. And I had no idea that when people took a test, they took more than one test. I thought they just did one, but no, on average they do 3. And if they're doing IVF, it can be 10 or 15. And I was just shocked. It was just— I'm not a big Facebook person. I'm not, don't come from an environmental background or anything, but I do normally do a lot of ocean swimming and I see a lot of plastic in the ocean and a lot of plastic on the beach and I hate it. And so when I saw these plastic pregnancy tests, I was just like, why? And then I started to look into it and see, you know, was there a more sustainable option? And I found out that 95% of women prefer to use a midstream test. And there was no, well, there currently is no sustainable option. The most sustainable option is sustainable to use a menstrual cup. option is a strip test, but you've got to wee in a cup and dip the test in, and people don't like doing that because it's messy. You might get wee on your hands. It's just fiddly. So, um, as a result, I thought, well, this seems crazy because inside those plastic tests there is a little strip of paper. Why don't we just make that piece of paper bigger? And so that's what I did.

I love it. I mean, another case of, first of all, serial entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur, because you're an entrepreneur referring an entrepreneur, you're always pushing those boundaries. And I relate a lot to that because in every, you know, job I had before being an entrepreneur, I was always pushing the boundaries. Let's do more, let's do this, da da da. And like, I love that you're a serial entrepreneur and you saw a problem and you were like, why, why? You asked the key questions and said like, we can change this. So how difficult was it To come up with your product. So the, the, it's 99% paper, is it? Or 99% recyclable paper and, and 99% secure. So it's win-win-win.

So how did you—

talk us through that process, the iteration process of, of testing the product to make sure that it worked, because you weren't from that background. And this is what I love about your story. It's The grit, the gutsiness, the grit, and say, hey, why, why is this like this? I want to change things.

Well, it's funny you say about grit because I was speaking to an investor probably about 6 weeks ago and he said to me, why did you decide to do medical device? Like in an, are you crazy way? And I said, well, I had really no idea what was involved.

I think that goes for us, isn't it? Because it's like, you don't know what's involved. You're going more blindly. You're blind to To any of the real barriers. You only discover them when you hit them.

Exactly. Yeah.

It's a good thing you don't know in advance.

I think so. Yes. So to start the whole process, I, I kind of, I looked at what size we wanted to have for the test, what was gonna work, and compared it with current, you know, midstream tests and literally drew out on a piece of paper what I wanted. It's really high-tech industrial design. And, and then I contacted loads of pregnancy test manufacturers because I thought, well, they're already making tests, so how much harder could it be to make it a bit bigger and get rid of most of the plastic? So I probably approached about 100 manufacturers globally, and it was very hard. I only found one company that were willing to work with me, and they were, well, they still are amazing. So in terms of producing the test, it wasn't just a case of make it bigger. You actually have to put larger amounts of chemical on it because the test is bigger. You have to wait a longer time because the test is bigger and therefore the urine's got farther to go. And so they did quite a lot of testing at their end. They sent me the first version of the test, which, which was, looked good. But when we, when I actually used it, it was really soggy. And people have this idea when we say it's 99% paper that it's going to be like a piece of A4 paper that you put in the printer and that you wee on it and you're just left holding something and the rest is gone.

It disintegrates. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's actually more like card. So, but the first version we had was very soggy. And so we went back to them and said, look, you know, it needs to be firmer. And also the test lines need to be clearer. So they went back and reworked on it, but it didn't actually take that long, a few months. And then the next version that came through, we'd done it. Well, it worked. Like, I wasn't pregnant, but I got a negative. And then They provided all the test results. It's very hard to find pregnant women to check tests for you unless you know them.

Yeah.

So, um, they did all of the testing on the pregnant side of it. But yeah, so that's kind of how I got started. And, and then it was just a case of, um, working out the packaging and, you know, what we're going to put on there. Like, what was it going to be in? What was the look and feel, branding, all that kind of stuff?

And like, tell me more because I'm really curious from an IP perspective. Do you own the IP? Because you drew this new version, you, you designed this whole thing from start and they manufactured for it. So I'm very curious to see where are you on that point because that's super important for medical devices.

Yeah, so, um, I can't— I couldn't patent what I drew on my piece of paper because it's too close to what currently exists. And so it wasn't, it wouldn't be considered to be innovative enough. So the current version of the test, we don't have IP on, but we are, we have filed a patent on a new version of the test, which is a completely new design and new materials. And so that one we're working on at the moment will launch in 2026. It takes quite a long time because of the regulatory approvals, but that will give us the IP. And I knew that going in, but I was kind of like, well, realistically, It's unlikely anyone is gonna copy us straight away. And if they do copy us, then there's room in the market for more than one player because we already know that because there is already more than one midstream player. And if my ultimate goal is to eliminate plastic from testing kits going into landfill, then actually if other people adopt it, then they're actually helping me achieve my goal.

Yep.

So I kind of came at it from that mindset and I Didn't realize at the time, but actually it's, it's quite a hard sell on the sustainable side because lots of people that aren't into sustainability go, unsustainable things, not as good. Like toilet paper, rougher. This thing doesn't work. And so the first question everyone asks is, how accurate is it? And I say over 99%, same as everyone else. But that, and it was interesting, I went to a sustainability show a few weeks ago and we were exhibiting. And there no one asked how accurate it was. They, because they're in that sustainability mindset, they assume that things work if they're sustainable, they work just as well. So it's, it's, it's very interesting. So now having launched, I've learned a lot from that. And I've realized that actually launching with this first version first has been really good because we can take a lot of the learnings to the next version. And also we can build the education and awareness around sustainable testing, and which will help when we come to launch the next version of the test.

Who are the clients? Is it directly D2C, or is it also— do you want to have some B2B clients? What is your kind of go-to-market strategy?

So we're selling direct-to-consumer, but we're also selling to retailers, both physical and online. And the plan is, once we've got the next version of the test, is to white label. So um, produce the tests for other brands, not necessarily pregnancy test brands that already exist, although we're looking at, um, store-owned label, but also looking at like— we've been approached by like prenatal supplement brands. They want to add a pregnancy test to their range because it makes complete sense for them to sell at the same time. Um, so we— I'm looking at white labeling and then also licensing the IP in the new tests That's amazing.

That's really, really great. And as you say, that's how you're going to capture much more of the market and educate them more. I mean, that's, that's a really solid plan. And so tell us a little bit about your funding journey so far, Lara. What has it been like? Because I think just listening to you, you're a very solid entrepreneur. So you've so much experience and track record, like with 5 to 6 companies before. I just say, whatever, some do better than others. You've sold some and so on. And but in any case, I know that in the US in particular, that's a mega t-shirt to have. They prefer if you are at least a serial or a second-time entrepreneur. So what has it been like for you, the funding journey so far with Hoopsy? What have you done? Let's like take it from the very beginning, step by step, because I wanted to To show everybody else how they can learn from your journey. And so we can track your uber progress as well in a future podcast episode.

Sure. So, um, I was quite lucky. Well, my mum died about 8 years ago and left— there's 4 of us in my family— and left us all money. So we got about, uh, £70,000 each, I suppose. Um, And I'd been, I hadn't spent it. I was, I had meant to put a deposit on a house, but I never got to it because it was never the right place and lots of different reasons. And so I still had that money sitting in the bank. So I decided that I was going to invest, put some of that in. And that's how I started by putting some of that in. Um, and then I realized about, um, would have been about April last year that I was going to run out of money. At the time I was working, doing call center work because to pay the bills. And I basically decided, like, so then I had 4 days a week I was doing call center work and 3 days a week I was working on the business. And the great thing about call center work was, A, it's brain dead, so you don't need to use energy. And B, when it was quiet, you could in theory do whatever you liked.

Mm-hmm.

So Guess what I did? But, um, so, um, I realized I was gonna run out of money because I had enough money to pay for the first production run. I had enough money to, um, to get the packaging done, to get all of the artwork done and everything. But, um, I realized that then once the production run was done, we had to get the product over to the UK.

Mm-hmm.

And With this was, so this was in May last year and with the Ukraine war and everything, costs were going up dramatically in terms of shipping and every day the price changed in the wrong direction for me. And because I was having done in previous businesses, I've done import export and normally how it has worked is that you get shipped, then you get the bill like 30 to 60 days later. But because of the situation, they weren't willing to do that. So They were like, you know, you've got to pay upfront. So I realized I didn't have the money and it was about £10,000 just for the shipping.

Wow.

And so I quickly realized, okay, this is going to be an issue, so I need to raise. Um, and I thought, what's the quickest way to raise? And equity crowdfunding. So basically that's what I did. I did a crowdfunding campaign. The company is headquartered in Australia, so we did it in Australia. But I was actually in the UK. So, um, I did the video and lots of different bits and pieces marketing. And every morning for 3 weeks, I'd wake up and go, how much have we got? It was very funny because the first day we did the expression. So with crowdfunding, you do an expression of interest. That's when people say, I really like it. Yes, I think I'm going to put money in. This is how much I think. And we had over $500,000 committed in the first 4 days. And we were like, wow, this is gonna be awesome. So then you have to do all the paperwork. We did all the paperwork, and then 3 weeks later we launched the actual— now you have to come and physically put your credit card details in. And so my sister-in-law I was staying with at the, at the time bought a bottle of champagne the night before we opened and put it in the fridge and said, let's have it for breakfast because I reckon we're gonna hit 500 in the first day. No, it was a very painful 3 weeks waking up every morning trying to get more money because when people say they'll do something and they actually do it, it's a very different story.

So one sec, I want to backtrack for a second. So which crowdfunding platform did you use?

Um, it's one in Australia. It was called, um, oh, I'm having a mind blank now. Oh, I'll have to look it up. It's— it was one that was focusing on female investors, female-founded businesses. MyCrowd, that's right. M-I-C-R-O-W-D.

Okay.

Um, so yes, I did it with them, but we were the first one on their platform, which was also teething problems. So it wasn't ideal.

Um, and that was $500,000 Australian dollars then. Yeah.

Which is about £250,000. But I mean, that was my, my goal was $500,000 tops, £200,000. And with equity crowdfunding, for people that don't know, You have to reach your minimum, otherwise you get nothing. So, so that's why every morning when I was waking up going, how much are we on now? Refresh, refresh, refresh. I was hoping that we got to our minimum. In the end, we did. We raised $233,000 through that platform. So that's about £120,000. And that was enough to, obviously enough to pay for the shipments to come over. It was enough to start paying me a salary, which was nice. Um, and it was enough to hire some people and start spending money on marketing. Um, so that was the first bit. And then I realized later in the year that actually we're gonna need a lot more money.

Mm-hmm.

And that wasn't actually gonna take us very far. It got us out there, it got us launched, but we need to spend a lot more on marketing because this is when I realized that people Sustainability wasn't enough of a reason to buy. Yeah. And there needed to be a lot more education.

Sorry.

That's okay. So I then started approaching angels. I did pitch competitions in— I was still— I went— I was in the UK for 4 months last year, then I went back to Sydney, and then I did 3 pitch competitions in October in Melbourne. And I won all of them. So I know I hate to say this, Anne, but I'm now 7 for 7.

Wow.

I know.

I'm just—

because I feel like I'm jinxing myself if I say it. The next one, I'll say no.

Okay, well, you— I, I'm not jinxing you. So say, hey everybody, she won 7 out of 7 competitions. That's bloody brilliant. That's a hell of a track record.

Yeah, I know.

So how— congratulations. And so how— so tell me then, how much did you get in the prize money in the 3 overall? So how much was that bunch, the first 3?

Well, the first 3, well, they weren't all prize money. One of them was a $4,500 Dell computer, which— don't tell them I sold because I needed the cash.

They've got to know. Yeah, you want the cash.

They've got to know because hilariously, I'd literally about 4 weeks earlier bought a new laptop.

Yeah.

And so I was just like, what am I gonna do? It's just gonna sit in the drawer. So I got $3,500 for that. So that was great.

Yeah.

And then the other one, the other prizes were things like mentoring or free office space or coaching sessions or that kind of thing. So not stuff that you can trade in for cash. Still great, but just not hard cash. And it's great when people— oh, and I won an Amazon one that was a $100 Amazon voucher. So Okay. Not exactly huge, but so yeah, the prize money is not huge, I have to say, in pitching competitions, but it's definitely worth doing them because you get so many people coming up to you afterwards saying, oh my God, I love that. And do you know this person? Do you know that person? Can I introduce you to X? Can I introduce you to Y? I know this person at this place. You need to talk to them. And it's so worth it for that. You just get so much exposure. And also it makes you look like you're doing amazingly well, even if you don't necessarily feel like you are, or You know, even just, you know, one person. So it's really good for exposure. So I did those 3.

When was that? So that was— so the My Crowd was in what month? Was it May, April, May last year you were saying?

Yeah, we did the rose in June.

June?

Yeah, June.

And then the pink pumps were at the end of the year. So when was that like?

So I did the pictures in October.

Okay.

Yeah. And then, um, and then I decided I need to be back in the UK because all the business was in the UK. So came back over at the end of November and, uh, meanwhile was talking to various different angels. I actually, it's amazing how it varies so much. You'd know this, how, like, so I was at a sustainability event in, um, Sydney and I'm part of a group called Climate Salad, which is for climate startups and they're just fabulous. And there was an opportunity to pitch on stage. It wasn't prize money. It wasn't a competition. It was just like you could just tell people what you do and you had 3 minutes. So I did that. And afterwards I came off and this woman came straight up to me and went, I love what you do. I wanna invest.

Wow.

And literally first words out of her mouth. And Beck, she's wonderful and she has put money in and literally, but that was So easy. And then you look at other people, which you feel like you're having to annoy them every single week for months to get anything.

They understood it immediately. I mean, this is the thing. It's when it's the right investor. So that was, you got the first angel in Australia then before, or was it in, no. So she was in Australia.

She was in Australia. I've got all of, I've had 4 angels. They're all in Australia.

And have you gotten global from them? Just, I know I never say individual, but overall, just to help.

Yeah. So I've raised, um, another $85,000 through angels through SAFE Notes earlier this year. Um, late, well, late last year, early this year.

Perfect.

So, um, and so one was a family office as well. So, um, actually, so it, it's, it's amazing how, and that's what's made me realize that for me, doing things in person works. People meet me, they like me, which is always a winner when you want money from them.

Yeah.

And, um, they, they get what I do. And it's really interesting because about 2 weeks ago I went to a demo day. I wasn't pitching, but someone, a couple of people I knew were, and I met this guy and we were just chatting and he was lovely. I didn't really think much of it, but he said, oh, I can introduce you to a VC firm in Manchester. And I was like, awesome. So he did. Well, actually I said, can you do me an introduction? And he did. And then he said, oh, send me your pitch deck as well. And then he gave me feedback on my pitch deck and his feedback was, obviously you've got a unicorn business here, but you don't show it well enough in your pitch deck. And I was like, okay. And so like meeting people like that, that, I mean, we literally had a 10-minute, maybe 15-minute conversation, but he immediately got it and he got it enough to be able to give me like You know, a whole page of feedback on. I don't think you're making the opportunity look big enough. I don't think you're making it exciting enough. This is what I would do. This is what I'd suggest. Da da da da. Which was super, super helpful because sometimes you get feedback which is just rubbish, like not enough traction. That's it.

Yeah. And you're like, help anybody. Like, that's for everybody listening when you get that because you will. They're all gonna say it's not enough traction because or you're too early. Or you're too early. They're the 2 ones. Exactly. So you can just say, listen, is that the real excuse or you just don't want to? If you, if it's a real no, just tell me now. Don't waste my time. Like, honestly, and it's okay if it's a hard no. I just want to know so that I won't bother you coming back to you in X months' time. Just save me my time, please.

You know?

Exactly. And one thing, like, my brother, he's got his own business as well, but he hasn't had to raise investment. He's lucky in that he's manufacturing and Innovate UK just throwing cash at him left, right, and center. But everyone— I was like, oh, this is taking so long. He's like, well, how many was it that Canva had? And I said 100. So they got 100 nos before they got a yes. So now we're counting up my nos, and every time I get another no, I'm like, yay, I'm closer to my 100, therefore I'm closer to my money.

I love it.

Um, and I'm on about 52 nos now. So, yeah.

I love it. And I love that. I think that's, that's the healthy way to do it. It literally is like, no, next, next.

Yeah.

You know, let's, let's take the next one. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think that it's funny because my, um, I've got a friend that I'm working with. She's just doing some coaching with me and she said, is it the rejection you don't like about fundraising? And I was like, no, I, I don't mind being rejected because I just see that as I'm getting closer to the money. But what I hate is the fact that they don't give you proper feedback. And they don't, or they just say something for the sake of it. And then, and they, why can't they, why did they take so long to decide? So one of the pitch competitions I won in Melbourne, actually, the judges were a VC firm and they basically, we then had 3 meetings about them investing. At the end of the 3rd meeting, they said, no, not for us.

Yeah, you see, that is really tricky because often they're going fishing for information. They may have the company in their portfolio, or they may be exploring a new sector, and they're just literally pumping you to— not you individually, but not personally, but they're pumping the founder to get competitive information. And that's a really hard— it's so hard, isn't it, to know when that's happening? Like, you can't suddenly know, like, they could be Faking interest to get the information that they want. So it just means you have to be super careful about what you tell them, like, you know, how much detail you're going to go into, etc., etc., because I'm sure they didn't sign NDAs or whatever, but they didn't give you a term sheet, did they? No. So like, I did get—

sorry, I did get a term sheet earlier on this year, Anne, actually, another pitch competition I won. It was a £150,000 investment and everyone listening is probably going, oh my God, she's a complete nutter.

Yeah.

But, um, I didn't get a good vibe off them. I didn't like— so basically what happened, I did the pitch, it was, I think it was 7 minutes, and then we got some questions and then literally I must have spoken to the guy for maybe 5 minutes afterwards and then it was all done on email. I didn't talk to him. I did ask to talk to him. I did say to him, due diligence goes both ways, like, you know, in a nice way. And basically until the deal was done, he didn't really wanna have a call. And I just was like, you compare that to the lady that came up to me at the end of my talk on stage. And I was just like, I want people that are with me on the journey. I want people that are passionate, excited about what I'm doing, not people that Yeah, I know you're gonna get people that are in it for a quick buck, but that's, if I'd have taken that money, they would've become our biggest investor. And I actually had a bit of a, another, as an investor horror story for you. Um, so when I did the crowdfunding raise, one of the guys that put money in, I didn't know him, but he put in, so about $100,000. So it's about £50,000. So he was the biggest investor.

Mm-hmm.

And I met up with him for the first time in September. And when I met up with him, he was chatting like, oh, you should do this, you should do that, giving me all this advice or what he thought was good advice. And then about halfway through the conversation, he said to me, if you lose my money, I will destroy you. I've got big lawyers. I know everyone in town. You will never run another business. I know.

God.

So I was just gobsmacked. I just couldn't believe that. This was literally to my face in real life, and I just couldn't believe. And then he wanted to get his friend on the board, and I was just like, no, that's not happening. And so hence why when this next guy came along and I didn't get a good vibe from him and he wasn't interested in me or the business, I was just like, I don't want you on my cap table. I don't wanna have to deal with you. You might go the same way as this other guy. And because they're a VC fund, I reached out to 10 or 15 of the companies they've invested in, and only one of them came back to me to tell me how it was to work with them, which made me think there's a reason why the others haven't, because normally in this kind of entrepreneurial community, people really want to help other people.

Exactly. Yeah. Wow. And so what about that, excuse the French, but that asshole who's— he's still on your cap table, then he must be, obviously, until you can buy him out. So just like, it's just good to have radars and to say, okay, to know these things. And I really love the way you are seasoned enough, Lara, to listen to your intuition, to listen to your gut. I know another woman entrepreneur who said no to $1 million. That's a big fat check.

Wow.

And she said, the vibe was all wrong. And I said, I didn't want them. And I would encourage you to say, Get a minimum of 30% of women angels, or just women, not angels, but just women on your cap table. Because otherwise, this is important to— with regards, this is a key learning that actually Tess Mateo, one of our fabulous speakers at the Investor Summit, was sharing. She's a serial investor and an incredible advocate. She works a lot in the climate tech and green space and helping women founders to get funded. So she's really an expert. And the thing is, if we're not careful, if we don't have enough women on our cap table, we end up being male-owned. So you're a female-founded company, but you're male-owned. So like, if this is like, no, we need to break the chain. So it's being intentional and say that I want a minimum of 30% of women on my cap table where possible. It's not always possible. Why is it not always possible? Listen, it is possible. You just have to find them. And it's not easy. And there are thankfully many more women who are becoming angels. There are more women sending— setting up their own VC funds because they got fed up with the male chauvinistic situation going on as well. So I would just encourage everybody to, to seek out the women because this is like— and as part of your own, as part of your own objective to help to change the system, because if we keep accepting only male money, we're perpetuating the cycle. We're not changing it. So we have more power than we think. And that's coming very clearly from you as well, Lara, that it's like, we have to step into that power and realize that we do not have to accept any, any money just willy-nilly. You know, you can say no, if it's not the right investor, and you should say no. So I really like that from your messaging that, and, and you also say like, you know, it was cool, because I was going to ask you about your key dos and don'ts in the fundraising process. But I want to make sure that we've got the end of your funding journey so far, because I think we haven't. Because I have a feeling you've more. So you got $85K in angels end of November, early then, early to early '23, and that's in dollars. And then, and a family office, you said. And then anything else since then?

Well, since then I've had people say yes, but they've also said, I don't want to be the lead. That's another line you'll hear a lot, which is really annoying. But, um, I had a really good meeting earlier this week. So I'll find out on Monday about that. And so it's, I think it's hard. I mean, fundraising's hard and it's hard not to get really like, ugh.

Mm-hmm.

And you just get, you've had enough. And, and it's particularly at the moment in what I'm doing is I actually had a team, well, not a huge team, but I had 3 people that worked for me. And I ended up getting rid of 3, all of them, not because they weren't any good, but because I needed to extend my runway. And the only way to do that was to reduce costs. And they were the only costs that I could reduce because everything else was down at the minimum.

Mm-hmm.

So, um, that, that makes it hard as well. And, you know, we're— I'm, I'm having to let a lot of stuff slide because I don't have the time or the money to do it. Like, social media, like, you know, marketing activity and things like that. And I think that that's a really hard thing because you want to do everything and you want to do everything. Maybe you don't want to do everything 100%, but you'd like to get to 80% on things. And, you know, you'd like to be able to post and have like, you know, that TikTok video that gets to a million views and blah, blah, blah. And it's very hard to be— have to step away from that and say no. my focus is on this, and this is what I'm doing for like 80% of my time. And then if I have time to do the other things, then I'll do them. But I, I think that's very— I think you, when you fundraise, you underestimate how much time it takes. And everyone says it's a full-time job, but you're like, yeah, yeah, it's not really. I can do that part-time. But it, it's, it's a massive time suck. And so Mm-hmm. And I think that with fundraising, like with me, what I find is things that you, you might not think of as fundraising, like going to that pitch event. I went there because I knew there would be investors there and I knew that I could talk to them. And you have to go to those things and you don't know if it's gonna be someone that's right for you or not right for you. But that's the only— you've got to find ways to increase your, I guess, your pipeline and you've got to find ways to get people to know you because They're much more likely to invest if they've met you. I don't know if that's a stat, but I'm sure it must be.

Oh, it is.

It is.

But especially in early stage, because you're still, I would probably say you're kind of still pre-seed, seed stage. Yeah. Well, how do you consider yourself? Pre-seed or seed? Probably pre-seed, given it's a product company. I don't know. That's me projecting.

I don't really, I don't really do stages. I'm just like, I don't know. We just, yeah. Seed, pre-seed, somewhere around there. I just, we, yeah, we're just very, we're early. And that's the thing when you're early, you don't have as much traction. You don't have as much like product validation. You don't have as many customers. Therefore, people are investing in you, the founder, and what you've achieved and what you're going to achieve. And so, yeah, it's important that they get to know you.

And yeah, and I like, I want to take it as well offline after this conversation that I do think, like, I'm hearing a lot what you're talking about is the importance of branding. Branding is very, very, very important, especially for all entrepreneurs, especially because we need to project a bigger image that we're bigger and stronger than we are, right? And that goes for everybody, male or female. And, and having a strong branding identity is super important and knowing that it's going to change. And I want to say something to you offline about that. I will say this after the thing, but just kind of flat. And what I'm going to say as well is that like we partner with a branding agency. So they've been our partners. They've been with me since 2015 and they've helped us to, to also grow. And it's, it's so, so important. to have the, the right partners who get you, who understand what your values are, what your value proposition is, and how to communicate that. That's what the branding identity is. It's not a logo. It goes so much more.

Right.

It is like, what's your DNA? What's your soul? And who do you want to attract that is— that you need to— that is in touch with your DNA and with your soul and your— and, and your values and that are your ideal customer and they recognize themselves in your tone, in how you project yourself, etc. And that's super, super, super important. So like we have, like when by the time this podcast episode goes out, you guys will have heard a previous one which is from Gustavo Stescher from Men Branding and they are our partners, our branding partners, and he explains everything about branding identity, about brand architecture, about how different products all have to feed into the main brand, etc., etc. He's really good at explaining all that, and I encourage you all to listen to that previous episode once you're listening to this one and to check it out because we cannot underestimate it. And especially when you're fundraising, the branding piece is super important, but also, of course, just for the customers, and it can change, you know, it can change. Like, if you saw our very first brand, it was very cute, but it was like not at all. And I remember when I met Gustavo and I said to him, I showed him my business card, and he says, we can do better than that. And I'm like, okay. And we have, you know, it's brought us a long way. But it's just interesting. I wanted to kind of pick that up. Because what you're saying is important, because in the fundraising process, how you project yourself is so important. And we need to show we're bigger and stronger. We need to show who we are going to be, not just who we are now. And I totally believe that you're going to be a unicorn as well, Laura. I actually know by the size of the market what you're doing. And you're going to need a lot of money to get there because you're— you have a product and you have a medical device and that requires money. It's the segments you're in, it's the vertical you're in. There's no way around it unless it's like manna from heaven. No, you're gonna need serious money, right? And you're gonna need the, the money for the team, etc., etc. And what I love is the grit that you're sharing with us. It's like, okay, sometimes you have to make those tough decisions and you have to pare back and you say, okay, I'm gonna have to do this for the next run. And this is— I'm going to try and do my max and try to get 80% on everything. And then when I have the budget again, I'll bring on people again, you know. That's gutsy. It's also good business head because, you know, that can be a trick when people keep people on much longer than they should have. That's not a good thing.

Yeah, it was very hard because one of the ladies that was working for me, she was like, well, I really love what I'm doing. How about you could pay me less? And I was like, I went, when? And I just can't afford to do it. Like, So now she's actually working for me for free because she loves what we're doing and she loves what we're trying to achieve. She's not doing the same number of hours, but she's doing more ad hoc stuff. But, you know, this is the thing, when you can get people excited about your journey and what you're doing, then they will come on board and do that. They will.

And I think we've all done that and we should all have that because it— and then when we're in a position to pay them, then we reward them, you know, where it's possible. Or at least very clear and say, okay, I can't pay you now. Hopefully I'll be able to in future, and this will be a deal we'll do, or whatever you do now, just take it as your investment in it, and so on. And, you know, we're co-building this together, and that's what scrappy founders have to do.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I just want to make sure I've got anything. So anything else left on the funding journey or not, Lara? To date?

Um, no, I mean, I think I'm just knocking on doors, looking at accelerators that give you cash, um, looking at ways like, you know, with an accelerator, the benefits of that are that they know investors and you get to pitch at the end. So the chances— and the people on the accelerator know you, so the investors will go to them and say, so what would they really like to work with? And It's interesting because I did the Antler program with a previous business and one of the guys that was involved, that he was on there with me at the end, we went to an investment committee and there were 7 people in the room judging and they all basically gave you a point if they liked you. And then it was the majority gets the investment and I got 7 out of 7 and this other guy got 0 out of 7 because no one liked working with him. No one had liked how he'd performed over the accelerator. No one, you know, so I think it's one of those things where you might think, oh, it doesn't matter if I don't do X or if I don't do Y. Actually, people notice that stuff and it does matter.

Mm-hmm.

And one thing I found in terms of pitching and in terms of asking people for money is it's really good to get feedback from other people. So, because it's really hard to know how you actually do because you're in it and you're inside and you think, well, I'm just being normal, but actually you might That's not how the other person sees it. And I actually went for the Bupa Eco Disrupt program and got pipped at the post, but the guy was so lovely and he was like, this is why we loved you. This is why we wanted to work with you. It's just really unfortunate that someone applied 2 days before the deadline and they just were a better fit with us. And, but that getting that kind of feedback really helps you in terms of going forward and what you wanna keep doing and what you should maybe stop doing. And I know like years ago when I was starting out doing, like I was doing running some workshops and stuff, I had a PA at the time and I made her stand at the back of the room and she had to count the number of ums and ers and, and then it was something crazy like 100 or something in half an hour or it was huge. And, uh, but I get you need to look at all of those things. It's not just about the actual words you say, it's about everything and Even what you wear. I had really, years ago, I had this lady say to me, she was a stylist, and she said, I don't think you should wear that outfit next time you do a talk. And I said, why? And she said, because I don't think you think it fits well and you're spending the whole time like adjusting. And therefore all we're seeing is adjusting. We're not necessarily, it's distracting from what you're talking about. So now whenever I'm doing a pitch or anything, I make sure I wear something that I know I don't have to adjust. I know that I'm comfortable in that, you know, I'm not having to like hold my tummy in so I can't breathe and or whatever it is. And also I think there's a lot of these things, it's more than just the business, which I know maybe it's, I don't know, maybe it's unfair, but I think it's, you've got to package the whole thing up. And I think that's the important thing.

And I think it's excellent advice you're giving, Lara, because You're totally right. You should wear what makes you feel confident and comfortable. Yeah, and, and that's super important. I know that I have my go-to stuff. I'm gonna go this meeting, right? Boom. And if it— from what I'm wearing to a piece of jewelry to a handbag, whatever it is that I know is gonna make me feel really good, I will make sure that I will wear it. And you're totally right. That's a great strategy to do. Because it is a people business. At the end of the day, all these relationships with investors, they're investing in you. And of course, when it gets to a later stage, you know, it's a different story because they really want a return on investment and they really are looking at the financials. But in the early stages where you're at, it very much is who you are and how you can bring everybody along. So as we kind of wrap up here, I want you to kind of give us what would be your top 3 dos and don'ts in the funding journey from what you've learned on everything that you've shared. If you had to say, what are my top 3 dos and don'ts?

Well, a do is just, I think, is putting yourself out there. So like going to lots of networking events, like I try and go to 2 or 3 a week. I mean, I'm quite picky about which ones I go to, but I always make sure that with the event, it's either a topic I'm interested in or I know there's gonna be people there that I'd like to meet. And then other— and I think then it's when you're at those things, I guess that's putting yourself out there, but it's also asking. So a lot of people say, so how can I help you? And I say, oh, I'd love a million pounds, please. And they look at you like, okay, well, I haven't got it on me right now, but, you know, can I? But it starts the conversation, and they know that I'm not seriously— expecting them to produce the money out of their back pocket and give it to me. But, you know, actually putting it out there that you are fundraising, you are looking for money. It was quite funny, actually, at the sustainability show. I said to this guy, he was like, I love what you're doing. I said, well, I'm fundraising. He was like, oh, great. How much? I said, £1 million. He went, oh, if you're doing something smaller, I'd give you 50 quid. It's like—

50 quid. Oh, that's cute. But that's nice. It's still a vote of confidence. It was still, still sweet. Yes.

So I think asking for what you want is important. And I think as well, ask— and that comes down to not just the money, but help as well. Because, um, and then I think the other thing, the dos, is, is around, um, mental health, because fundraising is really draining emotionally. You've got to be all sparkly and nice to people, and it, it's hard work. And, and you've got to, even when things are not going as well as you'd like, you've gotta make, make out like it's the best thing ever. And it, it can be hard to do. So I think those are the kind of the dos. And the don'ts would be, I guess one thing is don't expect it to happen quickly.

Mm-hmm.

And that, yes, you, we all hear these stories that, you know, someone walked down the street and the next day they had whatever, but Reality, it doesn't really happen like that, unfortunately. I mean, you can look at Canva, which is now like, you know, multi-billion dollar company, and they still got rejected at the start. So, and I, that's why I keep coming back to that because they are so amazing now. Like, now, if you asked any investor now, would you invest in Canva? They'd be like, hell yeah. But so why did you reject them back in whenever it was, 2012? I think other don'ts are, and actually I see this a lot when people pitch, is try not to explain every little thing you do. I'm quite lucky in that my business is very simple to explain because we've got a product I can show people. But I know a lot of people have software or something that's complex and they try and explain every which way it can possibly work. And no one gets it.

Yeah.

And you can see by the questions that the judges or whoever's asked that they haven't got a clue. And it means that you have to assume that the people you're talking to don't know anything about what you're doing, and you need to really dumb it down. And I think that's really important to remember.

Yeah.

I guess finally it's all about that grit and determination and don't— not giving up. And I don't know if you've read the Angela Duckworth book on grit.

Yeah.

That's so good. And I think it's, it's, it's combined that with Atomic Habits on the moving just a little bit every day.

Yep.

And I think those are the things that will get you there. And, and I think The only finally thing is, is it comes down to the mental health, but surrounding yourself by people that, you know, get you in your tribe. And I've got a lovely group of ladies on WhatsApp that all run their own businesses, and I can go, this has happened, and they will get on the phone, they'll talk to me, they'll be there, support me. And I think that's so important because you're not on your own.

Yeah.

There's everyone's going through it. You just need to find the people that get it that you can talk to about it.

Well, I'm so glad you say that because one of the prizes that you won as part of the, as part of your, your package is to be part of the InvestHer community. And that is very much the thing. And I know you've just joined, which is great. And you're going to see some members reaching out to you and it's, it might be a bit quieter because we're getting into the summer months. But basically, um, we have actually tomorrow, today's Tuesday or Wednesday?

Wednesday.

Today's— today Wednesday already? Yeah, it is Wednesday. So tonight at 6 PM UK time— Jesus, I just— I traveled long, long haul yesterday, so I'm a bit in a different time zone. Um, so— I didn't get that. Oh, my watch didn't get that. So every, every Wednesday evening in European time, so it's 6 PM British time, 7 PM European time, we have our member chat. So try and join us if you can, Lara, tonight. Um, I'll be sending— you'll be getting the information, but it's in the community. And that's where we literally support each other. So it's all for women founders around the world. It's only focused on funding. So like, it's— we have loads of resources about funding. So we add in there about pitch competitions that are coming up. We share about different resources, and here's a new grant you should go for. And then the member chat is really about supporting each other and saying, okay, how are you doing? Tell us where you're at. How can we help? And we give each other advice, and I love that. It's, it's, it really is a support system. It's a sisterhood. It's like we call it our funding sisterhood as well. So we look forward to it.

Yeah, that's, that sounds great. I, I have to say, I get your emails as well, and I follow InvestHer on LinkedIn. And that's another thing with funding, is there's so many places to look for money, not just VCs, not just angels, not just family offices, but like, you know, grants and pitches and blah blah. Make sure you're following the right people that Give you that information so you don't have to look for it.

Exactly. And I mean, you're actually, you're brilliant. You're teeing me up to make plugs for everything that we do. This is like perfect because the other thing, so we'll put at the end of the show notes, you'll have the link to the community if that's of interest to you, you can check it out. Then we have the funder directory because that was basically for years I wanted to do this. Actually, when I, my very first pitch deck when I was going for bank loan was I'm gonna create this global directory of all the sources of funding that are women founder friendly. And they're like, oh, that'd be really good. And so And I laugh now, I said, because I've made it happen, because we made it happen in February. So we now have over 1,100 funders. So they are everything from banks to grants to accelerator programs to angel networks to VCs to some family offices. So, and it's growing, growing, growing. We're going to have many, many, many more. So if that's of interest to you, you want a year's access to that as well. So you'll be getting—

Oh yeah, I'll be checking out, downloading it, going through. Yes.

Through and, you know, working through, because it's basically it— what the reason that we created, the reason I did this, I want to make it easier for you guys to do your investor or your funder research. And that's why we call it a funder directory, not investor, because it's all different sources of funding. Just exactly the reason I was asking you about your funding journey like that, Lara, is because you have shown the typical path that many women entrepreneurs go on. So it's like you invest your own money, you do work part-time, you win some pitch competition, maybe get some grants, maybe use a bank loan, then get some angel investment, equity crowdfunding, or rewards-based crowdfunding, then maybe a family office, or, and then VC funding. So, and accelerators. So everything that you've mentioned are the typical trajectory of women founders in particular, not just women, but I've studied the funding journeys of women for the past 10 years. And that's You've literally— and the fact that you've done all those things, the ones who've done all the things you've mentioned are the ones that go on to raise more money because each of those things you're doing is validating and de-risking, validating and de-risking each one. So it's really important for all of our listeners that you pick up on Laura's journey and what she shared with you about her funding journey so far for that. And then on the, you know, I would just suggest you keep your— to your point, there's so much out there. So you want to be looking at the sources that you trust. And like the way we do it on the Funder Directory is we want to make it easier for you to find the information. See, it's a global database that you can search by sector, by region, by type of source of funding, by diversity. So you can say, I want investors who invest in LGBTQIA+ founders, for example. Like, we are— well, I'm— don't, because I'm going to give you your link. You have a special link because you're a winner. So I will send it to you once we finish recording.

Oh, okay.

So, um, but it really is like when you get on it, the whole point is I want to save you time. So you can do the searching. And then when you get the profile of the investor, it has everything there. So it tells you what is their ticket size, if they have it, their assets under management, the link to the portfolio companies, Their LinkedIn, everything you need. We've already done that pre-work. We've boiled it down to all the information, so it's easier for you to do your homework. So, oh, so good.

So good.

So needed. And again, we want to really make it bigger, better all the time with you. So, you know, you'll see once you're in the funder directory, there's a form. We say, if you know a source that should be on it, just give us the name and we'll add them, because it's free for all the funders to be on it, and we want to have as many You know, people who are serious about funding women. So that's the—

But I kind of get— I have to say, and I, if I see something that I think, oh, I might— it's a pitch competition, I think I might have a really good chance of winning that.

I don't like sharing it. Oh, I understand that.

I understand that.

And, and that's, that's part of the game. So I get that. So you can share it once you've won it. You can say, here's a good one, like, oh la la la, and maybe you guys should apply next year.

Yes, yes, that's fine.

Like, that's that. So there is one actual— it'll be probably out of date by the time this podcast goes live, but only for this session. So EY, they're one of our partners. So EY have a program called Entrepreneurial Winning Women, and it's for usually for founders who have higher level of revenues, right? So they have a high level of revenues, but check it out. Go on to the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women. You're going to see the information in the community.

I, I've already checked it out off your LinkedIn post, but I think they want £1 million of revenue.

They do. So that's why it's for a different stage of company. So you're not there yet. That's okay. And I just say yet because you will get there. So for any of you who are at that growth stage who have, or earlier stage, but have £1 million in revenue, check it out because it's a really good program. For those of you who are not there yet, check out Dell. Dell have a thing called DWIN, the Dell Women Entrepreneurs Network. It's free. So you go on to dwin.com and Global InvestHer, we're their funding partner. So we give them loads of funding information. So it's all in there. They have a funding hub that they make available to you. So check it out as well. So there are, and there are loads of other great corporates doing it. So, um, What would be your parting message, Lara? You've given us amazing tips and thank you for the insights. And thank you for everything you're doing because like I have a question. I have one question to ask you before we close, which is like what you can do can be so helpful for women in developing countries as well. So are you hoping to, as part of your strategy in the white labeling and so on, to get partners to be able to bring the cost down so that women can have access to your product everywhere?

Definitely. I mean, the more I read about how home pregnancy testing has changed women's lives, the more you realize how it's needed, just like sanitary products are needed. It's that same kind of change that you can help women with, especially as now so many people, even in developing countries, they don't— they're not necessarily on the pill. So they'll be using things like withdrawal methods or ovulation tracking to decide when they have sex. So giving them that extra tool, yeah, it's definitely something I want to do. It's just, yeah, need to, need to maybe set— It's on the plan.

It's in the product pipeline.

It's on the plan.

Yes. It's in the product pipeline. So you said about your ask, how much are you going to be raising? So you're raising a million now for a kind of pre-seed seed round. Is that correct?

Yeah.

Yeah. In pounds? Yes.

Million pounds. Yes.

Okay. So what's the best way for people to contact you, Laura? Because we're going to put your links. In this podcast episode. So what's the best way for them to find you?

Oh, you can either find me through the website, so hoopsie.com, or you— and on there, if you go to the Contact Us page, there's my phone number, the emails come straight to me, or contact me via LinkedIn. Just look me up, Lara Solomon. But if you contact me via LinkedIn, please send me a message with it to tell me how you know me or don't know me. Because otherwise I get a lot of salespeople and I'm quite discerning as to who I tick yes to.

Yes, me too. I hate— or when you connect and then they start selling to you, I'm like, no, why? I hate that. Like, you know, and I could see that there was a good reason for us to connect, but then no, don't like that.

Yeah, exactly.

Thank you so much for being on our podcast today, Lara. It's been an absolute pleasure. And I want everybody to know, watch her. Watch out for Lara, because what she's doing with Hoopsie, it is really, really important. And I think you are gonna get very big, and I wish you the best success in the world. I know you're gonna make it. I just know you will. So to all those investors who are listening, you wanna be in early. You wanna get in early with Hoopsie and let us— this is a special call to those women investors, whether you're an angel, whether you're part of a syndicate, whether you are doing equity crowdfunding, if you do another round. If you are in VC, please, we want to make sure that we have, you know, a minimum of 30%. I'm saying that for you, but I'm, you know, I just think it's important. You want to have great women investors on your cap table.

Well, thank you. Yeah, it's, it's been great chatting. And yeah, I'm just looking for people that are passionate about reducing single-use plastic waste and want to help. in the women's health space because obviously half the population. So kind of important, I'd say.

Very important. And you will get there. I have every faith that you will. So thank you so much for being on the podcast with us today, this episode. You know how to catch, uh, Lara and just keep an eye out for her. So if you're not investing, keep an eye out, or buy her product if you are a woman wanting to check fertility, check, you know, start buying from her. That's the best form of customer is a paying customer, right? The best form of funding. So check us out.

Love paying customers.

We love that. Thank you so much and take care.

Thank you 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.

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