🎙️ EP47: Building Unstoppable, The Fundraising Accelerator for Female Climate… | InvestHer Podcast

Hi, this is your funding friend Anne, and welcome to the InvestHer Podcast family. If it's your first time with us, we are so happy to have you with us. And if you are a regular, welcome back. So if you have clicked on this episode, it's because you are curious to learn about Unstoppable, the new virtual accelerator for female climate founders run by Helena Wasserman. Now, this is a really, really cool episode. You're going to learn all about her journey, how she learned about accelerator models throughout her experience and how she crafted the Unstoppable Accelerator model to be able to support climate founders in a specific way. So enjoy, and if you love this episode, please share it wide and far. Have a good 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, 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 our latest podcast episode of Investor Podcast. And I'm Anne, your funding friend. I am absolutely thrilled to have with me this week Helena Wasserman, who's founder and CEO of Unstoppable. Welcome, Helena.

And it's such a pleasure to see you again.

And we say again because I had the pleasure of doing a fireside chat with Helena most recently at Change Now in Paris in March this year. March or April? I can't remember. I think it was April, was it? Or March? I don't know.

It was, it was actually March.

It was March. It's such a blur. But basically, we had the pleasure of doing a fireside chat and we wanted more of you, Helena. So that's why we're here and having you on the podcast. So Before we get started, how about you tell us one fun fact about yourself?

So a fun fact would be that I have lived in 6 cities, believe it or not. So I've lived in— well, I grew up near Lausanne in Switzerland. I lived in Madrid, in London, in Kuala Lumpur, in Singapore, and in New York City.

Wow, you've been moving around. That's cool. Not everybody gets to live in those cities, so that is a very cool fun fact. Okay, so let's kind of get started at the very beginning. Like, tell us your story, Helena. How did you start as an entrepreneur, then turned angel investor, then turn an accelerator to help women entrepreneurs and others get funded? Let's start at the very beginning. Where did this all start?

Absolutely. I will give you the 2-minute version. So, I was, you know, born in Switzerland, actually started my career at the Clinton Foundation in New York, always, you know, passionate about impact and environmental causes. And there I saw former President Clinton raise millions overnight. And I thought to myself, that's a pretty cool skill to have that I want to learn as well. And, and after that, I decided I was gonna be in the business world. And so I worked for Techstars. I thought, you know, business would be my way to create impact. So I worked for Techstars and, you know, they're an accelerator building companies from scratch. I thought it was absolutely fascinating. I absolutely adored working with founders. And then we were part of a company that was a big data startup. Which is what brought me out of Singapore. We had raised a big funding round from Tony Fernandes, the founder of AirAsia, which is what brought me all the way to Asia. And, you know, everything was going super well up until the pandemic. I'm sure the pandemic was difficult for many of us, but for myself, a few things happened. One is that I had to shut down my business at the time, and the second one was that I actually got divorced. And, and the reason why I take this personal detour is because as much as it was difficult, it was also an opportunity to take a pause, to reflect, to think about, you know, what do I really care about? Who do I want to spend time with? What do I want to focus on? And that's actually when I decided to go from feeling lost to having nothing to lose. And this is where I started really doubling down on climate and climate tech. And so, so yes, so this is where I started building what I'm doing now. So I basically wear 2 hats. One, I run a climate tech accelerator. And the second one is I run a community called Investors for Climate. And we're a community now of 180 climate investors. And we partner and co-invest into climate startups.

Wow, so interesting. And I think part of your journey, like, and thank you for bringing it through, it sounds like it was a tough, tough time. I mean, COVID and the pandemic was really hard for all of us. But that must have been hard. Like, you'd planned on being in Singapore for X number of time, and then to have to go through a divorce must have been really difficult. Like, how long did that, that transition period last for you? And then when did you come back or come to New York? How did that happen?

So it didn't happen overnight, to be honest. So it took about, it was about 2 years of transition where I was a little bit, you know, what am I doing? Which foot am I standing on? So, you know, when you get shaken on several pillars at the same time. And then I spent some time in the mountains in Switzerland with a lot of silence and quiet, and that really, really helped. So yeah, it took about 2 years and it took me a little bit of time to, you know, come up with a new plan, a new direction, a new company, and making sure that I really wanted to do this. You know, I didn't want to— I wanted to reflect before jumping into the next direction to make sure that the next company and the next direction would be grown on solid foundations.

So tell us more about your focus on climate action, climate change. So where did that come from? Did you have like, what was your backstory before even the Clinton Foundation? I mean, obviously, they do a lot on climate, but it's not only that with regard to impact. So where did your love of climate action focus there come from?

So actually, believe it or not, it was thanks to my high school teacher, Isabelle Chevallet, in Switzerland, who turned out to be an amazing politician later on. If you Google her name, she's quite a name in Switzerland. So she's actually the one when I was 13 years old who started telling me about recycling and environmental causes, what we could do for the planet. So, so she's the one who kind of seeded that in my mind back in the day, and that passion stayed with me throughout.

And so now take us fast forward. You've come out of a period of transition, you've done the Maria moment up on the mountains, and you've gotten the inspiration. You said, okay, now I'm ready for my next journey. And tell us more, maybe a little bit about Techstars. So when did you do the Techstars stint? Was it before— it was before Singapore. So that was what brought you because you invested in one of the companies that, or that you got interested in one of them that brought you to Singapore, correct?

So actually, good question. I actually worked for Techstars twice, right? One in 2013, 2014. And then the second one actually last year in 2023 as the investor in residence for their sustainability program in Paris.

Right.

And I think working for them a second time really confirmed that I really adore accelerators and supporting founders when they're just starting off. So, so yeah, so I learned the ropes there and I think they're a great team and, and that's what also motivated me to do that on my own.

It's so funny. It's the universe works in funny ways because I just got an invitation this afternoon from the Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in Paris for an event they're doing in a couple of weeks. I was just laughing when you said it because it literally popped in my email today. It's such a small world.

Small world indeed. Well, they're a terrific team in Paris. So if you get to attend, definitely, I definitely recommend it.

Yeah, I will definitely go. So, okay. So now, What came first, Unstoppable, the accelerator, or the investor, your Investors for Change? Which, which came first? Tell us a bit more.

Um, so actually, the Investors for Climate community started first. That is, you know, as I said, a community of investors that we manage with my partner in Singapore, Christine Amour-Levar. So we actually just launched City ambassadors in 10 cities around the world. So the network is growing considerably. So that started first, and then the accelerator was launched 6 months ago.

Okay, so, okay, so what was the year you launched Investors for Climate community?

2023.

Oh, yeah.

So June 2023, Investors for Climate was launched. And then December 2023, Unstoppable Accelerator was launched.

You are unstoppable, aren't you? You're like a sucker for punishment. You like doing many projects. It's so great, Helena. Okay, so let's drill down into each of them because I really want to hear just briefly about Investors for Change. Tell us a little bit more for climate change. Tell us more about that first, and then let's get into Unstoppable.

Sure. So Investors for Climate is now a community of 180 investors that deploy in climate. So that means family offices, venture capitalists, super angels, high net worths, We also have some private equity investors, even though it's early days for private equity and climate. And basically what we do is very simple. We just share information about companies that we're invested in. We support each other on due diligence, and more importantly, we build relationships. So, you know, we're really big on creating relationships that become trusting relationships so that we can work together and collaborate.

And how does it work? Is it like a membership or do you get invitation only? Does somebody recommend somebody to join your community?

Exactly. So it's invite only. It's, it's free right now. Invite only. We only accept investors that we know have a great track record and that come recommended by, by one of our members. Great.

Okay, brilliant. And why the city ambassador? That's so cool. So in 10 different cities now.

That's amazing. Yes. So the reason for that is actually because we're getting so much local demand from investors who want to network and build and meet other fellow investors locally. And so because up until now everything was done remotely and everything was centralized through us, we thought it'd make more sense to decentralize the network and make sure that people can connect locally.

Yeah.

So that's the reason.

Brilliant. Okay, cool. So yeah, and I'm sure you'll, you'll give us the information so we can add. Just inform me, is there a website or nothing? Or is it really literally through invitation?

No, there's absolutely a website. I will, I will share with you. So you can, you can take a look.

We'll put it in and we'll put it into the show notes. Okay. So now tell us all about Unstoppable. So you've had your aha moment, moment, you've had a great experience in your professional life up until then. And the Techstars has been formative. And you say, yes, I love this accelerator model. So how do you then shape what would become Unstoppable? Tell us that story about from beginning to end.

So, you know, if we look at the accelerator landscape for climate, it's growing right now. Thank God, there's a lot of support that is being offered to founders. And what we saw is that they were, you know, accelerators right now take a lot of your time. They're quite intense. Usually it's 3 months and it's super busy. You have a lot of, you know, office hours and mentor madness and all kinds of very, you know, the schedule is pretty full. But what we realized, a lot of the founders were struggling with fundraising, with fundraising and getting traction in general. So what we did is we stripped the accelerator from all the, what we call the unnecessary meetings. And we focus just on supporting founders with very few things. So we're not on the technical side, we're very much on the commercial fundraising side. So basically what we do is super simple. We offer weekly mentorship to our founders. It is group mentorship. So people can also learn from each other. And we support them really to get really good at closing. So, you know, we want them to be the best closers. And that means closing deals, it means closing sales deals, even closing investors. And we support them with obviously connecting them with our extensive network of investors. So we're very, very focused on supporting climate founders, specifically on fundraising and sales. That's, that's where we, where we excel.

Amazing. So tell us a bit more, is how long does it last? And is it all online? I think it is, isn't it?

Absolutely. So, you know, we have founders all over the world. It's fully remote. We have founders in Asia and in Latin America and Europe. So they're all over the world and working in different— on different problems in climate. And basically, it's slightly different in the sense that it's an annual program. So people are part of the community for a year, and during that year, they have access to those resources and to the fundraising mentorship.

And so how does it work? So do they go through a selection process to be in a cohort or like with traditional? Tell us more.

Exactly. So all founders need to apply. They usually, you know, hear about us through our content or through word of mouth, and then they apply to the program and they get invited for an interview.

And so Once they join, then if you— if somebody's joining, the people are joining throughout the year. So how does that work? If it's an all-year-round program, will they have missed something if they join in June? Or how does it work?

No, because we're constantly talking about the same thing. So whether, you know, we're constantly onboarding new founders, and they're always, you know, either, you know, struggling with their pitch or struggling with raising capital. So it's always the same thematics that come on. Um, so there's no really start, uh, middle, and finish. It's just continuously supporting them with those questions as, as advisors.

So tell us a bit more about in the fundraising and deal-making side, because you've 2 legs of the stool, if you said. So you've got the 2 pillars, the fundraising and the sale. So let's dive down into the fundraising. Like you meant, like you've said to me, there's 5 key areas that you work on. Do you want to walk us through that so that you give a real flavor to those founders listening and investors say, oh, this is cool accelerator I need people to know, and for the founders who are in climate that they need to go to you?

Absolutely. So the first part is positioning, you know, so when you, when you go raise capital, you need to make sure that you are positioned the right way that you are, you've really thought through the story. So we take some time to rethink the story and the positioning, and who you're really gonna go speak to. So that's the first part. So it's a lot of pitching, storytelling, positioning, and kind of reassessing all your materials from your pitch deck to website to emails, anything that, you know, comes out of your company. So that's the first part, it's positioning and storytelling. The second part is really fundraising and sales. So there we put together some processes in place to make sure that you're getting the right level of volume out, that you're really reaching out to the right people, to the right number of people, And that you have these processes in place to make that happen. And then the third part is community. So, you know, as I said, we work as a community. So there's a lot that happens that, you know, founders learn from each other. And finally, it's really like, how do you become an amazing salesperson? Like, so that's proper, you know, B2B sales training of, you know, becoming awesome at sales, like loving selling, like, you know, Because some founders tell me, oh, you know, I love the environment, but I'm like, I really don't like selling. And then I go, well, you're never going to be a good founder if you don't like selling. Like closing deals, whether it's investors or clients, is key to being a good founder, right? So if you're not comfortable with that as a founder, it's not going to be easy. So, you know, really getting founders good at that. And then of course connecting them to our network of family offices, of VCs, of angels that trust us. And so that obviously helps them, you know, closing those deals.

And so in this, talk a bit more about the softer skills that you cover. When we say soft, but they really are hard, which is part of the program at Unstoppable.

So I'll give you an example. We had a founder who joined the program who is a great founder. He is building a company. It's a biodegradable water bottle. So as you can imagine, you know, soon a lot of bottles will be biodegradable as opposed to made out of plastic. And he was very good at meeting important people like heads of states and promoting his company, etc. And he was actually funding the business himself up until now. But for some reason, he was having a really hard time getting external investors in the business. And what we realized through our coaching is that he was so keen that he was being way too pushy. And so that's why he was actually scaring investors away. So we had to kind of, you know, re-engineer his sales process and basically coach him to see what he was doing wrong, what his emails looked like, what the conversation looked like, why was this not working. And now he's, you know, since he joined, he's closed $300K from angels. So he's unlocked himself on that side.

That's amazing. And how obviously he was open to receiving the feedback, because that's a key component for any founder going through an accelerator program or being funded by investors. You need to know that they're going to listen and take on feedback and be willing to change.

Well, you're spot on. You know, when we interview founders, we tell them that we're looking for 3 things. First, founders that are coachable.

Yeah. Spot on.

If they're not coachable, we're not gonna be able to help. Second is founders that really have scalability ingrained in their business model, because our goal is to empower 1 million climate founders to build scalable solutions to fix climate change. And the third one is that they have, you know, proper traction, and that their solution makes sense, you know, that we believe that their solutions to this climate challenge is what we need. So those are the 3 things that we, that we look for when we, when we look for founders. So yeah, coaching, definitely being coachable is definitely a big one.

And I know that when we spoke, you were saying some of the key tips that you had to those founders who are going through, because about asking for more decision-making, what some of those key things you want to kind of say, highlight some of the tips that you share to those founders as you bring them through your process.

Absolutely. So in terms of, you know, communications and advice like that, what we recommend to founders is really to be extremely assertive.

Hmm.

And that comes with also with, you know, speaking slowly, with taking space, with just being absolutely certain that you will succeed sooner or later at doing what you set yourself to do. So that's very important. We also tell founders actually not to be too nice. Because we have a lot of, you know, we have a lot of female founders in the program that were, you know, you know, we were kind of, how do we say, we were brought up to be sweet and nice and kind, and that's wonderful. But in the fundraising environment, that's not necessarily what works best. So, you know, we have about 60% of our founders are female climate founders. We specifically look for them to support them. And we, yeah, we want to make sure that they're really being confident and show their worth. And actually, yeah, I tell them not to be too nice.

That's a really good piece of advice. But how can somebody who's used to being nice and being a people pleaser switch that off or change it a little bit? How do you help them to get over being too nice?

Well, you know, I think with everything in life, it's a muscle to flex. So it comes with practice. So, you know, we, we do some, you know, we practice together. We get them to, you know, they, they forward me emails. We really coach them quite closely to see how they interact with investors.

Mm-hmm.

And yeah, and we get them to practice just being assertive and, and making sure that they're also convinced that they will succeed because people can feel it if you're absolutely you know, determined and confident that you will make it happen.

Yeah.

And if you're, if you're not, if you're shaking inside, people will feel it.

Yeah.

So it's also, you know, being able to uncover what's really, what's really happening in the background, because it, as you know, there's so much that comes through, uh, with our expression, with our energy, that may not be what we say.

Absolutely. And there has to be kind of a— what do you say, there's a word for it— consistency or coherence between your body language and your voice and your tone. That all has to be be consistent and cohesive. I can't remember, there is a specific term for it that it's escaping me now, but I, I hear what you're saying. So, so tell us more about brand building, building an audience. And so, because I know in the sales part you do a lot on the marketing, on brand building, and so what are the key things you cover in the Unstoppable Accelerator that you want to give people a taster of here and say, hey, wow, I won't get that anywhere else, or I'm going to get a cool version of that at Unstoppable?

Absolutely. So a key part of our approach as a company, Unstoppable, and also what we teach founders, which is quite unusual in the accelerator space, is to actually build a personal brand and be really excellent at marketing from an individual standpoint. So I'm sure you've seen that, you know, it was in the first, it was in the first page of Time Magazine just a few months ago was MrBeast, the famous YouTuber. And the message from Time Magazine was that today marketing is moving away from institutional-led marketing, so information coming from big institutions like the New York Times, the Times, etc., to being led by people. So people become the gatekeepers of information, of entertainment, of media. And this is a new shift that has obviously emerged with social media that is growing tremendously. And so, so we're very aware of that. And we've used this as one of our strategies to grow as an accelerator. So that's how people find us is through our content. And, and we also teach our founders to make sure that they're really using, you know, platforms like LinkedIn to attract their investors, their clients, their team, to really position themselves as thought leaders, because it makes such a difference. And it's really important that it comes from you as a person as opposed to your company page or your website.

That's really good advice. And I think sometimes when the founders are in the thick of it, they don't think about that as the personal brand as much. There's so much about trying to build the company brand or the product brand, or the whole branding identity architecture of the whole company and the products, that they forget that one of the key reasons investors invest in them is because of them. And one of the key reasons that people buy from them is because of them as a person. So it's like, it's true that sometimes when you're doing so many different things, you can forget that.

Exactly, exactly. And, and at the end of the day, it does create a huge difference in terms of how people perceive you in terms of people hearing about you, about your message, about your company. So even though it could sound as if like this is not top priority, if you can put smart systems in place to do that, it will make a big difference to your business.

I love— you've heard— I've heard you saying several times putting in place smart systems, processes. Can you tell us a bit more about that, why that's important to be able to facilitate scaling?

Absolutely. So, you know, I think when we start doing something, what we've noticed is as soon as we do something more than once, so as soon as you do something twice, there's probably a way to systemize that. So, you know, we really look for systems for everything we do so that things can be automated. To give you a very simple example, you know, we have systems to use ChatGPT To, you know, have your weekly newsletter, investor newsletter, and LinkedIn posts as well that, you know, used to take us, you know, a day a week and now only take us an hour a week. You know, it's a huge time save. So everything we do, we really try to build it into a system so that the time and the resources to do it are minimized.

Yeah. And I like the way you're saying, so how are you building in AI into everything you're doing at Unstoppable as well and what you're teaching the founders, whether it's on the fundraising side or the sales and the closing side?

So, you know, making sure you use the right prompts for ChatGPT is very important. So whether it is that you are reaching out to an investor, you want to make sure that you're using the right language, making sure that you're prompting ChatGPT the correct way. Whether it's that you're planning your 6 posts a week on LinkedIn and you wanna make sure that you're prompting using the right prompts with ChatGPT, saying, you know, exactly how many words the post should have, saying, for example, you don't want emoji used, saying that you wanna use the same tone as another post that you found that already went viral. So that will save you, you know, if you're, if you're a content creator, If you're reaching out to investors, it will save you a lot of time if you're prompting ChatGPT the right way. And I think that's really part of the beauty of AI.

Yeah. And it's tricky. It's true that it's— that's the hardest part, isn't it, to learn how to do the good prompts?

Yeah, exactly. And making sure that it still feels like it comes out from your own voice.

Yes, exactly. And so tell us a bit more about how can you create some educational content about investing, what you already do. That's part of your USP at Unstoppable. So tell us more about your process for creating your content and what type of content you put out there.

So I think what's, what's interesting with content is if you look at the content and the creators that are really, have, you know, millions of followers on LinkedIn, for example, you see that they have signature posts. So they have signature series that they always create. So for example, you'll be used to seeing, you know, a carousel where there's a, you know, you're used to that brand, you're used to seeing that you have a specific series that you're expecting, or there's another female investor that does this series on exceptional women in business that you've never heard about. So, you know, people go to her profile because they're expecting every week to see that and it's recognizable. So that's something very important. In terms of getting traction on LinkedIn. The 2nd thing is very simple, but it's really volume. Like, people underemphasize the amount of volume that needs to go out to really get traction. And the 3rd thing is simple, but it's really key, is it's just the value that you're creating. So one of our tests is, if you saw that post, would you screenshot it? Would you actually save it?

Mm-hmm.

And if you don't, you wouldn't yourself if you read it, you probably shouldn't put it out there.

That's a really good tip. I love that. That's really helpful. Yeah, because it's true that, you know, sometimes we're trying really hard and sometimes we can try too hard, can't we, when we're trying to put stuff out specifically on LinkedIn. And I find often, certainly in my experience building on what you're saying, it's like When you use your personal tone of voice and when you, yeah, when you add some value and say these are some key statistics or here's a piece of research or here's something I learned that you should know about, how can I save you time, money, energy, or I made this mistake so you don't have to, blah blah blah, that type of content can get more viral than, you know, naturally than if you're trying too hard.

That's true. No, that's true. I mean, yeah, writing content is a whole It's a whole science that keeps growing and changing.

Yeah.

But I think it's important to stay on top of it because as time goes, I think as creators, we're gonna gain in importance and in people, you know, following our work. And therefore, that means that we have access to more people, which means that we can, you know, directly speak to an audience of people that can, you know, do change with us. So I think it's particularly important as investors in climate.

So coming back to that point, because we've talked about content and the importance of— now there's a lot of content out there about that can be depressing, about impact, about climate. What would be your key tips and say, okay, you know, how can you be heard when there's a lot of bad news and a lot of, you know, people— we need to shift societal, we need to make major systemic and societal change. How can we, how can we do that when there's so much negativity? How do you get— break through that to grab attention, to really be able to foster change?

So one of my personal tips is I actually don't read the news every day. I'm very selective for the content that I decide to consume.

Yeah.

So, you know, I only check the news once or twice a week, and it's not the first thing I do in the day.

Yeah.

And, um, and I, and I read a lot, but it's very— what I'm reading is very intentional. So I think obviously the, the scrolling is, is the worst part. So whatever you can do to stop yourself from, uh, scrolling with no purpose, um, is key. And then of course, you know, we emphasize a lot, uh, content that is solution-focused.

Yeah.

So everything we do, everything we encourage people to do is based on solutions because I think we've, we know about the issues inside out and that's what's keeping us frozen. That's what's keeping us not in action, right? Because I read a quote today that said stress is not, doesn't come from hard work. Stress comes from knowing you could do something but being stuck and not in action. And I think it's so true. And so I think, you know, No more of that content about raising awareness. I mean, it still needs to be there for some verticals, but I think we got the problem. I think we know it inside out. So emphasizing all the solutions out there. And I guess we're lucky when you work for— when you're building an accelerator, you're constantly in touch with people who are building solutions.

Mm-hmm.

So you become a huge optimist as a result, right? Because you're constantly with people who are building those solutions versus someone who's just, you know, hearing from mainstream media, all the awful things, then their vision could be much darker of the world. So in a way, you know, you know, your work, my work, and is— we're quite fortunate, you know, we're, we're surrounded by optimists. So we get to, you know, we get— we become even more optimistic as a result.

Absolutely. I love that. So I want to go now, 2 questions. What would be your top tips to any founders, climate founders who are listening to you as to the best way to apply to you? And like, not just here's the link to the form, but literally what would be some insider tips to say, okay, this is what we're looking for in our criteria. So you want to be hitting this, this, and this.

Absolutely. So these are tips for us, but also work well for other investors and accelerators. So the first one is, show us that you really know your competitive landscape in and out. Show us that you know your competitors, that you can educate us On the vertical that you— where you're building. So that serves for 2 things. One, you're educating us. So you're, you know, you're saving us time on doing research that we'll have to do anyways afterwards.

Yeah.

And second of all, it allows you to position yourself of, you know, I know all the solutions out there, but I built in this way and this is why, and this is why I'm the best.

Yeah.

And if I'm not the best, if I'm not the market leader, I'm the best for another reason. And I want to know why. So yeah, the big one, you know, showing us that you really understand your competitive landscape and that you can explain how you're different and how you're better and why.

Nice.

Another one would be, you know, you're really the expert in your topic. We're not. You're here to teach us something. So show us that you're the expert. Don't expect us to know more than you. Yeah, we're investors, we're generalists. You're the one who is building every day on that specific problem. So show us that you're the expert.

And what would be the key don't that you'd say to somebody and say, oh my God, if they do this, it's like a no-no straight away, we will not even look at their file.

Um, so, you know, don't follow up too much. Don't be too pushy. I tell that to my founders a lot with fundraising as well. Like fundraising is a FOMO game. You're not meant to be in people's face all the time. They're meant to hear from you because you're on stage or because you have a great newsletter or because, you know, you've done something awesome, but you're not meant to be, you know, knocking on their door constantly. So that, you know, for fundraising, it's not conducive to people noticing you. It's the opposite.

I love it. I love it. So then I would love to kind of pick your brain as to the key tips to anybody else who would love to create an accelerator one day, what tips would you have for them?

So I would say don't be afraid to design something different than what's on the market. So our model is very different from other accelerators. We're not mimicking Y Combinator or other, you know, accelerators in the market. So we found kind of our own recipe. So I would say that's the first one. Yeah, the second one is we didn't actually raise capital to launch our accelerator. So we're basically reinvesting some of the money that we receive as part of the fees that founders pay to attend the accelerator.

Yeah.

And we recycle that to invest in founders. So, you know, we found our own way of doing things. And that means that we also have, you know, just we were able to get started faster because we didn't It's very hard to raise capital for an accelerator because a lot of the capital actually goes to operations as opposed to funding companies.

Yeah.

And so, you know, that allowed us to start much faster. So it would be, you know, don't hesitate to do things your way and not necessarily copy the way accelerators have been done until today.

I think that's good advice because people sometimes think just because they see you have, you know, VC partners or, you know, other corporates who are partners or sponsors and stuff. People from the outside think that accelerators are rolling in money when they absolutely aren't. It's like the opposite. So it's good to kind of get real and just to remind people, no, you know, and that's why I like you being scrappy. And just as a way of interest, so you mentioned the fees that you charge to the founders who go through your process. So what does that look like?

So we have different packages. So we have several tiers, and they range from a few hundred dollars up to $10,000. And it depends on the level of support that they need. So that varies.

Cool. That sounds great. I love that because that's very inclusive, because then the person can say, yeah, this is what I aim for. And then you can see if it's a good match and say, okay, yes. And given where you are and where you want to go and At this stage. So do you find that some of your co— the people in your cohorts, they change then level? They say, okay, no, I'm loving this, I want more, so I'm going to invest a bit more?

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Um, so we have that, and we also give them, you know, access to our investor events where we bring in, uh, our investor network. So, you know, I think as soon as they see value, then, you know, they might want to— they want— may want more support. Yeah, so, so yeah, so we're very much using one like the coaching model. Yeah, to support them.

Brilliant. Okay, so what would be to kind of wrap up here, Helena? Thank you so much for being so, so inspiring. I mean, everything you're doing with Unstoppable is fantastic. I love the name. Where did that come from? I didn't even ask you that, but of course I want to know. Where did— how did you choose the name?

So first thing is, you know, I'm sure you know about this, but in marketing, it has to be a name that, you know, some people will love and some people will hate. It has to be polarizing. So I was looking for a word that wasn't flat, right? So that was the first thing. And then the second thing, the reason why I picked that word and not another one, is because for me, it was a reminder that that's how I want to show up in the world for climate.

Mm-hmm.

That no matter what happens, no matter my mood, no matter if I'm tired or not, I want to be unstoppable. And so to be honest, it was the message that I wanted to convey to others and a reminder to myself of how we want to show up for the planet.

I love it. I love it. And so what, what resources would you recommend? What other resources would you recommend to those women founders who are listening and founders in general, if they are looking for funding apart from Unstoppable? Because I think you're going to have a whole load of people applying to, which is what we really, really want. What other resources are really good that you say you should be definitely looking at these ones?

So I really like the content and resource that come out of Hack Summit, which is a company based in Switzerland. They run a few different things, events, there's a community as well. So I really like everything they do and all the lists of investors and founders that come out of there. I think they're highly, highly valuable. So, and then of course, there's, you know, many newsletters that I'm subscribed to, like CTVC, which I love. I mean, you know, there's a lot of great information out there. And of course, for founders that are more looking for practical advice, I do like the Y Combinator videos on YouTube. I find them very helpful. So yeah, so I've definitely, you know, collected a few resources along the way that also guide our work as well in terms of then the resources that we make available for our founders.

I love it. And so what would be your final message to share with the listeners today, Helena?

So my final message is that this is it and you are it. And that, you know, this is our time and that there is— there's— you're not too old, you're not too young, you're not too anything or not enough anything. You know, time is now. And there's so many resources now for climate founders to support them, whether it's funding or time or mentors. So I really want to make sure that people don't hesitate to launch because it's an exceptional time to be a The climate founder today.

I love it. Such an inspiration, an inspirational way to finish our podcast today. Thank you so much for being with us, Helena. And for all of you who are listening, let's pull out some of the key takeaways that Helena has shared with us today. A lot of this is like, you know, I'm hearing very strongly, be yourself, you know, but also be flexible, learn, be coachable. and learn what you're good at, what you're less good at, and go to where you're going to get some great resources. We also learned about the power and the importance of personal branding and how marketing is morphing, and that when you're choosing accelerators, you need to be thinking, okay, yes, how can I close fundraisers? How can I close the funding? But also, how do I get more sales? And that came across really, really clearly. And finally, it's like, I love the way you say, yes, use the power of ChatGPT, use the prompting, but really get, get yourself organized. If you want to be scaling, you want to have clear processes in place, be thinking about that, be, be making them stronger and not neglect the soft skills as well. Because Helena really went through some of those. And of course, of course, I'm gonna say you got to sign up and pass this episode, share this episode with all the great founders in climate that you know, that you think, my God, I've just found the best accelerator for you to apply to. So thank you so much for being with us today, Helena. It's been an absolute joy and pleasure.

And it's such a pleasure to see you. Every time I get the opportunity to speak with you, I always leave more energized than when I arrived. So, so thank you for your work and for your energy.

Thank you so much. 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, 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.