Published on April 29, 2020 by:
Can you pitch us your company?
Nourished is a brand-new concept which launched exclusively in the UK in October 2019, it offers the world’s first truly personalised nutrition product. We have developed a patented 3D printing technology which allows us to combine 7 different, high impact active ingredients into customised nutrition stacks. Consumers can go onto our website and either complete a short lifestyle questionnaire where our clever algorithm makes recommendations of vitamins and superfoods based on their lifestyle and goals, or select their own preferences. We then 3D print their selection on demand using only the highest quality vegan and sugar free ingredients and pack their Nourishments into unique plastic free packaging. Monthly orders are then dispatched directly to the customer’s door with less waste, hassle and cost than purchasing all the active ingredients separately.
Nourished is disrupting the health and wellness industry and is expected to quickly become a market leader in personalised nutrition. Our mission is to change the way the world thinks, buys and experiences vitamins and supplements going forward; one Nourished stack at a time!
What was the context of your fundraising decision?
I have founded and ran several successful businesses during my entrepreneurial career but have never sourced external capital before in this way. With Nourished, it was necessary to bring in strategic angel investors from a range of different backgrounds with the necessary expertise to help support our ambitious growth plan for the business. Our innovative technology means that we can implement our concept in almost any market around the world, and that we can continually develop and launch new product ranges in real time based on consumer feedback, new research and collaboration opportunities. Therefore, it had always been part of my strategy to complete an investment round in the early stages of the business to help fund this advantageous approach.
We started developing the concept of Nourished around Jan 2019, incorporated the business in May 2019, and I started the fundraising process around July/August. Once we launched the product we received a huge amount of press attention and interest from investors on an international level increased tenfold, which helped us secure all of the capital required.
How did you prepare for your fundraising roadshow?
My business partners & advisors was a great help during my preparations and was able to introduce me to a variety of investors and advisors. I attended multiple networking events aimed at introducing start-up founders to potential investors, and received a huge amount of interest directly from the investment community seeking opportunities in personalised health tech and nutrition.
It can be very difficult to navigate the VC and funding eco-system for anyone, especially if you have no previous experience of it. For me one of the most time-consuming activities was creating the pitch deck itself which needed to include a huge amount of data and information in a concise manner to educate potential investors on our business. As we have created a world first technology and concept, there were no previous case studies or examples I could draw on which made it more challenging.
Secondly, I found that responding to investor queries consumed a lot of my time. I wanted to reply to everything as thoroughly and clearly as I could in a timely manner, but this could be tricky when pitching to investors on an international level and having to consider different time zones and commitments.
Finally, the largest challenge from a time perspective was managing and running the business alongside raising capital. As the sole founder of a start-up business I had a responsibility to instruct my teams, plan our growth and marketing strategies, optimize our operations, and seek investment simultaneously. I am lucky enough to have an incredible team who are extremely supportive, but it was difficult to launch the business and secure funds for its longevity at the same time.
Once started, what was fundraising the roadshow like?
A lot of my focus and time at the start of the roadshow was centered around research and networking. I’m lucky to be surrounded by incredibly helpful employees, suppliers and business partners, but I wouldn’t have said I have a great network for raising for capital when I started this process. My research ranged from finding the right people, exploring my network, presenting my pitch deck, and carrying out vetting research on potential partners. I did a huge amount of research and reading into the VC world at the start which I couldn’t really delegate as a sole founder, but that education has certainly helped me to secure such a successful round and will be instrumental in my future fundraising.
My CTO Martyn Catchpole was a huge support throughout the seed round in optimising and developing our technology and as such I was able to delegate a lot of our R&D processes to him during that time which was instrumental in the overall success of the business. I also hired a new Head of Digital Marketing Helen Rawji, who was able to take the lead on growing our online presence and increasing our conversion rates which was incredibly helpful so that I could focus more on the investment round.
I was very lucky to have significant interest in the concept from investors from all over the world and so was able to set up meetings both in person and on conference calls with around 30 investors, who were primarily Angels and representing early stage funds. I met with about 15 of these investors and over 10 made proposals to invest.
I sought to meet investors from a variety of backgrounds and specialties including the health and wellness sectors, online marketing and D2C in order to support the business from all directions.
What are the main feedbacks (good and bad) you received from investors?
I think one of the most appealing aspects of my pitch was the combination of passion and technology which was evident in our story and our overall vision for the business’ future. We are a small tech start up from Birmingham, but we have big dreams. We believe that everyone is unique and that if anything on earth should be personalised, it should be our health and wellness. I think it was this idea that really stuck with a lot of investors as it allowed them to see our vision and how ambitious and determined we are to achieve it.
I think the weakest part or most challenging part of the pitch process was the fact that were in effect a seed business – but we had several patents and were quite advanced in a lot of ways so we were caught in the middle of parameter sets which was frustrating at times.
Is there one anecdote you want to share with the community?
When I was pitching one of my first businesses to a really big retail chain, I gave a presentation with 29 slides to a poor man who told me afterwards that the industry standard was 3-4 slides. I was so embarrassed – I just wanted to get everything on the page so he would think it was good! During my recent seed round I have learnt that your goal is to get them asking you the questions – they’ll be more comfortable with the knowledge if they’ve asked, rather than being told. So now I keep it as concise as possible and that has proven a successful model thus far.
What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are considering a fundraising operation?
My biggest piece of advice would be go for the story! Obviously, if your numbers don’t make sense, or are poor, then it’s not going to work out – but if your story’s no good, no one will be listening by the time you get to the numbers. You have to make people fall in love with your idea, to want to join you on your journey. You’re asking them to put their head on the block, so they have to trust you – this will be much harder without a strong, personal and emotional connection.
Also, it’s important to remember that the perfect pitch comes with time. You must keep practicing, revising and updating your content and you have to learn to do it, just like any other skill. But it’s often ingrained in women not to take risks, not to push. When you’re selling, or raising capital, a bit of bullishness is expected – and lacking it can be a bit of a red flag.
Finally, what are the next steps and challenges for your company in the next 18 months?
With the monies raised, our goal is to optimise operational efficiencies, particularly in relation to production and develop exciting new product lines including personalised protein bars and a children’s range called ‘Nourished Kids’. We are also planning to expand the business internationally – starting with a USA and UAE launch in the next 12 months.
We are extremely happy with the supportive and talented syndicate of angels and fund investors we have brought on board. There is a great mix of each which brings something valuable and important to the table for our businesses long term success.
Two of our biggest investors are HenkelX Ventures, a platform designed to help the world’s most disruptive companies reach their full potential and Apater Capital, who are experienced innovators at their core and who directly impact the valuation multiples of the companies they partner with.
Marius Swart, Digital Strategy & Operations at HenkelX Ventures, said: “We are excited to be part of this special seed investment round for Nourished and are looking forward to collaborating with Melissa and her team.”
Ricky DeLandro, Senior Managing Partner at Apater Capital, also commented about our collaboration: “Apater Capital and our investors believe that the innovation underpinning this product has significant potential to change the way the world thinks, and it deserves its place within the toolkit to accelerate the Fourth Industrial Revolution and unlock value.”
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Thanks Melissa for sharing!