Polly McMaster, The Fold - Don’t Fold under pressure

09/08/23 • 48 min

Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

Being an entrepreneur is an incredibly turbulent journey. Polly McMaster is the founder of modern luxury workwear brand, The Fold, and she’s been experiencing the highs and lows since 2011. As Polly says in this episode, “that's something you have to have your eyes wide open to, when you go into it”.

So how did Polly approach her fundraising strategy and stay sane throughout the process? All is revealed as she talks to our founder and CEO Julia Elliott Brown about her experiences.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Why a simple approach to raising investment is key
How to deal with the immense stress of fundraising
Understanding when you just need to get the deal over the line

So how did Polly approach her fundraising strategy and stay sane throughout the process? All is revealed as she talks to our founder and CEO Julia Elliott Brown about her experiences.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

Why a simple approach to raising investment is key
How to deal with the immense stress of fundraising
Understanding when you just need to get the deal over the line

Previous Episode

Sheila Hogan, Biscuit Tin - Raising For DeathTech

Biscuit Tin won the COVID response competition from Innovate UK, being one of 800 out of thousands of applications which gave the business runway through the pandemic. With no marketing budget, Sheila used partnerships to get the business to market and has been on Dragon’s Den which has certainly helped with PR and awareness. She used the media opportunity to cleverly run the true investment campaign in parallel and raised from a mix of angels and VCs.

Since then, Sheila’s been on a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, with a large US investor pulling out at the last minute, the UK economy crash and then, an all-consuming crowdfund for £150K. Sheila is still on the fundraising journey, looking for further investment to propel Biscuit Tin forward.

How to keep moving forward when it’s tough raising investment
How to get the most from PR opportunities when fundraising
Why too many voices can hinder your funding journey

Next Episode

Rebekah Brown, MPowder - Raising Money for Menopause

Like many women starting businesses, the motivation for Rebekah Brown’s entrepreneurship, MPowder, was in response to her own experiences and spotting a gap in the market. She was struggling with a multitude of symptoms during perimenopause and felt there was barely any information on how to deal with it.

Since then, Rebekah has listened to the stories of many women to understand midlife better, launching several supplements to help enhance the stages of menopause. Rebekah credits the co-creation community as the driving force behind the success of MPowder. As consumers feedback and share their stories, they help the team understand what they should be thinking about next.

So, how hard was it to find investors ready to fund a menopause business? Rebekah reveals all about her experiences as she talks through her fundraising journey with our founder and CEO, Julia Elliott Brown.

In this episode, you’ll discover: