From the NBMBAA® Entrepreneurial Institute: Learn How to Navigate the Waters of Investment Funding
One of the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs is fundraising to launch and eventually grow their businesses. Session Moderator Rob Wilson said that it is important to think about what point in the development of your business process you should think about raising money. Stephanie Lampkin and Benjamin Young joined Wilson to share their real-life stories as entrepreneurs who are successfully navigating the waters of investment funding. Here’s how Stephanie Lampkin got started. As chief executive officer of Blendoor, the Stanford and MIT Sloan graduate has an aggressive goal to diversify the tech industry. Blendoor’s mobile application helps tech companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google and Microsoft recruit diverse candidates in a more streamlined, unbiased way. "We started fundraising after creating a minimal viable product. In doing so, we were able to demonstrate that there was an actual market need and demand," said Lampkin, 2015 NBMBAA® Whiteboard Innovation Challenge® champion. "From there I was able to go to angel investors, high net worth individuals that invest in companies, with data to support that what we were doing was important. We were fortunate enough to get our first investment about six months after I built the first version of the product." After studying entrepreneurship at the Wharton Business School Benjamin Young was laid off from a company that went out of business, and ultimately decided not to return to corporate America. "When considering launching a business you start thinking about raising money immediately and you’re kind of always thinking about it," said Young, chief executive officer, Sworkit by Nexercise, Inc. which develops a mobile application that enables users to stay fit and lose weight. "Continually establish relationships for the next subsequent round of funding if you need it." |
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