The Celestial Podcast: Recent Episodes
Camilla Hessellund Lastein
Welcome to the Celestial Podcast! The place to be for female entrepreneurs, aspiring investors and wealth builders that are on the journey of levelling up. Here we talk about what it takes to build successful companies, manage your money, and create and implement your wealth creation strategies with confidence.
In the show Camilla covers some of the many topics that we are faced with as entrepreneurs and investors, from the practicalities of how to raise investor capital as an entrepreneur, the importance of mindset, and uncovering and sharing alternative investment opportunities.
With the learnings from a decade in entrepreneurship, the passion for studying wealth creation strategies and the burning desire to help other women, Camilla has found her mission of creating a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their economic potential. As entrepreneurs, as investors, and hopefully as both.
In this episode, new host Gabrielle Judge, sits down with the greater team of Celestial Group. Including, co-founders and managing partners Jennifer & Camilla. While also introducing the third asset to the team, managing partner Scott D. Clary. Venture Capital is debunked and de-mystified by these three power players in the M&A (mergers & acquisitions) space.
Say hi to the team!Jennifer Pereira
Camilla Hessellund Lastein
Scott D. Clary
Gabrielle Judge
In this episode, Gloria chats with Nihan Sevinc. As a psychic, medium, artist, and transformational facilitator, she empowers women to trust their intuition and create the living they truly desire. This conversation invites us to explore the life changing magic of receiving to create more wealth, health, and happiness on the planet.
The answer, for Nihan, has a lot to do with communicating with Nature and asking ourselves and the Universe light-hearted, curious questions – especially when it comes to receiving money.
We start this episode by Nihan guiding a grounding meditation for receiving. Please enjoy this gift and let yourself receive the energy of possibility that she invites us into!
Connect with Nihan and grab her free mini guide to increasing your money flow through receiving from Nature at www.nihansevinc.com/free-resources.
Celestial Group
- Subscribe to The Orbit to get the latest and greatest in women’s wealth here: https://celestialgroup.substack.com/subscribe
- Join our Investor’s Community to start shopping for open investment opportunities: www.wearecelestial.com
- Follow us on Instagram: @celestialgroup.co
Connect with our Founders:
Jennifer Pereira:
- Instagram: @imjennifer.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pereirajennifer
Camilla Hessellund:
- Instagram: @camillahessellund
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahl/
- TikTok: @camillahessellund
Welcome to Money Matters by Celestial Group. Here, we talk about how to make women wealthy. Sharing topics and education on mindset, spirituality, business and investing, we share all that we can to help women live their best lives and self-actualize their way into their full economic potential.
For this episode, Gloria is chatting with Laura Fortey, the COO & Co-Founder of the Real Estate proptech company, REITIUM, which offers anyone the chance to invest in real estate for as little as $100. Laura’s bought, managed, renovated, and sold her own investment properties, and she shares her creator mindset and resourceful approach she’s taken throughout her entrepreneurial life to make big things happen. Connect with Laura on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauramariefortey/ and explore what she’s building at https://reitium.com/
Celestial Group
- Subscribe to The Orbit to get the latest and greatest in women’s wealth here: https://celestialgroup.substack.com/subscribe
- Join our Investor’s Community to start shopping for open investment opportunities: www.wearecelestial.com
- Follow us on Instagram: @celestialgroup.co
Connect with our Founders:
Jennifer Pereira:
- Instagram: @imjennifer.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pereirajennifer
Camilla Hessellund:
- Instagram: @camillahessellund
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahl/
- TikTok: @camillahessellund
Welcome to Money Matters by Celestial Group. Here, we talk about how to make women wealthy. Sharing topics and education on mindset, spirituality, business and investing, we share all that we can to help women live their best lives and self-actualize their way into their full economic potential.
For this episode, Gloria is chatting with Bec Jones. Bec Jones is the CEO and Co-founder of Clutch wallet. She previously worked with National Australia Bank, Happify, and across two different crypto companies as their CMOs. Bec is a crypto and web3 content creator on Tik-Tok @cryptobec_ and a founding member of BFF and Women in the Metaverse. They dive into what Bec is aiming to build and create with Clutch Wallet, where her mission really comes from, what the world of web3 is and its potential, and ways you can start and grow your participation in it.
Connect with Bec @cryptobec_ and www.clutchwallet.xyz
New to Web3 and Crypto?
Check out this introductory course to get the basics down (by Celestial co-founder, Jennifer Pereira): https://truenorthdigital.thinkific.com/
Welcome to Money Matters by Celestial Group. Here, we talk about how to make women wealthy. Sharing topics and education on mindset, spirituality, business and investing, we share all that we can to help women live their best lives and self-actualize their way into their full economic potential.
A new season of The Celestial Podcast is here! And we’ve updated the name, host and format to match. Money Matters is the podcast for women wanting to step into their full economic potential. Here we talk about all things money, investing and doing our part in creating the new wealth paradigm for women all around the world.
Welcome our new host, Gloria Eid, an educator extraordinaire and a woman on the path of her own wealth creation journey.
Tune in to learn, expand and get actionable steps for how to level up in your financial life.
Check out the Celestial Community of women investing together here:
https://www.wearecelestial.com/
A new season of The Celestial Podcast is here! And we’ve updated the name, host and format to match. Money Matters is the podcast for women wanting to step into their full economic potential. Here we talk about all things money, investing and doing our part in creating the new wealth paradigm for women all around the world.
Welcome our new host, Gloria Eid, an educator extraordinaire and a woman on the path of her own wealth creation journey.
Tune in to learn, expand and get actionable steps for how to level up in your financial life.
Check out the Celestial Community of women investing together here:
https://www.wearecelestial.com/
A new season of The Celestial Podcast is here! And we’ve updated the name, host and format to match. Money Matters is the podcast for women wanting to step into their full economic potential. Here we talk about all things money, investing and doing our part in creating the new wealth paradigm for women all around the world.
Welcome our new host, Gloria Eid, an educator extraordinaire and a woman on the path of her own wealth creation journey.
Tune in to learn, expand and get actionable steps for how to level up in your financial life.
Check out the Celestial Community of women investing together here:
https://www.wearecelestial.com/
A new season of The Celestial Podcast is here! And we’ve updated the name, host and format to match. Money Matters is the podcast for women wanting to step into their full economic potential. Here we talk about all things money, investing and doing our part in creating the new wealth paradigm for women all around the world.
Welcome our new host, Gloria Eid, an educator extraordinaire and a woman on the path of her own wealth creation journey.
Tune in to learn, expand and get actionable steps for how to level up in your financial life.
Check out the Celestial Community of women investing together here:
https://www.wearecelestial.com/
Today’s episode is a conversation with Holly Maree, a Human Design teacher. In this conversation, Holly gives a walkthrough of what Human Design actually is, the five different energy types, and how we can each embrace our individuality and design to show up as the most authentic version of ourselves - both personally and in business.
Resources
- Get your Human Design chart: https://www.jovianarchive.com/get_your_chart
- https://thehollymaree.com/
- Holly‘s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehollymaree/
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to co-founding Celestial Academy - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform for female investors and entrepreneurs, offering online courses on investments, finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. The mission for Celestial Academy is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Are you working for your money or is your money working for you? In this episode Camilla is talking about the Cashflow Quadrant and how we can assess if we’re building wealth towards financial freedom and freedom of time, or living paycheck to paycheck without much foresight. She also covers a new take on the Cashflow Quadrant called the Investor Matrix by Investor, Cody Sanchez, that gets more into the behavior behind and mindset that we have when it comes to money.
Resources
- Link to the Cashflow Quadrant: https://bit.ly/3IkiOnl
- You can find Codie Sanchez’s newsletter on this link: https://sparklp.co/fb34ece5
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to co-founding Celestial Academy - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform for female investors and entrepreneurs, offering online courses on investments, finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. The mission for Celestial Academy is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Have you ever written a letter to yourself? From your future? Well, that’s what today’s episode is about. And Camilla is inviting you to come along for a fun and playful visualization exercise to see what your life looks like 5 or 10 years from now.
Camilla shares the technique to get into the right mind space and really tap into that 10 years from now you. And talks about why our intention is so important for everything we do.
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
What would your life look like 12 months from now if you made this year the most audacious year to date?
Today’s episode is all about audacity and how we can get around the tendency to settle for less than we are capable of, and avoid playing it small when we’re too afraid of owning that grand life that we’re secretly longing for. Or put too much emphasis on the fear of failing or what others will think of us.
Camilla is talking about what audacity actually is, how we cultivate more of it in our lives, and shares a few of her own ways of making this year one of the most audacious to date.
Resources
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/feminism-entrepreneurship-study-wealth-creation-walks-camilla
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to co-founding Celestial Academy - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform for female investors and entrepreneurs, offering online courses on investments, finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. The mission for Celestial Academy is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Congratulations! You have successfully closed the fundraising round for your company, all the documents are signed and you’ve got the money in the bank! But… What now?
In this final episode of the Fundraising Series, Camilla talks about that moment where all the fundraising work is done, the round is closed, and it’s time to get back to working on the business. Here you have 3 action points that can help you navigate it all after the round closes.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://www.celestial.academy
Share your fundraising story with Camilla on hello@celestialpodcast.com to be featured on the podcast.
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to co-founding Celestial Academy - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform for female investors and entrepreneurs, offering online courses on investments, finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. The mission for Celestial Academy is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
You’ve prepared and kicked off your fundraising round, gone through the many investor conversations, gotten a lot of “no thank you’s” and hopefully some “yes’es”. Now is the time for finding that gear you didn’t know you have and go into the closing part of your investment round!
Today Camilla covers 5 tips for closing your fundraising round. The closing stage is the final sprint that will tie the knot of all the work you’ve put in to make this round happen over the past many months, and make it possible to put your strategy and plan for your company into action.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://www.celestial.academy
Share your fundraising story with Camilla on hello@celestialpodcast.com to be featured on the podcast.
Time Stamps
[03:15] 1: Focus on closing the first investor, first - so you can use that as leverage towards every other investor coming onboard.
[04:25] 2: Pick a closing date but be flexible about it. Use it to prompt investors into making a decision. And remember: Get to the “no” fast.
[07:00] 3: Have your paperwork and legal documents ready before the actual closing, and consider finding a lawyer that wants to help you on an agreement of deferred payment.
[09:15] 4: Don’t take the word from an investor as a committed yes. Over-communicate, follow up and consistently align with investors so you and they both know exactly where you’re at.
[12:10] 5: Remember to ask for the money. Simple as that
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to co-founding Celestial Academy - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform for female investors and entrepreneurs, offering online courses on investments, finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. The mission for Celestial Academy is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Let’s say that you’ve found investors that are serious about investing in your company. Now what? Well, then it’s time to get into the more nitty gritty stuff, so investors can really understand what your company is all about in the engine room - and figure out how the deal is gonna look for everyone involved. And this means two things: Due diligence and negotiations.
In this episode Camilla covers what due diligence is and how you can best prepare for it, as well as what founders should be aware of when negotiating with investors.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://www.celestial.academy
Share your fundraising story with Camilla on hello@celestialpodcast.com to be featured on the podcast.
Time Stamps
[02:24] What is due diligence
[04:15] Introduction to the data room and what to keep in mind when setting it up
[07:30] What to be aware of when negotiating with investors
[09:10] Negotiation #1: Understand your leverage
[13:10] Negotiation #2: Focus on terms (not just valuation)
[15:50] Negotiation #3: Calculate the exit scenarios
[17:00] Liquidation Preference and Participation example
[19:50] Negotiation #4: Build trust from the beginning
Resources
- https://www.celestial.academy - Fundraising Course
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/duediligence.asp - Due Diligence rundown on Investopedia.com
- https://hbr.org/2013/05/how-to-negotiate-with-vcs - Harvard Business Review article by Deepak Malhotra
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to co-founding Celestial Academy - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform for female investors and entrepreneurs, offering online courses on investments, finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. The mission for Celestial Academy is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
You finally got that call booked with the investor you have been trying to get a hold of for months, and now it’s time. This episode is all about the investor pitch. Camilla covers how to prepare for the investor pitch, and how to show up with confidence and clarity to nail it. She also covers how to deal with unconscious bias from investors with a list of example questions and how you can use ‘communication bridges’ to re-route the conversation naturally.
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
Share your fundraising story with Camilla on hello@celestialpodcast.com to be featured on the podcast.
Time Stamps
[06:32]: How to prepare for the investor call overall - recap of previous episode [12:54]: How to prepare for individual investor meetings [15:39]: How to prepare for a fixed format pitch, example a 10 minute stage pitch [17:40]: How to nail the pitch - intro [18:54]: How to nail the pitch - the first 3-5 minutes [19:48]: The 6 areas to cover in the first 3-5 minutes [23:03]: The conversation [24:25]: How to deal with unconscious bias - intro [27:25]: Unconscious bias questions - examples [31:04]: How to use communication bridges to dodge preventional questions
Key Takeaways
- Find the bulleted lists and formulas mentioned in the episode on www.celestialpodcast.com/10 (6 areas to cover in the first minutes of your pitch; 1-Minute Pitch Formula; Unconscious Bias Example Questions)
- To prepare for investor calls make sure you have the high level and strategic parts in place (as covered in the previous episodes)
- Do your investor due diligence before a call: Who are they, Which VC firm do they work for, Which other similar companies have they invested in before, Do you have personal things in common?
- Rehearse with a written script if you are pitching in a fixed format setting.
- Build rapport in the first part of any meeting to loosen the mood and make the conversation more relaxed.
- Make sure to nail the first 3-5 minutes of the pitch itself, by checking that you cover the 6 Areas To Cover In the First Minutes (find them on celestialpodcast.com/10)
- Identify when questions are posed from a place of unconscious bias and prepare in advance so you can easily and naturally re-route the conversation.
- Use communication bridges when you encounter questions that are not taking the conversation where you want it to go.
- Based on a Harvard Study; it was proven that both male and female investors tended to ask what is called “promotional” questions to male entrepreneurs, and “preventional” questions to female entrepreneurs.
6 Areas To Cover In the First Minutes
- The market you are in
- The problem in that market - make sure to highlight industry-specific dynamics that might not be obvious to people outside of that particular industry so they understand your context.
- Your solution to that problem
- How far you have already come (so that is the traction) and which large milestones you are about to hit in the near future for the company.
- Why are you the one to solve it - ex with a nodge to previous experience or the collective experience of the team.
- Why the timing is now - make references to a macro trend that is emerging, or mention data or experiences that makes it clear that the time for this is now, and not 2 years from now - or worse, 2 years ago.
1-Minute Pitch Formula
Add some meat to this to make it come alive, and don’t forget your storytelling.
“My company [name of company], is developing [your defined offering] to help [your defined audience] [the problem you are solving for this audience] by doing [what your secret sauce is].
We compete in the growing [your defined market] which last year was a [defined market value] value market.
We are similar to [competitor 1] and [competitor 2] but we [your key differentiator, how you are different].
Currently we have successfully [your traction in key numbers, like current state or large milestones in your product, customers, team].
And this round of [the amount you are raising] will help us reach [milestone 1] and [milestone 2].”
Unconscious Bias - Promotional and Preventional Example Questions
Promotional Customer question: “How will you acquire customers?” (acquisition focused - so focused on getting new customers and growing the company)
Preventional Customer question: “How many daily and monthly active users do you have?” (retention focused, so how the company keeps the users they already have).
Promotional Revenue question: “How do you plan to monetize this?” (sales focused, again focused on potential growth)
Preventional Revenue question: “How long will it take you to break-even?” (margins focused, centered around stability and when the company will just barely be in the positive)
Promotional Market question: “Do you think your target market is a growing one?” (Size-focused. Again, future potential)
Preventional Market question: “Is it a defensible business so that competitors will have a hard time coming in and taking market share?” (market share-focused around stability and keeping or protecting status-quo in the business today).
Promotional Projections question: “What major milestones are you targeting this year?” (Growth-focused)
Preventional Projections question: “How predictable are your future cashflows?” (Stability-focused, around if the company will be able to sustain the current level)
Promotional Strategy question: “What’s the brand vision?” (Vision-focused and looking for the high level pencil strokes. What’s the best case scenario)
Preventional Strategy question: “Are you planning to pressure test this?” (In the Harvard study they use the Turing Test, but I won’t get into that here as it’s technically focused. This question is execution-focused. Seeking to validate that what is being done and executed today is solid and actually works)
Promotional Team question: “Can you tell us a bit about yourself?” (Entrepreneur or person-focused, looking to learn more about the entrepreneur, explorative)
Preventional Team question: “How much of all this are you actually doing in-house?” (Team or group-focused. The “actually” puts a suspicious connotation on the question as a whole, but besides that this is centered around the group, and looking to validate capabilities rather than explore the talent potential).
Resources
- All resources and links are available on www.celestialpodcast.com/10
- https://hbr.org/2017/06/male-and-female-entrepreneurs-get-asked-different-questions-by-vcs-and-it-affects-how-much-funding-they-get - Harvard Study (Male and Female Entrepreneurs Get Asked Different Questions by VCs — and It Affects How Much Funding They Get)
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Are you nervous before an upcoming investor call? Or maybe re-writing that email to them over and over again?
In today’s episode Camilla will be covering how to communicate with investors, as well as how not to do it! She will give you 4 DO’s and 4 DONT’s for investor communication to help you gain clarity on how you should go about the whole ordeal.
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
Key Takeaways
- DO: Be short and to-the-point in all your communications: Your job is to first gain an understanding of exactly what investors want to see and are looking for in the big picture and then show them that before going into further details.
- DO: Be authentic: The more authentic you are, the more investors will get to know your personality and can see if there is a genuine connection or not. You will be working with your future investor for the long term, so both you and the investor should make sure that it’s a good connection.
- DO: Be prepared, over-prepared: Know how big the market opportunity is, Focus on the market need not just market size, Recognize the competition, Know your ‘why’.
- DO: Have and show self respect: Be true to yourself, set boundaries, and get comfortable with saying ‘no’. Trust your gut.
- DON’T: Be oblivious and unavailable for feedback: Listen, takebe open for feedback, ask questions, and show that you are easy to work with.
- DON’T: Be unrealistic or over-optimistic: Like for example saying “we have no competitors, projecting your growth based on similar products, or making your projection top-down instead of bottom-up.
- DON’T: Waste their time (or yours): Like asking for an NDA when it’s not important, too much small talk, complaining about how hard life is a founder, or talking to the wrong investors.
- DON’T: Act arrogant and show up unprepared.
Resources
- All resources and links, incl. the investor email example, are available on www.celestialpodcast.com/9
- https://hbr.org/1998/11/how-venture-capital-works - How Venture Capital Works
- https://startupyard.com/9-things-not-to-do-when-talking-to-investors/ - Examples of what not to do when talking to investors.
- https://www.ycombinator.com/library/5B-fundraising-and-meeting-with-investors - YC playbook for how to talk to investors.
- https://www.wework.com/ideas/professional-development/how-to-speak-to-investors - How to speak to investors blog post.
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
It’s time to talk fundraising strategy. In this episode Camilla covers the 5 fundamental questions you should answer to effectively structure your fundraising round and how to best prepare to kick it off.
She also has a free giveaway to make it easier for you to make your own fundraising strategy. Jump into the episode to hear how you can get it.
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
Find the Fundraising Strategy Template and Checklist on www.celestialpodcast.com/8
Key Takeaways
- A fundraising strategy outlines how you plan on going about raising investor capital.
- The 5 essential questions: Why are you raising capital? How Much capital will you raise? Who are you raising the capital from? When are you raising capital? And finally, How will you go about raising the funds - so what’s the process you will execute on in order to successfully raise your round?
- Make sure that your fundraising strategy aligns with your overarching strategy of the business. Don’t fundraise just because everyone else does it.
- Figure out your reasons behind Why you want to fundraise and set clearly defined milestones that this investor capital will allow to reach.
- Assess your allocation of funds - how will you allocate the amount of money in your company and why?
- Use the 2-Page Strategic Plan from ‘Traction’ if you need help in making a short form top level business plan.
- Be realistic in your budget assumptions, research average salaries for the roles you want to hire.
- The amount you are raising must be tied to a believable and realistic plan.
- Look for the investors that fit your industry, round, and geography. Don’t waste your time talking to investors outside of the industry you are in.
- Raise money when you have momentum and are just about to hit a break-through, you want to raise when you are in the strongest position and not 3 months after launching your monetization model and all you still hear is crickets.
- Prepare your document package and documentation before you kick off the round and make it easily accessible for investors.
- Use a CRM for managing your investor relations. This will help you keep track of all the conversations you will have going simultaneously.
Resources
- See the full show notes and all mentioned resources and give-aways on www.celestialpodcast.com/8
- ‘Traction - Get A Grip On Your Business’ audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Gino-Wickman-audiobook/dp/B00A9Z973M
- ‘Traction - Get A Grip On Your Business’ Kindle Book: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business-ebook/dp/B007QWLLV2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
- Resources from ‘Traction’: https://www.eosworldwide.com/eos-toolbox
- https://www.hubspot.com/ - CRM platform
- https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/cash-is-king-8-tips-for-optimizing-your-startup-financing-strategy/ - Extensive article on fundraising and the process behind it.
Let’s connect on Social!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Or reach out on: hello [at] celestialpodcast [dot] com
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Are you about to make your pitch deck but not sure where to start? In this episode, Camilla shares the practical step-by-step of how to make your version one deck, which tools to use, and how to make it a bit easier than starting from a blank canvas.
This episode is continued from episode #3 where Camilla covered the 10 essential slides and how to figure out what to put on each slide.
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
Key Takeaways
- Find the 10 essential slides walk-through in episode #3 on the podcast.
- Start with a nicely designed template instead of making the design and layout of your deck from scratch.
- Make your first draft version in a no-design presentation to focus entirely on data points, key takeaways and narrative.
- You can find endless amounts of graphic elements, icons, images, and animations on creative marketplaces - so you don’t have to hire a designer or agency to do that for you.
- Start with the headlines per slide and ask yourself “what is the one key takeaway that I want to communicate with this slide?”.
- Use data points, market trends, and reports to support your argument and key takeaway per slide.
- Try to use as many graphics as possible to communicate your points.
- Storytelling is key, and makes a pitch stick much better with investors. Two examples of frameworks are The Hero’s Journey, and The Industry Perspective.
- Make your deck shareable instead of sending it as a PDF via email.
- Keep your deck simple and avoid large blocks of text.
- Include appendix slides to work around cluttering your main deck. Focus these on in-depth market analysis and customer demand and feedback.
- Create different versions of your deck to accommodate different situations - a deck which you narrate over is more simple than a deck you send out.
Resources
- Full show notes and all resources mentioned on www.celestialpodcast.com/7
- https://www.slideshare.net/BaseTemplates/1906-pitch-deck - Edible Cannabis Pitch Deck Example
Let’s connect on Social!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Or reach out on: hello [at] celestialpodcast [dot] com
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Are you struggling with where to find investors? In this third episode of the Fundraising Series, Camilla shares the 9 investor types that you should know about to figure out where to find the right investors for your company today and, potentially, in the future.
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
Resources
- List of example of entrepreneur fellowships: https://www.feedough.com/entrepreneurship-fellowships/
- Female focused funds, Europe: https://www.seedrs.com/academy/top-15-uk-female-focused-and-diversity-venture-capital-firms/
- Female focused funds, North America: https://www.forbes.com/sites/allysonkapin/2020/12/10/51-vcs-who-want-to-invest-in-women-black-and-latinx-and-lgbtq-founders/?sh=64a5d39ea642
- Book on Crowdfunding: https://www.amazon.com/Your-First-Kickstarter-Campaign-Crowdfunding/dp/169008412X#customerReviews
Let’s connect on Social!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Or reach out on: hello [at] celestialpodcast [dot] com
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
In this second episode of the Fundraising Series, Camilla talks about the basics of fundraising, to help you understand why you would want to raise investor capital, when you should do it, how much to raise, the financing options you have available, and how to set the valuation for your company.
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
Check out the course: “Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
Time Stamps
[02:25] Why should you consider raising investor capital
[06:10] When should you raise capital
[07:55] How much should you raise
[12:30] Financing options - Convertible debt, Safes, Equity rounds
[19:00] How to set your valuation
Key Takeaways
- Raising investor capital can give you a competitive advantage and the momentum needed to gain or sustain high growth rates and a faster time-to-market.
- “Raise when you can, not when you need to” - sometimes the capital market dries up.
- Research valuation benchmarks if in doubt about what your valuation will be.
- Raise as much money as you need to reach profitability or enough to hit the next “fundable” milestone.
- Consider raising your first round with convertible debt - easier, faster, and less complex than equity financing.
Equity example from Y-Combinator:
“Let's say you have 10,000,000 shares in the company now making up 100% of the company. Then you are selling the shares at:
50 cents per share ($5,000,000 (pre-money valuation / 10,000,000 (amount of total shares today))
That means that you will sell 2,000,000 shares in order to raise the $1,000,000.
This results in a new total amount of shares of 12,000,000 (10,000,000 + 2,000,000)
And a post-money valuation of $6,000,000 (50 cents * 12,000,000)
And a dilution of 16.7% (2,000,000 / 12,000,000)”.
Resources
- Shownotes: www.celestialpodcast.com/5 (all resources are in here)
-
- Fundraising Course
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practices of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Check out the course:“Flawless Fundraising for Founders” on https://celestial.academy/
This is a ten-episode mini-series as part of the Celestial Podcast. Here we focus on fundraising for entrepreneurs - all with the purpose of helping more women in particular, get knowledgeable and confident about fundraising, and to increase the percentage of investor capital going to female-founded companies.
What is this fundraising thing all about? And why do we want more women to build successful companies? In this episode Camilla covers why the discipline of fundraising is so important for us women to master, what the landscape of venture capital looks like for women today, and how we can level up and get more women to raise capital and eventually build great companies.
Key Takeaways
- Less than 3% of venture capital goes to female-led or female-founded companies. The number dropped from 2019 to 2020 - from 2.8% to 2.3%. And the 2.8% was an all-time high.
- Even though there are less female entrepreneurs than male entreprenuers, women still receive relatively way less funding than what the numbers would suggest we actually should.
- “When women venture capitalists make the decisions, they’re twice as likely to invest in female founding teams”.
- 12% of decision makers at VC firms are women, yet most VC firms (65%) don’t have any female partners.
- 2.4% of VC firms have female founding partners, even with 2020 being a record year for how many women joined a VC firm as a partner.
- “Women ultimately deliver higher revenue - more than twice as much per dollar invested, compared to men” - Boston Consulting Group
- One possible reason for this (better female performance) could be that women meet heavier pushback from investors, and therefore need to have especially strong business plans to raise investor capital in the first place, and that the process of getting to that point builds resilience and adaptability, which are both two crucial skills for entrepreneurs.
- “Startups with a female founder hire 2.5 times more women. Companies with a female founder and a female executive hire six times more women” - Kauffman Fellows
- “Women-led businesses are more likely to be focused on making social contributions and building good relationships with employees” - Journal of Entrepreneurship & Organization Management
- Women-led businesses are a win-win. For investors, for society, for women and our career options.
Resources
- Shownotes: www.celestialpodcast.com/4
- www.crunchbase.com
- https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3-of-vc-funding-in-2020 - Harvard Business Review Article
- www.celestial.academy/fundraising - Fundraising Course
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
“How do I find investors? Where do I start? How do I make my pitch deck? How do I set the valuation? What do investors want to see? How often should I follow up? Pre- and post-money-what, excuse me?"
There are a lot of questions surrounding fundraising, and in this episode Camilla covers the basics of what you should prepare and how to find that first round of investor capital in 3 action steps.
Key Takeaways
Action step 1) Find out if investor capital is for you. Are you running a lifestyle business or growth or venture company?
Action step 2) Create the first version of your pitch deck, then present it, get feedback, tweak, repeat.
The 10 essential slides of a pitch deck:
- Introduction Slide
- Problem / Opportunity
- Your Solution
- Differentiator (your secret sauce)
- Business Model
- Go-To-Market
- Competitor Landcape
- Team
- Numbers - 3-Year Financial Projections, Key Metrics
- Status Today, Next Stage, Use Of Funds
Action step 3) Reach out to 10 potential investors to get some momentum going.
- 3 F’s - Friends, Family and Fools
- Business Angels - individuals or through a Business Angel Network
- No matter if you are raising $100K, $500K or more, the most important thing is just to get started! It’s a process and fundraising takes time. So the earlier you get started the better.
Resources
- www.celestialpodcast.com/3
- https://guykawasaki.com/the-only-10-slides-you-need-in-your-pitch/ - 10 slides template
- https://geoffkullman.com/storybrand-one-liner/ - Example of how to make your one-liner (you can search for similar guides online, there are plenty)
- https://www.universitylabpartners.org/blog/angel-websites-find-investors-for-startup - Example of a list of global angel networks. Search “list of business angel networks” on Google and you will see lots of places to find Business Angels.
- Search for “business angel network [your country or city]” - this will often show you the business angel networks in your area.
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
How would your business look 12 months from now if you started doing the things that truly move the needle, every single week, instead of all the things that don't really make any difference?
In this episode, Camilla covers the 5 steps to get started working with VAs, how to go about it, where to find them, and how it all works.
Key Takeaways
Step 1: Get crystal clear on your WHY. What is your intention and purpose of wanting to work with virtual professionals?
Step 2: Clearly define the WHAT. Which tasks you want the Virtual Professional or VA to do? Which tasks are you currently doing that could be delegated to someone else?
Step 3: Define the HOW. The process for completing the tasks that you want to delegate. What is the end result you want with each task, and how do you usually get there?
Step 4: Determine if you are looking for project-based or long-term Virtual Professionals which will suggest where to look for VAs - on freelancer platforms or by working with a VA placement agency.
Step 5: Determine how you work with VAs when they are part of your team and they are already onboarded. Define the processes, tools, platforms you use to communicate and work.
- The cost usually spans from $7-15/hour and all the way up to $50 or more, depending on the location of the VA, the skills they have, and especially the expertise and experience in a certain field of work.
- A VA, like anyone else you would have to onboard to your team, is not able to read your mind, so the result you would get is very surely going to be very different from what you imagined if tasks are not clearly defined.
- The key to working with VAs on an ongoing basis is to see them exactly as you see any other team member, where efficient work comes from high levels of alignment, communication and clear expectations.
Resources
- Shownotes: www.celestialpodcast.com/2
- Resource Worldwide (VA placement agency): https://resourceworldwide.co.uk/
- https://www.upwork.com/
- https://www.freelancer.com/
- https://99designs.com
- https://www.canva.com/ - Graphics and SoMe Content
- https://www.loom.com - Video/Screen recording tool
- https://www.slack.com - Internal communication
- https://monday.com/ - Project Management Platform
- The Ultimate Content Repuposing Model: www.celestial.academy/contentmodel
Let’s connect on Social!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team, before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practices of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.
Do you want to come on a (space) journey of entrepreneurship, investing and serious wealth building? Then join us here on The Celestial Podcast, as we’re about to leave the launch pad for take off!
In this very first episode of The Celestial Podcast, Camilla talks about her mission of creating a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their economic potential. She goes through the journey of being a female founder in tech, her changed perspective on feminism over the years, and the rather disturbing facts of the world's wealth elite, and why economic empowerment for women is so important today more than ever.
Key Takeaways
- Less than 5% of venture capital goes to female founders
- 9 out of the top 10 most wealthy individuals on Forbes World’s Billionaires List are self-made men. The first self-made woman takes place #89. And the next on #100. The majority of the entire top 100 are self-made men.
- 0% of #1 industry-based wealth holders are women. Per industry in which the wealth was accumulated.
- 2% of the world’s top 100 wealth holders are self-made women.
- 6.8% of the worlds’ self-made billionaires are women
Let’s Connect Across Social Media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camillahessellund
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillahessellundlastein/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camillahessellund
Twitter: https://twitter.com/camillahlastein
About The Host
Camilla is a Forbes 30under30 honoree, TEDx speaker, and EY Entrepreneur of The Year Finalist, who started her first company in education technology at age 19. During her time as CEO, she raised more than $10M and ended up managing a 40-person team before her departure in 2019 when she sold her share of the company. As a female entrepreneur, Camilla experienced the inequality and significant unconscious bias women meet in the startup and tech world, which led her to founding Celestial - a women’s wealth & entrepreneurship education platform, offering online courses on personal finance, wealth creation strategies, and best practises of entrepreneurship. Camilla’s mission is to create a space for women to learn about, explore and step into their full economic potential.