Millie Marconi & Kat Suy’s Raise Journey
Both Millie & Kat have been in the start-up space for the last 5+ years, they both applied to a Antler’s VC start-up accelerator program with very little expectation of anything to come from it. It was pre-seed, they were both solo founders and happened to be enrolled in the same cohort.
The two formally met, hit it off, started working together and quickly formed their ideal problem/solution and got to work building out the business plan of a VC backed business.
* The problem: Hiring is still inefficient and costly, with recruiters spending countless hours manually reviewing CVs and struggling to make fair and timely decisions.
* The solution: Yesterday streamlines hiring by automating candidate screening using AI and insights from hiring psychology.
Over 8 weeks, they met with many VCs, angels and advisors, practised pitching weekly with an audience and then went on to pitch to an investment committee (IC) with a SAFE. The IC consisted of many VCs from a global day one investor who were running the accelerator and additionally external VC firms and many angel investors. The VC running the accelerator had the first rights to invest — Millie & Kat were thrilled they decided to proceed.
Both Founders felt it was a pretty gruelling process and coming out the other side see a lot of room for improvement in the space and process.
In this episode, we cover:
* [00:00] About Yesterday
* [01:15] Why did you start Yesterday and what’s your career history?
* [06:05] How have your past jobs and businesses prepared you for launching Yesterday?
* [11:07] How did Antler’s program influence the way you fundraised?
* [13:20] How have you fed back to each other as Co-Founders?
* [17:28] What are some of the early decisions you made about the type of investors you would approach and how much you would raise?
* [22:00] What did you learn from seeing your counterparts raise in Europe?
* [24:48] What was the Australian market like when you were raising 6 months ago?
* [31:00] What challenges did you constantly find yourself up against?
* [35:12] What did it mean to go for VC money instead of other investment options?
* [36:00] What was the most memorable moment of the fundraise?
* [40:27] What are the top 2-3 things that Founders need to think about and prepare for before fundraising?
* [43:40] What’s the one tip you have for Founders who are in the middle of fundraising?
* [46:27] If you could go back and do it again, what would you do differently?
Where to find Millie Marconi & Kat Suy:
• Millie: LinkedIn | Yesterday
Where to find Jade Buffong:
• LinkedIn | Newsletter
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