Many start-up companies scale up by leveraging venture capital, but what are venture capitalists looking for in the companies that they choose to invest in? Even if you aren’t interested in securing funding, this episode highlights the differentiators that will set your company apart at every stage of scaling up.

Kate McAndrew is a co-founder and General Partner at Baukunst. In addition, she is the founder of Women In Hardware. Kate previously was a Partner at Bolt, where she built the firm’s venture capital practice and community presence over two successful funds. She has over nine years of experience as a first-round lead investor & board member with a focus on companies that are evolving the cultural conversation.

When Kate first encountered an accelerator program, she thought it was the most insane thing she had ever heard. She also absolutely loved the idea of empowering entrepreneurs with capital and quickly found herself in the deep end of the venture capital pool.

Many entrepreneurs may think their solution or offering is what makes a startup company special, but it’s really the people that make the difference. Special people have special ideas, and exceptional people can execute them.

Kate highlights her experience with Bobbie Baby, including what she was looking for from their offerings and what it takes to succeed in the venture path. Bobbie was a multibillion-dollar idea with incumbent players and a customer base that was going out of their way to get their hands on the product. The critical components of Bobbie’s success were the passion and experience of the team, their unique solution to a major problem, and the innovative business model for their brand.

Kate also highlights the power and danger of debt-side funding, pre-seed funding, and the best money you can have in funding a venture capital — revenue. At Fyto, venture capital helped to address a broken system with major environmental and social impacts. They reimagined the way a system was architected with the passion of a founder who was ready to completely change big problems in the ideal location. That is what it takes to make venture capital work.

Interview Links:

Baukunst

EO Accelerator Program

Resources:

20,000 Scaleups

Scaling Up Summits (Select Bill Gallagher as your coach during registration for a discount.)

Bill on YouTube

Recruiter.com Short List (use code scaleup)

Scaling Up is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and our team for Scaling Up Coaches (formerly Gazelles). We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail.

Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.

We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.

Raising Venture Capital — Kate McAndrew

Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher