Episode 60: Investor Relationships with Tara Spalding

41m · What's Your Ask? with Stephanie Sims · 16 Jun 08:00

Today, I’m excited to talk to Tara Spalding, the Managing Director of BoomStartup Accelerator.

BoomStartup is an accelerator and mentorship-driven angel-stage investment program for startups, which operates as an online technology-driven accelerator, providing entrepreneurs a custom business plan including business maturity guidance, investment preparation, and capital structuring relevant to growth, and investment strategies as well as a curated marketplace for services.

Tara is also the founder of Hen House Ventures, an early stage incubator that helps tech companies rapidly scale when entering massive markets, and is also on the board of trustees for VentureCapital.org.

Tara is the recipient of the 2020 Utah Business 30 Women to Watch award.

Tara began her high-tech career in Silicon Valley when she taught herself to code software and became the first employee, and eventually VP of marketing at industry leader, SugarCRM.

Her Silicon Valley experience included roles as CMO at GroundWork Open Source, VP marketing at Magnet Systems, and co-founder and CPO at BenchPick. Tara received her bachelors from University of Colorado, Boulder.

In this episode…

Tara starts with the speed round and answering Stephanie’s questions including her favorite junk food, vacation spots, and music.

For Tara, there were thousands of asks that she didn’t not even know she had the courage to do until she did it. The first time she became a cofounder with another person and needed to find outside investments. When she did it or helped other people, it came much easier than when it was her own. Looking back, she realizes she worried about the most goofy things, such as the color she was wearing.

The relationship she has now with their investor was built along with trust and credibility over time. When you find the right investor fit, there is no better relationship because they are on your side in multiple ways and offer beneficial suggestions and ideas.

Tara suggests to entrepreneurs: Look at it from the investor’s point of view, not the entrepreneur’s or their own.

What is important is getting a sense of adventure in how they want to spend their money and see the returns. For those looking for money, it needs to fit into their investment portfolio as a person. Everyone has a different risk/reward appetite and that needs to be aligned.

You may want to know how you get an indication about the risk appetite they might have or how involved they want to be, and according to Tara, it is really tricky. Asking the question, three different times over a period of time to see if answers are consistent, is one method. Over time, relying on the network is important as well.

Tara’s company offers everything online at the moment but is piloting their first face-to-face soon. It is amazing how adaptive our brains are, no matter what the platform or venue. Right now, investors, and others, are more accessible with technology.

How does one refine their ask? Tara actually pulls from Stephanie’s play book and suggests coming up with two options that people can help you with. People can be successful making the smaller asks and building relationships.

How does Tara decide who to say yes to when it comes to sharing her time? Always looking for meaningful engagement with more than one person at a time.

When coming up with your ask, make sure to think of a couple of asks. If you get an answer, advice or introduction you need to follow up by explaining the conclusion!

Where can people find Stephanie? Join the Boom Start Up Community! It’s fun and easy! Come on in and have some fun!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraspalding/
https://boomstartup.com
Finance-Ability
Stephanie Sims
Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Sponsor for this episode...

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there’s anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

The episode Episode 60: Investor Relationships with Tara Spalding from the podcast What's Your Ask? with Stephanie Sims has a duration of 41:24. It was first published 16 Jun 08:00. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

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Episode 66: Stephanie on HerCsuite Radio; How to Leverage Your Value

*This episode is a shared episode directly from the host, Natalie Benamou.

In This Episode:

Are you looking for investors in your business and unsure where to start? Let’s take a walk with Stephanie Sims, founder of Finance-Ability®, former investment banker and finance expert. Stephanie gives her advice and strategies on moving from “shiny object syndrome” to prioritizing your growth strategies. This conversation with host Natalie Benamou and Stephanie Sims shows you how you can start leveraging your value today.

Evaluate Your Business:

1. Take a step back and understand what you want the business to be.

2. Develop your “credible milestone ask” based on what the next goal/objective is for your business.

3. Focus on your strengths and recognize your weaknesses when expanding your team. Hire people who will balance you out.

4. Think early about your path to profitability instead of only focusing on growth.

The Ask:

● Things don’t have to be perfect when asking for money for your business.

● Be open with investors about your experiments (what worked and what didn’t work).

● Watch out for “shiny object syndrome”. Is it going to add value to your business?

Know Your Worth

● Giving equity away for your business: If someone wants to invest in exchange for 5%, you need to know if that’s $50,000 or $500,000. It’s important to have a sense of the dollar value for what you’re giving away.

● Receiving equity as partial payment at a new job opportunity: What does the deal look like if the equity doesn’t materialize vs. if it does happen. Are you comfortable with the balance of risk and reward that you’ve agreed to take to make that deal work.

Thank you, Stephanie Sims, for this conversation, your expertise and helping entrepreneurs understand how to leverage their value.

Stephanie Sims has more than two decades in finance, quality & IT management and valuation of public and private entities. Stephanie’s experience with large transactions and her knowledge of how due diligence works made it easy to spot one of the key reasons that entrepreneurs face such difficulty getting financing: they don’t understand the fundamentals of evaluating risks versus rewards. Developing this knowledge base led her to see that everyone has the ability to manage their finances successfully, but they don’t always realize it. And that’s where the notion of Finance-Ability was born.

Natalie Benamou is the CEO of HerPower2 Lead and HerCsuite™ an online platform for Executive Women.

HerCsuite™ is an online membership platform transforming the way women meet, engage and thrive together. Close The Promotion Gap Inside Peer-to-Peer Curated Mentoring Circles and Level-Up Your Results.

Reach out to Natalie Benamou at HerCsuite™.

LinkedIn: Natalie Benamou HerPower2 Lead HerCsuite™

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In this episode…

This is a shared episode by Matt Wolach. Matt starts the episode introducing Stephanie, asking where she is today and how she got there.

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One of the mindsets that is super important is that of an investor. And then you ask yourself, “What is the best use of the resources I already have?”

When it comes to timing, Stephanie shares the best way to know if you’re ready to raise capital is when you know how to turn $1m inside your company to $2m. One needs to understand what makes a good investment inside your business first.

The show turns to talking about fundraising being truly a sales and marketing process. However, there are a few metrics, key numbers and KPIs to keep an eye on.

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Episode #64: Stephanie on Lead Like a Woman

In this episode…

Andrea begins the episode introducing Stephanie, and asks her exactly what it was that drove her into owning her own business. More specifically, what drove her to Financeability.

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Stephanie shares how she helps businesses plan an exit strategy that doesn’t just include hanging their hat on the door and that’s that. Understanding the end game is crucial, and not everyone knows that.

Another major playing piece for those wanting to ask for money is knowing their ideal investor. Without knowing that, there is so much wasted time and energy.

There are two groups that Stephanie works with, and those are founders, but the second one that really excites her is working with organizations that serve groups of founders. She explains why, so make sure you listen!

The episode wraps with words of advice and sharing what she believes is her superpower and how it helps others.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode

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Episode 63: Leadership Journey

In this Episode . . .

Robbie gets this episode started by asking Stephanie about her leadership journey and when she realized she had a knack for leading. To Stephanie, being a leader is equal parts inspiration and risk/action taking. One must have a bold vision to share with people that will get them excited about doing something. In the same sense, one must also be willing to roll up their own sleeves, dig in and do some work as well.

Mentors were important to Stephanie, and among the top of that list are her parents. They encouraged and supported her in multiple ways during her leadership journey. No matter how crazy of an idea, they were there for her and provided the push when needed.

At the age of 12, Stephanie thought she wanted to be a doctor until the opportunity arose at summer camp to practice on cadavers. It was then her dream of being a doctor was called off. By the age of 13, she was working on spreadsheet for her parents, and with her father being an accountant, she was off and running in the world of finance.

Robbie and Stephanie talk at length about networking. Prior to the pandemic, networking was largely face-to-face. Things, events, and the mode of networking has changed drastically since March 2020, and these changes will be a permanent thing.

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Episode 62: Stephanie on Money Talks with Hugh Meyer

In this Episode . . .

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Philosophy needs to be aligned with whomever you work with. It isn’t always prudent to get involved, and there are always going to be other opportunities.

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