Welcome to Startup Life: Unscripted, a newsletter by The Nudge Group, where we feature candid conversations with startup operators about their career journeys and experiences. If you received this email as a forward, you can subscribe right here.

From E-Commerce to Capital Raising: A Deep Dive into the Startup Funding World with Leila Oliveira

Welcome back to Startup Life: Unscripted! Today, we're super excited to be joined by Leila Oliveira, a trailblazer making waves as a Campaign Manager at Birchal, a standout player in Australia's crowd-sourced funding sphere.

Leila has spent the better part of four years entrenched in the capital-raising world, and she's not slowing down. Fuelled by a desire to give early-stage startups a fighting chance and impressed by Birchal's industry-leading results, she made the leap and hasn't looked back.

From spending her days advising clients on successful campaign strategies, qualifying potential leads, and soaking up invaluable insights from her colleagues, to navigating the diverse legal, compliance, and marketing landscapes, her role is as diverse as it is impactful.

Tune in for an enlightening conversation and a deep-dive into the heart of the capital-raising world with Leila. Whether you're a start-up looking to raise capital or simply curious about the ins and outs of crowd-sourced funding, this is an interview you won't want to miss!

Key interview takeaways:

💼 Moving into the role of Campaign Manager at Birchal offered Leila a chance to directly impact early-stage startups and guide them through successful funding campaigns.

💡 Leila identified common missteps in capital raising: startups targeting the wrong group of investors, reliance on specific investors, underestimating the effort required, and not testing the market.

🎉 The rewards of her role? Working with purpose-led companies and watching founders realise their dreams, with a special mention for startups like Pleasant State and Organic Collagen Australia.

🔭 Looking ahead, she sees a huge opportunity in Australia's crowd-sourced funding industry, with trends in medicinal cannabis, psychedelics, sustainability-focused companies, and consumer brands on her radar.

🚀 Leila's career advice for aspiring campaign managers: invest time in your LinkedIn presence, connect with interesting people, voice your opinion, and be ready to ride the exciting waves of market changes.

Hey Leila, it's a pleasure to have you here. So, you've recently stepped into the role of Campaign Manager at Birchal, Australia's crowd-sourced funding frontrunner. Can you let us in on your journey - how did you find yourself specialising in this particular corner of the tech world?

I've been working in the capital-raising space for almost 4 years now, and lately, it has been incredibly hard to raise as an early-stage startup, right? Then, I came across Birchal's industry report and I was gobsmacked with their results. Holding 80% of market share, with over 200 successful campaigns- some of these campaigns getting oversubscribed in hours. I just thought "I don't know what these guys are doing, but I need to be a part of it" haha it has been a great learning experience.

Let's talk about your day-to-day. As a Campaign Manager at Birchal, you're really in the thick of it all. Could you give us a glimpse into what a 'normal' day looks like for you?

My time is split between:

• Calls with clients: preparing them for a successful campaign. On these calls we guide them through the process, give them insights and good practices based on previous campaigns, help with a marketing and PR plan, and especially their storytelling. If you have a good story to tell, you grab people's attention and that converts into investors, new clients, new employees, etc. That's the base of what we do.

• Chatting with potential clients: We get a lot of inbound through the website and I've been working on qualifying the leads. I also reach out to companies I believe could be a good fit for us based on market trends.

• Internal calls: Birchal has a great teamwork culture, we share tips and tricks, discuss what has been working and what we can improve. I learn a lot on these calls.

• Market research: What's trending, which companies or industries to keep an eye on.

Your role involves guiding businesses through various steps including eligibility checks, legal & compliance, and marketing strategies. Can you share a story about a campaign that posed unique challenges and how you navigated them?

From the legal perspective, we always have companies that need to review and potentially update their constitution to then manage the hundreds (if not thousands) of shareholders they'll get after the raise.

One of the companies that is live now has Antler in their cap table and they wanted to understand how things would work after a raise. Birchal has an awesome legal team that jumped on a call with them and clarified our process, which gave them the confidence of giving their portfolio company a green light to work with us.

From the marketing perspective, we have heaps of companies that initially weren't demonstrating with their message how good the opportunity was. And that's a big part of what we do: Identify good companies and boost the offer by working on their messaging and what's the angle to go for in a campaign.

I always start my calls with "What's special about your business?" or "What's the back story?" To understand why this founder is the best one to pull the idea off - also to see their level of passion, which is always very nice.

In your role, you've seen businesses try to raise capital firsthand. What are some common misunderstandings or missteps you've witnessed? Any pearls of wisdom you'd like to share with companies embarking on their fundraising journeys?

• Focusing on the wrong group of investors for their stage: If you're raising for the first time, going straight to a VC is a long long shot. Yes, start having these conversations to build relationships, but knowing that it's probably not the best fit for you now.

• Relying on a specific investor: Your round isn't closed until the money is in the bank. I've seen investors doing DD for 6 months and then saying no. If they're your only option, you lost 6 months of runway (which can be a make or break for some companies) and your offer is less attractive now

• Underestimate how much work and time are required in the process: Whatever way you decide to go (Crowdfunding, angel round, VC) it is a full time job. That's why ideally you do it with a clear timeline so you can go back to business as soon as possible.

• Not testing the market: At the end of the day, you never know how the market will react to your offer until you go ahead and try it. Collect feedback, chat with your community, ask investors what they think that a fair valuation would be.

Global startup job opportunities:

• 🚀 Business Development Manager

• 💰 Accountant

• 🎯 Brand Marketing Manager

• 🛠️ Fullstack Software Engineer- React, NodeJS, SQL, AWS

Let's touch on the positives now. What would you say is the most satisfying part of your job? Can you share a victory from your own experience that you're especially chuffed with?

I love how we work with so many purpose-led companies and seeing how investors are looking for companies that are doing good for the world. In fact, customer behaviour has been shifting a lot over generations and sustainability is top of mind for many consumers, therefore investors tend to follow what’s trending. Some examples are Seabin, Botanic Bioplastics and Recycle Smart.

Also, it's particularly rewarding when an early-stage founder sees that you trust them and their idea and you wanna get them funded. Some founders are so passionate about their business and hardworking, that it is a pleasure to help them.

Considering your career pathway, was there a pivotal moment or decision that led you to where you are now?

I feel that since my first job when I was 17 in an e-commerce, one job always led to the next one in a very smooth way and when in Australia, I started working in the capital raising space and there was no way back haha I really love the space and find it super exciting to navigate all the changes that comes with it every few months.

How do you see your role, and the crowd-sourced funding industry as a whole, evolving in the years to come? Are there any waves on the horizon you're keeping a watchful eye on?

It's still early days for Australia's crowd sourced funding regime. But overseas, equity crowdfunding is a popular and credible way for businesses to raise their early rounds of capital. In the UK, where equity crowdfunding platforms have operated for over 10 years, hundreds of millions of pounds are invested annually.

On a per capita basis, Australia has the second largest equity crowdfunding industry in terms of dollars invested, behind only the UK, which is around seven times greater than Australia's industry. So there's a huge opportunity ahead of us here in Australia, as the industry matures and more businesses and investors become aware of it.

Trends I’m keeping an eye on:

🌿 Medicinal cannabis - We just raised 5M for a company in the space

🍄 Psychedelics - 11 venture capital firms (most of them founded in the past three years) that have collectively invested roughly $140 million in the psychedelics category

🌍 Sustainability-focused companies - $1 in every $4 of venture capital funding last year went into climate tech and 78% of people want to shop sustainably, so definitely is a market to keep an eye on.

❤️ Consumer brands that people love - what’s going viral on social media, brands that align with values (purpose-driven), brands that have strong communities around them.

Finally, for those interested in a career similar to yours, what advice would you offer? What skills or experiences should they be cultivating?

If I had to give just one piece of advice would be to invest in your LinkedIn. Connect with interesting people, post about things you're interested in, give your opinion. It was life-changing for me- I got great friends, all my jobs and it's also a great way to test the market and see what people are interested in.

And feel free to give me a follow and reach out, I'm very happy to help. Also, if you are a startup and plan to raise capital, send me a message. Happy to have a conversation and give you some ideas.

Give It A Nudge

On one of our recent episodes, we sat down with Jess Walker, the Community and Programs Manager at AirTree, who spills the beans on her amazing 10-year journey in the startup scene! Check out the video and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button!

And that's a wrap! We hope you've enjoyed this edition as much as we loved putting it together. Stay curious, keep learning, and above all, enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is Startup Life. Catch you in the next one! 👋 Not subscribed yet? Do it here and don't miss out! Subscribe Now.