How to Think Strategically about Funding for Founders and Investors

I first met Avantika Daing, a General Partner & Managing Partner at Plum Alley Investments (and Tedx Speaker!) while she was onstage at an Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator event. She was there to share a bit about Plum Alley’s Investment thesis as well as unpack six pitches live from early-stage companies.

Let’s level set a bit so you understand Avantika’s and Plum Alley’s mission, which revolves around an important number that hasn’t moved much in years, despite a lot of effort - 2%. 

According to Pitchbook, in 2022, companies founded solely by women garnered just 2% of the total capital invested in VC-backed startups in the United States. Plum Alley only funds gender-diverse companies and works to create an ecosystem to help them not just get funded, but to grow and succeed. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to bring Avantika on, to share some of her ways of thinking strategically about funding as an investor, how Plum Alley is working to create a more sustainable funding ecosystem for diverse founding teams, and how she coaches founders to be more strategic about funding, too.

Watching Avantika on stage peel back the layers of the onion (one of her favorite metaphors!) on a company’s story in conversation with a founder and work to understand the company’s potential was fascinating - it’s a tremendous act of intellectual rigor and curiosity. Her questions also reminded me that founders can make an investor’s job a lot easier through more powerful and intentional storytelling.

Another powerful metaphor that Avantika came back to in a number of pitches was the idea of a Basecamp.

In other words, Avantika, as a funder, wants to know: Is your company building a core technology or defensible market position (a basecamp) that will provide you with multiple paths to success? 

Avantika acknowledged that a “single story” about how your company will “win” or “summit the mountain” is powerful, but she was clear that she prefers companies that are creating a powerful “basecamp”...why? Because:

🏒A “many shots on goal” strategy can help create longevity and increase options for success.

I’m so grateful that she was willing to have a longer conversation with me on the record to explain her ideals about storytelling and the basecamp-summit metaphor.

She also helped peel back some layers on another idea she loves to coach founders on: “Dressing their cap table” for sustainable success from seed to IPO and well beyond - since capital needs don’t stop at IPO.

I love how Avantika’s metaphors shift,  refocus and redesign the conversation about pitching, funding and sustainable success for startups.

Enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

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Links

Plum Alley

Avantika's Tedx Talk: There is No Balance. There is Juggling

Daniel’s LI post on Avantika’s Entrepreur’s Roundtable Session, highlighting key questions and perspectives from Avantika, including the “base camp/summit” metaphor.