{"id":45859,"date":"2023-10-20T15:46:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/taryn-williams-raises-750000-in-seed-funding-for-theright-fit-three-tips-to-make-investment-rounds-as-fast-and-painless-as-possible-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:46:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:46:49","slug":"taryn-williams-raises-750000-in-seed-funding-for-theright-fit-three-tips-to-make-investment-rounds-as-fast-and-painless-as-possible-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/taryn-williams-raises-750000-in-seed-funding-for-theright-fit-three-tips-to-make-investment-rounds-as-fast-and-painless-as-possible-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Taryn Williams raises $750,000 in seed funding for TheRight.Fit: Three tips to make investment rounds as fast and painless as possible – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Taryn<\/div>\n

Award-winning entrepreneur Taryn Williams has raised $750,000 in seed funding from Airtree Ventures to accelerate the growth of her creative marketplace TheRight.Fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next two months, we\u2019ll be fleshing out the team and executing some of the strategic plans,\u201d Williams tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe overarching goals haven\u2019t changed, we still want to be the best marketplace for creative talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategic support that Airtree offer and their wealth of contacts means we\u2019ll be able to get there much quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

TheRight.Fit platform gives brands and agencies one place to find and book anyone from social media influencers, models and actors through to stylists, photographers and videographers.<\/p>\n

In little over six months, it has attracted a talent pool of over 3000 people.<\/p>\n

Among the 1000 plus brands that have signed on to the platform are tycoon groups like Channel Ten, Boost Juice and Crown.<\/p>\n

Williams will be investing the seed funding into marketing and new hires as she works to rapidly grow its reach across Australia and overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one, we knew it needed to be high growth,\u201d says Williams.<\/p>\n

After funding the startup for 12 months with revenue generated from her first business WINK Models which turns over $3 million, Williams decided to bring in investors for TheRight.Fit, instead of sticking to bootstrapping and the organic growth route.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarketplaces are a bit of a winner-takes-most approach,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

By working with Airtree Ventures, Williams says they\u2019ll be able to really kickstart TheRight.Fit’s high growth plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about capital, it was about getting the right strategic partners,” she says.<\/p>\n

Here are Williams’ three tips for successful capital raising.<\/p>\n

1. Have a pitch deck on hand, even if you\u2019re not raising capital<\/h3>\n

Having materials like a functioning budget, modelling and pitch deck are important to have on hand even if a company\u2019s not looking to raise, says Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should know those things,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a first draft done last year when we launched.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a regular on the public speaking circuit, Williams also had a lot of collateral ready to go so when it came time to approaching investors, they just needed to fill in a few blanks.<\/p>\n

This helped them save a lot of time and they managed to close the round successfully within three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been warned [raising capital] is incredibly time consuming and incredibly scary,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was surprisingly quicker than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she encourages other founders embarking on the process to carve out sufficient time and resources for it.<\/p>\n

Fundraising is a full-time job, she says, and one she had to manage on top of her CEO role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joyful task of spending hours and hours slaving over Excel spreadsheets is really important to making sure your model looks and feels great, so you feel comfortable with it, and it\u2019s an accurate portrayal of where the business is going,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo your research [and] understand who the players are in the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t go in there blind and just looking for money.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Find investors that can fill in internal gaps<\/h3>\n

Before knocking on investor doors, Williams sat down with her executive team to figure out their internal knowledge and skills gaps.<\/p>\n

The exercise is helping Williams bring TheRight.Fit’s \u201cdream team\u201d to life and has led them to Airtree Ventures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made a big hit list of who would be on the dream team if we could pick the absolute best, what do we need to fill in the gaps in our team?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The list includes people who can be strategic partners, investors, advisors or provide ad hoc support.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving grown one business before and knowing how important it is to have the right people around you, I really wanted to have the best in breed from day one,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirtree Ventures are experts in marketplaces, they bring a wealth of wisdom, experience and contacts to the table.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a fantastic sounding board.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. If you’re not certain the investors share your startup’s vision and values, don’t sign the deal<\/h3>\n

Before signing the deal with Airtree Ventures, Williams examined every last detail of the deal, spending time with her CFO and lawyers to make sure she felt comfortable with the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to get it right and be across every element of it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When bringing onboard members and strategic investors, Williams says founders should find out whether they share the startup\u2019s vision, align well with its core values and goals, and can provide the resources, guidance and knowledge to help it on its trajectory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important when you\u2019ve put so much time, life, energy, blood, sweat and tears into it, to think about what these people can offer outside just cash injections,” she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to agree on what [the startup\u2019s] success looks like and how they can support it in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, <\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Award-winning entrepreneur Taryn Williams has raised $750,000 in seed funding from Airtree Ventures to accelerate the growth of her creative marketplace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,8,17,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}