Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / GEMS: Raising From F&F with OOVA founder Amy Divaraniya
Transcript
- 0:09So then essentially, you know, you have something, you've raised a certain amount of capital. Is that public information? Are you able to share or is that not disclosed? Yeah. So we closed a seed round of 4.4 million right before the pandemic. So before the week before New York City shut down, we were able to secure that round. But that 4.4 was kind of collected over the span of a few years. So we did a friends and family round. We did a pre-seed round and then we did a seed round.
- 0:37Got it. The friends and family round is really where we use that prototype that we created. And that was a really humbling experience because you basically feel like you're laying all your cards on the table and you're allowing the people closest to you to kind of evaluate you. And for me, it was really nerve wracking. But then what they would tell me as I'm like pitching my idea, like, Amy, I don't care what the idea is. If you're doing this, I want to invest in you.
- 1:06And I was like, okay, like, what have I done to make you have that much confidence in me? Because I don't know if I have that in me yet. That's amazing. But it was very humbling. I love that. So I think a lot of founders are nervous to ask friends and family for money. If done the right way, I think it's a really...
- 1:23great thing to do. It's a great thing to do because it's relatively, you're not going to collect a ton of money there, but it's a great boost of confidence for you as a founder. But also, it's also really expensive money to take because I carry that weight on me every day, right? With every decision, I'm like, oh my God, this is my friend's child, like my friend's kids' college money right now that I'm playing with. That always enters my head. But I think it's a great driver for you to keep going every day as well.
- 1:53Yeah, absolutely. Gosh, I can imagine it would weigh on you having your best friends or a family member or something like that money that you're essentially spending.
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