How do you raise capital with no business background?

Jason Kirby (00:02.026) Welcome to episode 23 of Fundraising Demystified, the podcast where we uncover the untold stories of startup founders who have raised capital to bring their visions to life. Join me, Jason Kirby, as I interview these founders and dive into the hidden truths of how they got funded. If you have not already subscribed, be sure to visit join.thunder.vc to get our weekly newsletter that demystifies the process of accessing capital and deploying venture capital. Today, we have Julia Pimsleur. CEO and author of Million Dollar Women, a company helping women founders grow their businesses past one million in revenue. Her last company, Little Pim, was a venture-backed ed tech startup company that she raised several million for and ended up leading into a successful exit. Julia opens up about the difficulty of raising capital as a female entrepreneur, how she sold her last company, and now how she supports female founders. It's an eye-opening episode. Let's dive in. Thanks for coming on the show, Julia. JULIA (00:14.291) Excited to be here Jason. Jason Kirby (00:15.914) excited to have you. You have a very interesting background as someone that's raised venture capital many years ago, about 10, 15 years ago, and basically doing it again now. Tell us a little bit about your background and you know what you're doing at Million Dollar. JULIA (00:30.775) Well, I'm not a typical entrepreneur journey, if there is such a thing, in the sense that I started out as a documentary filmmaker and then decided I wanted to create a language teaching program for young children. So that was my first venture-backed business. Little Pym, right? What's the connection there? Basically I was home on maternity leave with my first son and knew I wanted to teach him French. There was nothing on the market to teach little kids a second language, even though that's the time they learn languages best. I grew up bilingual. Jason Kirby (00:46.039) Hahaha JULIA (01:00.711) in French and English, thought that was just one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me and thought, well, somebody should really create that. I spent about three months saying, someone should make this language teaching program for young children and eventually realized that someone was me. So I started it with just a lot of passion and I did have the filmmaking background. We made a multimedia series that could be seen on any screen, any size, anywhere. Started with six languages, got up to 13 languages. So really kind of planted a flag and said, okay, we're the leader. If you want to teach your young child, the second language and the first few years, you know, we grew pretty quickly. We got to about 400,000 in revenues. And then the fact that I had not gone to business school, I didn't have a finance background, I had no entrepreneurial training really caught up with me. And I really almost threw in the towel on the business. I got so exhausted. I know you're a dad. I had two little boys at home at the time. They were three and six. And I was putting in these. crazy long hours and working on weekends and started feeling like this isn't even really worth it. And that was when I got my first coaches and mentors and figured out how to take the business up to a million and then ultimately multi-million through raising venture capital, which, you know, I know we're going to talk all about here today, but that was how I got started as an entrepreneur. Jason Kirby (02:18.51) No, that's an amazing journey. Just kind of throwing yourself into it too. Just like, I want to solve this problem, no one else is solving it and making it happen despite the forces against you. But, you know, being that the show is all about demystifying the fundraising experience, kind of walk us through what it was like raising capital back then. What were you doing? You know, kind of talk to us about the time period and how much you raised. Kind of give us some of the details. JULIA (02:41.003) When I decided to raise venture capital, it was a little bit out of desperation, meaning I was like, okay, I either have to shut this thing down or figure out how to go big. And that took an incredible mindset upgrade. I really had a lot of limiting beliefs about what was possible for me as a woman founder. I had never met any woman who'd built a multi-million dollar business. Didn't know anyone who'd raised capital. I did eventually meet one woman who had raised venture capital and she shared her term sheet with me, which was like amazing. And I'm still friends with her today. I still remind her and thank her. That was a game changer. But I had to do a lot of inner work and a lot of research. I sat down with tons of entrepreneurs who had raised capital, all men, and said, you know, what'd you learn? How did it go? And I'm so thrilled there are resources like your podcast now to make it easier for people. But I spent nine, 10 months researching. Because even though I didn't know much about raising capital, I had a hunch, and I was right, that you only get one shot at each potential investor. So I wanted to make sure I knew I wouldn't become fluent in venture capital, but I wanted to be at least conversational, drawing on, you know, language teaching metaphors. So I just read a lot of books, talked to a lot of people, did a lot of pitching to board members and advisors, had them kick the tires. I remember a lot of, you know, just practice runs at it and eventually started going out and meeting people. Jason Kirby (04:07.234) How did you go about meeting those people? How did you go about finding those people to meet and talk to? JULIA (04:13.047) Mainly through one person who really believed in me. That was the start of it. I want to give credit to my best friend from high school's father who worked in banking. My parents were academics, so I really didn't have that example. My father did create the Pimsleur method, which is a best-selling language teaching method. It's owned by Simon and Schuster. So people think like, oh, you grew up at the foot of this entrepreneur. But in fact, he created the method and it was really incredible and game-changing for the language teaching world for adults. not for little kids. And then unfortunately he passed away when I was only eight. Like I really didn't get, you know, to see him build that beyond there. It was then taken over by other companies. And it wasn't until I was in my twenties that was a successful business. So interestingly, I grew up with my mom, single mom, teacher trying to support, you know, our family here in New York City. I've been working since I was 13, went all through high school and college on scholarship. And so when I went out to have those conversations, I really didn't have very many people to have them with, but I did have my best friend from high school's father and I sat down with him over lunch. He'd always been very mentorly to me. And I remember I better bring a budget. So I brought this printed out Excel budget. And at lunch, he said, you know, so where do you want to go with this company? And I was like, well, look, we've only been in business for a year. We've made $158,000. I didn't even quit my job yet. I'm just managing this amazing woman I found who worked three days a week. And I... I send her messages on my Blackberry before work and at lunch. But we've somehow made 158,000 and there's so much potential here. And he was sold. I mean, he had some connections to France. I really loved the French language. I think it was personal for him, plus our relationship. And I'll never forget, he said, "'Well, how much do you need?' And I was like, I think I need a million. And I pulled the Excel spreadsheet out of my bag and put it on the table and we went through it together. And then he said these five words that really changed my life. where he said, I can help you get. JULIA (06:10.795) And of course, in my mind, Jason, that was like, he was gonna write a million dollar check. It was like, great, I got the check. What it really meant was he was willing to introduce me to people he knew who were in his social circles, who had already invested in other startups. This was really my first foray into this world. I had no idea how it worked. But I went to all these meetings and probably met with, I don't know, maybe 40, 50 people that fall was able to raise a Series A. I had already raised some friends and family before that, but really very little, just enough to like make the pilot and produce those first few videos that we were selling. So that was the game-changing moment. And he taught me a lot about how to pitch, how to get the, not just get the meeting, but get the check. Jason Kirby (06:59.886) Yeah, it's one thing to maybe get a meeting, but when it comes down to actually getting that cash in your bank account, it's a different story sometimes. JULIA (07:06.551) Well, and then there's also that gender difference. Sorry to interrupt, but I know you said, well, what's the difference raising while female, right? When we had our little prep call. And I would say for women, there's a much higher incidence of you can get the meeting, but you can't get the check. Of course it's hard for any founder pitching, but I think because there are fewer of us out there, when you reach out to a VC and they're sort of intrigued, it's like, okay, I'll hear what you got. You obviously must have something if you got this far. So they will take the meeting, but then we don't. get the check that often. So that's one thing we're helping women with it, million dollar women. Jason Kirby (07:41.934) So there's a couple of things I want to unpack there. I want to go back to the series A, but I think just with the point you just mentioned right there, why do you think that is? Why do you think that women may get the meeting, but not the check? JULIA (07:53.515) Well, studies have shown that we all have this unconscious confirmation bias, right? Where we tend to believe that people who are like us will do a better job. It comes up in hiring, right? Plus, VCs are all about pattern recognition. So there haven't been as many successful women-run companies compared to, you know, male-run companies. I mean, the stats right now are pretty dismal. In 2022, 1.9% of venture capital. went to women run companies. Now that's exclusively women run companies. It goes up a little more if it's a team that has women and men on it or people who don't identify solely as women. So that's a big challenge. And then there are very few women VCs. So you're mainly pitching to people who don't share your experience, like in my case, coming up with a language teaching program for young children. Studies show that moms at the time anyway, were doing 85% of the purchasing of educational materials for their kids. So we had a lot of VCs saying, oh, this sounds interesting. Let me ask my wife, as opposed to having had any real experience with buying these educational products for their kids, which was a huge multi-billion dollar market, but just not one that touched their everyday life. Jason Kirby (09:07.758) I think it's a valid point. And I think you brought up a term called pattern recognition, which, you know, I think a lot of entrepreneurs just don't really get why they don't get meetings or why things don't progress. Um, and it has a lot to do with this thing called pattern recognition. They see thousands of deals and, you know, they see them kind of kind of pushing to see a deal like, okay, I saw you do ABC here and I saw it happen, you know, somewhere else it didn't work. So it's just an automatic like blocker. And, you know, unfortunately, if you don't. JULIA (09:34.377) Yeah. Jason Kirby (09:36.446) look, act and talk like me. I don't know if you will do what I'm capable of doing. Therefore I don't feel comfortable investing, which is a very. JULIA (09:44.243) Well, and it's the founder and it's the company, right? Because so in my case, they might've believed that I was the right person at the right time to do this. I was the daughter of a Pinsler, you know, I had a filmmaking background. There were reasons to think I could pull this off, but at the same time, they had never heard of a kids' company that had sold for, you know, a billion dollars or anything. So I referenced Rosetta Stone a lot, which is not as big a brand today, but at the time they were in every airport, every magazine on the plane, right? So... Jason Kirby (10:09.11) Thank you. JULIA (10:12.011) When I came up with the phrase, it's like Rosetta Stone for little kids, that was like, kaching. People started to get it. And so I often recommend to female founders who were like, oh, well, this isn't like anything anybody knows. It's like, well, find something they know and say that it's at least in that family because it's gonna be very hard, especially if you're a first time founder, for them to imagine you doing something. They haven't seen very many people like you do. Building a company they've really never seen. Reach great success. Jason Kirby (10:43.674) That's a great advice. I want to go back. You mentioned the Series A. You had met your father's friend, given you amazing connections, introductions, and so on. You had previously raised a little bit of capital from friends and family. I guess to come to talk about this, how much did you raise at the friends and family level, and then how far did that get you to the point where you guys went out and raised your Series A, and how much did you raise for your Series A? JULIA (11:06.387) Yes, so we raised 460,000 from the friends and family. We had only raised enough to sort of produce the first few videos by the time I sat down with the friend of the family. And then we were able to raise 1.1 million in our series A and then another 1.2 million. And over time, we raised a total of 6 million. I'm going to say it was 2008 to 2014. So that was like a long journey. But we kept raising the valuation, going into new markets. We entered the early education market in daycare centers, expanded to other countries. Ultimately, we were in over 10 countries. So that was a lot of where that kept us. Jason Kirby (11:27.365) I just, you know, for... Jason Kirby (11:48.946) And I think it's interesting because like, you know, everyone listening to this podcast now thinks series A is like, you know, five, 10, $20 million rounds. And, you know, this, the reality back then, that was not the case. And there wasn't really seed or pre-seed back then. It's something that's kind of continuously to evolve in most recent years. JULIA (12:05.143) That's true, no one used the term seed back then. It was just convertible note straight to series A. Jason Kirby (12:10.782) Yeah, that's exactly what it was. Um, I remember I was one of my first venture back company in 2013. We were trying to raise a million dollars on a $3 million valuation for our series. Hey, it's just like, that's like laughable. JULIA (12:23.762) I think my first valuation was something like six million. No, not the very first. I think it was like three million. Ultimately, it was six million, you know, as we got further into the rounds, but not the crazy inflated numbers you're seeing today at all. Jason Kirby (12:36.818) Yeah, it's a completely different game now. There's a lot of attention in the space now. But so you basically let's walk us through that. You basically at the end of 2014, you raise some additional capital, but you ended up selling the company. You ended up having a win here, having a victory. Like, tell us about that journey. Like what ultimately led to the company having an acquisition? JULIA (12:49.235) Yeah, yeah, we exited. JULIA (12:56.563) Yeah, well, I wrote the book behind me, this Million Dollar Women, about my journey building the company. That was about seven years in. And right around that same time, I realized that we were gonna have to convert completely to digital because just taking us back, this was DVDs. We sold many millions of worth of product at Toys R Us, Babies R Us, right, it was another time. And so when I saw that, I thought, okay, let's bring in a new CEO who's digital native will really take us to that next place. And so after I wrote this book, wound up pivoting and becoming a coach for women business owners, now building a tech platform for women business owners, which we can get into later. But I really wanna shout out my board because they stayed loyal to the company right through many years later, working with new CEOs. I took a step back, I was on the board, but not involved in the day-to-day. We handed off to the new CEO. And this is not something people talk about enough because it's not always this. this really clear road, right? Of like, you build it and seven years in, you sell it, and then you can do whatever you want the rest of your life. It's not always like that. So in my case, it was like, I was ready to step away and it wasn't the right person to keep running it. We brought in a new CEO, I started this new business, but then after a few years, we thought, okay, it's time to sell. Like we wanna sell. So we put it out, we had several offers, and the one we liked best for multiple reasons was from a longstanding partner. Nango Languages, which bought the company and is taking it to new heights, especially in the library market where they're very strong. And they had been one of our biggest partners for a decade. So that was a really great, longstanding relationship. We were happy to see our IP land in their home. Jason Kirby (14:39.03) When did you realize that you are not the CEO to take it to the next level? JULIA (14:45.451) Well, you know, it's very personal running businesses, right? I mean, especially if you created it partly inspired by your children. So for seven years, my kids were the target customer age, right, because our program was for little kids zero to six to learn French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian. That's the age kids learn best. My kids were that age. I was our target demographic, that mom. But as my kids moved into like middle school, right? And I wasn't with those same moms. I didn't really know what those moms needed or wanted. Of course. My head of marketing was on top of that, but I just didn't feel as connected to it. And I wanted the company to succeed more than I wanted to be the one running it. And saw that sometimes founders hang on too long, you know, they, it's not always the best thing for the company. And I didn't want to be one of those founders. I thought if I don't have that, you know, make it happen passion every single morning for this anymore, you know, seven, eight years in, then let's find someone who does and let them take a crack at it. Jason Kirby (15:42.338) I think that's a profound execution of fiduciary responsibility as a CEO to recognize that you staying in that position can actually be more negative impact to the company, as opposed to bringing someone in over time to grow and eventually lead to an exit. And I think that's something that you did a very good job of explaining that kind of thought process. And I feel a lot of founders should look at themselves and just, you know, assuming that, yeah, I think it takes the business getting to some kind of sustainability. JULIA (16:10.015) it's not easy to step away, right? Cause you have your identity very wrapped up in it. But I also think it's good to realize like you're not the company, the company's not you, especially once you take venture money, right? I had a lot of board members and was so grateful that they helped shepherd the company through, you know, everything that came after that right through to the sale, same board. So that's something I always like to share because I know a lot of people are afraid to raise capital because they're like, well, they don't have all these people in my business. You know, I want to make all the decisions. And that is true, but you also have other people who care about your baby. And that is really amazing, especially if, you know, you decide to do something else and want help shepherding it into a new era or when you're making the sale. So there are a lot of upsides to having those board members and ambassadors, as long as you have the right ones. Jason Kirby (16:58.786) And I think that's the key point is like, you are, when you take money from other people, expect a five to 10 year relationship and make sure that you wanna see, you wanna see that person's face for the next five to 10 years. And that they also wanna see yours and engage with you and make sure that you're coachable. That's one of the kind of the key factors that VCs look for is that you're. relationship over a long time. So, all right. So you, you ended up selling the company, but in the midst of all that, you were not necessarily maybe day to day in the company when it goes and sells, but still a victory notch in the belt, exciting. And I'm sure that kind of helps contribute to your network at Million Dollar Women. Give us kind of the update on where you're at with Million Dollar Women. JULIA (17:40.619) Yeah, so for about five years after I left Little Pym, I was just coaching about 100 women a year through an executive education program we built online. I stayed in the EdTech lane and wanted to build some scalable way of helping more women get to 1 million. We talked about the stats for venture capital, but there are some parallel stats for women in business where just two to 3% of women business owners ever get to 1 million in revenues. And that's just getting off go in the business world. That's just table stakes, getting to one million. So when we got to a million at Little Pym, I got calls from journalists, it was this whole big thing, and I was like, why are you even calling me? It's just a million. And they were like, at the time, there were like only 1.9% of women ever get there. So as someone who had been a women's studies minor in college and just really interested in closing the economic gender gap, I thought, this is my next thing. The book tackled the topic, but I knew women really just needed access to coaching and mentorship. and business skills like I was able to get when I needed that help. So for five years we've been doing that and also having summits. We have about 25,000 women on our mailing list. We've been helping over the years. And the pandemic was a big turning point, Jason, because things really fell apart for women's small business owners and that's who we were working with. So we realized that our business model of an affordable but still an investment business program, they could take, you know, five to six thousand dollars. way better than $100,000 for business school, but still an investment, we thought let's create something where any woman business owner anywhere in the country can get access. So we launched a tech platform that is for learning and networking for women business owners who are making between 50,000 and 750,000, wanting to get to a million. And it turns out that is what I like to call the invisible majority of women business owners because folks in the VC and angel ecosystem sometimes forget that the women they see fundraising are really just about 2% of all women entrepreneurs. 98% of women entrepreneurs are either not raising capital or raising alternative capital. And they don't have a YPO or EO or Vistage or any of these organizations. So this is the first time that that's been accessible to them and we are super excited about building it. Jason Kirby (20:00.574) You know, I like to unpack that last point a little bit more in terms of these mentor groups or peer groups that I'm familiar with, you know, EEO, the entrepreneur organization, you know, YPO, and there's, there's so many out there, but they are not exclusive to men, but they are predominantly, you know, men in those groups, um, you know, kind of walk us through what those groups do, what your groups do that really kind of changed the game for founders. If, you know, the founders listening are familiar with these peer groups. Kind of what's the real value out of these types of groups? JULIA (20:32.211) Yeah, I mean, I think anyone who's running a business knows that it's incredibly lonely. You're making really tough decisions all day long. Your, the secret to your business growth really is in your network, whether you're at raising capital or just doing deals or looking to hire the best people for your team. And so that's why people join entrepreneurs, organizations and YPO's, but they all have a revenue minimum to join. So EO it's a million, YPO I think it's something like 10 million. And if you look at what women business owners are making, there's just a tiny handful of them who even qualify for those organizations. I was in entrepreneurs organization for six years. I served on the board for four of those years, made some incredible friends, got so much value out of it, but ultimately felt like I wanna go build something like this, but fully online so that women could access it from anywhere for all the people who are not in the room. And that is about 14 million women entrepreneurs. And that number is going up so fast, Jason. So many women are starting businesses, especially post pandemic. Like they don't wanna go back to the office, as we all know, and not being able to have that flexibility, especially those who have a family. So we're seeing a big increase in women starting businesses. And this is the future. A lot of women in the gig economy, I'm sure you're even seeing it in your own circles. Jason Kirby (21:52.022) I am curious, like, you know, it's a big jump from running a $50,000, $150,000 revenue business that's a normal lifestyle, complimentary business to your life, to making it a real business in some cases, as one might say, to get to that million plus mark. Is that the right path for everyone? Or is it like, I guess, how do you, how do women kind of make that decision on if that's the right or any business owner? to make that decision. JULIA (22:21.943) Right. Well, because we're million dollar women, we tend to attract women who have big ambitions, right? So we get the women who have a business that's working, but maybe they just don't know how to double their revenues or maybe they don't know the scalable part of it. I remember one of our grads, Shelly, she's from Florida, first time entrepreneur, black woman in, I think it's Tampa or that area. And she has a pole fitness studio where women come and their workout is like with a pole, right? Dancing, super fun. But she came to us and she was like, I don't wanna be standing in the studio all day. I love what I do, but there's gotta be another way of delivering this incredible experience. So going through our 12 week online program, we helped her figure out how to make an app instead of, or as a compliment, to coming into the studio. She created that app right before the lockdown for the pandemic. And I hadn't been in touch with her in a couple of months because she was done with the program and. about six months into the pandemic, I got this DM on Facebook and she was like, Julia, you're not gonna believe this. I just made $108,000 in three months. And it was the app. It turns out that women wanted her to send them the poll. So they would install a poll themselves in their house and then do the workouts on the app. And she's now Jason at 2 million in revenues and considering raising capital. You know those stories, right? So sometimes it's just that no one has sat down with them and said, how else can you run this company? I had the benefit of that in EO with mentors and coaches and Vern Harnes, who created a lot of the curriculum that EO uses in its accelerator program that I went through. They ask these questions and most women I talk to in our programs, we also have three other coaches. So it's not just me with a big team and a board and advisors. Jason Kirby (23:42.93) is an amazing thing. Those are the best. JULIA (24:08.675) Most of the women have never had someone to walk them through those questions and help them figure out how do you make this business more scalable. Jason Kirby (24:17.01) I guess, you know, now having your history of building a little PIM, raising capital, looking at the markets today, you know, granted still a very small amount of the giant pool of venture capital goes to women, but what's kind of your thoughts on how fundraising is today in comparison to what it was, you know, years ago when you were raising capital? JULIA (24:41.823) Right. Well, anyone raising capital right now is definitely fighting an uphill battle. This is a tough time with the markets where they are. So I think this is one of those moments where we're seeing a lot of consolidation. We're seeing people pressing pause on their fundraising. We just raised four hundred thousand dollars for a pre-seed. And it was way harder than anything I had to do 10 years ago, where I think people were really, like, hungry for these opportunities, where I think right now is a big wait and see moment. Right. Because I'm always. helping women raise capital for their companies and they don't always get that for the investors, it usually makes sense to just wait and see, right? If they reach those milestones. And so unless you've got some kind of a real external pressure, like reason to raise the money, I remember Jeff Beck who was on your podcast talked about how he had a goal of raising everything by November, in part because there was something very seasonal about his business where that made sense and all the investors got. I had that same thing with Little Pim. I remember closing one of my $1.1 million rounds and saying, we have to get this money in by the summer so we can make these big marketing bets and have it pay off in Q4, where we make 40% of our revenue as a children's product company or a tech product company. So investors got that and were willing to, you know, get off the sidelines. But it's not always easy to make that happen, especially in these kind of adverse market conditions. Jason Kirby (26:08.894) Yes. Market stuff right now, especially, you know, one thing I wore in founders and they come to us and they're just like, we're launching in three weeks and we're raising like a million dollars or whatever it is. And then I was like, well, do you have enough runway to get three weeks? They're like, yeah. I was like, well, let's see what happens. You know, it's like something that's. Yeah, it's. JULIA (26:28.468) It's like, just to get the phone call. Yeah. I mean, when you meet the right person, it can go very quickly, right? But often it's a very long, slow process. And I'm certainly a big believer in the method you've talked about on your podcast of having a monthly update, keeping people informed. I figured out early on when I was fundraising, I probably pitched to, I don't know, over 400 people at this point, given the last raise and this raise. that for me, what keeps me sane when I'm fundraising is thinking about it as friend raising, not fundraising, because a very small subset of the people you talk to are going to be your investors. But lots of people you talk to could be folks you stay friends with, folks you refer people to, people who will come and speak at one of your events, someone who's going to promote your next book or you're going to promote their next book. So that is part of how I get through all these conversations is a good outcome is like, hey, I made a new relationship and who knows where that'll go. Jason Kirby (27:29.23) And that's why I tell founders like, uh, you know, when you come into those meetings, don't necessarily come with your pitch hat on and force shovel your pitch down in their throat. It's more of like, get to know that person on the other side, have a human to human conversation and build that rapport, then they'll ask you questions about your, but they should have looked at your decorator. They should have an idea. They took the meeting. You know, there's already some level of interest there. Spend that time wisely as you say, friend raising, uh, you know, which we might make that a clip. from the podcast, I like the friend raising. JULIA (28:00.671) Well, if they start leaning in, you know you have something, right? If they're kind of asking you more things and they really want to dig in, but if it's like, oh, yeah, that sounds cool. That's great. Oh, you know, my sister did something like that. You know, then you're probably not going to be getting that check or wire transfer. Jason Kirby (28:16.698) incredible signaling in a conversation is if they lean in and continue to probe about the business, it's a good sign. If they say, wow, sounds like you got something really great. Then they just kind of like leave it at that. Or they just kind of like, wow, sounds like you figured it all out or sounds like you're going to do great. JULIA (28:28.215) I'm sorry. JULIA (28:35.843) Yeah, but you know what? It's all kind of a big game in the end of not it, right? Okay, this is not it. So let's keep moving because maybe the next one is it. And if you're not up for that, then definitely shouldn't fundraise because I only know one person in all the people I've ever met who raised $5 million on the first conversation. It's a woman I interviewed for my series on LinkedIn called Go Big Now Live. And she ran a yoga studio. There was a woman who took the classes of the yoga studio. She pitched to that woman's husband, he was in private equity, and he wrote a $5 million check. I have never heard a story like that before or after that story. Jason Kirby (29:15.45) Unfortunately, during this podcast, I definitely heard of those stories where it's just like, yeah, they do exist. Those are- JULIA (29:17.823) You have? Oh, good. Well, I'm glad they're out there. Not so much among women. We tend to be like out there really hustling, talking to, you know, hundreds of people. Jason Kirby (29:28.19) Yeah, I would classify more as boys club type fundraising, where it's like, they're already a part of the club, they already have the relationship there, then they're of high net worth individuals. And, um, you know, it's, it's an easier conversation when they've known each other for years, whether they went to college, those types of things. So I do see those types of things happen. We even have 5 million. I think that's a bit of a stretch, especially from a single individual. That's a big thing. I would say that's probably unusual that I don't really see, you know, 5 million get deployed on the first check. JULIA (29:49.803) Right, yeah, that's a pretty big first check. That's not bad. JULIA (29:57.551) Well, you brought up something that's another one of those differences between men and women raising, which is that most guys I know who've been to a college where they kept a bunch of buddies, maybe they were in a fraternity, maybe they went to Ivy League, maybe they didn't, you know, they have gotten a phone call at some point or another from someone who's like, hey, Bill, I just started this really cool company. And remember George, he's in for 25K. Are you in for 25K too? And when I say to women, have you ever gotten that phone call? Jason Kirby (29:57.91) Especially for all your friends. JULIA (30:26.823) I mean, women who I went to Yale with, women who graduated from Stanford, Harvard, you know, George Washington, they're like, no, I've never gotten that phone call. Now, I'm sure some women have, but way fewer than men. It's a lot more accepted among guys to call each other and do that. Whereas for women, we're still trying to undo a lot of socialization around raising money, talking about money, you know, is that somehow unfeminine to be out? asking for money, there's all kinds of stuff we've got to break through. And so I think it's really up to my generation and the generations coming right after me to set a whole new precedent for what it means to be a woman raising money, maybe raising a family at the same time and have it be acceptable to go to your network and raise that first friends and family, which can then be the on-ramp to that series A ultimately. But a lot of women just never get this. Jason Kirby (31:22.722) So let's conclude and dive a little bit more on that. Just like, what would be your advice to women out there that think they got something big? Maybe they already have something that, you know, is progressing and making progress. What's your advice to them? JULIA (31:37.959) My advice to women who want to raise capital is always to figure out where that capital is going to take you and is there a big enough opportunity to go pursue Angel or venture. Because I get a lot of women coming to me saying, I think we're going to make 15 million in five years. And they're really super excited about that. But then I have to sort of rain on their parade and say, well, that's really not going to catch the attention of an Angel or VC. So if there really is. least like a hundred million dollar opportunity here that could ultimately be valued at a billion dollars or so. Now you're on to something. But I think women really need to learn the game before they go out and play the game. That's what I did. I spent nine, 10 months studying and not suggesting anybody does that. Now it can go much quicker with podcasts like yours. But to talk to people who've raised, maybe hire a coach, get some mentors to help you and figure out how this game is played, because it's been played like this for a couple hundred years. And we're trying to shift it slowly so that women are a bigger part of the angel in VC world, but it's still very much a boys club the way it stands. So got to learn how it works. Got to make sure you got your numbers together, can pitch really well and can make a case for why your company is going to be the next most amazing thing. Jason Kirby (32:55.882) I love that. And thank you for sharing that feedback. Now, where can everyone that's listening learn more about you and your book and Million Dollar Women? JULIA (33:04.915) Yeah, so we're really excited about working with women who are making 50,000 all the way up to a million. We do have some programs for women making one to three million. It's all at millionwomen.com. And I also can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all the places. So if you follow me, we'd love to keep you informed of our upcoming events and online opportunities and offline opportunities. Jason Kirby (33:30.302) Well, we'll definitely make sure to link those in the show notes down below. But Julia, it's been an absolute pleasure hearing your story, hearing your journey, and being able to share that with our audience. So thank you for joining today. JULIA (33:40.651) Thanks so much for inviting me and creating a space for this important conversation about women and venture capital. We're going to see a lot of changes and your podcast is going to help to make them. So thank you. Jason Kirby (33:51.27) I plan to see it happen. I think there's enough things in motion nowadays with the resources and content available that hopefully we'll start to see more and more women that want it get it. All right. JULIA (34:03.583) Absolutely. Thanks so much, Jason. Jason Kirby (34:06.862) Awesome. All right, go ahead and stop.