183 days to go: recovering from burnout
A recap of week eight as a full-time Founder
Hey there 👋🏾,
For those of you who are short on time, here are the sections of the newsletter you may want to skip ahead to…
Win🏅: Received positive feedback about traction
Loss 🤕: My battery hit zero and overwhelm took over
Lessons 💡: There’s more to being good at fundraising than you think
Resources 📚: A map of 30,000 Angel syndicates across the globe
As always, I appreciate feedback, so feel free to leave comments or reply to this email with your thoughts.
🎯 Objective
Complete syndicate and pitch applications
Recharge my mental and emotional battery
Last week was rough.
For the first time, in a very long time, my tank was empty. Zero. Nada.
The end result was a very sad, stressed and tired me who, in all honesty, just wanted to stop but was also worried that I couldn’t afford to.
To end the tug-of-war that was happening in my head, I reached out to a community of Founders and asked for some advice. They all said the same thing:
Rest.
So, I did just that and took half the week off to recharge my battery and it was the best thing for me.
I can now sit here writing my newsletter on a Saturday afternoon with more headspace and energy because I chose to hit pause. Plus, contrary to what I thought, things did keep moving, and largely in a positive way.
This week’s newsletter is short and sweet, but I’ve shared the most important lessons learned from my experience of burnout.
🔋 Progress recap & highlights
Biggest wins
WIN 1️⃣: Automation performance update: 5x calls booked in ✅
Even though I took a break last week, my automations were still running (so I didn’t really have to worry about anything coming to a halt). Here’s the updated stats:
📧 926 people have opened my emails so far (up 3% WoW)
↩️ 55 or so people have replied (up 37% WoW)
🥈 40 people replied after the 2nd email in the series (up 33% WoW)
The emails combined with LinkedIn outreach, led to:
4 x investor calls booked in and 2x follow-ups in progress
1x potential partnership
Looking at this retrospectively, I now know that I can afford to pause. The beauty of automated outreach is I can continue to get calls booked without having to be present.
TIPS FOR AUTOMATIONS: If you have 3+ emails in an automation, each message should feel like it follows on from the previous one. I do this by referencing my last message in the first few lines (e.g. just following up on my last email / checking in again). While having an automation is convinient for you, it should still feel somewhat personal to the individual recieving it. WIN 2️⃣: Received positive feedback about traction (despite the no) ✅
A couple of weeks ago, we made it to the due diligence stage for a UK Angel Syndicate — which was huge, because about 97% of people don’t make it that far through their process.
But, I heard back from the team last week and we unfortunately didn’t make the cut.
Despite this, the syndicate did offer some really helpful feedback:
They believe the opportunity has a lot of merit (great to hear as we are a niche of the beauty market)
They were impressed with the amount of traction we’ve achieved so far (a huge win because this is something investors are hyper focussed on at the moment)
Given there isn’t a great feedback culture in the investor/VC space, this was a really positive experience. And even better, they’ve asked that we stay in touch so who knows what could happen in the future.
TIP FOR ASKING FOR FEEDBACK: Even though many investors won't offer feedback freely, it's still worth asking for (especially when they aren't interested in investing right now). Feedback can fall into several categories: you're delivery as a Founder, your business idea/concept or the financials and terms. Ask for feedback on the areas you think are weakest and see if there are any running themes that crop up from each investor that you speak to. WIN 3️⃣: My community of Founders stopped me from making a huge mistake ✅
On Tuesday, when my internal battery started to run flat, I decided to reach out to the Founders of the Keshty community to ask for some advice.
And I was very lucky to have so many supportive people jump in and save me from myself.
When I was considering pushing through and working for the rest of the week, they jumped in and said take some time off, recharge and jump back in next week. Someone also reminded me that investors have to see and feel my passion so if I’m burned out during conversations, that could cause more harm than good.
The penny finally dropped and I decided to take Wednesday - Friday off, replying only to high-priority emails and taking 2x calls that I didn’t want to risk rescheduling.
It goes to show that it pays to be surrounded by good people, because they will often catch you before you fall 💛.
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Biggest L’s 🤕
LOSS 😩: My battery hit zero and I felt very overwhelmed
This was me by Tuesday afternoon ☝🏾.
My tank was empty and I was starting to tap out.
By around 12 pm, I had had 2x calls with my mentees (which I love), an intro call with a lovely community manager, and more replies to my outreach.
Even with all of those positive things happening, I just felt a grey cloud over my head and couldn’t really shake it off. As an optimist, it takes quite a lot for me to hit bottom, so by the time I get there it’s also a challenge to pick myself up.
Even after an afternoon walk (in an attempt to feel better), I got home, stood next to my sofa and just sobbed. I couldn’t quite figure out what had happened, but something (or several things) had really thrown me off balance.
But the most important thing was acknowledging and accepting that I was not OK.
Once the tears had been shed (and trust me, there were plenty), I took a moment to reflect and understand how I got to this point. Here’s what I think it boiled down to:
Fundraising is exhausting and feels a bit like being on a hamster wheel 🐹 — you send emails, book calls, say the same things over and over, and wait to hear back from people. Sometimes investors don’t get back to you and people don’t follow through on their promises to offer help. I had been on the receiving end of both and some of that had left me feeling hurt.
No’s feel disheartening and can be draining 😩 — I dove into dealing with the no’s in my last newsletter, but as they accumulate, your battery can also run dry.
A lot of self-doubt had started to creep in — I had started to question whether my concept was good enough, whether I was good enough, or if anyone would care enough to take the risk (because let’s face it, investment is always a risk).
My battery had shown signs of running low, and I ignored it — I’m very guilty of powering through work for the greater good of getting sh*t done. I hate unfinished or unresolved things and will opt to finish what I started before I take some time off.
The best decision I made while freefalling was speaking to other people who are fundraising. As I mentioned in my wins, these Founders saved me by encouraging me to rest.
It was also perfect timing for a few reasons, 1) I’m speaking to a lot of American investors and last week was Thanksgiving which meant things would naturally slow down and 2) my family were visiting London and time with them means everything to me. I took 2.5 days off, got some rest, saw my family and now I feel like myself again.
But I say all of this to let other Founders know that it’s OK to have a day or two where you feel like trash, have no idea what you’re doing or just want/need to do a bit of ugly crying.
Running a business is hard. Fundraising is hard. They’re supposed to be, that’s why so few people go down this path.
What’s important is, when you get to that place, where everything feels tough, give your mind and body what it needs to recover.
Rest.
You can come back and conquer the world tomorrow.
TIP FOR RECOVERING FROM BURN OUT: The best advice I got last week was spend some time doing what you love most. For some people this means doing something business wise that energises them (maybe speaking to custoemrs?), and for others this means removing themselves from everything to do with business for a few days. I spent time with my family, exercised and ate great food. Just remember that recovery looks different to everyone, so you'll have to figure out what works best for you. 💡 Lessons learned
Quote of the week
Every experience is a valuable teacher — Oprah Winfrey
LESSON 👩🏾🏫: There’s more to being good at fundraising than you think
Very early on in my fundraising journey, I asked an investor for some advice about nailing the process. One thing they said really stuck with me:
“You have to learn to be good at it”.
At the time, I didn’t know what it meant to be good at raising. I just wanted to be one of the few who did it successfully.
While money in the bank is the end result that every Founder is looking for, in a world where most people get 100s of no’s before they get a ‘yes’, it’s really important to know how to identify that you’re on the path to getting a ‘yes’.
My problem was, I didn’t know how to judge my work beyond receiving a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
And that lack of understanding has made me feel like I’m failing even when good things have happened.
Think about it. Investor calls, feedback and support from the outside don’t fall into the yes/no checkbox of raising funds. They are signals though.
If you are:
Getting cold calls booked in
You are getting introductions from people who don’t know you well
Investors are offering you feedback
You are gradually making it further down the investment process
You are getting closer and closer to a yes. Nothing in the list above is a given and it’s really important to remember that some Founders aren’t getting replies, interest or investor face time.
I won’t pretend that I magically came to this conclusion all by myself — it took the kind words of two people for me to realise just how hard I had been on myself.
It pays to remember that raising is a marathon (even if you’d like it to feel like a sprint).
FUNDRAISING TIP: at the end of each week, look at all of the interactions you've had that relate to your raise. You will be surprised how much you've achieved in such a short space of time. These weekly check-ins will help you to see the milestones you're hitting along the way and will make the journey feel more rewarding.💥 Hack of the week
Switch notifications off when you’re taking time off
With the hundreds of apps, instant messengers and social networks at our fingertips, our phones are often a form of distraction (and stress).
That’s why I decided to turn most of my phone notifications off during my time off (and in hindsight, I wish I had turned them all off). Recharging also meant creating a healthy distance between myself, work and anything that could suck me into tasks.
Here’s what I did:
Do not disturb mode switched on after 5 pm: this means no notifications show on my phone at any time. I have to go into an app (e.g. email, LinkedIn) to see if there’s anything for me to tend to.
Set check-in times: I gave myself three check-in points a day. Morning, afternoon and evening, to control the screen time and reduce the chances of me tending to things that didn’t urgently need my attention.
Phone out of sight: As they say, out of sight, out of mind. I left my phone in my bag or in another room to create distance. This stopped me from using it much and led to my battery lasting 2 days straight without needing to be charged.
The result? Two days of virtually uninterrupted family time, a recharged brain and a slightly healthier relationship with my email inbox 😆. Highly recommend it to anyone who needs a well-deserved break!
📚 Resources
If you made it all the way to the end of this newsletter, you deserve a reward. So here’s a list of the best resources I came across last week to help you with your raise.
Investor lists
Networks to join
Keshty for Founders who are fundraising (reach out to Neda)
Astra Ventures (focus on backing early-stage diverse founders)
Valuations
Productivity
🧰 Founder’s toolbox
Anyone who knows me knows that I love finding tools, apps and systems to add to my arsenal. Each week, I’ll share 1-3 tools that I’ve added (or removed) from my toolkit and, hopefully, they’ll serve you well too. Here’s a list of the best tools that I found last week…
Justin Welsh’s LinkedIn Operation System Course
What’s it for: A course for anyone who wants to build an audience and community on LinkedIn
How it helped: This is a work in progress, but as I want to build a strong community of Founders and investors on LinkedIn, I decided to hop on a course. Unlike some of the other content courses, this is super accessible as it’s at a lower price point.
Price: $150 for lifetime access to all of the course materials
Rating: 5/5*, the advice is great so far!
Questions? 🤔
Feel free to drop any questions in the comments below! Until next week,
J x
P.S. Here are some of my other posts:
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Sorry to hear it was a rough week! Great you spotted the signs and rested. It’s all you can do in those moments. The highs are high and the lows can be painfully low. Another great read, thanks for sharing.