Fundraising as a Diverse Founder, with Guests Simi Lindgren, Nick Telson and Farah Kabir

Not My First Guess

Recorded live from Sifted Summit, this episode unpacks the challenges of fundraising as a diverse founder, practical tips on fundraising, and what we can do at individual, organisational, and systems levels to fix inequities in the startup ecosystem.
Our incredible guests are:

• Simi Lindgren is the founder of Yuty, tackling bias in AI to match customers based on ethnicity, skin type and medical condition to the best beauty products. They raised £500k in their pre-seed, making Simi just the 10th black female founder to gain VC backing in the UK.
• Nick Telson took his first startup, Design My Night, to exit with just £500k in Angel funding. Since the acquisition, he's angel invested himself, and has just raised £1.6m for his new startup Trumpet at Pre-seed, based on 1800 pre-launch signups.
• Farah Kabir is the founder of Hanx, a sexual wellness and contraception company, busting the taboos on women buying intimacy products. They've raised £1.8m in angel funding.

Fundraising resources mentioned on the show

• Checkout diversity focussed funds and collectives like: Ada Ventures, Google's Black Founder Fund and Latino Founder Fund, Pink Salt Ventures, Case for Her, Cornerstone VC, Proud Ventures,
• Fundraising resources via we are radikl
• Advise on angel investing via Angel Investing School
• Communities like DiversityX, IfWeRaise,
• Hold VCs and investors to account with the Glassdoor for VC's Landscape.vc
• And listen to more fundraising tips on Nick's Podcast, Pitchdeck