Financials
"If you are a founder, your #1 characteristic is that you must have perseverance"
Our favorite quote
"If you are a founder, your #1 characteristic is that you must have perseverance"
Our favorite quoteHow She Started: Being a founder is very risky. Why did you decide to be an entrepreneur?
Angela Hood: I believe that some entrepreneurs are born and I absolutely was just born like this. I just don't know any other way. If I see an important problem, that I care about and that can scale, then I am driven to solve it.
HSS: How were you able to raise $16.5M?
AH: I tapped into every resource that I could possibly think of and I was very direct about how I discussed the opportunity. I told them “This is a huge problem, the TAM (Total Addressable Market) is enormous, and the solutions out there are inadequate. I have the right team and strategy to execute.”
I wasn't going to fling something against the wall and hope it sticks. I conveyed that message to some incredible professional, female investors, and they in turn brought more investors to the table.
HSS: How did you acquire your first customers?
AH: I told them “I want to work with you to understand your problem. Then I want to bring a solution to you. I want you to tell me if it works, and if it doesn't work, I want you to tell me why. I’ll go back and fix that. We focused on solving very specific pain points.
Initially you need to partner with people that you're not charging so that you really understand the problem. Once you define the problem you can find the solution that's going to be meaningful. Then you need to understand how they pay. Are they buying out of their own budget? Are they buying out of a different budget? What is the compliance process?
Once you get to a point where you provide value, you need to scale within the organization. You say “I've been helping you on these 3-4 jobs at a time to learn, and now I know how to help you on the thousands of jobs you need to fill.”
When you start to negotiate contracts, start small. Often, stories about landing massive deals overlook the extensive groundwork and initial small-scale efforts involved.
HSS: How do you retain your customers?
AH: We work on making sure we've got a strong procurement package, that we’re compliant, and have contracts that are easy to understand.We also have a great product. We’ve spent the majority of our resources on engineering and product development because we need to make sure that we're selling a product that works.
HSS: How did you handle the competition?
AH: We defined a niche within the competitive space. We positioned ourselves as talent sourcers committed to eliminating bias through technology, distinguishing us from conventional service providers. We built proprietary technology to solve this problem and are not a service. As a result, we were able to carve out a niche within a value vertical.
I spent a good amount of time reading books that define how to go to market and how to navigate competition within the space. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore is a big one, but the two that I use most importantly is Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It by April Dunford.
As you look back on the company, what's a large turning point?
AH: Our partnership with IBM that started almost two years ago has really helped us carve out space with enterprise companies. This partnership has provided us with access to a significant footprint of business and greater awareness in the marketplace.
HSS: What is your growth strategy?
AH: I learn lessons daily, so I don't have enough time to list them all! Here are my top 4.
Firstly, if you are a founder, your #1 characteristic is that you must have perseverance. You need to persevere daily through things that you may or may not have seen coming. When surprises arise, you need to solve it.
Second, ask for help. It always surprised me that when I needed to ask for help from a partner or from a company that I didn't know very well. I anticipated resistance, but they were incredibly welcoming. It opened the door for me to ask for help and help them in return. Founders sometimes tend to think that they need to solve everything alone, and that's completely not true.
Third, we adopted an operational framework, called EOS (Entrepreneur Operating System) Tooltip ( a system with concepts and practical tools that help create alignment within the business). We use that throughout our company, and it's really given me a way to take a step back and let my leadership team make decisions. Entrepreneurs are not good at everything, and EOS allows my team to take the lead topics that I’m not as skilled at. Lastly, you should make sure your team is diverse, so they bring diverse viewpoints. Diversity makes a business stronger.
HSS: Do you have any advice for female founded businesses?
AH: You're going to have to remember that you are a female and that comes with unconscious bias. I can go into a room as the founder and CEO of the company, but if I'm with my CTO, who is a man, VC firms will talk to my CTO. We almost must remind them that I'm the CEO.
- Insight: Leverage your network and be direct with your ask.
- Insight: If you can clearly and concisely describe the problem that your solution is solving, you will grow a support system that can advocate on your behalf.
- Insight: When you’re not charging customers, they tell you more.
- Insight: If you can demonstrate success in a small sample then it will open the door to more lucrative contracts.
- Insight: Overnight successes are often years in the making.
- Insight: Make it easy for your customers to use and apply your product to their organization.
- Insight: Create a specific niche within a vertical with a large TAM to differentiate your business.
- Insight: Forge partnerships that are mutually beneficial.
- Insight: Perseverance leads to success.
- Insight: Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- Insight: Diversity leads to more resilient solutions.
I messaged Angela and we scheduled a time to meet.
I've always been passionate about women helping other women. I created this blog to tell stories of successful female-founded businesses. Hopefully, these stories will help inspire more women to found their own businesses.