The right kind of help, demystifying investors, and five minimum requirements

Jessica Dick spends most of her time helping early-stage entrepreneurs navigating the fundraising process. As co-founder of consultancy Five Years Time, she ushers entrepreneurs from technical backgrounds into the world of business. As investment manager at Synergy Growth, she has worked with around thirty different start-ups. What better guest could there be for the Invested Investor? In this episode, Jessica breaks down the issues with the ways many novice entrepreneurs ask for help, and outlines her five minimum requirements for being ready to seek investment. Jess manages a portfolio of investments of around 25 startups in the field of cleantech, social impact, healthtech, edtech, B2B and B2C software. She has worked directly with the startups as an advisor, board observer, and on a project basis - in investment readiness and fundraising, operations, business planning and strategy. Jess also mentors entrepreneurs outside of her investment portfolio, with Google Launchpad, London & Partners, Entrepreneurial Spark, Angel Academe, Hatch Enterprise and other similar organisations. Jess recently co-founded Five Years Time, a partnership providing online training for entrepreneurs looking to raise their first professional funding round. Five Years Time offers online courses, webinars, templates and tools, as well as mentoring and 1–to-1 support for founders and teams, helping them understand what investors look for in an investment opportunity and how best to prepare themselves and their businesses for a raise. Jess is particularly passionate about advising women founders on breaking into the early stage investment ecosystem. Jess holds a BA in International Relations and Development, and an MA in Conflict, Security and Development. She is currently working on LearnAdapt, a project with the Department For International Development, advising them on what lessons can be learnt from investing in technology startups and applying them to improving the way DFID runs its programs and works with partners. She is part of a team introducing Lean Startup methods into adaptive programming, delivering Lean Impact.

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