Start Lean May - Securing your funding!

As we all know, business is driven by ideas, creativity, and passion - but it's hard to do much without a bit of cash. This month, we're taking on the treasure hunt, with two speakers who have experience in securing funding for a startup.

A $10 fee at the door is to cover catering and other costs.

This month, we're hearing from Jordan Gruber and Robin Sands.

Jordan Gruber is the founder and Managing Director of Frontier Microscopy.

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Frontier Microscopy is now just over a year old. Since incorporation in January 2016 we have developed our flagship commercial product, built a world-class team to build and support our products, and raised money through government grants and private investors to support our venture. Today Frontier Microscopy is valued at over 1.5 million dollars.

In our first 6 months Frontier Microscopy really took shape as we battled the many uncertainties that very early stage startups face. It was only through the help of mentors and the wider entrepreneurial community that we found our way through the fog to settle on what we believed Frontier Microscopy would become. Halfway through 2016 we'd spent most of our savings on the business and moved in with the folks but we remained committed.

For the later half of 2016 we made our first technical hire and began development of Marvin, our flagship product.

For the lifetime of the business we employed a "just-in-time" strategy to financing, but this was not sustainable in the long-term. In the last 3 months I have had the opportunity of pitching to the likes of BlackBird Ventures, Airtree Ventures, Blue-Sky Alternative Investments, among many other venture capital groups. I've also pitched to angel groups such as Innovation Bay in Adelaide and Sydney Angels (in Sydney). Practice makes perfect, at the date of writing we have $100,000 committed from Australian investors with more on the way.

When should you raise money to support your technology startup? What do investors look for? What makes a good pitch? How much money should you raise and from where? What's in the process of raising money? These are the things I will be speaking about.

Startups are hard. I firmly believe that by supporting one another we can awaken the latent entrepreneurs in Adelaide!

Jordan Gruber is the founder and Managing Director of Frontier Microscopy. He graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Mechatronic Engineering (Hons.) from the University of Adelaide in 2014. Since graduating Jordan worked briefly as a software engineer with Saab Australia before quitting to start Frontier Microscopy in January of 2016. He is now a highly active member of the Australian entrepreneurial and startup community, ready to begin passing it forward to the next generation of entrepreneurs.​

Robin Sands is the CEO of Link4 Australia.

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Link4 is a secure Link for cloud systems to be interconnected. No matter which cloud software you are using, Link4 enables users to send invoices directly to another cloud accounting system, instantly.

The founders of Link4 met with several businesses to understand their biggest issues and one topic came up time and again ­- invoices. A few variations on theme were put forward, but the basic question was: “How do we get invoices into our cloud accounting system easier?”

Robin will present what Link4 have created and where they are at, then talk about his past and how it underpins where his business is now. He will highlight his values, successes and failures. He will also talk about the quest for funding in the business, grant applications, and the waiting game...

Talking points include:

What is eInvoicing and why did I think I could do it?

Successes and failures: Family comes first. Sense of adventure. Lean thinking. HR and Management Issues. Personality traits.

What’s next for us?

Robin has 17 years’ B2B Sales and Marketing experience with medium and large global software companies. He is a results­-focused Senior Executive who combines entrepreneurial vision with strong business acumen and well­-honed global marketing skills. His current goal is to support local businesses to benefit from current technology.

We're very excited about this one as funding is such a crucial part of success - we hope you can make it!

• the Start Lean team