Jessica & Louella Alderson, So Syncd - The importance of a lead investor

Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

Jess and Lou Alderson have tapped a fresh niche in the online dating market using Myers-Briggs personality profiling for a perfect match. They've taken their market by storm and in a short time, managed to raise over £700,000 in investment.

Launching in January 2020, the sisters have gone from strength to strength despite the global pandemic. With the goal of building a marketable product as quickly as possible whilst they were still holding down full time jobs, Jess and Lou started with a 'friends-and-family' round. Then, with some early traction under their belt, they were ready to quit their jobs and undertake a more significant raise to launch a paid membership package and expand within the US market.

With some big last minute hurdles including extreme money laundering checks, a disappearing investor payment and various unexpected hurdles, they managed to close their investment round on the very last day of the tax year.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• The benefits of fundraising through friends and family for your starting round
• Different questions from different investors – why you need to be prepared for varied points of interest
• The importance of a lead investor to kick start your investment rounds