Join Julia Elliott Brown, Founder & CEO of Enter the Arena as she sits down with Nicola Piercy, the Founder of Stripe and Stare, the world's most comfortable knickers sustainably sourced from trees. Nicola shares her life as a serial entrepreneur, from founding Stripe and Stare with co-founder Katie Lopes to getting £3.6million in investment.

Whilst gaining angel investment, Nicola experienced a devastating personal loss—her husband's unexpected passing. Despite the immense grief, Nicola persevered, meeting investors and navigating the complexities of running a business. Her journey shows the strength, dedication, and resilience required to overcome adversity in both personal and professional realms.

Since then, Stripe and Stare went on to gain their first major venture capital round of £1.8m from the Business Growth Fund as well as a further shareholder and customer “crowdfund”.

Tune in to discover the unique journey of Stripe and Stare, the brand's commitment to sustainability, and the remarkable story of Nicola Piercy's triumph over personal tragedy while building a globally recognised and eco-conscious business.

• How to navigate VC term sheets
• Why you need to do due diligence on investors
• How to not take investor rejection personally

Being new to the world of investment, Lisa mapped out local experts in the North East of England that could fill certain knowledge gaps. It was after discovering who could add value to the business that she “accidentally” found her Angel investors and went on to successfully close her round with £225K of funding.

Listen to Lisa’s investment journey to find out what she learned along the way and her tips that might help you with your own fundraising endeavours.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• The value of having advisors from the start
• Why you should think of raising investment as a sales process
• How to select the right route to investment 

Like many women starting businesses, the motivation for Rebekah Brown’s entrepreneurship, MPowder, was in response to her own experiences and spotting a gap in the market. She was struggling with a multitude of symptoms during perimenopause and felt there was barely any information on how to deal with it.

Since then, Rebekah has listened to the stories of many women to understand midlife better, launching several supplements to help enhance the stages of menopause. Rebekah credits the co-creation community as the driving force behind the success of MPowder. As consumers feedback and share their stories, they help the team understand what they should be thinking about next.

So, how hard was it to find investors ready to fund a menopause business? Rebekah reveals all about her experiences as she talks through her fundraising journey with our founder and CEO, Julia Elliott Brown.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How accelerators can help you begin conversations with investors
• Why it's normal to feel confused by the investment world
• Why storytelling during pitches is the key to getting investment