If you're treating every investor call like you're auditioning for Britain's Got Talent, we need to chat.

I've been watching too many founders (myself included, no judgment) turn into weird corporate robots the second they get on Zoom with anyone who has "Partner" in their LinkedIn bio.

Spoiler alert: They can tell. And it's making things way harder than they need to be.

Katie Palencsar - Anthemis Managing Director of the $50M Female Innovators Lab Fund (one of the largest funds solely dedicated to female fintech founders). Under her leadership, the majority of portfolio companies are led by Black, Indigenous, or women of color founders. Learn more about Anthemis.

Asya Bradley - Angel Investor After building and selling Kinly (a neobank for Black Americans), Bradley became an active angel investor focused on funding female founders. Her question: "Why wait for someone else to fund female founders when I could do it myself?"

Kelly Graziadei - F7 Ventures General Partner who led Alinea Invest's $3.4M seed round. She's particularly focused on financial literacy and investing platforms for women and Gen Z, emphasizing inclusive wealth creation.

Sallie Krawcheck - Ellevest Former CEO of Citi Wealth Management and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management who founded Ellevest, the first financial company built by women for women to reach $1B assets under management. Read about her journey.

📈 Here's the thing: Female founders in fintech get asked way more questions about their experience. But when they do get funded, they perform just as well as everyone else, if not better.

Want to research more female funders? Check out the Female Innovators database from Anthemis for comprehensive fintech funding data.

78% of female founders don't know any VCs personally. Most message them like we're asking strangers for £50.

Try this instead:
"Hey [Name], saw your post about the beauty market. We're seeing customers switch between brands more often. What's causing this trend?"

One founder asked a VC about pricing strategy. Six months later, that VC invested. Because they knew each other.

Instead of: "Crushing all targets! 🚀🚀🚀"
Try: "Hit £25K revenue (target was £30K). Customer churn jumped to 8%—testing two fixes. Which would you try first?"

Simple formula:

Remember Ami Colé? Founder spent more time impressing investors than helping customers. Company closed this month.

Have this conversation: "What does success look like in 2 years? I'm building for the long term."

Use for: When your deck was opened but no reply

Whitney Wolfe Herd - Bumble Built relationships with sorority presidents across university campuses before launching. Used genuine connections and word-of-mouth instead of traditional investor pitches early on.

Melanie Perkins - Canva Spent years building relationships with potential users and advisors. When she finally pitched investors, she had a community of supporters backing her vision.

Alli Webb - Drybar Started with genuine relationships in her local community. Her investors became customers first, investors second. Made fundraising feel like expansion, not begging.

Kathryn Minshew - The Muse Built advisor relationships through industry expertise and thought leadership. Investors approached her because they respected her insights, not her pitch deck.

These amazing women prove that authentic relationship building isn't just nice - it's actually more effective than traditional fundraising theatre!

Your To-Do List:

Need scripts for authentic investor conversations? DM me your biggest relationship-building challenge.

Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily funding reality checks.

Investors want to back founders they trust and understand - not performers they can't read.

Talk soon,
OnAgenda Team

P.S.

A founder just told me she stopped sending "everything is amazing" updates and started being honest about challenges. Two investors offered to help with connections, and one introduced her to a potential co-founder. Honesty literally works better than perfection!