Closing our first round of investment

On the 31st of May, we did our first ever pitch for our pre-seed investment round. It wasn't until September 15th that we did our last.

Over the last 5 months James Cohen and I have countered crazy offers, gained valuable partnerships, and grown an indefinable amount of confidence in ana. Allergy Care.

Whether it's been the non-stop zoom calls with lawyers, the relentless pitching process, the conference attendances, the school visits or everything else involved with setting up a new and innovative company - We've enjoyed every minute of it.

We had no idea that our fundraising journey would be such a time-consuming whirlwind, so I thought I would share some do's and don'ts for those looking to raise investment (from my experience):

• DO spend time and energy on preparing a well-presented pitch deck. James Church's book Investable Entrepreneur is a brilliant resource for guidance on this.

• DO back yourself and go into detail about why YOU are the person that THEY should be funding.

• DO have a full understanding of your 'Why' and be sure to translate that in your pitch.

• DO stand your ground. You don't always know what's best in every scenario, so be sure to listen to feedback. But not all feedback is made equal.

• And finally, DO be patient. Raising money isn't an instant thing. It takes time to create a deck, practice your pitch, find the right investors, get the legals in place and eventually secure the funds.

Yesterday, we were finally able to send out share certificates to our 20 pre-seed investors, formally signaling the culmination of our round and the start of... well... everything else!

And oh - there might be a new member of our team joining soon...