Post 2: From Fear to Funding: Taking Friends and Family on a Journey
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In late January 2023 I sat across from five buyers from Whole Foods Market UK. I had just 5 minutes to give them samples, tell my story, and hopefully make a positive impression. I was encouraged by the feedback that I received during the pitch but didn't dare to hope that I would land a listing. You know the end of the story - The Garden of Eva launched in Whole Foods Market UK in July 2023. What you may not know is all the work needed to support a listing. In the food space, products have to be "retail ready." Mine were most decidedly not! I was going back and forth with the manufacturer about recipes. I hadn't done shelf-life testing, didn't have policies in place, etc. Everything. Costs. Money. And I was short, despite investing lots of my money in the business. As friends helped me plan a crowdsourcing campaign, I quickly realised that I wasn't ready. So I decided to raise money from friends and family, which terrified me. It's one thing to put one's own money into a business, but it's another thing to ask friends and family. It felt like yet another leap into The Great Unknown, accompanied by even more pressure to succeed. I did it, scared. I issued a call on Facebook and via email. Slowly but surely people contacted me to ask questions about the business. Several people invested in exchange for a little equity. Some told me that they couldn't afford to invest, but could make a contribution. KA, RC, and CB contributed and it meant everything to me. When I reflected on the experience, I realised that I had been sharing updates about my progress through Facebook and WhatsApp. Any time something happened I would share a link to an article, or the details of a conversation with a buyer, or a photo of budding collaboration. I was -- without thinking about it -- taking my community on my founder's journey in real time. As a result, they were excited. They were invested in The Garden of Eva. They wanted to help. JP -- one of my MIT classmates (we had done PhDs in political science at the same time) -- reached out to me on WhatsApp. She told me that she was closing down one of her bank accounts and wanted to invest what was in it -- USD$30,000 -- in The Garden of Eva. I had to read her message twice. My knees buckled and I hyperventilated. Literally. I cried. JP was an answer to prayer. She had been following my journey on Facebook, rarely commenting but obviously paying close attention - enough that she wanted to invest. Every donor and investor has told me that they're inspired by what I'm doing, that they're excited by the growing vision, and that they want The Garden of Eva to succeed. Building a business is about more than profit and loss - it's about journeying through the highs and lows with your community. I'm grateful for mine.