Raising investment isn’t for everyone or every business.

My first few businesses were bootstrapped and grew organically, exactly as I’d planned.

They were service-based businesses and required little in the way of up front capital to get going and to grow.

But some businesses really do need an injection of cash to get them to the next stage.

Here’s why I decided to raise external investment for Fabric:

1. We needed to develop

We bootstrapped for the first year to get our MVP to market. When we finally realised we had product market fit, we wanted to build faster, make improvements and finesse our tech. Tech development costs money, often lots of it, and although we were making revenue, we’d never have been able to dedicate the time and resource to building the platform without some upfront capital.

2. We wanted to be first to market

After 15 months of researching the market, testing the market and watching what was working and what was missing, we knew we had something really special and unique at Fabric and we wanted to capitalise on that and make our mark early.

3. We couldn’t do it alone

For nearly the first two years, we were a tiny team of 2.5! Although we worked like a team of 10, I knew we couldn’t sustain that pace and we needed more resource and specialist knowledge in the team. To invest in the right people, I needed to know we had the means to offer them a long-term, exciting career with Fabric – we needed cash to make this happen.

4. Bring in new skills

I knew we had some skills gaps in the team, even with the extra recruits we had planned, we were operating at scale-up level with a start-up sized team. Bringing a group of amazing, experienced specialists and CEO’s on board as investors, allowed us to learn from them, bring skills into the business that we didn’t have and de-risk in certain areas.

Steven Bartlett: Business genius or shameless bluffer?  

For me, in my third business, the time was right to raise external investment.

It’s not a walk in the park, and it’s definitely not the easy route. It takes time, dedication, focus and some good old grit to get you there, but if the time is right and the business will benefit, it’s definitely an option worth exploring.

We’ve achieved more in the last year at Fabric than we could ever have imagined or found possible without the support of our investors and the access to the funds that allowed us to grow – and for that – I’m so thankful.

If you’re thinking of raising investment, I’m always open to questions and sharing my experience. Feel free to reach out.