Annie Evans, founder Dream Ventures
Curious how to fundraise capital for your brand? Meet Annie Evans. She is the founder of Dream Ventures, a female-focused fund and incubator. Their mission is to connect female-owned businesses to awesome investors and land that dream deal you’ve always dreamed about. Annie and her team has worked with female founders for the past 2 years helping them raise $5 million+ and land deals with Amex, P&G, Sephora, and many more. On this episode, Annie generously brings us behind the scenes of fundraising, investing, and why this is so damn important for female founded brands. This is a must listen!
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00:02 Hi everyone, welcome back to a new episodes of Emerging Brand podcast with Kelly Bennett. I have a very special guest and we're going to talk about a topic that I am personally very interested in. 00:16 I know that for many founders or first time founders, this word and this industry that we're going to dive into is going to sound maybe a little bit daunting or scary or not sure where you fit in. 00:30 Annie Evans of Dream Ventures is here. I'm going to dive into venture capital. So Annie, thank you so much for coming on the show. 00:38 Of course. I'm so excited. This is my favorite topic. Okay, good. So before we dive in necessarily to venture capital, can you give us a little background of why you started your own fund and how you started Dream Ventures? 00:54 I would love to know more of the backstory. Yes, of course. It's been quite a journey and if someone would've told me as somebody that had no finance background. 01:07 So never studied finance, never worked in finance, that I would be on the investing side. I would've thought they were crazy. 01:16 And so I think it just goes to show that it's possible for anyone, even if you didn't study finance or work at a B.C. 01:25 Funds. That there's a way to kind of tap into that world and so I am a former founder I had a beauty and wellness venture with an amazing dear friend and now investor hand rompman who some people may have followed or heard of wellness content creator she's invested in supporting companies. 01:49 So, amazing. Yeah, we started an app called beautified and essentially it was Resi or Open Table for Beauty. So, solving the pain point of, I'm about to be in this podcast. 02:04 I've got, you know, frizzy hair. I want to get a blowout, but I've only gotten an hour to do it without having to call around to 10 blow out bars. 02:14 And so that was, it was amazing. I mean, you started that app with her? Yes. Okay. That's amazing. So, and you never were a founder prior to that. 02:26 So, that was your first venture? Well, actually, that's true. Before that, I was a co-founder of a events company called The Society that was very cool. 02:40 We had it for four years. It was in Miami, LA and New York. And it was essentially in the whole influencer era. 02:48 So we were pairing up-and-coming chefs with, you know, throwing a dinner party in the alleyway and then bringing in like a really fun beverage brands sort of gatherings. 03:01 I love event activations like that. So you did those activations in multiple cities, then you started an app. So what was the transition and to say, well, now I'm going to become an investor myself. 03:15 So when Hannah and I, when it came time for us to have to raise money, I had come from the magazine world prior and event world. 03:23 So I didn't have an existing network. I didn't know any angel investors, any VCs. So I really had to start and scratch myself. 03:32 Ran around New York City, met with hundreds of investors, got hundreds of those, sort of typical story. And I was about to give up, and then I started getting to know our customers. 03:44 So the women that were using our app and using it to book nail spatials, blowouts, were busy, sea level executive women that needed to look polished. 03:56 So I just started reaching out and saying, thank you for being a customer. Can we meet for a coffee? I would love to get your feedback and those were the women that all ended up investing as angels. 04:08 That is really cool. That's really cool. So, what give you that idea to just reach out to your customer base of thinking, okay, the people who are actually using this app could be the ones who could invest in it? 04:24 Well, it dawned on me that it would be a lot easier of a pitch to connect with somebody that I was solving a pain point in their life. 04:33 And they were familiar with the product. They liked the product. I was improving their lives, I was saving them time. 04:42 And so it was a lot easier to go to somebody like that than to meet with somebody that is like, wait, what is this app? 04:50 I've got a download it, I've got to try it. So, shorter sales cycle. Right, and they're already sold on the concept. 04:58 They already understand the value. They understand the problem and solution. Okay, I'm already obsessed with this story, so what happened next? 05:08 We had an incredible run with the company. We grew it to expand other markets. We had 500 salons and spouses partners. 05:16 We grew a whole team of one time we had 12 people. And at the end of the day, we went out of business for a few different reasons, which was probably another podcast interview because that's a whole story. 05:29 Yeah. And, but we learned a time. And so, you know, we all know that out of, you know, failures, you learn so much. 05:38 And through that process, I learned how to raise capital, which I didn't know before. And so I joined the wing, the first OG location. 05:47 Oh, wow. Okay, flat iron. It was like 2016, I ended up after the app I went to consult for Glam's quad and Glam's quad had done a partnership with the wing. 06:01 And so in 2016, there was a hundred members and everybody was talking about like, I would need to grow this company. 06:09 I need money to buy crowd funds. Am I ready for an angel? Do I bootstrap it and get more That was kind of the clumber station around the water cooler. 06:20 I just started sharing, hey, this is what didn't work, and this is where I spent 18 months and got not one check, and then this is where I finally got into a bit of a groove. 06:32 So you, again, saw that there was a need for this conversation, tapping into the network that you already were connected with. 06:40 I feel like that's a very common through line here. So, then, what was the jump or leap or next step to start dream ventures? 06:51 So, where it came from is that I, for a year, I just had kind of, I don't like the term pick your brain. 06:59 It's a pep peeve of mine, but sounding word, sounding word sessions for free. And so I would sit with entrepreneurs at the wing, I would say, what are your goals? 07:11 Okay, maybe you should try this and just, you know, write out strategies and it just gave me such purpose and joy to be able to share their sort of things. 07:21 And what I what I realized that is like my kind of purpose and soul work and why I feel like I was put on this planet is to help people's dreams grow. 07:32 Right. So if you have that dream idea, I'm like your biggest cheerleader. I'm like just go for it and try it and how can I help like make it. 07:39 So did it for free for a year? And then I realized there was a need. I learned that as we all know, people value what they pay for. 07:49 So if you sit with someone for hours an hour, sometimes you'll follow up and say, hey, and they'll say, oh, I decided not to do anything with that. 07:56 And here you are, you just wasted all these hours. So sort of charging like a hundred bucks for an hour. 08:04 And then it slowly grew. And what happened was is people started reaching out to have me help them fundraise and I started angel investing in 2019 through my first one was iFund Women. 08:17 So I was helping them breathe a million dollars. Right. And I helped the whole process. So I helped them raise the money and then I thought to myself, I want to angel invest. 08:28 I want to have a seat at this table. And so at the time, I was working for Allergan, the Botox Company. 08:38 Because they had reached out to me. They were trying to do a beauty booking app, so they reached out. I had gotten my first bonus for hitting my sales photo, which was the first time in my life that I actually had a chunk of money, which was $17,000 and then after taxes, it was 10. 08:55 And the minimum check size to invest in, I find when was 10. And I came home and I told my husband, I said, I'm helping this company raise. 09:03 I'm so passionate about iPhone women, I really want to invest as an angel myself. And he said, don't you want to save the money for rainy day? 09:12 Like, we're about to start a family, and I just went with my gut. And I ended up investing, and that's where I met all of my first group of angel investors that I've now gone on to invest in a ton of different things together. 09:26 They become friends and it's been a great sort of 4-way into this world. That is, again, a great story of going with your guy, working with a community of women or people who you already have a sense of community with. 09:46 It sounds like that there's common shared values and ethics and really leaning on the relationships you've built in order to know, yes, this is the next step. 09:57 Yes, this is where I want to invest my money. Yes, this is where I want to try something new And I love that because so many people and I primarily work with female founders or people who felt underestimated as a founder and Many of them it's just getting the confidence to put themselves out there or 10:17 take those leaps. So it sounds like it's not you really leaned on that sense of community and relationships to give yourself like, sure, it maybe makes sense on paper to save this for a rainy day, but I'm gonna go with my gut and become an angel and master myself. 10:33 Yes, and it was the best thing ever. Love that. It just puts you in the room. It's sort of like, I think. 10:40 And yes, you wanna get a return but I have gotten that $10,000 back out of that community and that network. 10:47 Incredible. So, when did it officially become dream ventures? So, I set up the LLC in 2017, okay? I'm kind of the wing and my sounding board copy. 11:02 And started investing in 2019 under dream ventures capital. So, with venture capital for someone who's listening, and again, the founder who is just Googling stuff at this point of like, okay? 11:18 What do I do? Sounds like that first group of people that you connected with at the wing as well. Could you break down essentially what venture capital is or your, and also your niche in it, just to give some people context of what exactly it is? 11:37 Absolutely. So venture capital, typically, is where a firm will have LPs, limited partners. And usually the check size for those LPs is on average about $250,000, and that's how they're able to, as a minimum, a lot of people do $500 or a million, and that's how funds are able to be $100 million or $500 12:05 million. The challenge with VCs is that most businesses are not a fit of these see. From their standpoint, from their lens, if they're not able to return a 10x and have it get to a billion dollar company, they're not going to be around. 12:32 They're not going to be able to raise another fund. They're not going to be able to give their LPs a return. 12:37 So they have all this pressure of these people that have invested a quarter of a million minimum to be able to give them a return. 12:44 So that's why a lot of people take it personally, when they meet with these days, oh, they're passing on me, it could be that you have an incredible $10 million business. 12:54 I don't like the term lifestyle business because I think it sounds so trivial for what people do, right? But you could have a really solid, amazing business and have an awesome life and have a $10 to $20 million business. 13:08 But that's just not a fit for a BC because they're not able to give their fund a return. The way that we invest is through angel centric hits. 13:19 So we have a network of 500 mostly women angel investors that are busy, sea level executive women that do not have time to source still flow, but they want to invest in female founders. 13:31 So what we do is every time we want to invest, we send it to our group of women And we see who wants to participate in the company. 13:42 And it can be anywhere from usually around a quarter of a million to 500k. And so what we do is we allow women to invest 5k, 10k, 15k. 13:54 We put everybody together into one entity and then we wire that money to the founder. So that is a great way that a lot of entrepreneurs should look at doing some of these angel syndicates because they don't have as much pressure as a B.C. 14:12 So an angel would be happy with a 3x4x return because they don't have the pressure of reporting to those LPs, right? 14:22 That's, so it's angel, what was the second word that you said? Angel Syndicate. Angel Syndicate. So how does someone connect with that type of network? 14:35 So what they can do a lot of times, there's a few different ways. So a lot of times, if you went to a certain college, they'll have, and I'm going to like send a kid, Columbia Business School, Stanford, Harvard. 14:49 I just had a call today with Miami Angels. So Miami Angels, basically, they has a group of angel investors that want to back to Miami founders. 14:58 So you just fill out the form, if you live in Miami, and it fits within their criteria, then they'll invest anywhere from 250 to 500. 15:10 So locally, alumni, researching if there's any groups like ours, which is like women looking to back women in New York. 15:20 Right, so there is definitely a need for one, creating more access for women to invest, and then also having more opportunity for women to be invested in, right? 15:32 So, also, can you give this to that? I know it's like a shitty stat, but of how many women are invested in? 15:42 Super set. And that is still such a despairing number, especially for a women of color, black women, indigenous women. So, what you're doing, and this is again, I follow you online, and I really admire your work, is that you are helping move that needle. 16:02 That really needs to be moved. I mean, really, when you think about it only 2%, so what is your vision for dream ventures? 16:11 Where would you love to be taking it? I know you also have an accelerator. I would love to hear more of that behind the scenes of how you're now growing this. 16:22 Absolutely. So my dream coming from dream ventures land is to your point, the stats are going to change getting more women investing. 16:33 So educating women around angel investing or joining as an LP in a fund if they want to do at that level. 16:42 So right now, we have 500 angels. I'd love to get it to 5,000. Ooh, angels. I've got a plan for that. 16:51 And I would love to have an anchor partner like a JP Morgan or somebody that has that initiative to fund more female founders and get more women engaged. 17:02 They're a great partner of ours now and continuing to hopefully deepen that relationship. But I would say the last thing that I would say just to anyone listening here is what are sort of secret softs that we do if you're a founder that I recommend is get off of zoom when you're pitching as much as possible 17:25 and get in person and have the potential investors experience your service or product. So for example, okay, yeah, tell me more. 17:36 So for example, what we do is experience investing. So if we're going to invest, you are coming to a space. 17:44 For example, we just did one for within Acupuncture Studio and Flatiron. Yes, talk about an incredible brand, like they did such a great job with within. 17:56 So she was raising, what if Paul chose an the founder of Sweet Green, the founder of Hay Day. She wanted a group of angels, which we call a village of invested ambassadors. 18:10 So we put together 37 angels. We hosted a breakfast set within. We invited all of our favorite New York angels that are in our community. 18:20 They got to do many acute treatments, ear seeds, the founder Michelle was there. She got up and shared her story like how she had an injury, she struggled with fertility and that's why she wanted to open up this acupuncture place to bring it to more people. 18:37 And then we got up and said Michelle is raising a series day, she's raising $5 million and we wanted to bring this opportunity and then people joins the round. 18:50 We did, it was $300,000 of collectively so it was about 37 angels that did mostly 10,000, but a couple of 25Ks and a couple of five. 19:01 And then we just wire and Michelle the money. And so on her cap table, it's just that one nice as opposed to having 37 angels, but the magic of this process is that the end, when we close the round, we brought everybody back to within, we celebrated with the founder, and we had everybody introduce themselves 19:24 and say, Hi, I'm an angel investor. I am, I like to invest in these certain things and share an ask. 19:32 So I'm looking for a new job. I just got divorced. I'm looking to start dating again. Like really create these like networks within each of these syndicates. 19:41 I literally have the chills. I love that when you said experiential, I heard brunch and, you know, which is so cool. 19:50 But like what you just did also to close around and create that, again, networking community which sounds like a very important piece of what you do. 20:00 That's really cool. Thank you. I just wanted to welcome. I explained that because I think it's like, it's so powerful to give value outside of an exit because this is to be the basics of startups or, I don't know, 90% fail. 20:17 So if you can provide value and community in a connection with an each one, it brings my heart joy when people get value out of it that way. 20:26 And I'm sure that is also a differentiator of what you're doing for angel investors and especially it sounds like women who are maybe just building their portfolio or new to investing so that you're creating this sense of, I don't people on a similar journey. 20:53 And yeah, it sounds like a really cool container of that you're creating for people to explore something new or to grow and to follow through with what they're draining about. 21:05 Yes, 30% of our angel network out of the 500 are first time angel investors and some of them started with $2,500, which is the cost of people will spend that on a designer bag, right, and not think anything. 21:21 And that bag is not going to give you community and connection and ROI. That bag is going to do whatever. 21:30 Sit in a closet, collect dust one day. So, I think changing the mindset around what you spend your money on and, and, you know, whether it's impact investing or just a brand, like I was a customer within and I liked going for Acupuncture. 21:47 So it was such an honor to be part of the journey like in a deeper way. I personally want to become an angel investor and you were sent to me when I was asking someone about their journey about becoming an investor and they're like you have to connect with Annie. 22:06 She is the go-to person if you have this vision of becoming an angel investor. If that's genuinely your goal. She is the person to connect with. 22:16 So thank you for breaking that down because even through your description of Atlethan makes me feel like it's a much more obtainable goal as well. 22:27 Under percent 25 companies in my portfolio, if I did the minimum check size, which is typically 25,000 to go as an angel, right? 22:37 I wouldn't. I mean, the only reason I have 25 is because I've done $1,000, $2,000, I've a couple of tens, and so I have this portfolio that's taken, you know, four years to grow. 22:49 So I think it's a really great way. And I do have to give a shout out. So I don't do this all myself. 22:57 I have a partner in crime, Kelly Arena, who also knows Nina from Golden Hour Ventures. She is the one that I do a lot of these angel synicits. 23:11 She has a deep network and she was the one that actually brought me the within deal. She was friends with the founder and said they're looking to raise and with the connector. 23:21 Even though it was a customer, I didn't have the access to the founder like she did. So Kelly Arena, Golden adventures, check her out. 23:30 Absolutely, I follow her as well. She's, yeah, she's like, no, I love all the things that you all do. I'm like, oh, it's like liking and commenting and it just is such and again, my personal goal that you all are doing. 23:45 So it's a very encouraging and inspiring. So tell me about from the accelerator's perspective for someone who is growing a business, who's looking, you know, exploring if they want to raise capital, which path is right for them, because I know that you then support those founders on those early stages 24:09 to grow and to accelerate. So can you walk us through a little bit of that piece of it? So similar to doing this strategy sessions, I realized that there was quite a lot of interest in being curious about fundraising. 24:26 And so instead of doing one on one sessions, you know, over a coffee, I thought it would be fun to bring a group together. 24:34 And actually it was one of my advisors, Laura Cox, who built an exited a CPG company and had that experience of having an idea of growing it and selling it for a lot of money. 24:48 Yep, she came to me and said, why don't we do a group together. So we did our first accelerator January 2022. 24:58 Oh, this was in that long ago. No. Cool. Okay. So it's every season. So winter spring summer fall. We're in the middle of our fall. 25:09 We received hundreds of applicants and we picked the top 20. And we choose based on business viability, if we think that it's God, there's something there, and we think we can add value. 25:26 Laura has since moved on to another chapter, so Kelly Arena and I are leading the accelerator. And our next one is January 9th that starts for our winter. 25:38 And what it is is seven week program. Each week has a different theme, and we start with even how to get organized in the process. 25:49 We also talk a lot about alternative sources of capital, so crowdfunding, crowd equity, growth funding, like Shopify, you could get like $20,000 and not have to deal with any investors, you know, stuff like that, incredible. 26:03 So you swap them through different options, And also over view of like, okay, here is kind of the landscape of where you're stepping into, just so, again, if what it sounds like of leading people in that don't have really much experience in this, so just helping them understand really what they're getting 26:23 themselves into or possibly. Yes. So we call it. Shark Tank needs a safe space with like a little polo santo mixed in sprinkled in. 26:34 I love it. I just like ask all the questions, right? Like when I was fundraising if people were like saying no, verse convertible note, I was like, what the heck? 26:43 No clip. And so we just want everyone to feel comfortable to ask any questions. And what we do that is really unique and magical is each week we have a speaker. 26:54 So, for example, yesterday, we had Michelle from within Joanne, and just talk about what it was like for her to raise for within. 27:04 How did she get when it's cultural? How did she get Nick from Sweet Green? What was it like doing the the Syndicate and how would those people been able to open doors for her, which many of them have made like game-changing intros? 27:17 Somebody that wrote a 5K check helped her find like her Next location for to open up with this. And it's that connections, right, and community, and having conversations. 27:31 Yes. I love that. And how you're then giving that platform for someone that you did support in their fundraising for people who are just really early on, where I'm sure they all look up to her and how she did it and hearing more of those details of connecting the dots. 27:51 I'm sure everyone was just mesmerized in taking notes and listening really closely. 100% you know for example she said you know I instead of just having Zoom pitches trying to get investors excited about what I was building I just said come in get on a table and experience how you feel and every single 28:13 person that did that like wrote a check. So I think Zoom is really great, it's how we're connecting and there's definitely a place for it, right, you know, as much as possible trying to do things in real life. 28:27 And then the last part that I love and is my favorite part of the accelerator is at the end of the program. 28:34 We have everybody come together and fly in anyone that's not New York, which we have people from Austin, Nashville, San Francisco, LA Miami. 28:43 Everybody comes together and we have a celebration dinner and we ask people who is your dream advisor Angel and VC we take the list and we go and have a very high success rate of getting those people there So it's literally like some who all we've had someone fly in from like Kansas City that was sitting 29:04 next to like their dream angel And these see and they were like they don't in Kansas City like you don't have that access, right? 29:12 Right We love like the curated seating. We have a pitch competition like Shark Tank, where like four people that have been kind of selected, get up and pitch live at the dinner would love to have you. 29:26 The next one's November 14th also need to invite. I would be honored. Yes. You're describing all my favorite things in one dinner. 29:36 Yes, please. That is so cool Annie, seriously. And I just love how you create these spaces and these communities, and these experiences that literally sound like dreams coming true. 29:53 Not to sound corny, but like it really genuinely is. 100%. I've seen every episode of Shark Tank, like it is my favorite show I love. 30:02 Me too. Me too. No, it sounds like your own version of it. And you said Shark Tank safe space in a little policy on to. 30:08 I mean, I think that's a dinner. I bring the people that are pitching. I get Paula's on to, and I do a ceremony before they go, and I'm like, I do breath work. 30:22 It's like, you know, clear the energy. Yeah, amazing. So how does someone apply? Well, we have a website, dreamventuresaccelerator.com. And they just fill out the form. 30:35 And then we will be in touch. We do a call, make sure it's a good fit for you and where you're out, we answer any questions. 30:42 We also, if people want to connect with anybody that has graduated, which is 150 female founders, always wanting as a reference to, you know, it's make sure that it's a good fit for you. 30:56 And yeah, we would welcome your community to apply and would love to get to know anybody that seems like it's, I'm definitely going to be putting dream ventures on founders that I work with on their radar as a goal, right? 31:12 Of like, here's a goal to have the confidence and have proof of, you know, what you're doing, proof of concept and really getting to a place where you're able to then take that next step because I work with people in the really early stages of their brand strategy and putting together their concept, 31:30 their messaging, content marketing, and so I think that would be a really great goal to put on someone's radar of like, when did you, I think, also just hearing like, this could be a next step for you, right? 31:44 And just telling more women, like, this is possible, look at this community, you can reach out to them. And just having that as a goal, I know it's just to help encourage people and help them see what is possible. 32:01 Absolutely, and I feel like you, that any, you would be a dream angel investor, because you would add so much value, you would literally invest whatever you wanted. 32:12 The felt comfortable. I would, you know, the way that I started with just brands that you genuinely are love, you're a customer, you're obsessed, you want to be on the journey. 32:24 And you would basically invest as an angel and then you could do a strategy session with the founder of like all of your skills and it's just so rewarding to be able to help people with your superpower that is not theirs or maybe it is, but it's you could. 32:43 Okay, I'm going to put this as a 2024 goal. I thought I was going to have to wait a lot longer, but the way that you broke it down today, I feel like, okay, I can make that a 2024 goal. 32:55 Yeah, going your closet, so a couple of other times. Wow, I love it. That is so cool. Well, Annie, I can literally talk to you for hours. 33:05 I genuinely appreciate your insight, your knowledge, your experience and these stories that you share today, I know that encourage the hell out of me. 33:16 I'm already thinking of my wheels are already going for 2024 and I know so many emerging founders are going to listen to this and just honestly take a deep exhale. 33:28 Be like, okay, I can figure this out. I can tap into this community and my dream of building this business is possible. 33:38 Absolutely 100%. It was amazing. To connect with you. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for listening. Please go follow Dream Ventures, connect with Annie, the community, and I'll see everyone on the next episodes of Emerging Brand podcast. 33:55 Bye!
