Sarah Dusek – CoFounder and General Partner Enygma Ventures – photo credit Cadey Reisner
Why should you think about raising funds? Quite simply, the impact you can make and that your business can make will be exponentially increased if you do. Sarah Dusek our co-founder shares from personal experience of receiving investment.
10 years ago, I had never heard the words Venture Capital, or knew that investors funded businesses in exchange for a stake in the business, let alone know any investors or think that investment was for me and my business. Surely that only applied to guys in suits who had MBA’s right? It was not the world I had come from and it was not the way I started my business. Honestly, I’m really glad I was in the dark, because by bootstrapping my business through friends, family and hard work I was forced to build a profitable business model that proved the test of time and survived the very precarious early years of a business’s life. It literally was do or die. However, after several years of being in business I realized we’d hit a ceiling and we couldn’t grow sufficiently or reach our potential without getting some outside assistance. So, what were my options? I started to look for bank debt but quickly realized it wouldn’t be a good fit for the business and that we didn’t have enough collateral to secure enough debt. I also wasn’t going to get any additional expertise or support to grow my business with bank debt. I was stuck and faced a hard choice. We either maintain the status quo and just keep doing what we were doing staying the same size or step out and escalate our growth by bringing on board an investor. We believed we had a business that could be much more and had potential that was not yet fulfilled. I realized that it was important for me to grow my business, not just to drive greater profitability or do more, but that I had been given a gift and a way to make an impact through my business. The larger my business the greater the impact I could make, the change I could drive, the jobs I could create, the opportunities that would exist.
If you’ve built a great but small business that’s doing amazing things, but the business still has more potential don’t shy away from growth. Embrace growth, seek investment to drive impact, to drive change, to be a future leader of our economies and our nations. Why should you think about raising funds? Quite simply, the impact you can make and that your business can make will be exponentially increased if you do. I know it’s a scary thought and a challenging one but the world needs female leaders to think big, to build better worlds, to rise up and take our place. You cannot change your family, your community for the better, your nation, by playing the small game. Think big, imagine the world that you could create. Don’t worry about whether you are qualified enough, connected enough, networked enough, good enough. Simply seek to build the best business you can knowing there are resources out there to help you. You don’t need to go it alone. There’s an age old saying that says ‘If you want to fast go alone but if you want to go far go together.”
When I finally realized I needed investor partners to help me scale and grow my business we exponentially started to grow. My revenue grew, my profile grew, my team grew, my employees multiplied, and my brand started to be recognized and established. I also realized that I was passionate about helping other women embrace the journey I had been on. Women don’t have a large number of role models who have gone before them and built big businesses, so how could I use my own journey to help women get the right capital into their hands, meet their needs and help them think big. Enygma Ventures was born out of the desire to increase my own impact by increasing yours. I’d therefore love for you to join us on an exciting adventure of growth and explore the possibilities of raising funding for your business. Click to apply for funding from Enygma Ventures.
Sarah Dusek CoFounder & General Partner of Enygma Ventures
