Is it possible to get an investor when you have no sales to prove that your business yields profit? Most would say no but Suzie Wokabi who is the founder, brand ambassador and creative director of Suzie Beauty did exactly that. She needed 16 million shillings in order to launch her business. Despite having family members who were capable of giving her the money, she knew that no one would easily be willing to part with such an amount without seeing the promise of getting their money back or adding to it.

Nobody is willing to hand out money. You therefore have to be investor ready. Suzie Wokabi

Stressing that she is purely good at being creative and not numbers oriented, she had someone in her corner to do all that (her husband Eric who is an IT and finance person). He made sure that she was investor ready (despite not having started to sell anything) by having all the necessary documents with the numbers that showed where the money would go and how it would yield profit. Only after that did they start pitching their business to people in investor groups.

Every single pitch we gave, we got an offer out of. Suzie Wokabi

She believes that, other than her numbers and product, another reason that  drove the investors to give offers is because she showed she was the right person for this. Beauty is all she knows and she portrayed to them that for her there was no plan B. Suzie Wokabi, Founder of Suzie Beauty, was a guest at Founders drink up held in June 2018. To get access to the full podcast, email dream@wearefounders.co.ke.