Bristol's Target Student raise ￡184k from 9 angels.

Guy Thurlow of Bristol based Next-Gen Media discusses their current fundraising round with InvestWest and shares his advice to other founders starting out in the region.

IW:?Congratulations?on?closing your first round?- you must be pleased? Could you give us an overview of the round?

Guy:?Thanks Iain, myself & my Co-founder Andy Francksen are very excited to announce that we have closed our first investment round for Target Student. We have raised ￡184,000 across 9 individual investors using both the SEIS & EIS scheme, with ticket sizes ranging from ￡5,000 - ￡25,000.?

We plan to invest a large proportion into our digital advertising network in Universities and University accommodation as well as grow our team even further to keep up with demand.

IW: For those that haven’t heard of Target Student could you explain what it is you do?

Guy:? Target Student manage the UK's first digital-out-of-home (DOOH) network in University accommodation across the U.K. We partner with some amazing Universities and private University accommodation providers and provide them with interactive digital signage which they use to improve how they communicate and engage with their residents, whilst we sell the media space to forward-thinking brands looking to reach Gen-Z within the comfort of their own home.?

IW: How?did you find?the fundraising process overall? Any advice you wish you had been given before you started?

Guy:?Well.. where to begin, I have certainly learned an awful lot during the process! Overall, I have found it incredibly rewarding and a really positive experience, but it's easy to say that now I am on the other side. I realised that if you are talking to genuine angel investors then they are there to listen, support and challenge you. They will nearly always provide constructive feedback, nowhere near as scary as Dragons Den.

If I had to give advice to any founders who are fundraising for the first time, then I would pick three key things:

1. Be prepared.?

From the pitch deck you create at the start to your final pitch with investors, ensure you know your business plan inside out and have prepared for any difficult questions. This is not a process that can be rushed and you quite likely only have one opportunity with each investor, so make it count!

2. Three strike rule.?

Every time you speak to an investor, you will receive their opinion on your business and investment. Unfortunately for founders, this means you will receive lots of contrasting advice/ opinions and it becomes difficult to know what to take on board and what to ignore.?

After spending a lot of time reflecting on contrasting advice and opinions, Andy and I decided that unless the same opinion came up three times, then we wouldn't change our strategy. This saved us a lot of time eventually!

3. Storytelling is everything.??

At this stage of your business, there is so much uncertainty for the future of the business and all angel investors know this. In my experience, you shouldn't focus all your efforts on the numbers and the end goal but instead, tell a convincing story about the business, the founders and why you are the people to lead this to success. As a start-up on a pre-seed round, investors are banking on the founders, rather than just the idea!

IW: You’ve pulled together a really diverse group of angels who believe in your vision for Target Student. How did you build that network and how long has it taken?

Guy:?It sounds cliché, but I would say we have been building our network for the majority of our professional lives. We have met all of our investors via different routes, but ultimately we wouldn't have met any of them if it wasn't because of our existing network before we started fundraising.

Your network is a huge factor in raising investment and you should leverage it as much as possible, whilst at the same time ensuring you are taking up every single opportunity to meet new people and investors. We met some of our investors from pitching across the country and even pitching competitions on the weekend!

IW: A lot of entrepreneurs struggle with managing the fundraising process in parallel with growing their business. How have you managed to balance the competing demands on your time?

Guy: For starters, I certainly think we had a huge advantage that there are two co-founders, I can only imagine how difficult it would be to raise investment as a solo founder whilst also growing the business.?

The main thing we did was blocking out our diaries to be laser focused on different activities throughout the day/ week. It is easy to get distracted and focus all of your efforts on fundraising but you need the business to continue growing and improving during the fundraise to attract investors, so don't forget that the main thing is the health of the business, rather than the other way around.?

IW: The fundraising paperwork can be a challenge to get right. What kind of support did you need to put in place for the legal and accounting work. Any advice for others?

Guy: The best investment we made was using FounderCatalyst for the legal work. It's really good value, the platform was easy to use and we had amazing support throughout from their CEO, Sam Simpson . I would absolutely recommend it to all founders!

IW:?Congratulations?again Guy and thanks for offering such a valuable insight for other founders in our region.?Where can people follow you and find out more about Target Student?

Guy:…We are listed on Invest West (obviously) but also you can see more on?www.targetstudent.com?or on our Linkedin page