Using Your Dollars Differently

Even if you don’t currently think of yourself as an investor I encourage you to have a listen to this week’s conversation with Marcia Dawood and see if we can change your mind!

For many people investing feels disconnected, impersonal, and out of reach. While you might have savings, property, or retirement funds here and there, thinking of yourself as an investor is foreign for most people.?

I invited Marcia onto the podcast to help bring it to life for us. Marcia is the author of Do Good While Doing Well and associate producer of the award-winning documentary Show Her the Money, making her the perfect person for this exploration.

I hope you jump in to watch or listen to our full conversation

As an early-stage investor who serves on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee and venture partner with Mindshift Capital, Marcia is used to being asked lots of investment questions.

When people ask: “How do I even know about or get access to these investment opportunities?" She encourages them to start local by reaching out to nearby networks in the start-up or early stage investment community.

One of the elements I love about this idea is that not only will you get access to investing in some amazing early stage businesses and grow a much broader professional network but there’s a bigger benefit that I see for those of us who are business leaders and go down this path.

Are you curious to know what it is? It’s connected to what my partner Brad talks about when describing innovation as the juxtaposition of two previously unconnected things. I know from firsthand experience reading hundreds of pitch decks and doing due diligence when deciding whether to back a business or not gives you a massive edge on EVERYONE else who is out there head down, caught in the weeds running their own business and never coming up for air.

Even if you didn’t have access to early stage investments as something high on your list in 2025 the understanding it will give you of broader market conditions and interrelated elements that you may not have otherwise anticipated impacting your own business is reason enough to give it a try!

A few takeaways from my conversation with Marcia:

• We’re leaving money on the table - Only 3% of early stage funding goes to women. That statistic always blows my mind as it is ridiculous and demonstrates just how much brilliance we’re missing out on in the world by not backing more diverse business owners and operators. I love Marcia’s work to bring more women into angel investing by demystifying it as a way to shift the dial on where capital is being placed.
• Risk - We had some really important conversations about risk and the critical importance of spreading your investments within the angel or early stage investments you make. Understanding the risk profile and splitting your allocation across 10 deals is safer than doing 1 or 2 deals and hoping for the best!
• More than money - As business leaders, I would argue we’re positioned better than anyone to help in a range of ways to back and support early stage and scaling companies. There’s a reason why we called our company Benefit Capital and it’s because there are multiple forms of capital. Collectively they make the whole.

Money is not the answer to every problem. In fact sometimes a massive injection of cash through a capital raise can simply cover up problems that will then resurface down the track (after they have burnt through everyone’s cash!)

If you head to Marcia’s website you’ll be able to find more information, including her podcast and book that we mentioned in the episode. You can even download a free version of chapter one if you want to get a taste of the book.

If you'd like to listen to the audio only version of the podcast you'll find it here or on your favourite podcast app.