Building An Investor Network from Scratch - Pip Jamieson, The Dots

Fundraising Stories with Female Founders

Fundraising expert Julia Elliott Brown, the CEO of Enter The Arena talks with Pip Jamieson, the Founder and CEO of The Dots, a professional network for people in the creative industry. Pip has raised £5.5m in investment finance in the last few years, with two major funding rounds and the platform has over half a million members.

In 2009, Pip co-founded her first business in Australia, called The Loop, a network to help people in the creative industries network and find jobs. After selling her share of the business, Pip returned to London and decided to start all over again - by building a UK creative industries network.

Pip had no professional investors in her existing network in London, so started a serious round of networking, going for coffees with anyone who might be able to help. Whilst there were lots of ‘no’s, Pip secured a cornerstone investor which led to herding in the rest of them successfully and raising £1.5m in the first round.

In this episode of Fundraising Stories with Women Entrepreneurs, you’ll discover…

• Why you should always have an ask at a meeting
• How finding a higher purpose helps during the tough times
• Why setting clear boundaries with investors is key