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And now let's get the show started.
Well, hello there.
Hello, sir.
I thought you were going to say hello there, captain.
Oh, well, that's so true.
That's so true.
Someone in this conversation, not me just bought a boat.
All right, let's, let's hear it.
I always heard that the number one best day of a boat owner's life is selling the
boat and the second best day is buying it.
So where are we at?
How's, how's everything?
I thought it was the other way.
I said the best.
Well, man, I don't know.
Well, gosh, it's already been an adventure.
I bought a boat, my first boat.
I'm sort of excited about it.
And on the first trip, one of my engines overheated.
So now that's going to need to be dealt with.
Isn't that fun?
But if you're like an entrepreneur, this shouldn't surprise you.
We got to expect these kinds of things.
So I feel like you're already prepared for it.
Look at Kat, just bringing it on.
I love that.
That's right.
Let's talk about resilience immediately.
Don't, don't, don't feel sorry for yourself.
Just shake it off.
Get back on there.
That's right.
You bought another check for a thousand bucks and you'll be right back in the game.
That's how I get it.
Well done, Kat.
So let's, let's bring Miss Wonderful Kat in to the conversation.
Learn more about this fantastic guest of ours.
Our guest today, of course, is Kat Weaver, a two-time accidental entrepreneur whose
journey is as inspiring as it is instructive.
Kat launched her first company from her college dorm room, scaling it to a successful
exit, despite facing monumental challenges, including losing everything to a fire.
We're going to dig into that.
Along the way, she became a master storyteller, winning 22 of 23 pitch
competitions and raising six figures of funding.
I wish I knew you about 17 years ago, Kat, when I was on Shark Tank.
Could have helped, could have helped.
When a video of her top pitch tips went viral, Kat realized that she had the
gift for helping other founders.
That's when she lost, sorry.
That's when she launched Power to Pitch, a company dedicated to helping other
founders, craft winning pitches and secure funding faster.
Her programs have already helped countless founders raise millions in grants and
venture capital with a bold milestone of reaching $100 million raised.
Kat, we are so thrilled and proud to have you here on the Braving Business Podcast.
I am honored to be here.
I could talk about this stuff all day long.
And it was cool to be able to see each other in person in Alibaba and then make
this video and share it with you.
And I'm thrilled that you were, you're able to come on and
spend a little time with us.
And I'm thrilled to meet you.
And PJ mentioned you, you were the person he told me about first coming back,
coming back from that competition.
He said, I met someone that's going to be an incredible guest and she's so full
of energy and has such a fun story.
And I'm delighted that we have a chance to do this with you.
So let's dive in.
I mean, let's start at the very beginning or the beginning of your business
career, but I'm excited to be here.
So let's dive in, I mean, let's start at the very beginning or the beginning
of your business career.
You started your first business while you were in college.
I actually also was a college student when I started my first business.
Mine failed spectacularly.
Yours apparently didn't cause you ended up selling it, but what kind of business
was it, what gave you the confidence or maybe the audacity to decide to go down
the path of opening a business as a student?
I was absolutely crazy.
So I was not born with confidence, business acumen, a natural network of
angel investors or funders around me and emphasis on being a two-time accidental
founder, as I say, because I actually wanted to go into medicine.
So I did not intend to go down this path.
Actually half of my family's in medicine.
The other half are entrepreneurs.
I picked wrong at first, but it found me.
So I had my stuff stolen out of my gym locker and I thought to myself, I don't
want to wear a fanny pack.
I just need the essentials.
I tried to look for a solution, couldn't find it, crafted it myself with the
help of my mom's seamstress and her bridal store.
And then long story short, I had other students recognize the product when I'd
be going to tailgates and doing fitness and all these things.
And so then I had other students knock on my dorm room door and I was like,
oh, I kind of really have something here.
So I was selling them, pulling out the inventory under my bed.
As I'm this bio major in college, not realizing that I really actually am
starting this business, did a little bit of Etsy, was able to actually
utilize my mom's store for all this.
So this is where the fire portion comes in because it wasn't that, oh gosh, I
want to start this big business and make millions of dollars and have a big exit
and all these things.
It was just, I have this need.
I know how to fill it.
It's exciting that I get to sell it and help other people with the same problem.
And so I was utilizing my mom's store from materials to, I mean, you name it to
the sewing machines and then her business of 26 years was lost to a fire.
And that also meant that all of my stuff was in that store at the time.
No network, no connections, but I had a professor say, Kat, you got to do a
pitch competition and the rest is history.
My gosh.
Real quick.
What was the product that you were, you were making in college?
So it was a wearable wrist wallet that can fit an ID, cash and keys.
And it fit right on the wrist.
It was about the size of a credit card.
Very cool.
So, so, okay.
So now we're at the fire, which was unfortunate and hopefully, um, no
one was hurt in this, in this fire.
Um, so you've, you've, you've talked about this a lot though, on your
entrepreneurial journey about losing everything in the fire early.
What was your mindset during that time and how did that experience shape
the way that you approach challenges today?
So at first it was just, it kind of didn't set in, it was more shocking.
And it's like, if that isn't a sign from God to not keep going, I don't know what is.
You know, that was the first initial thought is like, that's a clear sign
that it's gone, it's lost, move on.
Cause I was in the midst of deciding to change my whole major and everything
to go into entrepreneurship.
But when I had more people asking about the product and this professor
who encouraged me and said, Kat, like there's other options to get
money that I didn't know about.
My first pitch competition that I did was $7,500 in free capital.
So I thought, you know what?
Someone other than my mom thinks this is a good idea.
I have something here.
So that was really that inflection point that started this all back up again.
So you, is this the business you ended up selling that this business that you
opened up? Okay.
So, so you were under, if I, if I understood correctly, you were under
contract four times before you actually sold this business.
Tell us about that experience.
And also what did these near misses teach you about negotiation,
perseverance and timing?
So I wouldn't wish that feeling upon my worst enemy.
It was the most traumatic experience to go through four times under contract.
Because I mean, you had escrow, you had, you're pitching yourself, you're selling,
you're also trying to run the business and maintain and grow.
And it was so mental.
And I went through emotions that I didn't think I possessed.
And I'll tell you the hardest one, the third time I was under contract.
So it was a cash, all cash deal.
It fell through the week of my wedding and all inventory was shipped, supposed
to be shipped by the time I'm going on my honeymoon.
So not only did I have to manage that the week of the wedding, I had to still
then keep running the business as normal when this guy was so excited, all the
things were set up and obviously it turned out to be too good to be true.
But I realized in that sense, really everything is negotiable and I say that a lot.
And two, I have this quote in my office that I can look at right now is that we
suffer more in imagination than reality.
And I created all these scenarios in my head of this is wrong, this isn't right,
I'm not capable.
And I even had a mentor, ex-mentor tell me, Kat, you know what, you should just
sell the company for $1 so you could just say that you sold it.
And I have never felt more offended by anything in my entire life.
And so I figured, you know, I'm going to stick it out to prove that this
really is worth something.
I did it for six years.
I had patents, I had five trademarks, I had distribution on Good Morning America,
Amazon, other retailers, like there was, it wasn't nothing.
So there was all these little pieces that really added up and helped fuel me to
pushing through to that fourth contract to make it happen.
So let me dive into a couple of the points you made that I think are useful
and our audience would appreciate and can learn from.
So at first, the challenge is believing that something has value and you had
someone actually tell you, sell it for a dollar, just to be able to say that you
sold it.
Talk to me about, I mean, and you mentioned that, that offended you, that
you found that to be offensive.
I can see why that would be offensive.
And I, especially if you've invested time and effort and they're trying to build
something, but tell me more about why, what was it about the moment considering
you'd had setbacks, right?
So the moment was a moment where for many people, there is a sense of this
isn't going to work out and I either should move on and do something else or
I should quit.
And what we've been able to discover in this podcast through three seasons plus
is that the point that distinguishes successful people from those who are not
is that successful people refuse to quit in those moments where I'm going to call
them mere mortals do quit.
What was it?
Where did you find the gumption?
That's an excellent question.
I've actually never heard of it.
I will say that it kind of starts that I have played sports my entire life.
So I was played tennis in college.
I got a great scholarship and that required a certain level of sacrifice that
the average person isn't prepared to make or take or do.
And so I think that training my entire life for these things that the majority of
people didn't have the gut to do, but I think that it was a good thing to do.
And so that it was a good thing to do.
And so I think that it was a good thing to do.
And I think that the fact that people didn't have the guts to do or had the
mindset to make those kinds of sacrifices made me feel that, all right, I'm already
in this next tier of resilience because I've been through a lot already.
I got injured a lot playing sports.
I was told actually I could never run again.
I have a permanent staple in my foot and I ended up getting a really great
result and I think there's going to be a lot of outside noise, a lot of outside
opinions, but they don't really matter at the end of the day.
And I think that too, so now with Power to Pitch and helping founders get funding,
we actually, I'm going to skip ahead for a second that we look for four traits.
It's grit, passion, coachability and transparency.
But we say that grit beats passion every day.
You can have someone excited about it, but if they don't have that founder grit or
that passion to sacrifice and execute, they'll only get so far.
Wow.
You know, you're the second, ironically, you're the second collegiate
scholarship athlete I've talked to today.
And that, and so let me ask you real quick for tennis.
And then I'm just curious now, how many, do you know how many
scholarships they give out for tennis?
The tennis is very small.
Our school, there was only six to eight women on the women's tennis
about the same for men, it varies.
Her precise, I played division two tennis, so it's not like a football team where
they've got, you know, 20 or 30 to give away.
Yeah.
The person I met this morning, she was a scholarship gymnast at division one,
but there's only 200 given throughout all colleges every year for full rides for
gymnasts.
And I was like, wow, that's such a small pool.
So I was just wondering if for tennis.
Oh yeah, I can't speak to across the board, but I'm thinking like per my school
and in some of the others that I looked at, it's a very small amount of athletes
that are chosen for that.
But it's, it's also very interesting that, you know, you're talking about that
grit because she was kind of relaying her story just like you are now about the
self-sacrifice it takes to be a scholarship athlete and how much of that life, you
know, kind of soaks up all your time.
It's, it's kind of nuts.
Um, real quick back to, to you moving forward to power of the pitch and, and
actually learning the power to pitch, which is a unique skillset for sure.
You won 22 out of 23 pitch competitions, which by any measure is remarkable.
What do you think sets your pitches apart from the rest?
And do you recall a moment during those competitions where even you were surprised?
I will say the first few, I was really surprised.
And then I realized that there was a theme that worked over and over again.
Like it became copy and paste.
Honestly, once you have the right formula and mindset, it is all the same.
And the only difference, the biggest difference is the amount of
hours that I put into practice.
I was not born a natural speaker.
I was not born naturally confident in this space.
I actually, my first few competitions, I almost threw up and left
because I was so nervous, honest to God.
I did not want to talk to anyone.
I wanted to crawl out of my own skin.
I even struggles to this day at networking events.
I'd rather speak to 10,000 people than talk to my phone or in a small room.
I don't know what it is, but it's not something that just came to me.
All of a sudden I'm just this great natural pitcher.
I'm a true Testament that when you put in the reps and you build out a formula
of how and what you want to communicate, it's going to get someone to understand.
And I think that a lot of the pitches that I see, they treat, it's a matter
of positioning, so they treat the audience as if they're a target consumer.
Like if I were to pitch you both and say, you know, I have a physical consumer
product that you go in the grocery store and buy, and I'm like, it's delicious.
You're going to love it.
And I talk to you as if I'm forcing you to be a part of this experience or
understand when the reality, the majority of people you speak to, that's not the case.
So it's about understanding that audience and positioning and then
actually putting in the reps because your confidence when you speak is contagious.
And I would get so nervous that when I put in those reps and I was nervous,
my body really already knew what to do.
Very cool.
Now I find that interesting.
I've, uh, I've both raised funds and, and I've had numerous, numerous meetings
with the people who've been trying to raise funds for me, right?
So I'm also an angel investor.
Uh, and I think I, I want to go and dig deeper and dive more into the
four, uh, elements that you identified.
I I'm recalling grit.
What were the other three?
The other three are passion, transparency and coachability.
Interesting.
So let's dive into that, uh, if we can.
So why don't you break those down for us?
Uh, I think grit, anyone that's listened to this podcast, it's self-explanatory.
It is really the, the, the mortar out of which entrepreneurs are made.
If you don't, if you lack it, uh, you are not going to make it.
It's just as simple as that.
Uh, but let's talk about the other three.
Go ahead.
It's the biggest one for our programs.
And so I've also become an angel investor and I look for this in the founders.
We invest in also the founders we take on in the program, because there
is a process for it and the coachability piece.
If a founder is going to be combative, we want nothing to do with you.
We can't help you.
You're going to hate us.
This isn't going to work because we're going to give shared experiences and
suggested changes based on what we know about the industry and who's in our
network.
And so if a founder is going to come across as combative, which we have a lot,
say, no, no, no, wait, I'm coachable and coachable.
Usually those people aren't actually coachable.
They're very, uh, single-minded tunnel vision.
It's not that we are going to force you to take every single piece of advice we
have, but it's a matter of you have to understand that certain people have
different experiences, recommendations, connections that, you know, might
supersede yours or just be different than yours.
And so having that mindset of being a lifelong learner is really important.
And then when you think about the passion side, you know, I can't force a
founder to be excited about what they're building.
And if they come across as just tired, one of the things that they're going to
do is they're tired wanting to get rid of it, throw a bunch of money into it
and have a big exit and not care or enjoy that process.
You know, they're also going to struggle and I don't know how to help someone
who's not excited about what they're doing.
And I think that confidence and energy is contagious.
Like if I even came here and we're talking to you guys all boring and this
story is this and my background is just this and whatever.
If I wasn't excited about what I'm doing right now, who the heck would
want to listen to that?
Yeah.
Lastly, transparency.
This one is really overlooked, I would say, but when you're raising a fund,
when you're choosing a founder, we have a lot who are like, Oh, I want to spin
it in my answer or I had a down round or I had this slow season, how do I spin
that?
And that is the scariest thing to hear because investors know that you're not
perfect, that your growth trajectory isn't sky high and perfect and only going up.
So when a founder is willing to be transparent and share about the struggles,
failures, previous businesses that failed, I think that's a huge asset for them
in creating that longer term relationship with that investor of like, I know my
gaps and here's what I know I need to bring on and it's going to be a much more
successful relationship.
Very, very close.
Yeah.
I mean, as I hear you, I mean, those things make complete sense to me and I
feel like they are consistent with what we at the podcast have tried to convey
to our audience as much as we can.
So grit is, you know, as we said, that's kind of the cornerstone and coachability
is about being willing to have a conversation and not just assume that you
have all the answers.
We had a guest recently, Dennis Stearns, founder of Stearns Financial, multi
billion dollar firm.
And in the discussion we had, one topic that came up was the ability of a person
that's being interviewed to acknowledge that they don't know something.
And when I, I spoke about the fact that when I interview or when I'm talking to
potential CEO that I would, I'm either considering coaching or potentially
investing with, I am looking to hear them say that they don't know something
because no, it all's no, it all's in my experience, lack coachability and
lack transparency.
Now I didn't think about them in those terms.
I didn't think coachability and transparency does more in my words, but
as I'm thinking about what you're saying, that is really what it means.
Right?
If someone's not willing to say, I don't know, what does that tell
you about their character?
How do you respond to that?
What's your, what's your reaction to that?
I interviewed hundreds of investors actually to come up with these qualities,
try to summarize them, right?
Cause you have sacrifice and in all these other things too, these words that you
can use, they mean a lot of other things, but these really summarize them.
So is your question about, you know, how we react to someone who is things
through that or not that, or can you rephrase the question a little bit?
Sure.
I mean, is, is in your experience when, when you run into someone that is never
capable of acknowledging that there's something they don't know about the
business they're pitching to you, how does that land for you?
Well, one, they're not a fit for our programming or to work with us.
Cause you know, I don't know what all the investors don't know at all.
None of us do like truly that's it's quite impossible.
So someone is, has that air of ignorance and is not willing to showcase that.
You're not a fit for our program.
And I will happily say that it doesn't matter how much money you
want to pay me to work with me.
I've really never been a fit for our program.
I've refused plenty of founders who have that kind of attitude.
And at first I would take them on and think that I could help or force
an agenda in some way, and it made me feel miserable and guilty.
And then they would get annoyed and testy.
And I'm like, you know what?
I have a right to say no, to work with someone who's not willing to emulate
these traits that I think are going to make them successful and then ultimately
and selfishly be a success story for me.
I want to make them win and get money because at the end of the day, that
also makes me look better and I'm learning in the process.
So really what I'm hearing is it's just best for people to get out of their own way.
And there is a, um, there's a word that I coined called a rig,
which is arrogance and ignorance together.
So, you know, when someone, I like that a lot.
That's great.
Made up to trademark it.
When, when someone has a rig, they just can't get out of their way.
Cause they're too out of their own way.
Cause they're too blind to see or to take in data or input from someone else
because they got all the answers.
What do you need?
And I definitely have been a rig in my past.
I can tell you that right now.
So, but you learn as you get older, you learn.
Um, one thing that's really, really interesting is that, uh, you're the
way that you kind of blend in with the world.
Or the way that you kind of blew up going viral, so to speak, is because FedEx
posted a video of your pitch tips.
So tell us about that story if you would.
And what was the turning point when you, Kat Weaver, realize, you know what?
I can, I can make this pitching thing, a whole new industry, an
all new business for myself.
So the FedEx story is one of my favorite because I love that organization and I
just didn't apply to that grant and then when I did win, they flew us out to meet
their executive team.
They did PR for us.
Like I got more out of that opportunity than any dollar amount.
And so when they came and filmed my pitch tips, they, it was, you know, oh,
we're going to promote this and just give some insight into the newcomers.
And I was like, sure.
They brought a team.
It's great PR for me.
And then when the video started going, I got DMs by the hundreds from founders
asking, Hey, you know, how can I pitch?
How did you do this?
How do I get more money?
How do I tell my story?
It was very, very similar questions.
And I thought, Oh my gosh, I was doing a few one-on-ones just to help people out.
And then I realized all these same questions.
I started this own side hustle to this business where I put a webinar on a
Saturday because I didn't have time during the week.
So I did this webinar and I had around maybe 15 or so founders pay this course
fee and I essentially, I didn't make it up.
I knew it was these things, but I designed it in that weekend of, Hey,
this is the education and the format that is been winning for me.
And I got off that webinar and people were so excited.
They're writing pitches, they're going after funding opportunities.
And then I realized that, okay, on this course, I get to take all that home.
I was in the consumer product space and my margins are not the same
margins that I'm having here.
So I was like, wow, this is really interesting.
It impacted more people.
It felt really exciting.
I thought I was pretty good at it.
And I made more money in a quarter of a day, not even, than I did that entire week.
And it was like, maybe I can do this again and again.
And it went to a point that my husband looked at me one day and he said, Kat,
take that inventory and you bring it out back and you got to coach these people.
And I was like, Whoa, homie, I worked on this business really hard.
I know I have something here and I was getting burnt out because it was a really,
really, CPG is a tough business.
And so I actually actively sought a broker to help me sell the business because I
realized that there was really something in this coaching space because again,
these formulas, templates, they're, they're copy and paste when you're pitching.
So, so storytelling is really the heart of pitching, right?
I mean, it's, it's how you tell a story or what story you tell.
Is there a founder that you worked with that had a great story,
but didn't know how to tell it?
Uh, and that you were able to bring to a place where that story is, is,
is why they were able to, or a significant reason why they were able to get their
business funded that comes to mind.
It's 100% of our founders.
The entire pitch is a story and it's all about crafting them.
We say investors and even grantors are buying into you as the founder before
what you're actually doing.
Because if you think about, if you are to have to pivot the business and something
happened, you're going to make a sacrifice, you're ultimately the one who's going to
make that decision and have to do the most right by the money.
So it's all storytelling.
So we focus on the really early stage, pre-seed and seed stages as it's considered.
And with these founders, we educate a lot on, you know, a lot of them, they, they
don't have a lot of businesses, former business experience.
It's usually their first business.
They haven't raised money.
They're maybe coming out of corporate, maybe even still are in corporate part time,
but their background and experience is proprietary to them.
So that's actually a power play.
Is any experience or connection or problem you've had to what you're building is
unique to you.
Anyone can ramble off stats.
Anyone could say, this is a massive market opportunity or X amount of people deal
with this, but the audience, any sort of audience you have is going to remember the
transformation that you've created, both verbally and or with your solution versus
the bajillion stats that you want to put out.
So it does come as a part of it to put out that data and construct it in a way, but.
Every single pitch should follow a timeline.
Every great storyteller has a beginning, middle and end.
And it's that clear path that shouldn't jump around.
And it can be repeated in fragments to someone who's not, if you're not the target
consumer, it can be repeated to a target consumer.
So that's my brain dump and excitement on starting for, for stories.
That's awesome.
So, so now power to pitch your, you're off and running.
You're focused on pre-seed and series a founders.
What are some of the common mistakes that you see these people make at these stages
and how do you help these founders avoid those mistakes?
So the biggest mistake we see is a founder will come to us and say, I'm going to
pay you to make my pitch deck.
And to me, that is like a little bit of a stab to the heart because they're probably
going around to other people getting quotes for just making this pitch deck.
And the problem with that is that a pitch deck doesn't tell your story.
A pitch deck shouldn't be the hero in a conversation.
We've helped plenty of founders who actually raise without a pitch deck, because
it's you, that hero, that storyteller, bringing the emotion and that energy.
And a lot of these founders just think that if they spend all this money to make a
pitch deck, their round is going to be raised, their problems are going to be
solved and they spend hours and they spend thousands of dollars.
And it makes me sad that they think that, you know, it's going to be this quick fix.
And so we try to coach them that it's not an overnight fix.
And two, these materials that you want to curate are a backup.
If you can't concisely talk about who you are, what you do and what you need,
that's the real problem.
And me looking at any visual of a deck, I can tell you that, you know, this font
sucks and this should go here, but if I don't know what you want to communicate,
I'm doing you a disservice.
So that's the biggest one. And two is a little bit about that positioning
that I talked about earlier, where I shouldn't be pitching someone as if
they're my target consumer.
I should be pitching someone so they envision who that target consumer is
and Google pitch them on my behalf.
And it's a little tricky when you think about shape shifting, but I, no one
should be forcing that agenda, my product or, you know, service is perfect for you.
It's about giving you the tools to sell me.
And the third one is buzzwords.
The massive opportunity, unique, innovative, sustainable, holistic.
I have heard them all and I'm numb to them as both helping founders pitch as
an investor and talking with all these investors.
I was doing a pitch opportunity and all eight founders, different industries
use the words best in class, revolutionary and game changing.
Completely different stages and industries.
So that doesn't actually make me feel like you are.
I want to feel that without you having to say it.
So those are the top three, three things I see across the board, almost
every single day, actually.
Let's dive into the third.
I find it fascinating because I have the same pet peeve.
I have an allergy to people that throw buzzwords at me.
I will literally count someone out if in the first page of their deck, they use
one of these words with me, I simply won't invest and I won't consider them.
What's the worst one?
Synergy.
Oh gosh.
Synergies is awful.
There's so many.
It's, I'm so allergic to them.
I don't even want to think of them.
Let's put it that way, but we all know what they are.
Right.
So I find that really interesting that that is not effective.
And yet, you know, for some reason it's a, these are business school words.
And people believe that they sound intelligent.
They sound connected.
They sound informed.
Actually, you sound like a buffoon.
It's easy.
Right.
I mean, you think it sums up, you think it gives this aura of I'm
amazing and this is the next big thing.
And I think it's my favorite phrase that you said that you have an allergy to them.
That's like my new favorite.
They actually wrote it down.
So I don't forget it because I think that's hilarious, but we'll see it
in a founders pitch and it just, it hurts.
Because I'm like, I promise you and we'll get founders to fight us on it.
They're like, we are unique.
And I'm like, but how educate me because I truly don't know how.
I would say I see lately, I've seen holistic approach and unique and massive
potential a lot just this week alone.
But man, we've got a whole library actually for our founders of the do not
use and how to replace them because it's like a disease.
That is amazing.
I use that word a lot too.
And awesome.
So, but those aren't, you do, we get more male about the fact that PJ says
amazing to a lot of things than I think it's awesome.
Oh, amazing.
All right.
So you have described yourself as a two time accidental entrepreneur.
What lessons from building a company that you've been working with for
a long time, what lessons from building and selling your first company have
carried over to running power to pitch?
So I didn't think I'd be crazy enough to do another company after.
So I will say I w it wasn't like I was preparing myself for this, but the
the biggest mistake or thing that I wish I really understood or conceptualized
sooner was the, the lesson or process of delegation.
It was always that person who is like, I'm gritty, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to figure it out.
No matter what it takes, I'm going to get it done.
And I would work until I would straight pass out and it wasn't healthy.
It wasn't even things that I was good at.
I was just doing it because, and I had a mentor tell me one day, she was like,
Kat, if you can spend $40 an hour for someone to take some things off your
plate, so you can go work on sales and high level activities, then you should do it.
And I was like, well, I'm not paying myself $40 an hour right now.
I want the $40 an hour.
And I have this really wrong mindset about it.
And so now in power to pitch, investing in a virtual assistant was the most
beautiful thing I've ever done for myself.
I recommend it to everyone and their mother.
I have an agreement with this company because I send them so many people,
because they are so incredible.
So learning that process of delegation was very hard for me.
I would say I'm not perfect yet, but building out processes and SOPs was
something I was really poor at in the first company.
And I put myself at the front of it and thought that I could do all this.
So when I went to go sell, that's where I had a lot of issues.
And probably why it took so long is because I didn't have all that stuff
documented and a lot of it did rely on me.
And so taking those mistakes into this business, trying to fix them early
is something really important to me.
And then the second biggest thing I would say is not ensuring the brand
doesn't revolve around me because it's very difficult to sell that, oh, you
only got in Good Morning America.
You are only selling because it's you.
And that wasn't true.
I actually never showed my face on Good Morning America and I got on four times.
They sent them the product.
They pitched it.
I made Buku bucks in 48 hours and it was awesome.
And that's how I ended up selling the business because I could replicate
those deals, but I did it so strong because I didn't know how else to do it
that I put myself at the forefront of all the branding, the website, the selling.
I mean, and I know a lot of, you know, the influencer style of is more popular
now than it was, you know, like what, eight, 10 years ago, but I, I'm trying
to ensure that I have the foundation team and people where I could back
out and the business doesn't die.
Yeah, you know, I mean, we had Marquel Russell, who's a really incredible guy
on an episode a few weeks ago, and he basically said a lot of people think
they're entrepreneurs, they are just employees of their own companies.
I love that.
That was really an interesting way to frame it.
It does, I think, actually resonate for me.
I think many individuals assume that being indispensable is what it's about,
but actually being dispensable is what it's about.
That's how you can build a business and sell it.
I love that, you know, the, that thought of like, there is a difference between
a founder and inventor and a CEO.
They are three very different things.
They mean have very different qualifications stages.
And I always used to say, Oh, founder and CEO.
And it's like, unless you're operating at this certain scale and you have these
criteria and things, like you're just a founder right now, or I'll meet these
inventors who are like, Oh, I just want to license the product so I don't have
to worry about it.
And that was what I saw a lot at the Alibaba conference was these inventors,
they consider themselves as CEO of the business, yet they don't want to act as
a CEO or run a business.
So it's very different.
Yeah, yeah. We saw, we saw a lot of interesting, you know, out of your four
criteria, there's a lot of passion.
There's a lot of passion in that room, but not a lot of your other, not, not
maybe some grits, but maybe, yeah, maybe grits great.
A lot of people, I think grit is seems to people to be readily accessible, but
they misunderstand the meaning of grit grits, not being stuck on something.
Okay.
Yeah.
It actually true grit is that I think that's a movie is a series or a movie,
right?
True.
Good.
It's actually being able to recognize that you need to be listening to other
people, that your passion alone is not going to get you there.
And if you're not able to be who you're supposed to be or who you authentically
are, then what's the darn point of it?
And I think that's the thing.
I think that's the thing.
If you're not able to be who you authentically are, then what's the darn point of it?
And that's what I'm struggling with when I see particularly young entrepreneurs.
I, um, I see some amazing ones.
It's, it's inspiring to see what's coming.
The generation of entrepreneurs that's coming out of colleges.
I'm, I'm on the board of the university of South Florida's business school and
the school of marketing, uh, students that I get to talk to.
Many of them are absolutely inspiring, inspiring.
I also run into some that entrepreneurship is just not going to be how they make
their living.
And I could tell that pretty quickly, uh, as, as I bet Kat can also Kat, let's,
let's talk about a mantra that you've shared with us, which is everything is
negotiable.
That's a really interesting one.
Tell me more about why you feel that way.
And you know, what's that unlocked for you having that mindset?
So it started very early when I got my first manufacturing quotes and I thought
this is it.
These are the quotes and that is all I'm going to pay this price and it's going to
show up and I can do nothing else.
And then I had mentors who were asking me and they're like, oh yeah, you get
these different quotes and then you negotiate and you leverage one against
the other and you do this and this and you're shipping and, and then with your
shipper, if you reach this point, you should get a free printer.
And I was like, you can do what I would have saved tens of thousands of dollars
at first on negotiating minimum order quantities, getting extra perks from
those that I was shipping with.
I was already spending tens of thousands of dollars with.
I had no idea from the pricing I was paying, even this PR lady I did stuff
with.
I mean, truly once I realized that what was just handed to me wasn't it, I took
that to a lot of other places and I think a lot of other founders should too.
And I truly find that you think everything is negotiable.
I mean, the house we're buying, the manufacturer I'm talking to, the
organization I'm using for some of their software services, I'm negotiating my
AT&T phone bill, like all of these things, when you really think about it,
every aspect of what you're doing from relationships to pricing, there is a
negotiation factor.
And I actually recently read the book.
I'm going to plug this because it was so powerful and I wish I read it earlier.
Never split the difference by, I can't think of his name, but that was a really,
really powerful book that talks about some of these strategies as well.
Wow.
You know, I think that that's also just kind of a cultural thing.
I think in the U S we don't, we don't really expect to negotiate a lot on just
the everyday stuff, whereas you travel around, you go to other countries,
everything is, is a, you know, a haggle, right?
So just very, very interesting.
So, so the author of the book is Chris Voss.
He's a former FBI agent and he gives one of the most amazing masterclasses
I've ever seen.
Absolutely astonishing.
I'll have to check it out.
Oh my gosh.
You love it.
I read that book and Traction by Gino Wickman now religiously.
I reread them just to soak up the concepts a little differently.
Oh, that's amazing.
So, so you have set a really ambitious goal of helping founders raise a
hundred million dollars in grants and venture capital.
So what excites you about this milestone and what is your vision
for power to pitch after that?
Well, we're at almost 30 million already, so we're climbing.
And this to me is large in part that I don't solely help female and
underrepresented founders, but as of last week, it was announced that
the previous year female founders secured 1.9% of venture dollars
and it went down to 1.8%.
So I've got a lot of work to do.
And women actually return higher per dollar invested than male founders.
And that's a current public stat.
And so I think making sure that a lot of the funding that's available,
these worthy founders not only get the education, but they
get the resources to do so.
It's not just a vanity metric.
It's that if I can educate and increase the capital that's going to these
founders, it's should create waves.
And it's not something that's selfish, just these groups deserve
funding and they're not getting it.
And in the future, so my whole mission is helping founders get funded faster.
So it's iterating and updating our programs.
It's getting founders to that point.
I'm actually helping put together a $50,000 pitch competition that's
coming up in the spring with Gimme Beauty.
So instead of 50,000, we're actually up to over 70,000 in prize sponsorship.
So giving back to more founders in terms of grants, whereas how I got my start
on that six figures worth of free capital is something that it's always on the list.
More angel investing.
I get asked a lot if I would be doing a fund, but if I'm being honest,
everyone who's starting a fund sounds pretty miserable.
So I'm miserable enough in some of the hard founder days.
So I haven't fully decided if that's a route that I want to take because it
sounds like a different kind of misery.
But it's been trickling in my mind.
And a last big thing is I'm going to write a book.
I'm going to get all these crazy founder stories out and down.
One day, hopefully I'm, my goal is after I reached that a hundred million,
because I'm sure there's going to be different learning lessons
and crazy stories along the way.
I love that cat.
I think I could absolutely see that book and I would love to read it.
And I probably would have stories to share.
And I got an editor for it.
It's, it is interesting to me.
And you cited that statistic, it was statistic that when I first heard,
I simply couldn't believe it.
It seemed impossible that 98%, 99% of funding was going to men, but it's true.
That's the, this is go out there and validate that that statistic is true.
I think that there is another statistic that mixed teams of men and women get
something, I think in a range of 10% or 15% and it's largely all male
teams that are getting funded.
It's a, it's shocking and it's certainly not because of lack of talent.
It, it, it does say something about our society.
I don't know what, and this is not the forum for it, but it's great cat that
you're helping female entrepreneurs get funded.
I, this is a passion of mine as well.
Let's, let's go to a question that, you know, I, I'm really curious
to hear your answer to, because it's something that would hopefully learn
from you, right? So as, as I mentioned, I speak often to people who are
looking for me to invest and I'm always thinking, what is the essential
question that I really should be asking?
Is there, is there a question that you think a VC or an angel should always
ask and if so, why, why?
I love that you asked this question.
So we even have a list in our program of questions that you should think
about asking investors.
So I'm going to give you a couple.
So the founder should be asking the investor, what is, and this was your
question, right?
What the founder should be asking, right?
So the founder should be asking, what is one of your recent portfolio
investment struggles and what did you do to help them through that?
And so you can see how involved the investor wants to be.
You can see where they're going to provide strategy, how frequently
they want to support.
And really if they're willing to lend a hand, like I think as angel
investors, you're meant to be a bit more strategic and hands-on than
the traditional fund.
That's kind of the purpose, not to just throw money at something.
That's personally my take and a lot of the angels that I know is we're
going in because we can provide some extra strategic value.
And two, I would say is what are some of the, what are the qualities of
some of the successful founders that you've invested in that could be
number two and three is can you, anything about the other one that we had on
the list, but the big one is asking about a recent portfolio company or
asking the founder staff can ask, would you mind introducing me to one of the
portfolio companies so I can talk to them for 10 or 15 minutes?
Ask about the relationship with you, you know, what that's like, how
frequently you're, you know, supporting, like for example, marketing
companies is close their portfolio.
They, they have bi-weekly calls with their portfolio and they
ask what's going wrong.
How can we help?
And that's not every investor.
They're obviously quite involved, but you want to think about that level
of involvement the investor wants, and then they're willing to put forth.
They can answer a call.
They're going to answer a text.
How do they like to communicate?
I think those are important questions to ask.
Well, it's an interview both.
I love this.
Right.
Like, yeah, it is.
The merit.
I oftentimes find that when I get to the point, I actually ask, I
mindfully ask, do you have any questions for me?
And people I find are very prepared for my questions to them.
And for some reason they have not done a lot of thinking about
what they might want to ask me.
And to me, that's an indication of something.
Okay.
Cause what I'm looking for and I'm investing is how thoughtful are you?
How prepared are you?
How much time have you given to try and understand me and what I do?
Right. If you've chosen to reach out to me and many, many people do.
Um, and I'm not alone.
Of course, anyone that invests will tell you that you get blown up on LinkedIn.
Uh, if you're, if you say you're open to investing, okay.
If you've taken the time to reach out to me, make sure that
you know a little bit about me.
Make sure that you can ask me one question that tells me that
you know something about me.
That's my advice.
Something like a thesis.
Like, for example, I love it's, I don't, it's super niche on this
but I love investing in former athletes.
And for various reasons we talked about, or what are the stage of
recent investments you made?
Pre-seed seed, series A.
What are the KPIs that you look for in a founder?
What strategic areas do you think you could support because I have X, Y, and Z gaps?
Like there's really a lot you can ask and it gets the investor to think, it gets you
excited and engaged too, because if you, it's just this one way conversation.
It's like you're dating someone.
You gotta date them and get to see how that relationship is before you get
into this equitable marriage, because divorce is really expensive.
Well said.
Well, our guest today was Cat Weaver.
Cat is someone that I think if you're out there trying to raise money, you
could do a lot worse than reaching out to Cat.
Cat, how can people who are looking at ways to fund their
dreams reach out to you?
I would love to meet any founders in their pre-seed and seed stages.
So you can find us at power2pitch.com, P-O-W-E-R-T-O-P-I-T-C-H.
And I'm very active on LinkedIn with daily pitch tips, founder
resources at Cat Weaver.
She's a powerhouse.
It's a pleasure to meet you.
I can't wait to read your book.
In fact, when you write that book, we'll have you back so you can tell us about that.
And I'd love to have you back when you reach your milestone, when you reach your
milestone, which I'm sure will happen.
Congratulations on doing something exceptionally well.
And you know what?
PJ told me before this interview, he said, you're really going to like her.
There's something about her that's magic.
I see why he liked you.
And I look forward to following your story from here.
That is so kind.
And I would love to come back and reaching those milestones.
I'm a big manifester.
I'm putting it out in the universe.
And so I will be back.
I'm very excited to be back.
Honored that you have me this first time around and that you trusted PJ to bring a
crazy serial entrepreneur on the show and excited for the next episode.
Well, we're all crazy serial entrepreneurs on this show.
So you're in good company.
There you go. Exactly.
Thank you, Kat.
Thank you, guys.
And that's a wrap, folks.
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