One year on from InvestHER 2021: celebrating our entrepreneurial women

Leila is the co-founder of award-winning ag-tech company, Cropsy Technologies, which is unlocking the potential of crops using a world-first, AI-enabled crop vision system. Their first application is New Zealand's vineyards, where their technology is locating, profiling and monitoring individual grape vines.

Since InvestHER, Cropsy has successfully completed its first capital raise, led by Angel Investors Marlborough (AIM), and has formed an experienced board of directors. They've also received R&D funding along the way from Callaghan Innovation and AGMARDT. Leila says InvestHER was the perfect platform to generate investor engagement.

"InvestHER was the first in-person pitch I'd done in a while, but it was probably the most engaging. It was an extremely useful way to get our name out there and advertise the opening of our capital raise. We'd just completed our first trial programme and we had lots of results to share. So, while we didn't manage to get a syndicate together at that time, InvestHER really helped kick things off."

The Cropsy team has since attended respected accelerator programmes Startmate and Sprout, received multiple accolades (including the Young Innovator and Early Stage Awards at Fieldays 2021), and been named one of the top 10 NZX Early Stage companies for 2021. Its trials have continued with wine industry giants Pernod Ricard Winemakers and Indevin, and more recently with Marisco Vineyards in Marlborough.

Leila's proudest achievement over the past year is Cropsy's continued customer focus – something that's seen them succeed where others haven't. Taking the learnings from their trials, they've improved the reliability and robustness of their system, always with the end user in mind.
"Usability is key. It comes down to the technology, the way its priced and how it integrates into the workflows of the vineyard.

"Attending Startmate and Sprout within two weeks of one another was challenging, but it helped us get more commercially focused. We're a team of engineers, and we'd just built this technology that was going out into vineyards. We needed to shift our mindset to: 'how do we make this into a product that's valuable to growers'? It's important to deliver something the customer will actually use and get value out of."

Laura used to be a 'hacker with a conscience', breaking into company's systems to help them identify their security cracks. Then, in 2014, she launched SafeStack, a consulting business teaching software developers how to avoid leaving the cracks in the first place.

When COVID hit in early 2020, SafeStack took a major hit in revenue, as customers tightened their belts and cut back on security spending. The team quickly pivoted and launched SafeStack Academy – an online, productised version of their training programme that Laura says is more accessible and affordable to the market.

"SafeStack Academy is a cyber security education tool that trains techies to build good security measures into their products, software and processes. When I presented at InvestHER 2021, the platform was just over six months old, so it was a great chance to raise our profile in a supportive environment."

Since then, SafeStack has grown based on just about every measure you can think of.
"We've successfully completed our first capital raise – raising $2.3 million in our seed round with Australian VC firm Jelix Ventures, Carthona Capital, K1W1, NZGCP Aspire Fund and NAB Ventures. We had a team of seven people, we now have 19; we were at $200k annual average return, we're now at $700k; we were in three countries, we're now in seven; we had 2,000 learners, we now have 8,000. We were also the first New Zealand company to be accepted into the Australian Cyber Incubator, Cyrise. So there's been a lot going on!"

For start-ups, Laura says the most powerful thing is to find investors you align with. She used the HubSpot CMS platform during the capital raising process to track investor conversations, making it easier to identify those who were a good fit with SafeStack's culture.

"Capital raising for me is like sales. I'm just selling the vision of the company – our performance, our story, our hopes and dreams – rather than a product. Investment is a very long-term relationship, so cultural fit is important. I've been fortunate to find investors I connect with and who support us in ways that are useful to the business as we grow."

The same goes for target markets. SafeStack is currently entering the US, and Laura says they're prioritising locations that are aligned with their approach.

"You have to be strategic when you enter the US. We have a spreadsheet where I've colour coded locations based on their fit with our culture. California is number 11 on our list, but Utah – who knew! Massive start up culture. Phoenix, Austin, Florida, Colorado – amazing start up communities that you wouldn't traditionally think of because of the hype that comes from California and the Valley.

"There are thousands of companies in these places who build software every day. Our approach is to connect with them by telling our story and the stories of other companies we've worked with, to give them the playbook of how they can bring security into their portfolio companies without getting in the way of growth and innovation.

"It's a gentle way to introduce ourselves to the market, but it's how we've always done things: lead with authenticity, with our voice, because we know that's what creates connection."

Billie Jo is the founder of BDÉT – a 98.9 per cent natural foam wash that's sprayed onto toilet paper, creating an environmentally friendly alternative to wet wipes.

Since pitching at InvestHER 2021, Billie Jo has participated in the Māori delegation that attended Te Aratini, Festival of Indigenous and Tribal Ideas, at Expo 2020 in Dubai. BDÉT has also been selected as a SheEO venture – getting support from this global community who provide advice, network connections and funding to women and non-binary people who are 'working on the world's to-do list'.

On top of this, BDÉT has just gone global, with the product set to be sold through the International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) e-commerce site, which reaches 150 million consumers online.

Narrative Muse is an online tool that matches users' preferences with book, movie, and television recommendations of stories by and about women and gender-diverse people. Then, using psychometric data and AI, it will seek to help publishers and producers find, engage with, and produce best-selling content for underserved audiences.

Co-founder Brough Johnson presented at InvestHER 2021 and, not long after, Narrative Muse closed its funding round just above its minimum thresholds.

"We raised $1.3million through funds, high net worth investors and a government grant, which I'm super proud of. It feels like quite a feat for a company that's doing purposeful work, particularly in the social equity and creative sectors where there's not a lot of venture capital."
Since then, Brough and the team have focused on hiring the right people, integrating intercultural frameworks into their work, upgrading their tech, and putting a board of directors in place.

"I had to go through media training, learn how to do publicity, and build the right team. We've managed to bring on some great folk and we're now at 8 FTEs. We've also just formed our board, and we have such a great collection of people to help us achieve our goals. They have so much expertise in their particular spaces, which we're just thrilled about."

One big piece of work for Narrative Muse is looking at what it means to work in a truly equitable, collaborative way.

"For Narrative Muse to succeed in the social equity space, we need to know how to achieve true equity within our company, so we can take it out to our external stakeholders. We've been looking at our systems and processes around equity, and we're completing a year-long programme with an intercultural facilitator.

"It's been really transformative in terms of how we work as a team. We do things more collaboratively and co-creatively, which may seem strange in a commercial environment. But, if we're going to work for non-dominant cultures and marginalised communities, it's important we understand what working collaboratively looks like. I'd say it's fundamental for any organisation, but it can be a hard sell!"