Citrus OnAir - The Biz Dev Talk Show

This is Citrus Ornge’s first ever show and who better to open it up than a female entrepreneur who is passionate about supporting other female entrepreneurs? Citrus are joined by Jackie Waring, who is the Founder and CEO of Investing Women. At 25, Jackie was the youngest CEO in the UK enterprise sector. Having set up her own company in 2003, Jackie has successfully run 3 companies, including a turnaround 50 employee business, and has served on multiple boards. There are two parts of what her company does. Investing Women Angels is a community of female angel investors, whose primary focus is early-stage companies. And the other is AccelerateHER, which – as the name suggests – accelerates female company founders via running various programs and awards. The launch of Investing Women in 2015 was a launch with intention at that time, as there were only a mere handful of women in Scotland involved in angel investing. She set out to create more opportunity for women who may not have had the option of angel investing presented to them. These were the first steps in creating more diversity for women and achieving the same level of company growth for female founders as she has observed clearly with males. Jackie talks us through her ‘people first, ideas second’ approach when making investments. “Bio-tech is known to be one of the riskiest sectors to invest in. And that’s where we went first. It was pure belief in the people and the team and the fact that they had that amazing track record.” Areas also covered within the show: Living values within the brand – they are the USPs that customers flock to. It’s more than just money. Investing and PR go hand in hand – the importance of being selective in how you promote your business at the start. Marketing’s role within your business – how digital strategies reduce the steps in achieving the ‘route to market’. The less complicated a marketing plan, the better. Building the ‘trust economy’ through digital marketing – how big is the job of building trust between yourself and your consumers? Strategising self-produced content and the process of selecting its communication channels. Building a digital plan for the rest of 2020 – preparing for uncertainty. Golden advice on how to go about seeking investors.