HELENA Murphy, who founded investing firm Raising Partners in 2017 to help investors access high-quality investment opportunities, has revealed how her own initial business failure inspired her to bring success to so many others.
Speaking on the Go Radio Business Show With Hunter & Haughey, Ms Murphy said: “I started my first business when I was 16. I used to go down the high street and buy things: any brand we had in the UK that wasn’t yet sold in the US or China, because e-commerce hadn’t really taken off yet.
“I was buying them at retail price then marking them up and selling them.
“I went to a networking dinner and sat next to someone. I told them what I did. I pitched on the Friday and by the following Friday, I had £100,000 in my bank. Off we go to the races! But £100,000 doesn’t last you very long when you’re running an e-commerce business. I was 22 and so naive. I just burned through that cash. That was the biggest eye-opening experience for me. I felt awful about the decisions I had made.
“I decided to take out £100,000 of personal debt to pay off my investors, which I didn’t need to do because they knew their capital was at risk – but I knew the fault of this failure was solely mine. It was awful. I lost my hair from stress-related alopecia.”
Ms Murphy then met angel investors who asked her to share her story.
She said: “I was speaking to investors but also to my peers, founders, entrepreneurs and I could see other people making similar mistakes. Everyone was so focused on the product and the business and the sales and the PR and the marketing. I thought, ‘None of you is looking at the money or the financing or the investment. We should all sit down and look at how money works’.
“The angel investors asked me to help those founders raise some money internally.”
Ms Murphy has gone on to raise millions and said: “The business we have today really is an extension of the workI did when I went in to help people to fundraise. And it’s the best – the business I wish had existed for me when I was first raising money, because what we do is so incredibly hands-on.”
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