Nanaimo, BC, July 16, 2024 — The recent graduation of 10 women as trainers from the intensive InvestorQ&A program represents a critical step forward for Canadian businesswomen in the food industry who, like most women entrepreneurs, have been blocked from accessing investment capital. At a time when global food systems are at risk from climate disasters, climate change and war, supporting more women food entrepreneurs is not only a smart move, but an increasingly necessary strategy to strengthen regional food economies, say program organizers.
“Our new InvestorQ&A Certified Trainers (IrCTs) are now equipped to help women founders successfully address the most important aspect of an investment pitch — namely, the investor question-and-answer period,” says Dr. Ellen Farrell, InvestorQ&A creator and award-winning mentor/expert in venture capital.
This initiative is part of Small Scale Food Processor Association’s (SSFPA) Venture-Capital Ready program, created to improve access to investment for women food entrepreneurs, thus opening doors to strengthening women-led entrepreneurship in Canada. A pivotal component of Venture-Capital Ready, the Investor Q&A training first educated its ten trainees, appointed by partner organizations across the country, on the investment process, and then put them in charge of training 20 female founders in the Canadian food processing sector.
“Few businesswomen understand how important the investor Q&A is to their chances of getting investment capital. We designed this program specifically to train women on topics investors most want to hear, and which questions they should and should not answer,” notes Farrell.
SSFPA Manager of Women’s Programs Sandra Mark says the program as led by Dr. Farrell was “inspiring. Our goal with InvestorQ&A was to give our trainees and their organizations a legacy from the program, which was to raise consciousness about how to overcome the many challenges facing women in the food business, particularly the challenges they face in raising capital,” she says.
“Now that our partners have these new in-house experts with both certification and clout, they have the capacity to train more women helping them on the journey to accessing the capital they need to successfully commercialize their food products.”
A significant proprietary component of InvestorQ&A is its research-based role-play simulation console, which poses investor questions to founders, then responds immediately to those answers with support and suggestions for improvement. Founders reported that this tool helps them to refocus their thinking about their business, increasing their financial and business confidence.
Mark notes that women often get knocked out of the investment process because they answer questions about their family or volunteer activities with heartfelt answers, which may lead investors to assume they’re not serious about their business. “InvestorQ&A trains women to assume greater control of the question-and-answer session by steering it back towards a focused discussion about their enterprise,” she says.
As for the graduated IrCTs, Farrell says she was delighted with their immediate appreciation and absorption of the InvestorQ&A method and process. “When it was their turn to work with founders, they articulated the ideas beautifully. I could not be more delighted with our progress toward this meaningful change for female founders.”
The newly certified trainers will continue to train women founders entering the Venture-Capital Ready program in the months to come.
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