How Donna Griffit Has Helped Female Founders Raise Millions From Investors

The start-up scene remains male-dominated, with only 7% of investor money going into female-led companies. The number of investments awarded to all-male teams outnumbers those given to women-led start-ups by a factor of six. Enter Donna Griffit, a corporate storyteller who has helped to shape the narrative for over 1,000 start-up founders, many female, and guided them to raise over $1 billion since the late 2000s.

“Needless to say, pitching isn’t an exact science. It’s more of an art form,” Griffit says. Persuading investors to hand over millions of dollars requires excellent presentation skills, a forensic knowledge of the numbers, and an ability to create FOMO – fear of missing out. Investors who have been around for any length of time will regret the occasions when they passed up gilt-edged opportunities such as a Facebook or an Uber.

Griffit offers this advice to female entrepreneurs. “Since we were young girls, we have been conditioned to think that it’s not polite to brag or self-promote – our actions and accomplishments will speak for themselves. This, unfortunately, is not the case when pitching investors. It’s super important to credential ourselves and list our accomplishments. If you have raised funding, closed contracts, brought in significant revenues, growth, or partnerships, don’t wait to share it. Put it up front, on a loud and proud Brag Slide.”

According to Griffit, when pitching investors, many strong female bosses have a tendency to lose sight of the bigger picture and get lost in details. “I worked with a female CEO who had an incredible vision and was set to completely revolutionize the e-mobility market,” Griffit says. “There was a clear path and pipeline, but she was caught up in the minutia. I always ask women founders, ‘If a 24-year-old male Stanford graduate were pitching Andreesen-Horowitz, would he hesitate to paint the picture of his grand vision? No. So, get out your paintbrush and draw those broad strokes. Then show them where you’re at in the process of getting there.’”

No matter how world-changing your project might be, the temptation to focus solely on the nuts and bolts is a mistake, says Griffit. “Too many founders start with the tech, the product, the solution. And more often than not, it’s women founders struggling with this. They want to be taken seriously, so they feel they have to launch right into the architecture. But the best way to show that is through the origin story, a personal connection, how your past experience set you on this particular mission.”

Griffit shares about a female founder who pioneered a parenting solution based on her own personal need. She had moved to a new country, where she found she was lost when it came to finding babysitters and family support. This founder thought that investors would lose respect for her if she emphasized being a mother. “But I encouraged her to do the exact opposite and craft the pitch story from her pain point,” Griffit says. “She had created a marketplace for parents that gave them access to trusted solutions. Sharing her own struggles as a mother made her human, accessible, and someone who truly understood her target audience. It also raised her $5 million.”

It was in 2008, during the financial crash, that Griffit discovered her life purpose. She started reaching out to start-up founders, offering them help them with pitching to angel investors. People told her that start-ups wouldn’t pay for her services. But here she is, 13 years later, having helped over 1,000 companies raise upwards of $1 billion.

Since the Covid pandemic hit, Griffit has had to reinvent herself once more. She has created a workshop called Virtually Speaking, which helps executives craft presentations and present powerfully over Zoom.

“Entrepreneurs should pay attention to the aha moments, not to the voices that try to talk you out of going on the road less taken,” says Griffit to aspiring changemakers and start-up founders. “I pretty much invented my career, and you can do the same. Ten years ago, there weren’t social media influencers, community managers, and many other ‘new’ professions. Who knows what’s next? Find your purpose, become the best that you can be at it, be tenacious, notice the road signs leading you to new places – and follow them even if you’re nervous. They will lead you to great places.”