Accelerating Impact Through Inclusivity In Access To Capital - Jasiel Martin-Odoom of Unreasonable

Reasonable items seldom change anything. This is why the aim of the Unreasonable Group, a private equity firm, is to re-purpose capitalism and support impact-driven entrepreneurs and companies who are trying to solve major global problems. To date, the Unreasonable Collective has over 300 ventures in more than 180 countries, and these ventures have collectively made more than $7 billion in revenue, nearly $9 million in financing, and are making a difference in the lives of 800 million people across the world.

Impact Hustlers speaks to a lot of founders, but today, it’s time to hear what it’s like from the other side of the field. Jasiel Martin Odoom, Senior Investment Associate at the Unreasonable Group, joins us to share some insights on what it’s like partnering with impactful companies led by underrepresented or minority founders and raising funds. In this episode, Jasiel gives great advice and nuggets of wisdom for aspiring or early stage founders on how to pitch, how to select investors, how to raise funding, and so much more. We were even joined by a former guest on Impact Hustlers, Joel Tasche, the founder of Clean Hub! Again, you won’t want to miss this episode.

Jasiel’s key lessons and quotes from this episode were:

• “If you can tell a very clear value proposition within the pitch deck you're sharing with the investors is always helpful.” (11:40)
• “You have to explain why your solution is better than anybody else in basic terms, but being able to craft a story around that thing often helps as well.” (17:34)
• “As you're starting out, the feeling might be to rush for the first VC to validate your product… but it's less about the money and more of what you're building. Especially as a founder, you're looking to build something that lasts, so think it through.” (23:33)
• “We should include diversity in this space and diversity of the team, who is in the team. That should be a metric for us to go out and find companies, because we will find that it will force us to source in different places.” (35:22)
• “Always start to fundraise before you need to close a round.” (45:43)

In this episode, we also talked about:

• The type of companies the Unreasonable Group invests in (6:56)
• Do’s and don’ts when it comes to raising (11:16)
• The key to choosing investors (21:42)
• Pitching and helping investors understand a niche industry (37:56)
• Joel’s top tips on the overall fundraising process (45:25)