Meet your Startup Board Course Facilitators
For this edition of Inside the Boardroom we’re doing something a bit different. We’re turning the tables on one of our own, our Startup Board Course Director, Ashleigh Camm, for her valuable insights and why she loves facilitating the Startup Board Course.
Our Head of Startups, Josh Sharma, sits down with Ash to ask her about her background and the 'why' behind the Startup Board Course, plus Ash also shares her tips for what to think about when you’re bringing on investors and directors. Hear more about Ash and the 'why' for the Course in this Part 1, and all her tips to set yourself up for success when bringing on investors next week in Part 2.
Josh Sharma runs our Startups team which supports pre-Series A startups across legal and accounting - get in touch with Josh if you need support here.
PLUS places are filling fast for our next Startup Board Course cohort kicking off on 14 August 2024 - apply here.
PART 1
Josh: Hey Ash, this is fun - now I know your background obviously, but can you tell us a little about yourself and particularly in the context of what made you so passionate about governance and working with founders and investors?
Ash: Love this Josh - it’s true, I am super passionate about supporting founders to build great relationships with investors, directors and other stakeholders. Fundamentally, the basis of building these great relationships is having a good approach to governance - or a ‘good governance’ mindset - that’s right-sized for your stage, and this is what the Startup Board Course is all about too.
I started my working life as a Finance Grad turned Strategy Analyst at Westpac, and then I went into investment banking at Macquarie in Corporate Finance - now MacCap Advisers. From day one my approach was ‘how could we do this better’ as opposed to ‘how has this been done before’ - I’ve been lucky to have always had this startup mindset, and it’s driven the way I’ve done everything over the years. At Macquarie, it transpired in identifying and building expertise in an underserved segment of the market, and we won deals from there, both for M&A and IPOs.
It was in my time working closely with management teams at Macquarie that I realised how much I loved being able to help founders and management teams craft their equity story for maximum impact with investors and the market. Following this direction, I started working with an ASX-listed founder-led scale-up I knew well - there I did the raft of corporate functions like Investor Relations, Strategy and M&A, as well as supporting the Company Secretary, and later, adding Corporate Communications and Internal Communications into the mix - some of the fun functions where governance is front and centre. As a company, we went through many growth stages and challenges but with great underlying fundamentals, the backing of some incredible investors, and an innovative approach to sharing the company’s story and engaging with investors, we ultimately succeeded in getting that company to a great exit, which was a great outcome for all the founders and shareholders.
I then made the move to London and landed in the UK listed market, supporting a FTSE 250 business in Investor Relations (and other corporate functions). This business was still led and majority owned by its entrepreneur founder who had started it in 1982 with a £10k loan from his parents. He is an incredible entrepreneur and that was an incredible experience: finding ways to connect his entrepreneurial style with that of the mature-investing market ignited a lot for me, and it anchored how I think about blending what we do well at both ends of the company lifecycle to achieve better outcomes.
When I returned to Australia, it was time to go all in on the entrepreneurial journey and focus on my greatest passions: people, planet, and doing more responsible business for a better future. I started a grass-roots circular economy business, moved to Byron Bay, and ultimately joined a great local org as EIR where I ran a pre-accelerator program for purpose-led founders and supported the local startup ecosystem in various ways: workshops, events, mentoring, and more. I loved being there, supporting founders and working with impact investors and the ecosystem for close to 4 years before joining LUNA in Melbourne in early 2023 (yes, everyone asks why Melbourne!). I now run the Labs function and also lecture with you, Josh, at Monash University in our ‘VC and the Startup Ecosystem Unit’ which is so fun and rewarding. Too long?
Josh: No, that was great, Ash, thanks - lots of elements there we could drill down on, but maybe if we turn to the Startup Board Course, I remember when we asked you if you might be interested in having a go at building this, and you just lit up. What was it like creating the Startup Board Course?
Ash: Thanks Josh, and yes, that makes me laugh, I did indeed light up! It feels like I’ve lived and breathed management team <> board <> investor relationships in different ways my whole career, and I’ve seen the power of good governance and what it can mean when you have great relationships with the right investors and directors. I’ve also seen and been in the midst of what can happen when we don’t do these things well too - it can get very uncomfortable very quickly. Ultimately a good approach to governance enables a company to achieve better outcomes for founders, shareholders and stakeholders, and that’s why it’s so helpful to know this from the outset.
When I stepped into the startup ecosystem in Australia some 6 years ago, I don’t know what I was expecting but I was a bit surprised to find that attitudes towards investors weren’t always constructive - it was like founders didn’t always seem to know how to please those on their cap table or saw them as adversaries rather than being part of their team. Of course you expect this to some degree, and it goes both ways, but it seemed to me that some of this may have stemmed from founders potentially not knowing the drivers of an investor and what they need, and hence how they are going to behave because of those needs, and an ongoing challenge would then ensue.
Understanding the needs of different investors across the company lifecycle has essentially been drilled into my DNA over the years, and I’ve had to do the hard yards myself on this across the full spectrum of a scaling business, along with boards and directors, and more. Things like working with founders, management teams and boards to create, craft and report on the story in a way that is integrous (always) and that will resonate with investors; identifying and connecting with the investors that we wanted on our cap table; supporting operationally to get growth-orientated deals done in various ways, taking the board on the journey, and then announcing it to the market (or anyone who would listen!); had many interesting phone calls (!); spent days pitching or on investor roadshows; and, managed the myriad of investor meetings, interactions and external perceptions to the extent possible, plus more, all in an effort to try to ensure the companies I worked for were fairly valued and well-supported, so that we could continue to build and realise value, and have access to capital to grow.
Creating this course felt like codifying all of this experience at a high level, and bringing best practices together - from the perspective of startups and scale-ups, to also what we can learn from listed companies. With this and together with many wonderful contributors, like our incredible Advisory Board and those that helped along the way (thank you!), we’ve created an initial foundation of what good can be at the early-stage, and so that we can keep building on what best practice can be from there.
The element I love most about the Course is that it’s very practical and speaks to real-life situations. It aims to equip founders with what they need to know, as well as help them to understand how to create efficient and impactful two-way board and investor relationships. Knowing what you have to do and how to do this well, as well as what the expectations of your stakeholders will be, can truly be so life-changing, and I hope many more founders can unlock this for themselves and set their startup up for even greater success in the future.
PART 2 out next week.
Whether you’re a founder or in the management team of a startup, if you would like support to understand what you need to know when it comes to running your company and the obligations of being a CEO and director, we talk about all of this and more in our Startup Board Course - find out more here.
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