On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Asher Ismail, Co-Founder of Co-founder of Uncapped, Europe’s biggest revenue-based financing firm. Special offer for 2xers: Email asher@weareuncapped.com with the subject line “Secret 50k” for a chance to get $50k funding with zero fees.

Gone are the days when eCommerce businesses were unable to raise capital. Traditional options like banks and VCs were never really preferred options, but now the market is flooded with finance companies and investors looking to fund eCommerce. This, as you’d expect, has brought with it a different set of challenges for business owners. Choosing the right type, amount and terms of funding is the latest puzzle to solve. This is where companies like Uncapped have come in to offer transparent and flexible options for funding.

In this episode, Kunle and Asher talk about how businesses can use revenue-based financing to grow their businesses faster. You will get to hear about what makes Uncapped’s offering unique, how businesses can grow with remote teams and what are the key data points for securing funding. This is a great episode for business owners and entrepreneurs.

Here is a summary of some of the most important points made,

• • Many entrepreneurs work so hard but own so little of their company
  • Uncapped provides a flexible equity and interest free funding option at a flat fee structure
  • Businesses have to choose the correct type of funding depending on their end use
  • Global supply chain issues have severely impacted growth for many businesses

Covered Topics:

On today’s interview Kunle and Asher discuss,

• Asher’s background
• How Uncapped Works
• Getting Revenue Data from Merchants
• Managing a fully-remote team
• Fundraising Landscape 2019 vs 2021
• Inspiring Growth Stories
• Ideal Unit Economics
• Reducing Cash Conversion Cycles
• Key Data Points to secure funding

Timestamp:

• 07:00 – Meet Asher:
  • This is his 3rd business
  • Always felt raising funds was the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs
  • Active in 22 countries
  • Born out of the need of raising capital without diluting your equity
  • “Many entrepreneurs work so hard but own so little of their company”
  • “Entrepreneurs are often left to choose between costly venture capital or traditional debt”
  • Co-founder is from a VC background
• 10:10 – How Uncapped works:
  • Provide Equity and Interest-free investments of upto 5 million pounds
  • Charge a flat fee of 6% on capital invested
  • Repayments are tied to revenue, there is no set repayment date
  • So if revenue slows down, repayments also slow down
• 11:00 – Getting Revenue Data from Merchants:
  • Connect to accounting software, Shopify or other platforms
  • Make decisions within 24 hours
• 14:00 – Managing a fully-remote team:
  • Managing the team in a traditional way failed incredibly
  • Changed the tools they work with
  • Changed the permanence of communication
  • Created permanent artifacts/SOPs on Notion
  • Have grown from 10 to 70 people since December 2020
• 15:40 – The eCommerce fundraising Landscape in 2019:
  • Tough terms from suppliers
  • Seasonality of business was a challenge
  • Banks didn’t understand the unique requirements of eCommerce and VCs were skeptical
  • “Finding a unique space in the marketplace is the new challenge for ecommerce businesses”
• 18:00 – Picking companies to fund:
  • Had to be more careful while starting out
• 21:15 – Inspiring Growth Stories
• 23:30 – Ideal Unit Economics:
  • Good ROAS
  • Positive Gross margins
  • Scale of doing at least 10k month sales
• 25:00 – Reducing Cash Conversion Cycles:
  • This is the fundamental challenge for businesses
  • You have to be smart about where you’re investing your capital
  • Choose funding as per the end use cycle
• 26:30 – Popular hubs during the last 12 months
• 28:00 – Data Points to secure funding with Uncapped:
  • Trading history of at least 6 months
  • Is the business building something repeatable and predictable
  • Revenue of 10k/month
• 30:00 – eCommerce in 2021
  • Global supply chain issues have impacted many businesses
  • Buying behaviors have shifted to online for good
• 32:20 – Lightning Round

Lightning Round:

• Q: What advice would you give to yourself 5 years ago?
  A: Less afraid what other people think
• Q: Are you a morning person?
  A: Yes
• Q: What’s your daily morning routine like?
  A: Start with reading, reflecting and coffee
• Q: What’s been your best mistake till date? A set back that’s given you the biggest feedback
  A: lessons learnt while trying to get funding for earlier businesses
• Q: What book are you currently reading?
  A: Building a Story Brand

Takeaways:

• Managing a fully remote team requires a rethink of tools used and rock solid SOPs
• Supply of capital for eCommerce businesses is at an all time high

Links & Resources

• Asher on LinkedIn
• Special offer for 2xers: Email asher@weareuncapped.com with the subject line “Secret 50k” for a chance to get $50k funding with zero fees

Tweetable Quotes:

“Finding a unique space in the marketplace is the new challenge for ecommerce businesses”

———–

SPONSORS:

This episode is brought to you by: