AMA with Investment and Start-up Advisor Sandra Spencer
By Raman Kang
Sandra Spencer has worked in the Alberta innovation ecosystem for the past ten years, incorporating her company Nimble Strategizing, in 2017, where she works with various startups and entrepreneurs directly through coaching and indirectly through program delivery. In addition to Nimble, she manages the UAlberta Health Accelerator supporting researchers, faculty, and trainees to validate their business models and get their health technologies to market. Sandra is passionate about coaching entrepreneurs towards viable business models, developing long-term growth strategies, and working with organizations to create and deliver entrepreneurs’ and investors’ programming. Sandra’s work also includes Valhalla Private Capital - where she is currently the Deal Flow Director for their Valhalla Angels program, and where she grew their BaseCamp program for raising capital. Sandra is also an advisor and has helped run the Calgary Pitch Nights for Volition Advisors. She is also a certified facilitator at 3 Day Startup and has delivered its program internationally in Australia, the UK, the US, and Canada. Finally, she recently participated in the City of Edmonton’s RECOVER program as a Social Innovation Coach.
Q: Hey, Sandra! Delighted to have you. I was wondering - what attracted you to the startup and innovation space?
A: It's an interesting and winding road, as it usually is! I honestly stumbled upon it through an extracurricular where I started a business plan competition with a student group called ENACTUS. That really opened my eyes to entrepreneurship and led to my first job at NAIT in the Office of Research & Innovation. I found a love for working with entrepreneurs with new and exciting ideas and found I had a knack for articulating their ideas and helping them to execute them.
Q: I am super curious about how you got your startup to help startups going. How did you gain momentum/traction?
A: Great question. It truthfully evolved as a result of the work I had been doing in my career. I have also prioritized networking, building relationships, and managing them as best as possible, so my journey had actually begun with a long-time former colleague offering me a contract with their company to do program development. It was very part-time, but I decided to take the leap and quit my job (before even starting this contract), and frankly, the risk put a fire under me to get out there and make sure everyone knew what I was doing. This was critical, especially for this job. I had to leverage my existing contacts to find the contracts I needed to sustain myself and realized I had done quite a good job as most of my contracts found me versus the other way around. Strong networks and communication were key to opening the doors to new contracts, still rings true three years later.
Q: What's been the most rewarding experience working with your Accelerator colleagues? What does a career path in an Accelerator look like?
A: Being a part of the journey is 100% the most rewarding. Building a relationship of trust with the companies and knowing they can come to me for support and open candid conversations. When companies started going out of their way to update me or reach out was really fulfilling as I become a part of the team - I work with 23 companies and get to be a part of all those teams! Watching the progress and helping enable the startups or remove a barrier for them is certainly what gets me up in the morning.
The career path question is an interesting one, as I hadn't necessarily set out on this path. For me, knowing I liked working with startups certainly helped to get me here. More formally, I do love creating value through programming, which started as a student -- which also means you're a good event planner! I fought for a long time, but being able to create value to many at once ends up being a lot of events - these events helped me gain some credibility in the space. Partnering enabled me to learn multiple layers of supporting startups. As to where to go from here, honestly, there are opportunities to jump into startups when working at an Accelerator, which has always been an option for me. Being able to evolve the programming and even getting into an investment can be another option - leaning in more on the private capital/financing side are areas to grow with an accelerator. If it's a private program, which could be started, there are also opportunities to license or franchise the programming.
Q: Are there funding opportunities to grow your business that you find people don't know enough about? Can you briefly touch on the options and explain the difference between dilutive and non-dilutive sources?
A: First, I'll talk dilutive and non-dilutive. Dilutive funding comes into your startup in exchange for shares/equity. That means you're giving up a part of your company now for cash, and the investor will get their cash back later, with a return, once the company is sold or their shares or sold. Dilutive funding is primarily for companies that can show high growth and returns to the investors - they want to see that the investment will help take the company’s valuation exponentially higher, which gives them a return on their investment. An example of this funding is often Angel Investment Networks (such as Valhalla Angels, which I work with) or individual angels (high net worth individuals) or accelerators sometimes take equity in exchange for helping build the company. A tiny percentage of companies actually get this kind of funding. Lifestyle companies, traditional companies, franchises, etc. typically don't receive dilutive funding because they're not high growth (nothing wrong with it if it isn't!).
Non-dilutive funding is typically in the form of grants or loans that can be repayable or non-repayable and do not take a stake in the company. There are often government programs that support startups on the grant side, including organizations like the National Research Council in Canada. In Alberta, we have Alberta Innovates at the provincial level that also has grants for startups. Always be aware that no money is ever free - find funding that enables your strategy and doesn't distract you. Check criteria and be mindful of reporting. Innovation Canada is a great directory of startup grants and programs for any startup.
Of course, you can get into lending through traditional banks, or you can also look to angel investors for loans if you're not sure of your company’s growth potential. Keeping in mind, these loans will be higher rates because they're higher risk (usually going here because you're too risky for the banks). BDC is an excellent example of a traditional business bank. OKR Financial is a private group that will lend against your tax credits (which is also something you should be looking into for funding! SR&ED credits will get your money back on your R&D costs as a startup)
Q: I'm curious to know what a typical day looks like for you because it seems like you have so much on your plate? Also, how do you keep from burning out?
A: Great question … not sure I can say that I keep from burning out as I certainly do. Honestly, when I started my company and was only doing contract work, I certainly did burn out with so many commitments pulling from different directions; it was absolutely a struggle. What I learned from that is a few things that have helped:
The first is to set clear expectations of the work to be done - this is really tough. Some of the work I was taking on had never necessarily been done before, so I didn't know how much time it would take me or all the details of what was involved and ended up working way more than I should have for way less (see point 2). Set yourself up for success and be mindful of scope creep - it can burn you out very fast.
Knowing your worth - building on from above, not charging enough for your work (sometimes because you didn't realize it) can also be detrimental - trying to make a living and undervaluing yourself means you'll take on more work making ends meet. Find someone ideally that has been doing this as it's so hard to value yourself objectively.
Mentally my biggest challenge was feeling like there was always more I could have done or things I could have done better and really being hard on myself (even though I was working 12-16 hours a day). I started to pay attention to what my clients were saying and checking in with them. I then found they were all more than happy with the work I was doing and the value they got - I could then readjust and take time off and not feel guilty about doing more and even assess my fees because I was generating the value (and was able to increase my fees!).
Know your limits - I enjoy my work so much that it does bleed into my personal life, so it's easy for me to give free time to events or volunteer groups. Having some control over your calendar and being deliberate about drawing lines is absolutely necessary.
I'm not sure if there's an answer to keeping away from burning out, but I have had to learn the word NO as I'd always squeeze everything in. “NO” was really my way to take time for myself and reevaluate my priorities, and saying YES to me.
In terms of a typical day, working from home, I literally sit eight hours at my desk with virtual meetings and emails. I've started (trying) to block desk time in my calendar; otherwise, if I'm in meetings all day, I get nothing done. I work on several contracts in addition to my job at the University [of Alberta], so my calendar is critical for allocating the time I need to suffice those contracts on top of my commitment to the University. I joined the University on my terms, meaning I have flexibility in my schedule and really try to steer away from "hours worked.” It's not conducive to this environment, especially when you have overlapping commitments. All the work I do is beneficial to each organization I work with, so focus on what you're delivering, and it's not so overwhelming for a typical "8 hour day."
One last important one - be mindful of your free time! Sometimes it's hard to draw the line between giving up value for nothing; you don't want to dilute your worth.