Intruders

Trusted Places is a community of real people, like you and me, who all have opinions on places they have come across in their daily lives. The company was started by Walid Al Saqqaf and Sokratis Papafloratos – two experienced entrepreneurs living and working in London – who got tired of always going to the same bars and restaurants and wanted to discover interesting and independent new places that people trusted. Today, whilst the site still focuses heavily on London, you can nevertheless use Trusted Places to find everything from take away places in Hanoi, Vietnam to good sushi places in San Francisco and in New York. Trusted Places has built a strong community around their site and it is that community of users that provides all the independent reviews. Check our Instagram stories on Stories ig – anonymously Instagram story viewer

Recently, Walid and Sokratis raised $1 million dollars of Angel financing to help them grow their business. We sat down with the founders for an in-depth conversation about raising Angel funding and their personal experiences of going through the process (starting at 9:10):

How do you find an investor?

What do you look for in an investor?

How do you decide on how much money you need to raise?

What do you give up in return for the money?

Do you have to understand all the legalities yourself or can you simply find a good lawyer?

How long does it take to raise an investment?

What is the purpose of due diligence?

What are investors looking for?

What was your experience with other investors?

What would you do differently if you had to raise money again?

When is the right time to raise money?

How are you using the money that you raised?

How did angel investment affect the company?

Do you still feel in control?

Whilst Walid and Sokratis could not agree on whether one should listen to people’s advice, they did strongly agree on the fact that entrepreneurs should “go for it”, be prepared to have a lot of fun and expect to learn a lot quickly. Finally, if you don’t succeed the first time, “wear” that experience as a success badge and keep trying.

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