I had just finished talking about CoolCoach to a prospective funder. I was high on adrenaline because I had finally met someone who understood the importance of fitness and activity to reduce the risk of NCDs, who understood social enterprises, and who had read Acumen's Blueprint to Scale report. In other words, this funder grasped our model, understood why we were registered as a for-profit even though we were impact first, and why we needed grants to get our model investment ready. Importantly, the funder seemed to empathise with why we were struggling to raise funds. The funder said that our model was unique and was complementary on the progress we had made with such limited resources. For various reasons, the funder couldn't support us but expressed strong confidence in their ability to identify the right funders for CoolCoach. The "No" was disappointing, but I could not believe the next words that came out of this funder's mouth, "You should go to Skoll!
I heard: "let them eat cake!"
The quote is often misattributed to the French Queen Mary Antoinette, who supposedly responded with this tone-deaf comment when told her starving peasants had no bread.
I had shared how we'd gotten so far, thanks to my savings and the generosity of my family, friends, and colleagues. We were running on fumes, but somehow this gave the impression that I could easily make an international trip to meet funders. I wanted to scream in frustration. More frustrating than the lack of money was the idea that even if we have a good model, it is upon us to spend money to go and meet prospective funders instead of spending what little we have on creating more impact.
On further reflection, the comment hurt my feelings because it went against what I believed in. I believed that if we focused on building an impactful model, the funding would follow. In my career, I had seen numerous social sector organizations start with the right intentions but lose their way over time because they became funder focused instead of staying beneficiary focussed. Unfortunately that's the inherent dichotomy of the non-profit model which we wanted to avoid. As a for-profit, we would be forced to treat the person we intended to serve as our customer instead of our beneficiary. The advice to go to Skoll felt like I was being asked to put the funder at the centre of our work.
I cannot help but wonder if the funder is right, but it feels fundamentally unfair. What if funders travelled to see models in action, instead of expecting entrepreneurs to spend money they don't have just to meet them?
*FRA, short for Frequently Received Advice, is a series of posts on the well-intentioned but often unhelpful advice I have received as I build CoolCoach. In most situations, I wanted to respond, and respond strongly at that, but I always chose to hold my tongue. Partly because I knew it was my frustration coming out, but mostly because I had no indication it would be received or understood. With these posts, I hope to share my perspective.