Spotlight interview with...
Tom Cullen
Co-founder at Zoplo
Spotlight interview with...
Tom Cullen
Co-founder at Zoplo
Can you walk us through your fundraising journey for Zoplo? How have you approached different funding rounds, and what mix of investors have you targeted?
My journey with investment started about 18 months ago, when I raised my first round of £50,000 for Zoplo from my network of family and friends, followed by a pre-seed round which kicked off in December. I’m aiming for an additional £400,000, £150,000 of which we have already received, with some further commitments in the pipeline. This has come from a mix of VC and angel investment, which feels like a good combination for what we want to achieve. We have broken our round into two parts, the first being via strategic angels using ASAs and the second VCs.
How important has networking been in your fundraising efforts for Zoplo, and what role does perception play in attracting investors at the pre-seed stage?
The power of leveraging your network can’t be understated when it comes to fundraising. I was introduced to my angel investors through a shared contact, they then saw my activity and updates on LinkedIn and became interested in my vision for Zoplo.
At pre-seed stage, perception is everything. It’s easy to forget that if you’re doing anything that’s genuinely new as a startup, then there are no exact benchmarks for success. In the early days it is mostly about narrative. That’s a good thing – you want to be doing something disruptive and unique, but it does make it very hard for investors to compare your business to another proposition. That’s why perception is so important. Everything comes down to where people think you are versus where you can go.
"At pre-seed stage, perception is everything. It’s easy to forget that if you’re doing anything that’s genuinely new as a startup, then there are no exact benchmarks for success. In the early days it is mostly about narrative"
Tom Cullen, Co-founder at Zoplo
How have you leveraged social media to build your image as a founder, and why do you think this is important for attracting investors?
Social media is a great tool to craft a favourable perception of you as a founder. I’ve had success in creating this view of myself as someone who has ‘cracked the formula’ for organic growth of our app, which has led to investment.
In the early stages traction might be minimal, your product and service could change, and you’ll come up against unforeseeable challenges. Investors want to know whether the founder and founding team can execute and be successful throughout all of that.
How important is personal branding for founders at the pre-seed stage, and what strategies do you recommend for building an effective personal brand?
For me, personal branding is essential, and it comes down to three identifiable traits that need to be showcased: industry knowledge, network, and achievements.
At pre-seed, you might not have the ‘achievements’ part of that nailed down just yet, so you need to focus on influencing the perception of your gravitas in the first two areas instead.
Part of that is making sure you’re known for something specific. You want people to hear your name and associate it with one thing, so be deliberate with how you market yourself. Some people in my network are known for their connections or their in-depth industry expertise, whereas I’m known for my organic marketing, and so everything I post about Zoplo is with that in mind, and it works.
"Make sure you’re known for something specific. You want people to hear your name and associate it with one thing, so be deliberate with how you market yourself "
Tom Cullen, Co-founder at Zoplo
How important are first impressions when meeting with investors, and what advice do you have for founders to make a lasting impact during those initial interactions?
People neglect that investors have their own lives and you’re only a tiny fraction of their day. It might seem harsh, but it’s reality. First impressions are extremely important for that very reason, so make sure to frame the first conversation, narrative, and impression an investor has of you in a way that will make you stand out from the crowd.
Without a live product, it’s the vision and founding team that are they are investing in, and an investor needs to believe that you can adapt based on obstacles to make a return for them.
A lot of the detail of an early-stage venture can, and probably will, change but character cannot be changed. Don’t be afraid to ‘sell yourself’, I’ve always found that by showing confidence and charisma it’s helped to influence investors to go on my journey with me.
Tom Cullen
Tom Cullen is the founder of Zoplo, a venture backed startup and Gen-Z opinion sharing app that centres around users posting and voting in polls.
Tom began his career on the trading floor of an investment bank before leaving in summer 2022 to launch Zoplo after seeing that polls were 5x more engaging than any other social media feature.
Zoplo has grown to 72,000+ users with over 6.5 million votes cast across 23,000+ polls on the app. This is a result of Tom’s organic marketing strategy that has had over 35 million views on Tik Tok alone.
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