Mustafa Khanwala

Our data shows a clear pattern: Founders outside of financial hubs give away more of their company, right from the start. A founder in Wales raising £500k might be diluted 22%+ But a founder in London raising the same amount would be closer to 13% And that single round can set your company on a certain trajectory: Less equity for the founder, less upside for early employees, and even less room for future investors. The downstream effects are massive and long-lasting. It isn’t to do with the quality of talent or ideas. It comes down to the limited number of fundraising options available in those areas. Being further from financial hubs means there are fewer angels, VCs, and corporates at your disposal. And it’s why regional founders often face tougher fundraising journeys, even when they’re building equally strong businesses. In 2025, geography shouldn’t be a factor when it comes to dilution (especially in a country as small as the UK) but the numbers tell a different story. My advice for founders outside of financial hubs is this: Don’t spray-and-pray. Do your research, identify and target the most relevant investors in your space (regardless of their location, especially if you can demonstrate traction in the geographies where their fund is based), and avoid over-reliance on a handful of local players. Otherwise, you risk giving away too much, too soon. At shipshape.vc, we’re committed to levelling that playing field - helping founders anywhere, not just in London or New York, raise smarter and protect more of the companies they’re working so hard to build. #Fundraising #Startups #VentureCapital #Entrepreneurship #RegionalFounders #Equity #ShipshapeVC

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2 years today since we launched StackOptimise ⚙️ This is the best decision we ever made ⬇️ Investing in personal brand. For a business like ours - operating in a saturated space, offering a commoditised service - brand is a super powerful differentiator. So Felix and I decided, from the get-go, to post on LinkedIn everyday. We've only missed a handful of days. And it's paid dividends: 1️⃣ Every deal we've closed has been meaningfully influenced by our LinkedIn presence, either to generate or nurture the lead. 2️⃣ We’re constantly flooded with inbound job applications. 3️⃣ Vendors & partners treat you differently when you’ve got influence. 4️⃣ We promote the tools in our stack for free usage, thus minimising our costs. A trade that only works if your brand holds weight. 5️⃣ Team members gain visibility into both the bigger vision and our day-to-day, driving employee retention. I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve spoken to who’ve either started, or plan to start, their own business - and I always say the same thing: Invest in your personal brand now. It compounds faster than almost anything else. And literally makes every part of the journey - hiring, partnerships, sales, retention - exponentially easier. ---- Here's our Ultimate Guide to Explode on LinkedIn in 2025: https://lnkd.in/eiv6Aktz

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“𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆. 𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕.” I had the honour of interviewing Mobin Rafiq, visionary entrepreneur and Co-Founder of the Commonwealth Entrepreneur Club, to discuss one of the most pressing issues in the global economy: How can we empower the nearly 400 million SMEs around the world? “𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒉𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒓” Mobin shares his bold and practical vision: 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝, 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐌𝐄 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬. From visiting 𝟖𝟓 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 and engaging with over 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, Mobin has seen firsthand that the core SME challenges are the same globally: access to capital, lack of skilled labour, and weak support networks. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 & 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 (𝐆𝐂𝐒𝐌𝐄 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛), is a global platform that connects entrepreneurs, policymakers, and investors across 80+ countries to support SME development, foster collaboration, and tackle poverty through innovation, skills, and trade. “𝑾𝒆'𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒂 𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒍 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔, 𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒎 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒗𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔.” This was a humbling and inspiring conversation with someone who walks the talk. Do you have your startup story to share with us? Comment below 🎙️ Full interview dropping soon. #MobinRafiq #DinisGuarda #Entrepreneurship #Commonwealth #SMEGrowth #ImpactEconomy #InclusiveCapitalism #VocationalTraining #SocialInnovation #Businessabc #Citiesabc #Wisdomia

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Nearly half of ALL retail spend in the UK is ALREADY circular. According to new research from Amazon and CEBR: 🛍️ Circular purchases now make up 34 to 45% of UK retail spend 💷 Brits spent £5.6 billion buying 200 million second-hand products in 2024 🔮 And 59% say they’ll buy more second-hand in 2025 I’ve long seen this future coming. Now I’ve got the data to prove it. Consumers aren’t buying to own anymore. They’re buying to use, then reselling when they’re done. Ownership has become a stopgap for access. This is product-as-a-service in disguise. The problem...when your customers resell peer-to-peer on Vinted, eBay or Facebook? Every P2P resale is lost revenue and lost insight to the brand. Merchants capturing circular directly on their P&L is the how we all win, Amazon’s “Second Chance” resale channel just passed €2 billion in sales across Europe. They get it. Circular commerce including resale, rental, trade-in and usage-based access will account for 40%+ of ALL retail. If you’re not building circular models into your core stack, you’re giving up margin and control by default. That’s why we built Supercycle. Giving merchants the tooling to own every cycle, turning usage into revenue, returns into resale and customers into subscribers.

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