Flossie Hall says that if she can be an angel investor, anyone can.
The self-proclaimed “small-town girl from Brockport with a GED” took the plunge last year, becoming an individual angel investor, as well as contributing to Wefunder crowdsourcing campaigns and Buffalo-area grassroots organization the Good Neighbor Fund.
“I think you can truly learn anything and be anything,” she said.
Why it matters: Women leading or joining investment funds has accelerated in the last 10 years, yet venture capital continues to be male-dominated. Companies founded solely by women get less than 3% of all venture capital investments, and women account for less than 15% of check-writers.
You don’t need to be prepared to write seven-figure checks to start getting involved. So far, Hall has 14 portfolio companies (not including her founded or cofounded startups) and has invested as little as $500 on Wefunder to as much as about $25,000 in one investment.
She was born and raised in Brockport, moved away for two decades and a few years ago moved back to Brockport. But her professional story started as a young military spouse who intended on being a doctor. She got her bachelor’s in biology/biomedical sciences and psychology from the University of Michigan but with young kids and her husband in the U.S. Navy being stationed in San Diego, medical school didn’t seen feasible.
Instead, Hall “accidentally” started a home-based meal prepping business for families. She did almost $100,000 in sales out of her home kitchen in the first six months. By the time the business closed three years later, it had moved to a commercial space and had done $4 million in revenue.
“I did everything wrong three times before I did it right,” she said. “When you scale that fast, mistakes are very painful. … I found a love for entrepreneurship and a knack for it, so I’m teaching all the things that nobody taught me when I had my first business.”
She went on to start five more companies across industries like e-commerce, ed-tech and more, and she exited seven-figure businesses.
She currently remotely leads California-based Stella Foundation, a nonprofit that connects female founders to investors. The group’s helped over 10,000 women over the last decade raise about $200 million total in capital.
Now, she's also getting involved in investing.
“I’m teaching but also walking the walk at the same time,” said Hall, who still lives in Brockport. “If I can do it, you can too. It feels good.”
For women seeking investments, she encouraged them to find their best path; it’s not always venture capital funding. There are multiple options such as bootstrapping, crowdfunding, lines of credit and community development financial institutions loans, to name a few.
Also, she said, women founders should ask for what they’re worth.
“Ask for double of what you think it’s worth,” she said. “It’s a confidence thing and it’s really hard.”
When Hall moved back to the Rochester area, she was surprised and impressed with the thriving, well-connected Buffalo entrepreneurial ecosystem. Her goal is to get involved locally and help bring some of the national work Stella Foundation does into Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse.
“It made me want to bring all these resources I’ve been working with on the national level to home,” she said. “My goal moving forward is to not step on any toes but to help connect the dots. Let’s bring these organizations here.”
