Pollen Careers
Pollen Careers: proving the product before spending the funding
Pitch and strategy advice for a founder about to raise SEIS funding. She raised it, and Pollen is now a live platform.
SEIS
raised
No-code first
route to the first product
Live
platform, featured by the BBC and The Times
The situation
Pollen Careers was early stage, just before an SEIS raise. The obvious next step was to hire a CTO and build, which would spend much of the funding before anyone knew that customers wanted the product.
What I did
- Advised on the pitch deck and the story for investors.
- Recommended a low-code or no-code route to the first product.
- Set the goal to prove real demand before hiring a CTO.
The result
Since then:
- SEIS funding raised
- Live a community-powered recruitment platform for junior jobs, with no CVs
- Featured by the BBC, The Times and Business Insider
- B Corp certified
Why it worked
The cheapest way to find out whether a product works is to put a real version in front of customers. A CTO comes after that, not before.