Fast Five Friday: Stop treating capital like a fire extinguisher

Hi,

Welcome to your no-BS capital raise newsletter.

I was on a trip the other day, and I literally spent most of my time thinking about business finance.

And I kept looping back to the same question - how is business fundraising going to look in the next 10 years?

Right now, most business owners raise money reactively. Timing tends to be a response rather than a choice.

The pattern's painfully predictable. Cash gets tight. A payment runs late. Growth flatlines. Payroll suddenly feels heavier than it did three months ago.

Then - and only then - the pitch deck gets excavated from the depths of Google Drive. The investor calls begin. The scramble is on.

And just like that, you've turned capital into a fire extinguisher instead of fuel.

That's the mindset we're trying to change at FundOnion - helping businesses see fundraising as something you prepare for rather than something that rescues you. I think that's where we're heading anyway. As people get more clued up on finance, the whole dynamic shifts.

On that note, this week I broke down Grenade's capital raise story - the perfect example of a business that raised money proactively, not reactively.

When their money arrived, it didn't plug a gap - it amplified momentum that was already building. Grenade had repositioned protein from gym-bro territory into everyday snacking, built repeat purchase habits across multiple daily occasions, and proven the fundamentals with steady revenue growth and solid margins. By the time they took that £72M private equity stake, the numbers were undeniable.

Predictable sales, proven cashflow, repeatable patterns quarter after quarter. Mondelēz eventually paid £200M for majority ownership because Grenade had built something defensible - not just a product, but embedded daily routines that competitors couldn't easily copy.

Here are 5 things you can take from Grenade's approach and apply to your business today:

1/ Stop chasing one-time buyers - build for repeat purchases
The first purchase gets attention. The second purchase builds a business. Grenade became valuable when people stopped thinking about buying it and just started grabbing it. Focus on creating habits, not just trials.

2/ Widen your audience beyond the obvious
Grenade didn't just target gym-goers - they repositioned protein as mainstream snacking for commuters, office workers, students. A broader audience creates more buying occasions throughout the day. More people buying across more moments means volume grows without betting everything on one narrow use case.

3/ Build what competitors can't easily copy
Anyone can replicate flavours or redesign packaging. What they can't copy is years of building brand equity, retailer trust, supply chain reliability, and repeat purchase velocity. That entire stack creates defensibility - exactly what makes businesses harder to displace as they grow.

4/ Ride the cultural wave, don't fight it
Grenade timed perfectly with protein creeping into everyday life and "high protein" becoming shorthand for smarter choices. The best branding only works when the underlying behaviour is already shifting. Don't push against the cultural current - ride it.

5/ Raise when you're strong, not when you're struggling
That £72M didn't show up for potential or vibes. It showed up when sales were predictable, distribution was expanding, and cashflow could be underwritten with confidence. Capital works best when it amplifies existing momentum, not when it plugs gaps.

Capital isn't a rescue plan - it's rocket fuel for what's already working.

Thanks for allowing me into your inbox every week.

If you have any questions, or want to discuss any of my rants on these topics in depth, reply to this email, and I will get back to you ASAP.

Talk soon,

James