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Episode 32 - Lea Frank, Co-Founder & CEO at anybill
47 Plays8 months ago
This week on the podcast, Sade sits down with Lea Frank, the co-founder and CEO of anybill, for an engaging conversation. Join them as they explore Lea's entrepreneurial journey, uncovering the passions and motivations that led to the creation of anybill. Lea also shares invaluable insights into her experiences with fundraising and offers empowering advice for female founders navigating the world of capital raising.
But that's not all! Lea paints a vivid picture of anybill's future, sharing her ambitious goals and outlining the innovative strategies she plans to implement to achieve them. Don't miss out on this inspiring episode as Lea Frank takes us on a journey through entrepreneurship and visionary leadership.
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Transcript
Introduction to Leah Frank and Anybill
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Women Talk Tech. Today I'm joined by Leah Frank, co-founder and CEO of Anybill.
Fundraising Experience and Advice for Female Founders
00:00:23
Speaker
We spoke all about her journey as a founder and her main motivations behind founding Anybill. We also spoke about how her experience was fundraising and the advice she'd give to other female founders struggling to raise funding.
00:00:35
Speaker
Leah also shared what the future of Anyville looks like in her eyes and her plans to achieve these amazing goals. Honestly, I hope you love this conversation as much as I did. Leah, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Tell me a little bit more about yourself for the listeners. Yeah, thanks for inviting me to your podcast. I'm happy to be here today.
00:00:54
Speaker
So I'm Leah, I co-founded Anybill. Before that, I studied business and computer science and we started a company actually right out of the university. And yeah, I'm calling from Munich
Origin Story of Anybill
00:01:05
Speaker
today. This is also where we at Anybill are based with our office and team. And yeah, I'm running Anybill. It's a team of 25 people at the moment. And yeah, happy to talk a little bit about Anybill and answer your question today.
00:01:23
Speaker
Amazing, amazing. So I guess, you know, always keen to find out a little bit more about how founders, you know, embarked on their journey. So yeah, what was your, what was your kind of main motivation for founding Anybill? Yeah, very good question. I mean,
00:01:38
Speaker
I always kind of like knew that I want to start a business one day since I was a kid, I would say, but I didn't know that this should like happen so fast because I came up with the idea of Anyville during university. And actually it was during an internship. I mean, I mentioned before I studied business and then in my master's business and
00:02:02
Speaker
informatics. And I was an intern at a huge corporate and it was like very boring. There was not much to do. And that's why I started to like flip ideas. And but there, the idea for anybody didn't really
00:02:22
Speaker
I came into it to come into my mind at this point in time, but then I did another internship and there was in a consultancy firm and like during the week they were telling me. Yeah, you should definitely tell the client you are in consultant because then we can fully charge you.
00:02:41
Speaker
And then on Fridays, I was the intern for everyone, digitizing all of the receipts for the expense management, like travel expenses. And so I was facing a lot of paper receipts each and every Friday. And this was like actually the first time where I was thinking like, this is crazy. We print something and then we digitize it again.
00:02:59
Speaker
this does not make any sense. And there's also thinking about me as a consumer, all the time, anytime I need a receipt, for example, for a return or I have a warranty issue, then the right receipt is never in my pocket. Then my phone is always, I always have that with me. And so this topic
00:03:29
Speaker
I would say it's stuck in my head. And then I started to research and I came across this new law that was about to be introduced in 2020 in Germany, the receipt issuance obligation, which says that merchants are obliged to issue a receipt with every payment. So the question, do you need a receipt?
00:03:54
Speaker
You couldn't be asked anymore, you have to print or issue a receipt digitally as a merchant. And so I thought, okay, this might open up a window of opportunity for this idea. And then I also started to...
Launching Anybill and Legal Opportunities
00:04:12
Speaker
Since I was always interested in the topic of entrepreneurship, I also started to research in my university website. Are there any classes on entrepreneurship? Then I took part in one class and then I met my co-founder there.
00:04:32
Speaker
And then we took time to get to know each other for over one year. And then we decided just right before this new law got introduced to to found the company together. And we were still both in our studies. I finished my master's in 2021.
00:04:49
Speaker
and at the same time was raising our pre-seed round. So it was kind of crazy. But yeah, I mean, I think if you have an idea and it sticks and you really think there is a problem and you want to solve that, I think this is a great motivation. And I think this was the case for me. And for me, it was always very interesting to start a company
00:05:17
Speaker
with kind of like a daily relevance. And I was always, I don't know actually why because like I had no background or anything because I was a student obviously.
Challenges in Receipt Management and Business Sustainability
00:05:31
Speaker
But payments, especially card payments interested or caught my interest. But I was thinking okay, so payment probably like
00:05:44
Speaker
It's highly regulated and we already have like, I could not imagine to change the way I will pay in the future because I have my phone or my physical card. And the topic of receipts, it's something that's also relevant because you receive a receipt with every payment, right? So I also like, I really like that aspect of the business to be like to start a company that has a product that's daily relevant and
00:06:14
Speaker
it's like they're happening data flows everywhere each and every day. Yeah, it's interesting what you said there because I think there's so many cool startups out there and you know yes sometimes you see the daily relevance sometimes you don't but of course with what you guys are doing at any bill you know like you said we're always going to need a receipt you know everything's are always going to be there whether it's digital or paper that problem which you're solving is typically going to be there for years and years and years so
00:06:41
Speaker
yeah at least you kind of like you said found the daily relevance in what you guys are doing yeah yeah and um i i also love the aspect um of our um in our business that um i mean it is a very obvious problem but it um is not solved at all until
00:06:58
Speaker
And a lot of players, they died on their way of solving the problem. But I think what is a very interesting thing about our idea, our business, that we really want to
00:07:18
Speaker
build the technical foundation, a technical infrastructure to solve it.
Biases and Challenges as a Female Founder
00:07:24
Speaker
Because it's actually quite complex problem. If you really want to build a sustainable business, a business that lasts and that really changes also a behavior actually among consumers and also merchants, you really need to change the infrastructure and
00:07:47
Speaker
add something within the current payment and PUS infrastructure. And this is exactly what we do. So it's actually a pure tech company, but still everybody can relate to it. And this is also something that I really like.
00:08:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And how have you found, I hate to use the term female founder, I really do, but how have you found being a founder, not only in the tech space, but also in the kind of payment space? How, what's your experience been? Yeah, I mean, actually, good. I
00:08:23
Speaker
I never had any very bad experiences. I mean, sometimes I'm still facing, but actually more among investors, to be very honest.
00:08:38
Speaker
the one that my my counterpart in the conversation thinks oh this cute cutie this blondie really take her serious like she's working on something like very big here she has a big vision but I don't know whether she can make it I sometimes have that feeling but like only
00:08:58
Speaker
a few, few times. So it's not the usual feeling that I have. And actually, I think it is something that we're benefiting from in our business. And yeah, that's why I also I don't make any difference. I also don't really like
00:09:19
Speaker
to make a difference between founders. But I think it changes probably at one point in time when it comes to maybe like you want to become a mom, something like that, right?
00:09:36
Speaker
I'm still, but I was also 23 when we started our business, so that it was no topic at all. So I'm like, it's only me to care about. And I think this is something that I'm not really different right now because this is something that you cannot really change only
00:09:59
Speaker
YouTube biological reasons, right?
Balancing Energy and Leadership as a Founder
00:10:03
Speaker
And I think then in this, this is something because like, also, growing up in my like startup journey, and also like, also all the other female founders in my network, and of course, they're also we're all getting older. And now the first ones in my like, closer,
00:10:25
Speaker
network, they're starting to become pregnant. And then they are telling me, I'm afraid to, for example, go to an investor meeting when I'm pregnant. Because they think they will be influenced in some way. And yeah, I think this is kind of interesting. But me and myself, I didn't really experience anything bad. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:53
Speaker
I guess what you said there is right. I think the changes do occur maybe a bit later in life. Like you said, when you become a mother, you get married and you have different responsibilities. As of now, right, you know, it's very much the same as your male counterparts. Like you said, the only difference is your biology at the moment. But other than that, everything's pretty much the same.
00:11:10
Speaker
Yeah. And I think also, I mean, sometimes maybe the chances that you are hurt are even higher. And that's why I think the benefits are, you have more benefits of it and downsides. Yeah. And what's been the biggest challenge for you about being a founder? I'm sure there's maybe been too many things on you.
00:11:29
Speaker
It's such a weird question, but there must be one thing that stands out to you. It's like, oh my gosh, how the hell did we get through this period? I mean, actually, the biggest challenge is just to nod. And this sounds very pathetic, I would say.
00:11:46
Speaker
to not like lose yourself and still be because I'm in like very stressful. I mean, again, the answer to this question, you are as a founder, you have specific characteristics. And almost every like every founder has these characteristics, you have to be fast and you're really ambitious and you want to
00:12:11
Speaker
And maybe also you have a certain type of, like you are a perfectionist and you want to be,
Team Culture and Work Environment
00:12:17
Speaker
you want to make everything right and in time and like be fast of this past pace. And then,
00:12:28
Speaker
One point I have, this is actually good because you're really very driven, you're ambitious, you need these aspects to found and start a company and also if this boosts you to always also be motivated and be also resilient. But to be resilient, actually, you also need to keep
00:12:57
Speaker
in mind that you need energy for that and energy will not last forever and for me for example in like these very stressful times of the business for example during fundraising or also year-end in terms of like sales or there can be a lot of reasons and then I'm starting back to become a robot and
00:13:24
Speaker
then you you're not authentic. And this is actually also a very, very, very important aspect. It's all about relationships. And you have to have time for like, not only being very transactional, but also to invest in these relations. And yeah, this is something I'm then very efficient. I'm always very efficient. And I want to be productive.
00:13:49
Speaker
at all times but this also has a lot of downsides and you also need to sometimes just click pause and then refocus and then get another few on the business to be able to also think strategically again in case you're really like operationally
00:14:13
Speaker
involved and you're not able to see things maybe also differently and challenge things again. And also when it comes to, as I said, the relationships with others, they really matter.
00:14:29
Speaker
And you have to be in your energy and this is something that I'm always struggling with because you always have this very ambitious goal and it's all about the business and the challenge to not lose yourself. I think this is the
00:14:49
Speaker
the greatest challenge. Yeah, yeah. And on the flip side, like, what do you enjoy most about it? You know, you said that you've always been, you always wanted to kind of have your own company. Now you've got it. What do you love about being a founder? Yeah, I mean, you can shape the culture of the team. And I think this is something that is amazing. And you can also really choose who you want to work with. And you, you can define or for me, it's very important that
00:15:18
Speaker
the company that I'm working in and that our team is working in, that this is a place where everybody can grow and where we are really open and there's no gossip, no drama, and this is all shaped through the right culture, I would say.
Fundraising Challenges and VC Dynamics
00:15:39
Speaker
Culture is
00:15:40
Speaker
If you have a good culture in place, then you have a great foundation to build a great business. And the possibility to shape that, I think this is one of my biggest motivations. And also, of course, the freedom to be a visionary and set the vision and then found a business around this idea and then vision. And then this vision becomes
00:16:10
Speaker
um actually um reality kind of i really like that yeah and like just seeing what you've been working on kind of come into fruition and come to life because of course that's the that's the main goal that you've been aiming towards right and then to see that at the end is i'm sure is amazing
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And on top of the funding, you mentioned that that is one of the stressful times, right? I heard you say, you know, when you're raising funding, and we know the stats for female founders are pretty low in the UK and also all across Europe. I think it's really hard, right? Because I think in a recent article I read, lots of women are also leaving VCs, which I think is also part of the problem, right? Which I mean, how's your experience been raising funding? How did you find it?
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we raised a little bit over 5 million already in our pre-seed and seed round. The last two rounds were actually quite, especially the seed round was quite, I would say, easy. It was all about talking to the right people and they gave intros and then you have
00:17:15
Speaker
yet for more right away and but I was always focusing on getting the right partners on board and I have amazing investors at the moment mainly family offices and like large angel tickets and like very also entrepreneurial driven I would say and I really like that but of course now taking the next step we also we will also be in fundraising soon again and
00:17:43
Speaker
We started already and I'm especially also talking to a lot of other founders who are actually fundraising at the moment or who did the fundraise last year and its times changed a lot. Nobody wants to take the risk, nobody wants to be the first one.
00:18:08
Speaker
to give you a term sheet and you have enough followers but you won't find the lead in all that. I think the times really changed and it's hard for founders these days to fundraise maybe
00:18:31
Speaker
in case you are, maybe if you are like an AI company or maybe it's a little bit different, but for our business it's definitely, it's not the easiest time at the moment. And also like the expectations of founders in terms of like metrics and they change within a year, like in one year before it was like, if you took a look at these like napkins, where should you be when you, when raising a Series A, like you had these like AR thresholds and all that.
00:19:01
Speaker
And now they just like doubled or tripled. And so it's, it's a completely different, different game right now. And but, I mean, my experiences, especially actually also with women and we see we're not the best, and to be very honest here, and I think it is because they are also struggling, struggling to
00:19:22
Speaker
be heard and seen and they're under pressure to bring deals. I had several situations where I was feeling actually quite confident also with the woman at the VC and then she was really struggling to get the deal through and to be heard. She was also telling me that. Then of course,
00:19:51
Speaker
Me as a founder, we need the money, but with the money, the relationship is as important as it comes with, because you are in this very close relationship for a very long time.
00:20:06
Speaker
But then if you always have the feeling that even at this other party, the investor, maybe they have some issues with also treating everyone equally. And if the women maybe are not seen, then of course it's
00:20:28
Speaker
For me, it's not the right investor. I really had the situation where we've been two women pitching in front of the partner because she was pitching us already and then I was also pitching the partner and I had exactly the feeling like, oh, you two blondies, that's cute. This is just not the way it should be. For me, it's always easier to
00:20:56
Speaker
be in contact directly with the partners or who are, to be very honest, 99.9% men. And this is never a problem. But as soon as a woman is involved, there is something different. And I mean, this sounds very weird and wrong, wrong, completely wrong. But this is the feeling that I have. And I also heard that from others. And I don't know really, I think we can only change that if also
00:21:24
Speaker
We have, we see more VCs, more women in VCs being like partners, at least principals who can really also shape and change the way the VC firm works.
00:21:40
Speaker
Yeah you're right I think they have to be able to actually make decisions and I think at the moment we're not at the place where women are at the tables where decisions are being made which makes their job a lot harder and of course that then you know relates into how they communicate with you in the relationships they build but yeah I definitely think that's part of the issue.
00:21:57
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, it is what I wanted to say is it is already hard for founders to get funding. Why should I make it even harder for myself? And if they have also an internal issue, right? So then if I can skip this, I will skip it. But this is just so wrong because I would really love to work together with other women. And I think this has all
00:22:22
Speaker
something to do also with the topic of diversity and inclusion. We need more role models. We need to see this more happening in the real world, in the positions to be able to make decisions.
Advice on Funding and Investor Relationships
00:22:42
Speaker
But yeah, it's not a very nice feeling if you experience that you are kind of like
00:22:51
Speaker
suffering from that process. Yeah, no, totally. And, you know, from your experience, what advice would you give to other female founders or just founders in general who are, you know, struggling to raise funding, or even deciding whether to go for funding, especially given the current situation, which, like you said, is not particularly great right now. Yeah, what would your what would your advice be? Yeah.
00:23:13
Speaker
I mean, I'm also not the best one to be asked this question, but because I also asked a lot of other founders who have much more experience. But of course, there are always people who are away earlier in their journey. And I think the most important thing is you definitely have to accept that things have changed and it is not 2021 anymore at all.
00:23:42
Speaker
at all and now it's time to really think of entrepreneurship as it should be and I think it is building a healthy business where you not burn tons of millions of money and where you focus on actually earning money and not only burn money
00:24:11
Speaker
And where you exactly know if you invest in something, then you will also get something out of these investments. Because I think this was not the case back in these crazy growth days. And some are still planning the old way.
00:24:34
Speaker
And so I think this is something, except that things changed and really ask yourself what does entrepreneurship and the healthy business means to you. And then also ask yourself, is your business a VC case or who are the right investors for?
00:24:50
Speaker
I think this is also very important because it is not something great. It is great to be able to raise funds if you need them and if you have good use of funds. Maybe there are of course a lot of businesses who really need a lot of money, but you should also only take the money that you really need and that you know what you want to do with.
00:25:17
Speaker
because otherwise there always comes off responsibility and if with more money you are maybe also more likely to spend also. And it is actually I think it is the best thing is to really like bootstrap or grow out of your own cash flow because then you're fully independent. But this is not always possible. It's the same as for our business. It would not be possible.
00:25:45
Speaker
It's just what I want to say is it's nothing that you can be super, super, super proud of and that this is the one thing that is important only to raise funds from investors. This is not that nothing that shows that you're successful in every way.
00:26:06
Speaker
Second thing is ask yourself whether you have a VC business or who are the right investors for your business and then talk to your network always.
00:26:22
Speaker
aim for like warm intros and really also try to build a relationship before you race with, yeah, at least a couple of investors who can then help you challenge your pitch deck, your data room and all that, your storyline and really also take time to prepare and always, also you will get tons of no's and this is
00:26:52
Speaker
So hard for you as a founder because your business is constantly being challenged and you always ask yourself, is this even a business? Like, am I doing everything wrong?
00:27:07
Speaker
It's really hard to also only use these challenge questions to also ask yourself and say, okay, no, this is something I know better because I found a company and I did this experience again, because the VCs, they don't know everything, of course they don't.
00:27:27
Speaker
And some things are actually like they trigger some things with their questions that is very relevant. I think in a fundraising process or something where you can learn a lot and where you can really refocus or you can use it for refocusing to readjust maybe even.
00:27:46
Speaker
and reshape your messaging to get it more clear, things like that. And I think you should try to also take exactly these things and see it as a benefit of this time.
00:28:03
Speaker
And you should definitely also think of it as ask yourself what do you want in an investor and who can be a right partner and then really stay authentic during the fundraise.
Future Goals for Anybill
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And so much of what you said there is just purely relationship-based, right? It's like finding the right person, the right investor. Is it even a VC case? You know, being kind of quite critical to yourself, like, do we need this or can we do it alone? And yeah, I think that's such, such good advice because I think there's so many people that go for VC funding.
00:28:41
Speaker
then get quite disheartened with the whole process. Because it's hard, you know, but yeah, honestly, what you said is so right. I think just establishing is it a VC case? And am I going after the right VCs are going to be for better for us? Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And looking into the future of any bill, you know, what are the next steps, any kind of major goals, but for the year ahead? Yeah, where do you kind of see yourself growing?
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah. So for us, it was very important. 2023 was a very important year because I think we found our product market fit and we found our ICP. We really know how sales works actually among merchants. And for us, like we think our business within different
00:29:26
Speaker
horizons or steps along to take a couple of steps to get to our actually vision or to our end state of the business. And right now it is all about for us merchant coverage so to really scale
00:29:47
Speaker
and the merchant network that we issue a lot of receipts and that also the consumers start to actually demand a digital receipt and so it's all about investing in merchant relationships and also with that it comes to the partnerships and with the
00:30:07
Speaker
And so it's about scaling our merchant sales. And with that, also fundraising comes along to be able to scale that team.
00:30:26
Speaker
Then, in the next step, also professionalizing our team and becoming even more capital efficient. This is also a topic that is on top of our minds these days. I think these are the main two things.
00:30:47
Speaker
Amazing, amazing. Well, honestly, Alayah, thank you so much for joining me. It's great to kind of go through that and yeah, really, really interesting to kind of hear your story, hear your struggles, but also hear what you're aiming for this year. Thanks again for inviting me. It was a pleasure to talk to you.