TORUS

Last Friday we launched the Invest Gold Coast "INVEST IN HER" Program - a 4-week #Investment Development Program for female founders and leaders from the City of Gold Coast to #raisecapital and #grow their companies. Empowering women to raise capital isn’t just about funding businesses—it’s about building an equitable economy. When women thrive, economies flourish. Female-led businesses have been proven to generate higher revenue per investment dollar and outperform male-led ventures in capital efficiency. Week 1 saw Amanda Andriano from Admiralty Capital Group absolutely blow it out of the water. As much as we love hearing normally from her colleague Ryan Holsheimer, Amanda owned the room and shared invaluable practical hardcore skills about how to raise capital in a landscape that's stacked against you. She enabled a safe space for female leaders to get live feedback in the moment which was so brave and transformative for many of the female leaders attending. Amanda has spent her career coaching C-Suite Executives globally in Hong Kong and New York, she's a Harvard Graduate and has boomeranged back to the Gold Coast to be Head of Talent and Chief of Staff at Admiralty Capital Group, our very own institutional VC, integrating leadership imperatives into the firm’s deal thesis through talent-focused due diligence and the performance optimisation of investments. If you're lucky enough to be a founder in ACG's portfolio, you would have the immense privilege of learning from one of the best! Thanks again Amanda Andriano for opening up your tool kit for us. We are pumped for week 2 which starts this Friday 9.30-11.30am at KPMG Australia Gold Coast and hugely grateful they have opened their doors to this group of 50 female leaders keen to grow themselves and their companies. This week I'll be talking #Innovation, #scaling your business, #growing #globally out of the #GoldCoast and tapping into funding outside equity to #accelerate your growth. There's still space if you would like to attend and missed week 1. We would love to see you there! last chance to register - Email invest@investgoldcoast.com A huge shoutout to Karen Phillips from Gold Coast Women in Business Awards for empowering women to attend this valuable series and our partners/speakers Katie Troutman, TORUS Jessie Rutherford KPMG Australia Emilie Rallis (née Eid) Elli Hanson, Star Thompson RedeMont. p.s. We are uber grateful to the backstage men who have championed this initiative particularly Stephen J Hobbs from KPMG Australia Gold Coast, Zach Burridge of RedeMont and Jason Atkins of Cake. Men in a million! #capraising #vc #investment #femalefounders #investinher #investgoldcoast #growth #innovation #network #networth

One of the biggest pitfalls in fundraising? Wasting time pitching to the wrong investors. At the TORUS, QIC and UniQuest Extension Fund Are You Ready to Raise? event, Audun Fiskerud from EnergyLab shared a brutal truth: 📉 80% of pitch decks are rejected in under 20 seconds. Why? Wrong sector. Wrong stage. Wrong investor. The fix? ✅ Use open-source tools like Airtree’s investor list. ✅ Research investor fit BEFORE sending your deck. ✅ Build targeted, quality relationships—NOT a spray-and-pray approach. We cover this in-depth inside our free TORUS community—including a full investor selection playbook. 💡 Get the strategy → https://lnkd.in/eZBCJgAp #Fundraising #VentureCapital #Startups #TorusClub Jason Atkins Kane Templeton

Too many founders fail because they aren’t legally protected. They try to DIY everything or work with lawyers who don’t understand startups. Sprintlaw was built to fix that. We sat down with Alex Solo, co-founder of Sprintlaw, to break down: ✅ The biggest legal mistakes startups make. ✅ Why DIY legal can cost you later. ✅ How to de-risk early without overspending. 💡 The full video is now live in the TORUS Community. Sprintlaw is a trusted Torus partner—helping founders move fast, without legal slowing them down. 📲 Watch it now: https://lnkd.in/ePsqHGFW Jason Atkins Kane Templeton

"Startups take risks every day—but legals shouldn’t be one of them." In our latest TORUS Partner Spotlight, we sat down with Alex Solo, Co-founder of Sprintlaw, to unpack startup legals, common mistakes, and how to build a legal strategy that actually works. 🔦"We see two mistakes startups make with their legals. One, they try and DIY everything. Two, they use lawyers who don’t understand startups—then suffer the consequences later." There’s a time and place for templates, but ESOPs, shareholder agreements, and core customer contracts aren’t it. These aren’t just documents—they’re critical to protecting your business long-term. 📢 Full 30-minute deep dive dropping soon --> https://lnkd.in/eV5HTT_r Kane Templeton Jason Atkins

Valuation and pricing strategy—get this right, and it can turbocharge your business. Marc Orchard shared the final piece of a strong financial model at our 'Are you ready to raise?' event with QIC, UniQuest and UniQuest Extension Fund: 💡 "The combination of valuation and your pricing strategy—how is that going to turbocharge what the valuation’s going to be?" 💡 "One of the things I see founders get wrong all the time is mixing up their pricing strategy… They’re not making enough money in cash flow, and that means their valuation is nowhere near as high as what they’re pitching to investors." Your pricing affects everything—cash flow, growth, and ultimately, how investors see your business. Missed our first post? Catch up on cash flow & unit economics here: https://lnkd.in/eJ3NXEa9 Kane Templeton Jason Atkins Audun Fiskerud Pauline Fetaui Peter Laurie James Skinner Nicola Wightman Leigh Ford

Cash flow. Unit economics. Get these right, or nothing else matters. Last Thursday, we teamed up with QIC, UniQuest Ltd., and UniQuest Extension Fund at The Precinct for an incredible night of insights, connections, and real conversations about building investable businesses. Marc Orchard (Planet Startup) broke down two of the most important things in your financial model: 💸 "One is your cash flow. Are you going to make enough cash or have enough cash on hand to get to the next milestone?" 🔢"The second is unit economics or gross profit. For every unit of value that you sell… how much money do you make? And how much money do you spend to keep that promise?" 🤯The third? That’s coming soon. Stay tuned. Kane Templeton Jason Atkins

Be organised, and they will come. Ali Stokes shares what surprised her most about raising capital: “Once you prepare, once you do the work, once you get well-positioned—people are interested and all ears.” Running a structured process in three clear stages: prep, marketing, closing. Prioritising fundraising: "70% of my time is on cap raising for the next 3 months." Fundraising isn’t just meetings—it’s about control, positioning, and execution. If you’re not sure where to start, our TORUS Raise Roadmap breaks it all down. 🛠️ Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dmkwEsHW Jason Atkins Kane Templeton

🚨 Hey founders, get investors on the same timeline! 📜 You want your termsheets to come in around the same time, which means investors should get access to your data room around the same time. When you're ready to start pitching, set aside a few weeks to pitch to all relevant investors, after that, open your data room for a few weeks ➡️ investors doing DD at the same time ➡️ termsheets arriving around the same time! 💬 Looking forward to discussing how to avoid cap raising pitfalls at the upcoming ARE YOU REALLY READY TO RAISE? event, alongside Pauline Fetaui, Marc Orchard, and Peter Laurie. 📅 Thursday 30 January 5pm - 7:30pm 📍 The Precinct, Brisbane 🔗 Register here: https://lu.ma/b4jt9pn4 Brought to you by TORUS (Jason Atkins & Kane Templeton), QIC, and UniQuest Extension Fund.

Fundraising is about preparation. From refining your language to building a data room, there’s a lot to get right. ‘There’s so much that has to happen to prepare your business.’ Ali Stokes (Beyond The Clinic ) That’s why we created the Raise Roadmap. It breaks down everything you need to do to get investor-ready, step by step. If you’re feeling stuck, this is where to start. 🛠️ Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/dmkwEsHW Kane Templeton Jason Atkins

Capital raising is a skill—not just luck. Ali Stokes, founder of Beyond The Clinic , shares her journey: 💡 From Nurse to Founder. 💡 Struggling to raise funds without a clear framework. 💡 Realising fundraising is like selling a product—it requires strategy. 💡 Discovering the framework and skills to finally move forward. Ali’s words say it best: "This is the framework I’ve been looking for. The minute I could wrap my head around the process, I could do it effectively." Watch the full interview with Ali (dropping soon) in our free Torus Community on Circle. 🛠️ Join the community: https://lnkd.in/edbDgSbb #Founders #Fundraising #TorusClub Kane Templeton Jason Atkins