On 26 May, 2026, 40 founders, investors, ecosystem partners and operators gathered at The Bakery in Edinburgh for the first event in our new series: Raising Money Without Regret: Smart Capital for Impact Founders.
We wanted to create space for founders building impact-led ventures, across both private companies and third-sector organisations, to better understand the full funding landscape, the trade-offs attached to different types of capital, and how to make funding decisions that support long-term sustainability rather than short-term hype.
Every venture is different, and there is no single ‘correct’ funding journey, and increasingly, founders are discovering that the traditional routes to investment are slower, more competitive and more complex than much of the mainstream ecosystem narrative suggests.
Our Head of Ecosystem Partnerships, Nick Murray, was joined by an expert panel:
- Barry McCulloch (British Business Bank)
- Daisy Ford-Downes (Independent Social Investment Expert)
- Robert Hokin (Fundraising 101)
A More Honest Conversation About Capital
Throughout the discussion, one message came through repeatedly from the panel:
Founders need to think more carefully about the relationship between the type of business they are building and the type of capital they pursue.
Too often, ventures start fundraising before they are operationally ready, before they fully understand investor expectations, or before they have properly explored alternative funding structures that may actually fit their business better.
One of the strongest points raised during the session was that many traditional angel and venture capital rounds are now taking significantly longer to close than founders expect, often anywhere from 8–12 months in the current climate.
That has major implications for runway planning, not to mention what concessions might be made when time becomes a pressure.
This was particularly relevant for impact-led ventures operating in sectors where commercial growth can take time, stakeholder engagement is complex, or outcomes are longer-term by nature.
The panel encouraged founders to think less about ‘raising money quickly’ and more about building a resilient financing strategy that aligns with the actual shape of the business they are trying to build.
Not All Capital Is Equal
A major theme throughout the event was the idea that capital is not neutral.
Different forms of funding come with different expectations, governance implications, reporting requirements, growth pressures and strategic trade-offs.
We explored a broad spectrum of funding routes, including:
- Grants and blended finance
- Social investment
- Debt and revenue-based finance
- Angel investment
- Venture capital
- Patient capital
- Funding pathways for both social enterprises and private companies
Importantly, the discussion challenged the idea that equity investment should automatically be the default ambition for every founder. Chasing VC approval as a credibility milestone for your startup is a surefire way to take your eye off your north star!
For some businesses, particularly those with strong commercial fundamentals and predictable revenue generation, debt and revenue-based finance may allow growth without immediate dilution, major governance shifts, imact-mission drift, or the pressure of chasing hyper-scale trajectories in the ‘growth-at-all-costs’ VC playbook.
Revenue-based finance in particular remains significantly underutilised within the Scottish ecosystem, despite offering a potentially valuable route for commercially viable impact ventures that want to grow sustainably while retaining greater control of the company they are building.
Rather than giving away ownership too early, founders can sometimes leverage trading activity, contracts, recurring revenue or customer demand to unlock capital in ways that better support long-term resilience.
Social Enterprises, Limited Companies and the ‘Middle Ground’
Another important theme was the need to move beyond outdated assumptions around company structure and impact.
The event intentionally brought together founders from across different organisational models, including charities, social enterprises, CICs and impact-driven private limited companies.
Indeed, many founders sit somewhere between traditional categories, especially in the early-stages of venture-building. Some are mission-led private companies trying to build commercially scalable solutions to social or environmental challenges. Others are organisations with alternative governance structures trying to become more commercially sustainable. The conversation highlighted the importance of understanding governance structure before pursuing funding, rather than after.
Different structures unlock different opportunities, constraints and expectations, and increasingly, founders need support navigating a funding ecosystem that still often treats social investment, grants, debt and equity as separate worlds, despite the growing overlap between them.
From Hype to Operational Reality
One of the recurring themes behind the event, and a core part of how we work at The Ventures Lab, was the importance of grounding ambition in operational reality.
There is nothing wrong with thinking big. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money AND do good.
But founders also need honest conversations about:
- Sales & pipeline
- cash flow and financial modelling
- repayment ability
- operational discipline
- and what actually keeps a business sustainable month-to-month
As one attendee reflected after the event:
“I agreed with the distinction between ‘profit first’ and proving cash flow, traction and growth potential. That’s not anti-impact. That’s sustainability.”
That tension between impact and commercial reality sat at the centre of many conversations throughout the day.
- How do we build ventures that are commercially strong AND meaningfully impactful, without sacrificing one for the other?
- How do we avoid forcing impact ventures into funding structures that fundamentally distort their mission or operating model?
- And how do founders avoid becoming dependent on constant fundraising rather than building resilient businesses?
These are exactly the kinds of questions we believe the ecosystem needs more space to explore openly.
Sourcing the Right Ingredients
At the start of the event, host Nick Murray used a deliberately simple analogy to frame the conversation at our Bakery venue.
Thinking about investment is a bit like baking a cake.
If you rush the process, use the wrong ingredients, or simply grab whatever is easiest and closest to hand, you may still produce something, but probably not the cake you had in mind.
Building a company is no different.
Sometimes the right capital takes longer to find. It might not be on your doorstep. Sometimes it means exploring routes beyond the obvious or resisting pressure to raise money that does not actually fit the business you are building.
The wrong capital can shape your business just as much as the right capital can accelerate it.
Building Better Conversations Around Impact Finance
At The Ventures Lab, we believe impact ventures need more than generic startup advice or one-size-fits-all programmes.
They need grounded, practical support that helps them understand:
- what kind of business they are actually building
- what funding structures genuinely fit
- what investors or funders expect
- and how to build ventures that are commercially sustainable as well as impactful
That includes recognising that impact-led private companies, social enterprises and third-sector organisations may all require different combinations of support, capital and growth strategy.
This event was the first in a wider series we’ll be running to help demystify investment, fundraising and venture growth for impact founders across Scotland.
Special thanks also to Robert Hokin from Fundraising101™, who kindly shared a fantastic resource covering 100+ credible social investment and funding options for impact ventures.
If you’d like to hear about future events, resources and conversations from The Ventures Lab, follow our LinkedIn page or sign up to our newsletter in the footer below.
