How This Female Founder Secured An Unexpected Seed Round
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Your Pitch Deck Probably Sucks...
For most first-time founders, the idea of a pitch deck sounds easy, but I often get decks with "v43" in the filename, implying it's the 43rd iteration of a deck 😖
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From Student Housing Startup to Africa’s Largest Platform with DigsConnect's Alexandria Procter
This week, I sit down with Alexandria Proctor who shares her journey of building Africa's largest housing platform, securing a surprising seed round, and transitioning from CEO to CTO, to authoring a book.
Here's what you're in for:
- 00:55 Introduction to Alexandria Procter and DigsConnect's origin story
- 07:32 Building the first MVP and initial market validation
- 11:20 Navigating South Africa's Startup Ecosystem Challenges
- 13:15 Breaking records: Inside their successful seed round
- 18:31 Scaling across 400 African cities
- 23:21 Building and retaining top talent on a budget
- 24:27 Infrastructure challenges and innovative solutions
- 27:44 The shift from founder to investor
- 33:22 The Power of Story Telling
- 40:01 Future of African tech and advice for emerging market founders
- 48:12 Rapid-fire lessons
ABOUT ALEXANDRIA PROCTER
Alexandria Procter, founder of DigsConnect, Africa's largest student housing marketplace, which she launched at age 24 while studying at the University of Cape Town. From building the initial MVP using Python and JavaScript, she's grown the platform to connect over 150,000 landlords and tenants across 400 cities worldwide, listing more than 1.3 million beds and generating tens of millions in lease value.
Beyond entrepreneurship, she's made significant impacts in various spheres - from being appointed by President Ramaphosa as the youngest director of the National Youth Development Agency, where she successfully led the One Million for Democracy initiative, to founding House of Pharos, an SDG-aligned venture capital fund. Her achievements include becoming a published author with her national bestseller "Upstart" (2024), and establishing The Aviation Club, where she writes about tech, startups, and development economics.
Connect with Alexandria on:
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Free Fundraising Resources
🗓️ This one is hot off the press, get the 12-month fundraising plan that worked for me.
This guide outlines what you should be doing over the calendar year to get you access to capital. Download it here.
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Premium Resources
🗓️ - Book a one-hour private capital strategy call - Book Now
💫 - Pitch deck design services for founders by VCs - Decko
💼 - Startup Legal Services - Bowery Legal
📚 - Startup Friendly Accounting Services - Chelsea Capital
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Let's Connect:
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