Welcome to episode 10 of Fundraising Demystified. In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with George Richardson, the CEO of AeroCloud, a cloud-native airport management & passenger processing platform. They've recently raised a $12MM Series A bringing their total capital raised to $16M+.
We talk about how George switched from being a professional race car driver to starting his own company, how they timed the fundraise with only 2-3 months runway left, the fundraising process that helped them book 100 investor meetings & close the round in just 3 months. George is based out of the UK and shares some incredible stories and advice with founders seeking capital. Let’s dive in.
Aerocloud was born out of the idea to provide airport executives with crystal ball-like predictive tools using AI and software. George saw an opportunity to disrupt the industry by targeting small to medium-sized airports that lacked innovators. The goal was to create a platform that would revolutionize airport management and passenger processing, offering a fresh perspective to an industry in need of innovation.
Today, Aerocloud has raised a total of around $16 million, with a recent Series A funding round securing $12 million. The company has come a long way since its inception and continues to grow.
One of the key challenges for any founder is finding the right investors, and timing their fundraising efforts. George shares his insights on how Aerocloud approached the process. They spent about a month building a strong fundraising process, recognizing that success in business is often a result of hitting numbers and having the right intentions.
When it came to finding seed investors, George leveraged his network and contact book. He believes that speaking to enough people eventually leads to finding investors who are interested in supporting your venture. He also emphasizes the importance of investor crossover, as co-investing can be beneficial and create a strong team dynamic.
George stresses the need for founders to factor in legal processes, which can sometimes be lengthy and challenging. From his experience, he recommends setting aside a minimum of five weeks for the legal aspects of fundraising.
Choosing the right investors is crucial for the long-term success of a company. George shares his criteria for selecting investors, including the size of the fund, their ability to provide follow-on capital, and their focus on B2B enterprise SaaS. He values his investors who have consistently supported Aerocloud through multiple funding rounds, showcasing their commitment to the company.
When it comes to board members, George looks for individuals who won't pressure him to sell too early and who have relevant operational experience. He believes that founders should carefully consider who they accept into their cap table, focusing on those who align with their vision and goals.
George outlines his criteria for investing in companies and founders. He looks for companies that disrupt large legacy incumbents and operate in markets dominated by a maximum of ten companies. Additionally, he seeks founders who have the ability to stay committed to their vision and overcome challenges.
One of the key questions George asks founders is about their hiring process. If a founder can demonstrate a solid hiring strategy, it increases their chances of receiving investment. However, George emphasizes that each company's unique circumstances should be taken into account when evaluating its fundraising potential.
George's final advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to maintain persistence and determination. He believes that those who possess a hunter's nature and a drive to win will ultimately succeed. However, he cautions founders to be wary of the challenges and risks that come with entrepreneurship, urging them to be careful when making critical decisions.
As we wrap up the conversation, George extends an offer to provide 30 minutes of his time per week for advice on running a company or raising a seed round. He hopes to create opportunities for others, just as he has found in his own journey with Aerocloud.
In conclusion, George Richardson's story with Aerocloud is a testament to the power of innovation, persistence, and building the right team. From racing cars to revolutionizing airport management, George's journey is an inspiration for all aspiring founders looking to conquer the fundraising landscape.
Links mentioned:
AeroCloud website - https://aerocloud.com/
Follow George on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-richardson-a7520615a/
On Block / Off Block Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/5b7PiXHek6FypzYIafb4Y5
Hosted by Jason Kirby - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrkirby/
Email Jason at jason@thunder.vc
Don't forget to hit subscribe for more episodes!
George Richardson, co-founder & CEO of AeroCloud, unpacks his shift from professional motor racing to leading an AI-driven airport operations platform. He details a rigorous, numbers-driven fundraising system—starting with a coffee-chat deck funnel, deep-dive sessions supported by a Notion data room, and a pragmatic approach to term sheets and legal timelines. The discussion covers selling into airports and government, long enterprise sales cycles, building evangelical customers, and why persistence—“stay in the saddle”—wins.
Jason Kirby: and then go into it. Welcome, George. We're so grateful to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us.
George Richardson (GWR): Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to getting into it.
Jason Kirby: Yeah, no, me as well. And I just want to kind of go straight into the meat here. You have a really interesting background as a professional racer. Would really love to learn that story and have you share that with our audience and ultimately how that led to you starting a company.
George Richardson (GWR): Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the story is—first, it feels like a different lifetime ago. I'm now 31 and retired at 26. It kind of feels like I've had another life. But there are lots of synergies between professional sport—whether motor racing, tennis, table tennis, it doesn’t matter—and starting a business.
Going back to the old George: at 16 I had a skill, a talent, backed by a well‑capitalized family. Our passion was motor racing. My dad was a successful entrepreneur and, unfortunately, motorsport isn’t necessarily meritorious: even if you're the best driver in the world, you don't necessarily get a ride.
We did it as a hobby from age four—motocross bikes, go‑karts—anything with a motor on weekends. My mum was involved. When my little brother came along seven years after me, he got involved. Things came to a head around the 2008 financial crisis and my age—becoming the point where I could turn it into a career. My dad was in property, a great business affected by the recession, and we were running out of money.
I was left with one skill. I wasn’t great at school, but I knew how to put together a program early: engaging conversations, raising capital and sponsorship to go racing. At that point we had ~50% sponsorship and ~50% our own money. Over time that developed into being professional from 16–17: getting a funded ride, raising capital for the season, spending it, and doing it all again. I did that 10 times over.
If you think about that versus starting a business, it’s incredibly hard. You learn retention, building evangelical customers, negotiation, and handling hard and good times. But it’s massively exhausting—very similar to starting a company.
George Richardson (GWR): Fast forward to the end of my career: I decided around 3am driving the Nordschleife (Nürburgring)—147 changes of direction over an ~8‑minute lap—150 cars, 24‑hour race. It was frosty, a bit of snow, couldn’t see much beyond the bonnet. To compete at that level, lap after lap, the risk becomes massive. The risk vs reward wasn’t working for me anymore.
I wasn’t getting paid enough for it to be worth it. I came home, spoke with my dad and manager about options—consultancy, coaching, etc.—given my experience. I started making small investments on the side; we saw the year out. I met my co‑founder in a coffee shop. We discussed ideas, invested together, started a couple of companies—one worked, one didn’t—and the third was AeroCloud. We started in 2019, raised three rounds, and haven’t looked back. Now all I do is build my business—the closest thrill to winning a race at the pro level.
Jason Kirby: Incredible story—especially the correlation between being a pro racer and building a company. How did you come up with AeroCloud, and where is the business today?
George Richardson (GWR): It’s kind of non‑traditional. I’m proud of that because the sector isn’t well known and requires deep expertise—my co‑founder had that. He grew and sold a business in 2011 in this space to one of the legacy incumbents we now replace. He had the domain; I brought naivety: why do airports do it this way? Why are they paid this way? I was a voice on his shoulder; sometimes he’d say, “That’s good—run with it.”
We built to ~£140–170k ARR before fundraising; plan was an organic business. Advantage: very long contracts; our solution is not a vitamin—it’s a painkiller and an IV. Mission‑critical. Hard to put in or replace; the flip side is it’s hard to rip out. After raising our first round, we didn’t use the money for most of a year; then realized we needed to expand. We went from 2 to ~20 very quickly; now just under 50. I’m 1/50th of AeroCloud.
Jason Kirby: You’ve scaled quickly—50 people. In this market, only painkillers get funded. Walk us through customer acquisition—you’re selling to airports, an unknown world for most founders.
George Richardson (GWR): Many VCs too. We provide crystal balls via software and AI to help airport execs predict the future. Investor story: we’ve created “VOS” for new‑age airports—targeting small to medium airports—covering the passenger journey, airport experience and operational data, tied together with computer vision using existing infrastructure.
This sector hasn’t been blessed with innovation despite millions of flights. We’re probably the company that’s innovated most in a short time. Initial goal: replace legacy incumbents from my co‑founder’s prior business—we targeted them first. Customer acquisition minimum ~7 months, which is long, but initial deals are usually 100k+ ARR with products that can grow to 500k–1M ARR through upsell and cross‑sell. Last year we acquired a passenger‑processing solution, embedded it, and now own end‑to‑end. We’re taking a fresh, VC‑backed run at a ~$20B annual spend dominated by five incumbents. That makes us unpopular with competitors but popular with customers—who, when they move airports, take us with them and evangelize. That’s fueled growth.
Jason Kirby: You’re saying all the keywords VCs like—disrupting incumbents, unsexy, potential winner‑take‑all. You launched in 2019, raised ~$16M total with a ~$12M Series A more recently. Share the fundraising journey—how you found investors and timing.
George Richardson (GWR): I try to help founders here. We closed December ’22—the start of tougher times. We achieved a multiple closer to early ’22 than late ’22, but not a valuation we couldn’t hold on to. I’m proud of the timing, though it wasn’t entirely intentional.
First, position yourself top‑right in investors’ minds: sustained high growth, capital efficient, and ARR metrics above typical. Timing: when does the board want to raise, runway left, and if you don’t raise, can you turn to profitability in 3–6 months? We had ~2–3 months of runway at raising—risky but intentional with prevention and planning.
You have a business to run and a fundraise to run. If you take your eye off the business, growth declines. Early‑stage CEOs are highly impactful. I created a team: finance expertise (fractional + consultant for cohort analysis and spreadsheets), a COO to run/stabilize the business and report twice daily, and an analyst + my assistant to orchestrate scheduling changes. Then we built the funnel.
We spent ~a month building a ~200‑investor list. We sent a short coffee‑chat deck (3–5 minutes) with the sole goal of getting a 20‑minute meeting—often batched in London days, back‑to‑back. Goal of that 20 minutes: secure a deep dive. Between meetings we shared a Notion room with everything: cap table, investor sentiment, board decks, forecasts, hiring plan, TAM/SAM/SOM, etc.—with unique links to track engagement. Deep dives focused on each fund’s path to IC. Top‑of‑funnel: ~200 leads → ~100 coffee chats over 3–4 weeks → deep dives. Keep your team on Slack to answer technicals; fold FAQs back into Notion to avoid repeats.
That process should generate multiple term sheets. Post‑term‑sheet is a different game.
Jason Kirby: How did you determine that process? Had you done it before?
George Richardson (GWR): I work constantly, and my partner and family are bought in. I talk to as many people as possible—investors, operators—feeding their concerns and insights into our process. It took about a month to build. Business is a process: hit your numbers with the right intent and you’ll likely succeed. Fundraising is the same—and it’s a numbers game. Don’t talk to six investors; build a big funnel, like you would for sales or hiring.
Jason Kirby: How did you build the hit list of ~200 VCs and structure outreach?
George Richardson (GWR): Start with current investors. A seed investor’s job is to produce a list of potential Series A investors and warm intros. I stressed that and stayed top of their inbox every Monday. If they didn’t produce names and intros, that wasn’t acceptable. Lean on the network.
Jason Kirby: And how did you land your seed investors?
George Richardson (GWR): I’ve built an extensive phone book—not because of racing, but because I’m a people person. I talk to the person next to me on planes. We connected with Tim, who introduced us to Chris at Playfair Capital—we hit it off. I asked early: what wouldn’t I like about you? Could you write the whole check or bring others? With LinkedIn and events, third‑ and fourth‑degree connections aren’t hard in capital markets. It’s still a numbers game and less than 1% get funded—so you must put yourself in front of capital and always ask, “If not you, who?”
Jason Kirby: You mentioned coffee meetings. Many founders ask straight for the check. How did you run back‑to‑back meetings in practice?
George Richardson (GWR): In‑person had ~10‑minute turnarounds. By week two, you’re repeating the same pitch and answers. You need a team (or more time). Investor crossover isn’t bad—many co‑invest and prefer someone else to lead and price. I’d ask in meetings: if this isn’t for you, who is it for? Would you co‑invest behind them? I’m not afraid to ask. Crossover can even increase FOMO. I’m honest about term sheets, interest, co‑investors, and I build a sense of togetherness to complete the round.
Jason Kirby: When term sheets arrived, what happened from first meetings to signed terms?
George Richardson (GWR): Whole raise was ~3.5 months, then ~6 weeks of legals—founders must factor that in. With term sheets, you’ve got a jigsaw: leads vs co‑investors. Everyone has criteria—board seats, observers, liquidation prefs, etc. I’d ask for standard terms up front. Don’t be clever; agree valuation and terms together with high conviction. The jigsaw takes 3–4 weeks; some co‑investors drop out or delay. In legals, stay honest and pragmatic. In my rounds, we picked up the pen (our lawyers drafted) to control pace and cost. Last round took ~6 weeks; previous rounds less. I’m happy with the deal and proud of the team.
Jason Kirby: Not many talk about post‑term‑sheet. You hinted at some onerous terms. How did you navigate pricing and quality of partners?
George Richardson (GWR): Some tried to capitalize on a good business in a bad market. But great companies should still get fair prices. Pal‑Mall will always be Pal‑Mall. I won’t accept lowballs. We had two; I’d recommend avoiding those firms. Others recognized “fair price, good company” even in a bad market. Our Series A lead flew from Boston within 48 hours of a deep dive, spent 48 hours reviewing materials, and handed me a term sheet—wouldn’t leave without a signature. That conviction matters more than a slightly higher price with poor terms.
Jason Kirby: UK vs US investors—what’s your structure?
George Richardson (GWR): UK topco with a US C‑Corp subsidiary. Our US customers are federal government, so we’re properly set up on procurement schedules—which also attracts US investors.
Jason Kirby: How did you target investors—UK vs US?
George Richardson (GWR): I looked for funds with meaningful follow‑on capital (every investor in AeroCloud has followed on each round), B2B enterprise SaaS expertise, experience selling into government, strong past performance, and people with operator experience. I want board members who have been in the trenches. Our Series A board pairing mixes deep VC experience with an operator; earlier funds were heavy on operators—including my board mentor who still takes my 1am calls.
Jason Kirby: What do you look for when you angel invest or mentor founders?
George Richardson (GWR): Disrupting legacy incumbents in markets dominated by a handful of players; long enterprise sales cycles; founders who can (1) stay in the saddle, (2) sell and raise with high EQ and self‑awareness, and (3) hire exceptionally—show me their process, attributes, and trade‑offs. If I see those, they’re investable; then we evaluate the business.
Jason Kirby: Where can people follow you or learn about AeroCloud?
George Richardson (GWR): I’m on LinkedIn and in fundraising groups near me. I offer ~30 minutes per week to founders—unbiased advice on running a Series A company, raising rounds, board dynamics, and spending capital. I believe what goes around comes around. I also host our company podcast, Block Off Block. Email’s on my LinkedIn—I try to get the inbox to zero regularly.
Jason Kirby: One final piece of advice for founders raising capital?
George Richardson (GWR): Stay in the saddle. Persistence. I hate losing more than I enjoy winning. If you choose this path, give it absolutely everything—100%, not 99%—and leave nothing on the table.
Jason Kirby: George, thanks for joining us.
George Richardson (GWR): My pleasure. Thanks for your time.
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