Kat Weaver and Katie Dunn: Teaming Up to Create a 6-Figure Online Course
If you’re the founder of a startup, pitching yourself to investors can be daunting. That’s where Kat Weaver and Katie Dunn come in. Kat and Katie are the duo behind Power to Pitch, an online program on a mission to help founders get funded faster.
Kat and Katie were connected by a mutual friend and hit it off immediately. With Katie’s impressive 25-year background in commercial real estate finance and as an angel investor and Kat’s personal fundraising experience as a founder and serial entrepreneur, the pair knew they could make a powerful team as they embarked on a shared mission.
Through online course content and coaching, Kat and Katie help early-stage founders create their pitch and fundraising materials. They also connect founders to their network of investors and grant opportunities related to their industries. Their ultimate goal is to help increase the mere 1.6% of venture capital that goes to female and underrepresented founders.
Since the course launched in 2021, Power to Pitch has generated over $250K in revenue on Kajabi. Here’s a snapshot of their online business success:
- Earned over $250K in course revenue
- Helped founders earn over $18M in venture capital and grants
- Generated over 20K followers on LinkedIn combined
The Challenge: Finding a Channel to Share Fundraising Knowledge
Power to Pitch originated from Kat’s first company, which she founded from her college dorm room. At the time, she didn’t have a natural network of investors to turn to so she had to use her storytelling skills to cold pitch herself if she wanted to fund her startup. Kat ended up winning 22 out of 23 pitches to fund the company and successfully exited six years later.
Before Power to Pitch, Kat was coaching founders on the side but she eventually pivoted to the digital product space when she realized there had to be a better way to share her knowledge. “I was repeating a lot of the same information over and over again to founders,” she recalls. “[I realized] that I can't go beyond myself and there's only so many hours in the day.”
This realization motivated her to learn how to create an online course. In her search for the best online course platform, she not only wanted a platform that could distribute comprehensive course content but also allow her to continue coaching.
“I wanted to make sure that I could put down the high-level, foundational pieces to be able to share with founders and then offer a coaching element on top,” she says. After researching different platforms and tools, Kat landed on Kajabi. “I found that Kajabi had all of the tools that we needed in one platform.”\
The Solution: An All-in-One Online Course and Coaching Platform
Power to Pitch has been powered through Kajabi since its inception. In addition to housing its course, the business also uses Kajabi for its community features, affiliate payouts, and email marketing. The pair appreciated how easy Kajabi was to get started with for people who aren’t technical or don't need to code things.
“Kat was already using [Kajabi] when I joined her and I was shocked at how simple it was to use,” Katie recalls. “I'm very much a data person and being able to look at the analytics really quickly and easily is the thing I love the most.”
The Results: Leveraging Additional Features
Since launching the course, Power to Pitch has generated over $250K in revenue. Having been on Kajabi from the beginning, Kat and Katie have steadily started integrating the platform’s various business features as they evolve their program.
For instance, one of the features they’ve been able to explore are the affiliate payouts. “The affiliate feature has allowed us to track and reward people who are promoting our work,” shares Kat. “[Seeing] who's referring us and how frequently has been a really important feature as we grow.”
Another integration that’s made an impact on the program is being able to offer different payment plan options through Kajabi Payments. The program initially required founders to pay upfront. But Kat and Katie realized that for early-stage founders on a budget, a monthly payment plan option could be a more flexible and beneficial solution.
Looking Forward: Expanding Their Impact
As the pair continues to grow the Power to Pitch program, they want to be able to support founders who may not be a fit for the fundraising just yet which is why they also launched a grant program. The grant and non-dilutive program allows smaller startups with revenue in the low millions to apply for national and global grant opportunities that range from $500 to $250K.
“We have a list of grants that we share every single month and founders get lifetime access to it,” says Kat. “Not only do we share the list, but Katie and I have recorded education on how I won 22 of 23 pitches.”
According to the pair, only 1 percent of small businesses actually raise venture capital money. If you’re considering raising funds for your business, here is Kat and Katie’s step-by-step playbook:
- Figure out your goals: Assessing what your personal goals and goals for the company are is first and foremost. Consider what your business is and what your long-term goals are. If you have the type of business that you want to run for the rest of your life and pass down to your children, raising money from outside investors isn’t the best option, says Katie. “Venture capitalists want to give you money and have you scale your business really quickly and sell it within five to 10 years and return 50 to a hundred times what their original investment is,” she says. “If you want to build something that's scalable or has a tech or proprietary component to it, that’s when you should take investment.”
- Determine how much money you need: If you do want to pursue venture capital, the next step is to figure out exactly how much money you need to raise. “[The number] is not a guess,” says Kat. “You have to be prepared to have a completely educated conversation about where every single dollar is going to go.”
- Identify a strategic investor: What skills do they have? What networks do they have? What background do they come from? The key is to build off of skills and experience that you don't have. “If you are a marketing person and you have a big network of marketing people, don't go after another marketing person,” says Katie. “Go after somebody that's in finance [instead]. Or, say you have a consumer-packaged goods product, go after someone who has distribution experience that can help you get into retailers. Look at what's missing from your own network so that you can leverage that advice and that person to open doors for you.”
- Prepare the right materials: While your pitch deck is crucial, there’s another element that Kat and Katie suggest founders have prepared: a one-pager. Kat explains, “A one-pager is a simple one-page PDF document with bulleted information, imagery, team info, etc. It should be clear and essentially summarize the deck without giving 100 percent of everything away.”
If you want to share your knowledge through coaching or by creating an online course, see how Kajabi can help.
