What Shifted: Inside the Fundraising Mindset of Two Greek Founders

Dyania Health founder and CEO Eirini Schlosser discovered just how hard fundraising can be with her first startup, an AI-driven restaurant recommendation company she started aged 24. 

She went to stay on a friend’s couch in Silicon Valley and took meetings, but no one was interested. “There are times that no matter how hard you try, if you haven't been through enough challenges to predict what can go wrong or it's not the right timing in the market, no matter how hard you work, it fails,” she says of the experience. 

But does fundraising always have to be quite so brutal for founders? No one can make it easy, but according to Eirini and Rania Lamprou, co-founder and CEO of e-commerce/fintech startup Simpler, there are ways to make looking for investors at least easier. The secret to less painful fundraising, they say, resides in a simple but powerful mindset shift. 

From obsession to opportunity

Eirini recalls her first raise as “a really, really painful long process.” Years later, raising for Dyania Health, a healthtech startup using AI to review medical records, was a different story.

“I had already built the relationships over many years and was just toying with an idea”. A quick coffee with an investor friend and a few basic slides were enough to secure her pre-seed round.

Her network helped, but what truly made the difference was a mindset shift shaped by her earlier challenges - one any entrepreneur can adopt.

Entrepreneurs, Eirini says, often fall in love with their first business. Making your business “your baby” in this way might sound like admirable dedication, but it comes with big downsides. With your first business it’s hard to give up on a solution you’re in love with and do something crucial to success in entrepreneurship: pivot.

Instead, Eirini suggests falling in love with the problem, not any one solution. This change in perspective means, “you’re not attached to solving it in an exact or specific way. That allows for micro pivots and letting the market pull you toward the direction you go in.”

A little emotional distance makes you more flexible. It also makes you more resilient: “You’re not personally as attached to everything, so you don’t really fear failure any longer.”

Falling in love with the problem orients you towards a prioritized direction of commercialization. Investor interest happens as a side effect of that “commercial-first” approach.  Being attractive to customers makes you more attractive to investors. There is a saying about fundraising, “if you ask for money you get advice and if you ask for advice you get money.” It sounds counterintuitive, but Eirini believes it’s true. Seeking feedback means you’re focused on making customers happy, not pushing one particular approach.

“If my solutions are making clients happy, then my company’s growing in value and suddenly becomes what investors need,” Eirini explains. “I think genuinely not prioritizing raising capital is what enabled me to actually raise capital.” 

Turning Vision into Impact

Which isn’t to say that raising money at any stage doesn’t require an incredible amount of dedication, planning, and forethought. Both founders are clear that it does. 

“It definitely takes over your brain,” says Rania. She managed her fundraising pushes by blocking out specific days for investor calls and keeping all her pitch decks, outreach, and research super organized using Notion. Tailoring your pitch to individual investors and their funds is also key.    

“It is a full-time job when we do a capital raise,” agrees Eirini, who stresses the need to have “all your ducks in a row” in terms of documentation and getting the right counsel. 

But thinking of fundraising as a search for the right partners to advance your business can improve the ratio of stress to strategic benefit. Eirini frames this as focusing on the strategic needs of the business. “Not everyone is a great investor for Dyania, and actually very few are” she notes. Rania puts it differently: remember what they’re offering investors, not just what they’re getting from them. 

“Shift the perspective,” she urges. "You’re giving someone the opportunity to own a piece of what you’re building - not just asking for cash. That changes the whole dynamic in the room".

How Fundraising Is Like Dating

Focusing on the problem you’re solving pushes you to keep your eye on what ultimately matters: improving the world. It also nudges you to find the right fit between investor and company. You're not just asking for a check. You’re looking for a long-term partner. 

“I've seen firsthand how damaging the wrong investor on your board can be. They can derail your strategy. They can slow you down. They can destroy the whole company dynamic,” Rania warns. Which is why when fundraising, she asks herself: “Do I want to build with this person for the next five, ten years? Do they get the vision? Do they challenge me in the right way?”

When the answer was no, she walked away. “I understood that even if they came in, I would spend a lot of time defending our approach rather than being supported in scaling it,” she says.”It was important to be aligned not just on the business but also on the way you want to build the business.” 

Eirini uses a metaphor to make the same point.  There are good partners who might not be able the best strategic partners but can be a solid sounding board and have a healthy self awareness on where they can be helpful, but try to not be a distraction when they can’t be helpful. In other words, they “know what they know and know what they don’t know”. For her the key to a successful investor relationship is to know how the relationship can grow. She notes “you're going to be getting married for the next few years,” she says. “Date and get to know investors before jumping into a very expensive commitment.”

Look for someone who gets your vision, but also someone who can fill gaps in your expertise. “Having a list of go-to people who you can trust for very specific input is probably one of the most valuable things that you can have,” Eirini says. Keep in mind what you need beyond money and you’ll end up with a much more useful board. 

As in any marriage, alignment in values and complementary skillsets is the foundation of a healthy partnership. But good communication is also essential. Both founders check in with their investors regularly and are proactive in asking for their assistance and input. 

“I've learned not to expect value passively. Be intentional and ask for what you need - intros, advice, pushback on strategy. Otherwise it won’t come.” says Rania. 

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger 

There’s no way around it - early fundraising is tough. But it’s also a formative part of the journey, something entrepreneurs should embrace rather than fear. “What, are you going to just roll over and die because you couldn't raise money?” Eirini asks. “Of course not. Setbacks can often lead to greater clarity. It's okay if one direction doesn’t work out in life. Take some time to digest and think about your next move,” she says. The lessons you take from one round may be exactly what helps you succeed in the next.

Scale Up Stories is a new blog series by Endeavor Greece capturing honest reflections from founders who’ve been through it all - the pivots, the breakthroughs, and the internal shifts. Raw and real, these are stories of resilience, clarity, and everything in between. Written by Jessica Stillman, Author at Inc.