Looking for the Right Investor, Remember That Money Isn’t Everything

For entrepreneurs at the start of their business-building journey, fundraising isn’t just about securing capital. It’s also an opportunity to expand their network, receive valuable feedback, and increase brand exposure.

Such was the case for San Francisco-based Mimio Health–a biotech company making supplements that aid in longevity–which gained more than just funding from angel investing syndicate Gaingels.  

Mimio CEO and co-founder Chris Rhodes first became fascinated with healthy aging, longevity, and intermittent fasting while pursuing a PhD in nutritional biochemistry from UC Davis. After participating in a series of accelerators and pre-seed rounds, the company raised a $1.75 million seed round in March 2023, led by Better Ventures, with participation by SOSV, Thia Ventures, What If Ventures, R42, and Gaingels.

Although Gaingels wasn’t Mimio Health’s largest investor in its seed round ($43,000 for a 0.68 percent equity stake), its involvement has brought valuable nonmonetary benefits. 

Originally conceived as an angel investment group made up of LGBTQ+ investors, Gaingels invests in diverse business leaders and specifically in LGBTQ+ founders, an underserved community when it comes to funding. A recent StartOut report notes that LGBTQ+ founders raised only 0.5 percent of startup funding in the U.S. between 2000 and 2022. Despite this disparity, LGBTQ+ founders have demonstrated remarkable economic performance when given the opportunity. Compared with the average U.S. founder, from 2000 to 2022 LGBTQ+ founders created 36 percent more jobs, 114 percent more patents, and 44 percent more exits–all while having 16 percent less funding.  

Rhodes, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, says he has gained valuable insight from Gaingels’ seminars, learning about other companies’ activities and fundraising strategies. Additionally, Rhodes says that Mimio Health has established extensive connections through Gaingels’ inclusive portfolio network, some of which have led to brand exposure opportunities, including “the person who set us up with a podcasting agency that helped us land all of these placements that helped push the brand forward in the early days.”

Rhodes has also found working with a like-minded investor and the supportive community Gaingels brings beneficial. This shared understanding and network provided Mimio Health with both professional and personal support, enhancing the overall experience of the entrepreneurial journey.

“Being a part of that network has been great for me because I feel a great sense of community,” says Rhodes. “Even just to see that I’m not alone in this journey, that there are a ton of other LGBTQ+ founders like me who are going through similar trials and tribulations and having their own unique experiences with things is just really helpful for me, from like an ‘everything’s alright with the world’ kind of standpoint.”

During the year since its launch, Mimio Health has continued pushing out its first biomimetic fasting supplement, but Rhodes says the company wants to research other regenerative states of the body, such as exercise, sleep, and meditation. The goal is to understand what occurs in the body during these activities and explore ways to replicate these effects. 

Rhodes says that although Gaingels currently does not have a formal role in Mimio Health beyond being an investor, his company might seek additional capital if it transitions from seed to Series A funding. 

“We’re not actively raising capital, so we’re not actively going back into the Gaingels network right now, but it’s definitely something that we would be looking to do in the future because Gaingels does a lot of follow-on funding,” says Rhodes.