Tina Funder

When Tina began Alt. Leather in mid-2022, she had no idea how much she didn’t know about disrupting the $70 billion plastic leather industry.

Ever since, she’s been fast-tracking her learning about the whole startup gamut by joining every startup network she could find, applying for several grants and accelerator programs, attending every online session available on capital raising and the associated legal requirements, and pitching to investors.  

In other words, she’s hustled!

It’s part of the reason she’s recently closed a massively oversubscribed seed funding round, raising a total of $1.1 million, which will be deployed to complete R&D, secure a provisional patent and kick-off product development with a range of local and international brands.

Tina is perfect for Startup Speakers because hers is a case study of how it’s done, from building a solid network, keeping key stakeholders engaged, validating your market, understanding your value proposition, being ready for anything and accepting there will be failures along the way. 

One of the most important things she says she’s learned is how to block out the negative statistics surrounding investment in female founders, ‘I backed myself and the Alt. Leather team, and now, many others do, too.’