Raja Skogland

Questions? I am 1 DM away. 

Community builder at heart, hyper connector, fundraising/growth advisor, serial entrepreneur and investor in 100+ startups.

My team of experienced exited founders, investors, board members, investors and partners from reputable consulting companies and I have created step by step programs to help:

- Go From Idea To Investors 
- Go from post seed to Series A
- Fundraise & Scale
- Build personal brands and communities to attract talent, clients and investors
- Become a certified board member, build an exclusive and strong European network and land your next board position.

We also connect vetted founders, investors, leaders and board members to co-create together.

Interested in getting more info?

Send me a DM.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Founder

The ecosystem of experts, investors, and serial entrepreneurs supporting your growth,
taking you from 🌱 to 🌳 and then🌳 🌳 🌳 🌳

We help startups, scale-ups, and SMBs raise money and build profitable, scalable businesses.
We also invest in B2B Nordic companies that are post-revenue.

👉 www.thevisionaryvc.com to reach new heights.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

I started The Visionary Board because as a founder, investor, and board member, I kept finding myself in the same rooms...

Same people.
Same conversations.
Same names circulating when board and advisory opportunities came up.

It looked a lot like a "board mafia", opportunities shared within trusted circles, even when those profiles were not always the best fit.

At the same time, I was investing in founders who needed something very specific.
Experienced, trusted board members who understand scale, growth, speed, risk, and innovation. Not theory. Not titles. Not big egos in the room. Not bureaucracy.

So, I brought together a team of European experts in governance and venture building to launch The Visionary Board, to make board roles more accessible, merit-based, and relevant for modern companies.

A room where board members, founders and investors are trained, trusted, and connected.
Where founders, investors, and leaders actually find each other.

Nearly 100 people have been trained since 2024!

I am incredibly proud of our alumni network who are our best ambassadors ♥️

They hire each other, invest in each other, create together, and advise one another - across borders.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us so far!

What started as a problem I wanted to solve, has become an active European community of highly driven people co creating, sharing opportunities, inspiring each other and actively building the career they aspire to.

The best part? I made 100 new friends, that I am happy to support beyond the board program and our community.

Looking forward to welcoming the next cohort in sunny Porto in May!☀️

Developing & Connecting European Board Members, Investors & Founders | Accelerated 1,000s | TOP 100: Europe’s most influential women in the venture capital space | Board member l Investor (100+) l Oslo - Geneva📍

Last November, I attended a Pre Davos event through DIONZ, a network I am part of. That’s when I understood what really happens in Davos.

Davos is not about status, the big names and big stages. Even if that’s what we see at first.

It is about highly vetted networks, curated rooms, and the SIDE conversations where trust is built and decisions are made...

I have always invested energy, time, and money in joining strong networks.

Long term value over short term access.

Joining ecosystems before the return is obvious. Because this is how you end up in rooms where the future is co created and the best opportunities happen before they become headlines.

This year, I am attending the DIONZ at WEF 2026 Event and joining conversations on prosperity, responsibility, and what we choose to build next.

If you are considering Davos, my take:

Do not come alone. Come with a network.

Come to give before you ask, come to share, and aim to build relationships before business.

—
Who is in Davos? 🇨🇭
See you in the mountains!

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Your business is not supposed to be fun all the time.

If you need constant excitement, you built a hobby, not a company.

The moment it starts annoying you, that is where discipline replaces dopamine and that´s when you start scaling. Do you relate?

I wrote about this phase and what founders can do. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and tips! 

👉https://lnkd.in/esZQ3H_6

—
Every week, I share my best actionable advice with 3000+ founders, board members and investors on my Substack. 

Join if you want unfiltered content.

Katie Dunn

Angel Investor / Board Director / Finance & Due Diligence Expert

My Angel Investment Thesis: I invest in underrepresented, US-based founders at the pre-seed and seed stages primarily in CPG and Tech.
👉 See my portfolio at www.katiedunn.com.
✍️ DM me (briefly!) with how you fit my thesis to be considered for investment.
(PLEASE only reach out if you meet 100% of my thesis to save yourself - and me - the "no" if it's not a fit.)

------------
About Me
I’m an investor, entrepreneur, and fundraising expert who helps founders cut through the noise, clarify their story, and attract capital, customers, and partners.

My superpower: helping people get really clear and concise on their communication so others see their vision immediately. I specialize in pre-seed to Series A founders across all industries and backgrounds.

With 25+ years in banking and finance — including over $10B financed in commercial real estate — I’ve built deep expertise in strategy, due diligence, and identifying high-potential opportunities. Through Masthead Strategies, I’ve helped founders secure more than $30M in capital and grants by combining investor psychology, storytelling, and AI-powered tools.

My portfolio includes Outcast Brands (Blood Monkey Gin, Two Shores Rum), Another Tomorrow, Juliet Wine, WTHN, Forecastr, and Goodword (and more).

I serve on the Boards of Outcast Brands (Irish spirits portfolio), the Enthuse Foundation (helps female CPG founders), Fierce Foundry (Femtech Venture Studio), and InPress (social news app).

I also build AI tools, write downloadable guides, and offer 1:1 coaching to make the fundraising process faster, easier, smarter, and, especially, accessible. Explore them all at www.themastheadstrategy.com.

You can also book me on www.hubble.social for one-off calls -- I'm on the front page.

Partner

Helping founders raise their first round of capital and get directly matched with investors.

I am scared even to write this. 
I am scared of retribution. 
I am scared because people are being silenced, threatened, harmed, and murdered for using their voices. 

And I am scared because history has shown moments like this don't announce themselves until it is too late.

I have often wondered what I would have done if I were living during critical inflection points in history. 

Would I have stayed quiet to protect myself, or would I have spoken up for others knowing the risks? 

We are watching declarations of taking over other countries at a whim and the creation of chaos across allied nations. US small businesses are being crushed by tariffs, kids are being taken and placed in cages, and fear is being used as a governing tool.

Much of this stems from the actions and leadership of one. 

Interestingly, during my 25+ years in commercial real estate lending at 6 (8, counting mergers) major financial institutions, the firms never lent to him during my time. It was widely understood that lending to him was considered reputational risk, with concerns about unpaid debts and character routinely cited.

Yet here we are, with him sitting in the highest political seat in America.

I grew up in Minneapolis. Minnesota is where I went to school and camp, volunteered, played sports, skied (water & snow), spent summers on the lakes, and made friends for life. It is defined by natural beauty, culture, business, and a deep sense of community. Minnesotans are direct, kind, and show up for each other, maybe because surviving winter together teaches you that.

That home is in peril.

When Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed, I knew exactly where it happened. I know those streets and neighborhoods. It feels unbearably close, like it could have been people I know. I have friends in MN who are trying to figure out how to help, protect others, and make a meaningful difference while living with real fear.

This is not what America is. 
This is not what America does. 
And silence does not protect us in moments like this.

I'm far away right now, and I feel guilty for being quiet except in my bubble. But fear and guilt cannot be the end of the story. 

Because without action, there is no reaction. 

And I am more afraid of what happens if I do nothing than I am of speaking up.

Here is what I have done to use my voice:
• Sent letters to the offices of the President, the Vice President, my Congressman, Senators, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor.
• I used Civic Politics to find direct contact information.
• I sent a note of love on standwithminnesota.com, a site for those who want to support people on the ground through donations, mutual aid, and organizing.

I want to be clear, I'm not telling you what to do.

I'm just telling you that I think the actions of this administration are wrong in so many ways, including the persecution of a state for what I believe is a personal vendetta, like so many other actions.

And, I know fear cannot be the final answer for me.

Angel Investor | Board Director | Finance & Due Diligence Expert

Five years ago today, my life was small and insular.

It was ten months into the pandemic.
I was working in corporate from home.
Alone.
Deeply unhappy with my day-to-day.

Then Amber the Chicken Dog showed up.
Not as a strategy.
Not as a fix.
Just as a dog.
88 lbs of pure love and sweetness.


Today:
✧ I run my own business and investment portfolio
✧ I’m fully remote and fully in control of my time
✧ I start and end every day outside, walking her
✧ I know my neighbors - all of them
✧ I built a real, in-person community I didn’t have before

Amber forced something simple and non-negotiable:

♡ Consistency
♡ Presence
♡ Routine
♡ Breaks
♡ And thinking of someone other than myself.

I thought I was getting was a companion.

I actually got was structure, joy, and a life that finally felt good.


🦮Her given name is Amber.
🐓My name for her is Chicken.

And her nicknames include Love Bug, Buglette, Chicklette, Chickface, Tiny, and more.

She makes me smile and feel loved every single day.

Five years later, the growth I’m most proud of started with a leash and a walk.


Today is OUR Gotcha Day.

Because she got me just as much as I got her.

A founder came to me this week in full momentum mode.

Revenue up. 
Retention up. 
Churn down.
And still, well, spiraling.

Here’s the advice I gave. It applies to far more founders than people admit:

1. Growth creates a new kind of stress. When things finally work, the stakes get higher. That’s normal. It’s not a sign that something is wrong.

2. Capital is a tool, not a badge. Raise money for one reason only: to move faster. Not for validation. Not for optics. Not because someone else raised.

3. You cannot scale yourself. If everything runs through your brain, that is the bottleneck. Offload repeatable work. Hire leverage before hiring prestige.

4. Talent beats control. High standards are good. Control issues are expensive. The right people don’t need micromanagement. They need clarity.

5. Every dollar needs a job. If you can’t say exactly what money will do for you, don’t raise it. If you can, investors will listen.

6. Momentum is earned, not borrowed. Traction, customers, retention, referrals. That’s the story. Capital only amplifies what already exists.

7. Decision paralysis is worse than a wrong decision. You can only decide with the information you have. Choose a path. Adjust as you learn. Standing still is the only guaranteed loss.

8. Sleep is not optional. Exhaustion looks like productivity until it wrecks your decision-making. Prioritize sleep like you prioritize fundraising.

9. Take care of your body or your business will suffer. 
🔘Meditate even if it’s starting at 3 minutes
🔘Move your body every day
🔘Eat like someone who wants to finish what they started

Your brain is your only real asset. Treat it like one.


The goal isn’t to build fast.

The goal is to build intentionally.

With the right people, the right capital, and a pace you can sustain.

I love giving founders feedback on business models, pricing, monetization strategies, go-to-market paths and opportunities, and potential solutions to the problem they’re trying to solve.

It lights me up. It’s literally my favorite part of the job: brainstorming ideas and exploring a thesis on what might work and scale.


But when a founder comes to me for feedback on their idea, my first question is always, "First tell me what does your ICP think?"


Because founders should not rely on investors for product or customer validation.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what an investor thinks.

Because they're not your customer.

Your customer is the one who pays you.

And revenue is what builds a business.


Some other reasons not to listen to investors:
💡 We might have ideas, but they’re opinions, NOT data, because data is collected by talking to customers.
☯️ Other investors will say the opposite tomorrow.
↪️ If you pivot every time someone with money talks, you’ll lose your original vision - and your actual customer.


Founders who succeed do this instead:
🌟 Talk to 50-100 target customers about the problem they are experiencing before making any major product or pricing decisions.
🌟 Ask customers what they’ve tried, what they’ve paid, and why it hasn’t worked.
🌟 Ask them what they WOULD pay for a working solution.
🌟 Use investor feedback as input, not a reason to shift.
🌟 Validate every investor comment with actual user conversations.

Your customer is your co-creator.
You're on the same team.
Without them, you’re just building in a vacuum.

Build for them. Talk to them. Obsess over them.

And use people like me - investors and advisors - to help you scale what the customer already wants.

Investors don’t create a business.

Customers do.

I truly don’t understand how the LinkedIn algorithm works.

Because this week my “Top Performing Posts” are below, and the impressions vs. engagement makes no sense:

1) Founder post (advice I gave someone this week)

62,730 impressions
127 reactions 
74 comments

2) Current events post (how I’ve been feeling)

13,007 impressions
847 reactions 
187 comments 
32 reposts (and a few reposts have comments and reposts)

3) Dog post (because, well, obviously)

4,889 impressions
229 reactions 
85 comments 
2 reposts

What’s confusing is Post #1 got ~5x the impressions of Post #2, even though Post #2 has dramatically more engagement. 

Even Post #3 has 100+ more reactions, 10 more comments, and 2 reposts than Post #1 with 1/12th of the impressions. 

🤷‍♀️

My best guess is LinkedIn is doing a few different things at once:

	1.	Impressions are a distribution decision, not a quality score.
They’re basically “how far LinkedIn decided to push it,” not “how much people cared.”

	2.	“Safe + useful” content travels further.
Founder advice is easy for the platform to recommend broadly because it’s professional, non-controversial, and universally relevant.

	3.	Heavier topics can perform strongly but spread narrowly.
Current events can drive more comments and reposts, but still get shown to fewer people because it’s higher-friction content.

	4.	Reposts don’t always equal massive reach.
Reposts can be high-intent engagement, but not necessarily the thing that triggers the widest algorithmic distribution.

	5.	Dog posts are engagement-dense, because dogs are the best. Kidding - it’s probably because they often stay close to your network.
They can get a strong response from the people who already like you, without being pushed as broadly to strangers.


Anyway, I’m done trying to make it make sense.

I’ll keep posting founder stories, things important to me, and Chicken Dog content, because I want to post what I want, not what the algorithm needs. 




PS. Cindy Gallop and Jane Evans have a petition going on Change.org calling for Fair Visibility for All on LinkedIn. They’ve got some compelling data there - it’s worth reviewing. I’ll put the link in the comments.

A few weeks ago, I asked ChatGPT to help me clean up my online footprint and remove my personal information from online databases.

Because if you run a business, your physical address ends up in way more places than you think.

You legally have to list a real address (CANNOT be a PO Box) for:
• IRS filings (EIN, tax returns, audit notices)
• Secretary of State registration
• Business bank accounts
• Newsletter footers (CAN-SPAM compliance) - this is honestly a reason I am weirdly scared to start one, and the fine can be up to $50K
• Website privacy policies and terms of service 
• Contracts, payment systems, and insurance
• Customer invoices and return policies

And I'm sure if you're scrappy like me, you've been using your home address, so it’s probably searchable in at least one of those places already.

As a woman, and as someone who splits time between states (and travels), that’s not a risk I love taking.

I found a solution. Stable.

And here’s what I like about it.:

✔️ A real, permanent business address — legal for everything above
✔️ AI-powered mail summaries
✔️ Routes to the right people in your organization through your dashboard
✔️ Integrates with systems like Slack, Notion, Google, HubSpot, and more
✔️ Highlights time-sensitive & compliance-related documents
✔️ Works whether you’re solo, remote, or scaling
✔️ No need to change addresses — even as your team grows or HQ shifts
✔️ Even deposits physical checks for you!

It starts simple: one founder, one address.

And it scales when you do; they go all the way up to the enterprise level - even IPO.

I was so excited that they wanted to partner with me so I could share this with my network because my fellow angel investors, solopreneurs, service providers, and founders have enough to worry about. 

We need infrastructure that supports us now and grows with us.

This is one of those tools.

Get 50% off Stable's Grow or Scale plan for 3 months with code KATIE50.

I'll admit it: I think everybody is fake on this platform.
I take too much time reviewing the profiles and notes, searching for something that clues me into them being real...or AI.
I know I’m wrong, but cold outreach and profiles feel faker than ever.

Heck, "AI Slop" was one of THE words of 2026. 

It’s not that I’m anti-AI.
I’m actually all in on AI.
I am obsessed with my Digital Twins and everyone they're helping (including me!), and I use AI every day to run my business faster, cleaner, and smarter.

But the messages I receive are more polished, more frequent, and, unfortunately, sound the same.

The “Hi Katie"s all blur together.

I want to believe people are being authentic.
But I second-guess everything and everyone.
And I know I’m not the only one.


So here’s someone doing something about it:

Goodword is partnering with Julia Lynch (@smarterinasec) to figure out how people are really connecting and what actually builds trust now.

They're launching The State of Human Connection 2026 and asking the hard questions:
→ What outreach do you ignore immediately?
→ What details make you say yes?
→ When does something feel real, and when does it feel fake?

We need your voice in this.

Please take 4 minutes (honestly less) and fill out the survey.

This is about finding the real in a world of slop.

👉 Link in comments.

If your business falls apart when you step away, you don’t have a company.

You have a very demanding job.

An SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is a documented, repeatable way to perform a task, so results don’t depend on a single person or their secret method.

SOPs are not corporate fluff.

They are how startups scale without burning out the founder.

Research from Harvard Business Review shows that organizations with standardized processes outperform peers on consistency, speed, and execution as they grow.

If you’re early-stage, your SOPs should be built by category, not by obsession with detail:

Company & Admin
• payroll
• accounting
• legal
• insurance
• compliance

Sales & Revenue
• inbound leads
• outbound process
• pricing approvals
• contracts
• invoicing

Marketing & Growth
• content creation
• distribution
• brand voice
• partnerships
• PR

Product / Delivery
• roadmap updates
• customer feedback loops
• QA
• launches

Customer Success
• onboarding
• support tickets
• renewals
• churn handling

People & Hiring
• recruiting
• onboarding
• performance reviews
• offboarding


Before you roll your eyes and say, “This will take me weeks,” know that you can do these in a matter of hours in many cases. 

Because the fastest way to build these is not writing.


It’s dictation.


Use the dictation feature inside the AI app of your choice and talk through the process exactly as you do it today.

Messy is fine.
Incomplete is fine.
Honesty is required.

Then ask AI to turn that transcript into a clean SOP.

The most critical and final step, and the one most people skip:

- Ask the AI what’s missing.
-  Ask it to poke holes in the process.
- Ask it where friction, duplication, or unnecessary steps exist.
- Ask it how to make the workflow more efficient.

Don’t forget screenshots, video walkthroughs, and standardizing documents. 


This is how founder instinct becomes company infrastructure.

Because once you have an SOP, you can hand off the process to someone else, and the real scaling starts. 



Ps - If you’re looking for a good dictation app, Wispr Flow  is the real deal. Thanks to Amy Parker for finally getting me to try it. I’m obsessed.

Well this is fun - Goodword says I am a Rocket 🚀 when it comes to my networking style!

Find out if you’re a Webweaver (naturally finding the threads between people or a Rocket, like me (focused on high-velocity growth), an Owl, Spark, Gardner, or Mirror.

Either way, Goodword is designed to amplify your specific "gravity."

When you take the quiz, you'll find:

🧠 Your Archetype: Get a deep dive into your natural connection style.

🛠️ Custom Tool Match: Discover which Goodword feature (Smart Search, Snooze, or AI Recommendations) will help you supercharge your 2026.

📅 Your Lucky Stretch: Identify the months where your network is most primed for cultivation and expansion.

Check it out - link in comments!

Someone impersonated me via email and tried to get a contact to change my payment info. 

They even sent a fake check image. 

I am incredibly grateful to the team that reached out to me to confirm something felt off after noticing it did not come from my actual email address. 

That extra step prevented a real loss.

I’m still trying to figure out whether they busted into my email or just used public information to try to scam the other party. 


Cybercrime is massive. The FBI reports that total internet crime losses reached $16.6 billion in 2024, with business email compromise among the most financially damaging schemes.


This is a real and evolving threat, but there are clear rules that protect people and businesses:

1. Never change payment instructions based on email instructions alone

2. I will never ask you to do something urgent, secretive, or outside the normal process

3. If something feels off, verify it live by phone, video, or a trusted channel

4. Urgency is a red flag. Do not act when someone is rushing you


Fraud relies on speed and silence. 

Verification shuts it down.


By the way, if you ever receive a message that might be from me and you are not completely sure, please DM me here and ask before taking action. (I’ve heard I’m being impersonated on TikTok too!)

Because while my family has a family verification phrase, I can’t do that with every client or partner I come in contact with. 


PS - if anyone has strong tips or best practices on how to better secure yourself or your business as a solo practitioner, please let me know.

taplio

The Battle

Raja Skogland

Katie Dunn

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The Battle

Raja Skogland

Katie Dunn

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