How This Exited Founder Raised $1.5M from 66 Angels to Launch Insurtech Loxa | Jamie Hamer
What does it take to raise $1.5M from 66 angels across 400 meetings?
Jamie Hamer, CEO of Loxa and founder of React News (acquired by Green Street), shares the unfiltered reality.
From walking away from a £150k salary to making 30 cold calls a day, Jamie is building one of the most ambitious insurtechs in the UK—backed not by VCs, but by a cap table stacked with mission-aligned angels.
In this episode of The Everyday Founder, we dive into:
- Why angels is better than funds (and how to manage 66 of them)
- The litmus test for picking advisors (time and money or nothing)
- The playbook for user research that doubles as early sales
- Why founder-led sales is still king in early-stage B2B
- How to build a team around “total ownership”
- What it’s really like to rebrand midstream
- And how to “increase the surface area of your luck”
If you’re raising, hiring, or selling at the early stage, Jamie’s insights are a masterclass in founder grit and strategic execution.
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Chapters
00:00 – Why advisors must have skin in the game
01:20 – Jamie’s journey: from P&G to React News
03:30 – Leaving a £150k salary to start up
06:00 – The power of user research (The Mom Test in action)
08:15 – Building and exiting React News
10:20 – Why angels beat VC funding
13:00 – How Jamie raised $1.5M from 66 angels
15:25 – Managing a cap table of 66 investors
18:00 – Co-founders, vesting, and avoiding dead equity
21:00 – Hiring playbook: KPIs, probation, and personality tests
24:00 – Total ownership as a cultural value
27:00 – Founder-led sales: why cold calling still works
31:00 – The pain (and lessons) of a rebrand
34:00 – Building Loxa: tackling insurtech complexity
38:00 – Transparency, trust, and fixing insurance for good
42:00 – Increasing the surface area of your luck
46:00 – Reflections on skill vs luck in entrepreneurship
49:00 – Jamie’s advice to early-stage founders
53:00 – Where to follow Jamie and Loxa
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