So why the name? The “friends and family” round is usually the very first stage in a fundraising journey. But the main source of support for founders, who see us diving headfirst into our goals, working into the night, are often a different group: our lovers and mentors. They're the unsung heroes of business leaders, the partners who are by our side, and the teachers who bask in pride to see us grow. They’re priceless. They offer support, knowledge, and a safe space. (They’re also the ones who will be the first in line to join in on the round.) That’s why we named ourselves Lovers and Mentors. We’re the first raving fans, the honest feedback, the partner who comes along on your journey. We share knowledge and love to see people grow.

For twenty-three years we ran a studio called 1821, building presentations, reports and identity systems for corporations and nonprofits. Most of that work sits under NDA, which is why the wall of logos on the home page is doing the talking instead of the case studies.

Somewhere along the way we noticed the projects we cared most about all had the same shape. Someone had to go and ask for money — from a board, a donor, an investor, a committee that meets four times a year — and the whole thing came down to whether the document in their hand made the case.

That's the work we're best at, and it's the work we want more of. So we changed the name and pointed the whole studio at it. Same people, same twenty-three years, a much clearer idea of what we're for.

CES and JP Morgan get mentioned because they taught us the most. A fixed date, a large and distracted audience, a lot riding on it, and absolutely no second attempt. You learn quickly what survives contact with a real room and what only ever worked on your own screen.

Twenty-three years of that is mostly what you're hiring. Not the software — we could teach you the software in a fortnight. The judgement about which of the eleven true things about your organization is the one that matters to the person you're sitting across from.

We take on fewer projects than we could, because the work we do needs a proper run at it. Whole systems rather than one-off pieces, which means we're expensive for a single deck and very good value for a studio you keep.

We say no reasonably often, and we try to say it in the first email rather than the third meeting. If we're not right for something we'll usually know somebody who is.

And we're not a table of dudes sitting around a male designer. Never have been.