Karen Fournier is COO of Fundingportal, Canada's leading grant services, and solutions provider. Prior to joining Fundingportal's founding team, she was a parliamentary reporter in Ottawa and a weekly columnist for the Financial Post. Karen now works with hundreds of companies every month, primarily in the advanced R&D sector, to get funded. Don’t miss to listen to my conversation with Rachel Hersh about invoice factoring as a way to get funding for your business recovery and growth. In this episode, Karen shared:➤ Karen’s journey from a reporter to the COO of Fundingportal (4:55)➤ What is Fundingportal (6:36)➤ How Fundingportal helps small businesses in Canada, the US and the UK (7:21)➤ The different types of grants and benefits for each type (9:50)➤ What incentives mean (12:12)➤ There is no free lunch money (15:10)➤ What small businesses need to understand about grant writing (16:32)➤ How small businesses should strategically apply for grants (20:26)➤ Grant vs. crowdfunding vs. venture capital (24:40)➤ Does it make sense to fund and grow a business from grants alone (28:50)➤ At what stage of business makes sense to apply for a grant (30:20)➤ The big picture of external funding strategy (33:40)➤ What is a corporate investor (35:12)Contact MeReady to transform your purpose to an impactful business financial story, profit, and joy? Schedule a chat with me at any time.Connect with Karen and Fundingportal:➤ Website➤ Linkedin: Karen Fournier➤ Linkedin: Fundingportal➤ Facebook➤ Twitter