When Bettor Capital invested in Scotland's BR-DGE this year, the cheque was the end of a three-year conversation, not the start of one. We sat down with Jake Kleiner to find out what US investors look for, and what Scottish founders can do now to be ready.
The relationship starts long before the raise
Jake first met BR-DGE's CEO, Thomas, at ICE, a major international gaming conference that was then held in London. Bettor Capital then followed the business for around three years before investing.
"If a company is going out to proactively raise a Series A, you may only have a number of weeks to build a relationship. That was not the case for us." Jake told us.
Those three years gave the investor something no pitch deck can: evidence. They watched the team deliver what it said it would, and they watched how it behaved when plans changed. By the time the round came together, the conviction was already there.
The lesson for founders is simple. Start the conversations when you don't need the money. Going out to raise only when you're ready puts you "at the mercy of a lot of things"; where an investor is in their fund cycle, wider market conditions, and the other deals competing for their attention.
If you can. build the relationship over months and quarters and you’ll get guidance on timing, clarity on the milestones that matter, and far more control over who you raise from and on what terms.
Get out there, but be strategic about it
The BR-DGE deal started with a team that was, in Jake's words, "pounding the pavement" at an industry event. They were putting in the time at the right events. It doesn’t mean to you need to spend a fortune on a stand to be front and centre at the conference, but just getting out there and making your presence known and felt cna make a huge difference.
For Scottish founders, that means knowing where your specialist investors spend their time. Sector conferences, industry podcasts, trade channels and digital networking all count. The goal is to be visible consistently, not just in the weeks before a round.
Specialist investors are looking for vertical proof points
What first caught Bettor Capital's attention was BR-DGE's traction in one specific sector. The business had already done commercial deals with some of the biggest names in gaming.
Jake's advice to early-stage founders is to lean into that kind of focus. If you have early product-market fit in a specific vertical, there will be investors who live and breathe that space and who will see the value faster than a generalist. Proof points in their sector make it much easier for them to take the leap.
Show how your success travels
BR-DGE's commercial progress was largely in the UK and EU. What convinced a US fund like Bettor Capital was that the product was translatable to North America, and that they knew they could help them get there.
This is where Scottish companies often have an edge they undersell. In sectors like gaming, the UK and European markets have been regulated for far longer than the US, where real-money online gambling has only been legal for around eight years.
Businesses that have spent years solving problems for mature customers bring hard-won expertise to a younger, faster-growing market. Make that case explicitly: here's what works at home, and here's why it works in the US.
The founding team is the investment
For early-stage investors, the team matters more than almost anything else. Jake contrasted this with his background in control private equity, where an investor buys the whole business and can change the leadership if needed.
"In early-stage investing, we say influence but not control," he explained. "The team that you're betting on is the team."
What Bettor Capital saw in BR-DGE was "conviction, and conviction with honesty". The team was open about what was working, what wasn't, and where they needed help. That honesty, repeated over three years, is what turned interest into high conviction.
Alignment goes beyond the CEO
Investors don't expect founders to agree with them on everything. Jake was clear on that. What they need is a thoughtful, aligned conversation in which both sides are headed in the same direction.
That alignment matters across the whole leadership team, not just the CEO. Bettor Capital actively makes introductions to North American customers, so it needs heads of sales, product and technology delivering the same message. Founders should think about their wider team's readiness as part of their investment story.
Choose a partner, not just a cheque
The due diligence runs both ways. Jake encourages founders to ask what value an investor will bring beyond the money, especially when taking on dilution. For Bettor Capital, that means pricing, sales strategy and product thinking, and above all commercial introductions in North America.
Those three years of relationship building let BR-DGE see that value too. As Jake put it, the same process "that drove the excitement amongst the team at BR-DGE to accept our capital, drove our excitement to put our capital into the company".
The takeaway for Scottish founders
You can build a global business from Scotland. As Jake said, "It's almost incidental where you base your business." But US capital rewards founders who play the long game: show up in your sector, build relationships before you need them, prove your traction in a vertical, and show a team that is honest, aligned and ready to scale.
At Invest2Scale, that's exactly the kind of visibility and connection we're working to build for Scotland's most ambitious companies.