10/10/2024: On this episode, Brenda speaks about purpose with Allison Byers, founder of Scroobious, a tech company driving innovation to equitable capital access by removing barriers to partnership among diverse founders, investors, and service providers.
Scroobious is a platform that is working toward equitable capital access: In Allison’s words “ fair representation of all segments with the exclusion of none” - now into its fourth year – having served over 900 founders.
09/03/2024: Scroobious, the leading platform connecting diverse founders with investors and services, announced today that it has hired Ralph H. Groce III as President & COO, alongside securing $500K in strategic financing as part of broader fundraising efforts to scale its operations and increase its impact.
'Last year, underrepresented founders received the lowest percentage of investment dollars since 2016, which highlights the importance of what we're building and our urgency to make the Scroobious platform available to more entrepreneurs,' said Allison Byers, Scroobious' Founder & CEO. 'Ralph's leadership skills and deep expertise in finance and technology, along with the $500,000 in growth funding, will be instrumental in helping us enhance our AI-powered platform, scale our reach, and accelerate our efforts to create a more inclusive startup ecosystem.'
08/21/2024: In this episode of the She+ Geeks Out podcast, Allison Byers, founder and CEO of Scroobious, shares her entrepreneurial journey and how she overcame gender-based challenges in her career. She discusses Scroobious' mission to make fundraising more accessible for underrepresented entrepreneurs and highlights her advocacy efforts, including co-authoring California Senate Bill 54 and working with All Raise.
04/05/2024: Women and founders from underrepresented minorities face significant hurdles when trying to launch a startup — here's advice for overcoming them. In terms of spinouts, these founders not only face this bias in fundraising but even when it comes to negotiating with tech transfer offices. Often, they sit at the negotiation table in front of a white man, as was the case for serial entrepreneur Allison Byers.
Byers has learned to fight back — she helped pass a California bill that will force any VC active in the state to disclose diversity numbers for their portfolios from 2025.
3/20/2024: Catherine Gray, the host of Invest In Her, interviews Allison Byers, the Founder & CEO of Scroobious, a scalable, algorithmic platform connecting founders and investors through education and personalized curation, with a mission to enhance diversity in the startup ecosystem.
03/08/2024: Allison Byers has earned the title of the Swiss Army Knife of funding and fundraising. From launching a company dedicated to making fundraising more accessible to underrepresented founders to advocating for legal changes in the United States funding landscape and stepping into the role of an angel investor, Allison's multifaceted career is nothing short of remarkable.
10/20/2023: Why does gender bias persist in fundraising, holding back countless talented entrepreneurs from securing the funding they deserve? On this episode of The Angel Next Door Podcast, Marcia discusses the persistent issue of gender bias in fundraising with angel investor and Scroobious founder, Allison Byers.
09/14/2023: Angel investors in the creator economy largely reflect the power players that drive the industry: tech moguls, founders, talent agents, and creators themselves.Typically high-net-worth individuals, angel investors can be crucial business partners for early-stage startups by providing capital, as well as mentorship and access to robust networks.
07/25/2023: This month, Allison traveled to California to testify as an expert witness for Senate Bill 54.This bill will require venture funds to report investment diversity metrics, establishing accurate data collection and public availability.
03/29/2023: Sage Revell, a partner in Brown Rudnick’s London office, interviews Allison Byers, founder and CEO of Scroobious, about how she works to create opportunities to connect investors with startups and the importance of helping underrepresented groups of people succeed in new ways.
02/21/2023: Lily Macomber, Community Lead at Scroobious says, “The biggest practice for building a community is being helpful and creating spaces to foster helpfulness.” According to Macomber, being a resource for others and going out of her way to connect members of the community has not only brought immediate value but strengthened the Scroobious community long term.
2/14/23: Our success is measured by the success of our members and we have helped hundreds of founders get into accelerators like Techstars, Y Combinator, gener8tor, MassChallenge, Visible Hands, XRC Labs, raise millions in early fundraising rounds, and access critical resources. Read for inspiring stories of our members' achievements, and insights about the early-stage founder ecosystem at large.
8/19/22: Scroobious CEO Allison Byers joins Emily Chang to discuss a16z's decision to write its largest single-check investment to Flow, a residential real estate startup founded by Adam Neumann - the WeWork founder who lost billions of dollars for investors in one of tech's most spectacular flameouts.
8/17/22: "There is a reason why this is making such waves.... Because of the size of the cheque, because of the unprecedented funding of somebody who has been popularized as an immoral business person, it creates a more emotional reaction," said Allison Byers...
8/16/22: “This is a function of how VC has evolved to operate,” Byers added. “Generational bias is built in by the long-standing homogenous composition of decision-makers.”
8/16/22: “There’s this undertone of acceptance and almost learned helplessness. Or like trauma we’ve all experienced so much it doesn’t make the same impact anymore,” Byers said to TechCrunch. “This all seems new and horrendous to those who have opened their eyes to the systemic issues of VC funding over the past couple years, but we’ve been dealing with it forever."
7/5/22: Hosts Tim Ryan and Zack Miller sit down with Allison Byers, Founder of Scroobious to discuss her experience raising money for her medical device startup, and what launched her into her new venture to help women and minorities navigate the fundraising ecosystem.
5/12/22: Whether you’re a founder who has just started their own venture, or you’re on the other end in the VC world, learn from our panelists about what to expect when fundraising, diving into VC as a woman, their key strategic advice, and much more!
4/25/22: Allison Byers, the Founder and CEO of Scroobious, On Pitching Potential Investors, Building a Fundraising Experience Built on Human Connection, and Paying the Mom Tax.
3/11/22: Prior to founding Scroobious, Allison Byers launched and co-ran a medical device company spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she raised nearly $10M and experienced first-hand the challenges that come with fundraising as a female founder. Her earlier career includes over a decade of startup and tech operator roles.
10/27/21: Join us for a fireside chat with Allison Byers, Founder & CEO of Scroobious, and Ella-Tamar Adhanan, Vice President for Startup/VC Emerging Markets at Silicon Valley Bank, where we discuss the untapped opportunity, and why it is smart to invest in diverse and women founders.
10/27/21: I spoke with Allison roughly a year and a half after she started her business. In our conversation, Allison talks about where the name Scroobious comes from, the first "not code" version of her product, growth through referrals, how she’s approaching her startup differently to avoid burning out like she has done before in her career, and how amplifying other founder voices as much as she can has created goodwill and forward momentum for Scroobious.
10/6/21: In this episode, we’re taking a deep dive into how to create and present an investor-ready pitch deck. Our guest is Allison Byers, and honestly, she blew us away with her experience in this realm. Allison covers what to include and not include in your pitch deck, how long it should be, tips on presenting, and even runs through different types of investors and what you should go for.
9/24/21: Learn how to determine the right investor category for your stage and situation, how to identify synergy between your goals and investors’ priorities, work style, and typical timelines to target.
9/1/21: In the company of other trailblazing women, bring forward and witness your truth, voice, and impact in a way that accelerates progress for all women. This forward-looking conversation went deep into the state of fundraising for underserved founders.
7/19/21: Are you getting ready to pitch to investors but you're not sure how to structure your deck? This #FundingFriday episode, Kathryn Rose, wiseHER Founder interviewed Allison Byers, who has raised nearly $10 M for her startups. She is now committed to helping underserved founders get in front of the right investors with the right message.
4/20/21: The Capital Network's first demo day received glowing reports. Founders loved having a champion by their side, and many of them reported multiple connections with investors. Investors appreciated the convenience of pre-recorded videos to review at any time, rather than a live pitch.
4/6/21: Growing your network can open doors to countless opportunities, but it also takes time and energy—something that's not always easy to come by during these times. Thankfully, some top-notch networking experts shared their tips for growing your professional connections right now, without leaving your home.
2/26/21: Are you seeking funding for your startup and struggling to connect with the right people and resources because you don’t fit traditional pattern matching? Meet Allison and learn how she’s teaching diverse founders to create a pitch video to humanize the capital raise process.
2/25/21: Nick Hughes and Allison had a great conversation about Scroobious and pitching. Skip to 14:08 for a deep dive into pitch deck specifics.
Business Today is an undergraduate-focused business organization based out of Princeton University. When will you find your passion? Listen to Allison Byers, Founder of Scroobious, to learn how she found her true calling after returning to the workforce as a mother of two.
1/22/21: Top fundraising and development resources for Black, Latinx, and women founders compiled by Erik Bullen, a Techstars mentor.
1/7/21: We encourage you to read our stories. There are 100 of us in this book and we're just a tiny fraction of all the female founders out there right now! There is no pipeline problem. Investors are looking in the wrong pipes.
10/17/20: Allison Byers, CEO of Scroobious, a new video-pitching platform for entrepreneurs, shared with Business Insider the 10 most important elements of a startup pitch deck. She collected these elements from hundreds of pitch deck iterations and presentations and ran them by a large network of investors to get their insights.
10/13/20: The Buzz covers pre-funded early-stage ventures in New England and profiles the organizations that support them. They showcased how Scroobious is creating an efficient way for investors and under-networked founders to connect.
9/21/20: Women and minority founders have been shown to deliver outsized investment returns, yet they receive a small fraction of investment dollars. These underestimated diverse founders are outside investor networks and therefore perceived as riskier. Allison Byers recently founded Scroobious to address these problems with a platform solution that uses video, technology, and data science to humanize and expand pitching and sourcing in underestimated markets.
9/13/20: Scroobious is building a way for investors to efficiently source diverse deal flow and a humanized way for underrepresented founders to establish investor relationships. Listen to this episode if:
5/14/20: Dubbed Scroobious — in a nod to a poem by Edward Lear, "The Scroobious Pip," that celebrates being unique — the technology will enable founders to showcase their startups through four-minute video pitches. By leveraging predictive algorithms, similar to technology used by companies like Netflix and YouTube, the idea is that investors will be shown video pitches that are a best match for their interests.
5/5/20: 340+ VCs, accelerators, angel networks, conferences, platforms, and communities supporting women innovators and investors.
