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.
03/08/2023: Being a woman can be an entrepreneur's biggest challenge and greatest strength. Every day, women entrepreneurs are overcoming challenges and creating businesses that are both profitable and socially responsible against the odds.
NFUZER
03/08/2023: “While Scroobious is a technology platform and marketplace, we work hard to offer our members as many opportunities as we can to get direct feedback from active investors while they are refining their pitch material” Byers said...
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.
6/2/21: In this episode, Allison goes in-depth on how pitch decks are made, and adaptations you need to make to really sell your vision to investors. Listen to the podcast to find out more about Allison's journey and even more knowledge and strategy.
5/5/21: While conducting research for Great Founders Write, I ran into Allison Byers, an entrepreneur and expert in raising venture capital. She was generous enough to let me interview her on pitching investors. Great pitch decks tell great stories. That makes Allison Byers a world-class storyteller.
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.
4/6/21: What if we took a hard look at what is broken in the current early-stage funding system, and rebuilt it to make it better, giving more people more access to capital?
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.
Hear from leaders who are building pipelines or redefining access for 'underrepresented' founders in various ways. From platforms to programs and partnerships, these groups offer concrete resources for funding and supporting more ‘new majority’ founders.
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:
9/1/20: Nowhere is inequity more visible than on technology and VC event stages and in news stories. At tech events, only 1 in 4 speakers are women. Founder & CEO Allison Byers was selected for the All Raise Visionary Voices Speakers Bureau, an easy resource for reporters and event organizers to connect with female and non-binary founders, funders, and operators who are visionary leaders and domain experts.
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.
