Teaching diverse founders how to create investable pitch material through a scalable online platform and making it easy for investors to discover them through data-driven curation.

Hi there,

We recently released our 2022 Community Report, which was spearheaded by our Community Lead, Lily Macomber. The report highlights the diversity and success of those who have allowed us to be a part of their journey including founders, ecosystem partners, and sponsors. 2022 was a huge year for Scroobious and I'm so proud of our team and all of the incredible entrepreneurs in our community.

I'm going to share just a few highlights here, but I encourage you to download the full report for inspiring stories of our members' achievements as well as important insights and data about the growth and evolution of our community and the early-stage founder ecosystem at large.

We've worked with over 400 founders, and 300 came through in 2022. They are 58% women, 65% non-white, and 35% non-white women. How you go to market isn't just about numbers, it's also the composition. We're intentional about our partners so we build a community that reflects our mission.

81% of our members are at the pre-seed or seed stage. Underrepresented entrepreneurs are struggling to raise at these early stages, which is why we've geared our content to them and have a waitlist of over 100 angel investors waiting for us to launch our investor-facing MVP that will make it easy to connect with our community of founders.

We brought our renowned Preparing the Pitch workshop to over 30 accelerators, incubators, and other partners. We focus on explaining the why behind pitch advice so founders can see their material from an investor's perspective.

Our success is measured by the success of our members and together we have helped hundreds of founders get into accelerators like Techstars, Y Combinator, gener8tor, MassChallenge, Visible Hands, XRC Labs, and more, raise millions in early fundraising rounds, and access critical resources.

There is so much more in the full report. We are a mission-driven company and the outcome of our partnerships can be seen in the composition of our community. When given fair access to guidance and resources, our founders are successfully entering programs and raising capital. I, along with them, comprise an undervalued asset class and I cannot wait for us all to bring our investors outsized returns and build generational wealth.

Read on for upcoming events and opportunities, the Morse Minute, and don't miss our featured founder at the end! Thank you for reading this. Thank you for helping us. I appreciate you.

Allison Byers, Founder & CEO

Updates & Events

Click on an update to learn more and access content.

Virtual workshop: Building a Healthy Company Culture , 3/16, 12-1 PM ET It can be hard to manage all the items on your to-do list, let alone attend to the how of what you’re doing (or how you’re doing) with real intention. Yet, building the foundation for a healthy, thriving business and scalable positive culture is essential. That starts with ensuring your own inside-out congruency as a founder.

Virtual workshop: How to Decide on a Startup Banking Option, 3/21 2-3 PM ET Join Marita McGinn from Silicon Valley Bank as she walks through how to decide on a banking option for your startup.

Virtual workshop: A Hidden Tax Change: What You Need to Know About Taxes and R&D Tax Credits, 3/28 2-3 PM ET R&D credit rules are changing this tax year — impacting both profitable and pre-revenue businesses. Ibrahim, CEO & Co-Founder of Neo.Tax will help you identify the activities that qualify for the credit, explore how your business can utilize the R&D tax credit under the new rules & understand R&D capitalization and its impact on your cash flow.

Virtual webinar: How to properly pitch a reporter to get PR for your startup, 3/2 10:30-11 AM ET Our partner Kabila is sitting down with TechCrunch's Dominic Madori-Davis who will give you specific tips for how to pitch a reporter of her ilk.

Award application: The Inspiring Women in Science awards Celebrate and support the achievements of women in science. They invite applications in two award categories — Science Outreach and Scientific Achievement for a $50,000 prize. Applications due 5/8.

Learn More

Application: Camelback Ventures is looking for BIPOC, women, & non-binary entrepreneurs making a positive impact in their communities through education and/or technology. The Camelback Fellowship provides $40k in funding, a dedicated venture coach, a tight-knit community, and an entrepreneurial curriculum. Apply by March 20th.

Apply

Application: Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab An in-house startup accelerator promoting financial inclusion and providing underrepresented entrepreneurs of tech and tech-enabled startups with much-needed access to capital - along with the tools, resources, and connections they need to grow and thrive.

Learn More

Offer: Our friends at achiiv are offering a free investability review of your STEM/scalable startup covering your business essentials that includes: 45 min listening session, brief written assessment of your startup risks, follow-up discussion to review results and top mitigation steps. Available for a limited number of women founders on a first-come, first-served basis.

Apply

Morse Minute

Morse supports diverse founders through their Scroobious corporate sponsorship and their legal professionals create exclusive content for our community to help entrepreneurs.

This month Elizabeth Resteghini details the five key categories to consider when negotiating a preferred stock term sheet. Click here for the full article. Quick highlights below, but I strongly encourage you to read the full article as it is full of critical terms to understand with helpful examples.

1. Pre-Money Valuation and Impactful Economics: The valuation of a company is typically expressed in pre-money and post-money terms. Pre-money valuation means the value of the company prior to the investment round. Post-money valuation refers to the value of the company following the investment. Investors may use negotiation levers including vesting, liquidation, dividends, and anti-dilution.
2. Control and Governance: Key ways investors maintain control and governance over a company include the make-up of the board of directors, preferred stockholder protective provisions, and matters that require preferred director approval.
3. Monitoring Investment: An investor can monitor its investment through board of director or observer roles, financial report updates, or inspection rights and there are things a company can do to reduce some of the burden.
4. Maintaining or Increasing Ownership: The right of preferred stock investors (or Major Investors) to have the ability to maintain their ownership on a pro rata basis when new securities are offered via a provision called the right of first offer.
5. Liquidity: Certain rights relating to liquidity may also be negotiated into a Term Sheet (e.g., drag-along rights, co-sale rights, redemption rights, and registration rights).

Featured Founder

Each newsletter features the perspective of one of our members. I encourage you to reach out to offer networking, investment interest, or expertise.

This month's featured founder is Christian Ross, Founder & CEO of Happy Talks. Christian is a veteran in the real estate space in Atlanta, and the idea for her company grew out of her own experience where she often saw families navigating the decisions about care for an elderly parent.

Happy Talks helps caregivers, families, and caregiving facilities by providing consistent emotional support for their aging relatives, so they can spend less time worrying and more time connecting with their loved ones. They reduce the loneliness and social isolation of many aging adults through regular phone check-ins by friendly, trained, and vetted professionals.

Happy Talks is a Zane Access alum, was recently named a 2023 Atlanta Startup to Watch by Atlanta Inno, and Christian is an active and unwaveringly supportive member of our Scroobious community!

"I have been up close and personal with hundreds of families navigating their real estate transactions, which often included selling a home and moving an elderly parent into an assisted living facility.

There are serious health risks associated with prolonged periods of social isolation. Talking to potential customers made me realize that innovation in the senior care space was where I needed to be.

Happy Talks delivers joy to older adults experiencing loneliness through social phone calls. I want seniors to feel seen and heard. Through the Happy Talks app they can have a conversation with a trained emotional support specialist on a range of topics from personal concerns through lighthearted banter. We are addressing a huge need for caregivers and caregiving facilities."

Do you want to be more Scroobious? Let's chat!

If you're a founder or accelerator considering PiP but have questions, book an intro call.
If you're a company looking to support diversity in the startup ecosystem, let's chat about collaboration.
If you're an investor looking to access our deal flow, join the waitlist here.
If you'd like to sponsor founder accounts and get involved in our community, let's chat!

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