“What do you want to start building? Who do you want to get to know? Go find those people who care about the same thing that you do. Focus less on the transactional element and more on the understanding and caring. Then you will very naturally start helping in a meaningful way,” said Allison Byers, Author, Entrepreneur, Activist.
Moms quietly build critical infrastructure through investments in our families and communities. We organize, volunteer, meal make and fundraise for our towns, schools and causes, yet we rarely see ourselves as investors.
It turns out, social change comes from tapping into our vast influence and the investments we make. Speaking with Allison was a masterclass in expanding how to think about investment and your role in the innovation economy.
Embrace Your Financial Agency
In part one of our interview, we discussed how a traumatic experience fundraising with her first company led Allison on a mission to create equitable access to capital. This is also the topic of her new book, Fundraising for The Rest of Us.
She’s passionate about demystifying financial wellbeing. Largely by opening doors historically limited to a small number of insiders. “It’s still so new that women are even allowed to fully participate in economic society! I am the first generation that has the legal ability to open a bank loan for a business without a male relative cosigner. So, I cannot look to generations before me. And when we think about investing in private markets, women have never been allowed to really do that. So, we haven’t been in discussions where that’s normal.”
See Yourself as an Investor
Allison explained investing, like any new skill, takes time to get familiar with so ease into it. “You wouldn’t think, ‘I’m going to learn about woodworking today and build a table’ and it’s the same here. There is no one right way to do any of this and you can learn by example, but you ultimately have to decide what is sustainable and fulfilling for you.”
Only a fraction of VC funding goes to women led businesses and the stats are even worse for women of color. Female founded companies deliver less than 4% of the revenues than those of our male peers. Businesses, however, need a lot to succeed even when they’re funded. Like visibility, customers, word of mouth recommendations, and expertise. Allison explained, “Before you think about investing money, you can provide what’s called builder capital to someone.”
You Can Invest with Your Expertise
A lot of moms are starting businesses as a faster path to leadership, for greater flexibility or out of economic necessity. Mom founders, like most entrepreneurs can always use help and advocacy. Instead of viewing our limited time as a liability, note that we bring superpowers to any industry. Allison said, “whether you’re thinking about being an entrepreneur or an investor, can you offer an introduction to people working in spaces you care about? Think about the skills you’re you good at. Whether that’s accounting, marketing, or human resources, offer guidance to somebody who can use it, that’s builder capital.”
Being of service is also consistent with how most women tend to move through the world. We love to help others yet, typically we are reluctant to ask for it. Let’s reframe our support as investment. Allison explains, ‘builder capital’ can precede investing with your money. “Financial capital is different, but you’ve got to get your reps in. So, start dipping your toe in to work with people to get to know them as humans and not as deal flow or part of a fundraising funnel.”
Grow Wealth With Your Money
In Allison’s book, she goes into detail about succeeding through the pitch process and alternate paths to capital to fund or expand your business. Venture Capital, has never been female-friendly and there are so many other roads to take, like money from private angel investors, donor advised funds, loans and revenue-based financing. Each path involves different risks and rewards which she explains in the book. Women, according to a study in 2023 account for nearly half of angel investors now perhaps not surprisingly, considering the rapid rise in female entrepreneurship.
Be Intentional with Your Energy Through the Process
Allison said, “It’s been 6 years since I founded my current company and I chose a very different funding path. Although I did accept investment, I’ve also focused on revenue and I’m making very intentional choices, so I don’t burn out again.”
You can help create an environment where women led businesses flourish with better resources. But your path must be sustainable. She added, “I’m not willing to physically burn out anymore, make sacrifices in my personal life or have anyone on my team make those sacrifices like I did. It has implications, like slower growth and a different path for this company but that’s my choice.”
Prioritize Your Highest Forms of Self-Care
When I asked, ‘what does is self-care mean to you and how do you operationalize it in your life right now?’ Allison said, ‘For me self-care is much more of a mental exercise. It’s knowing what I’m okay with and what I’m not okay with. Also, to know what fulfills or energizes me and what doesn’t. I’ll give you a tangible example. During the last presidential election I decided to start and run a grassroots group called Founders for Kamala. Which diverted attention from growing my company. Nothing changed about my drive for the business but personally for self-care I needed to act in that moment and so I did.
Allison named something many of us feel yet ignore. When our actions are not aligned with our values, it feels awful. Honoring your integrity is self-care. She added, ” Ultimately, I got push back from an investor who didn’t fund the business because in their opinion, ‘I was too distracted’ but I was okay with that. I didn’t want that money because they didn’t understand and that is a form of self-care for me.”
Lock In to Your ‘Why’
I shared with Allison that I didn’t consider the world of investing to be, ‘my world’ and have always felt a bit adrift from it. However, she wisely stated we need to make it ‘our worlds’ to not only experience better outcomes in our businesses, but in our society.
Successful businesses shape our social norms, climate, hiring, and promotions. She said, “Who gets to innovate and grow companies that solve needs for our society impacts every single one of us, every day. If you truly believe having other people, besides a single demographic which is white men and they are only 30% of the population, then you should be part of it. Today so many people feel helpless and wish they could see change. So, think about what you can do to go support an innovator with your time, energy, caring or with your money.”
Many thanks to the talented Allison Byers!
Order Allison’s amazing new book, Fundraising for the Rest of Us, and learn about her business, Scroobious. Follow her great adventure on LinkedIn.
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About Allison:
Allison Byers is the Author of Fundraising for The Rest of Us. She is also the founder and CEO of a tech company named Scroobious, a relationship-first platform helping founders and investors build real trust so more capital actually gets deployed. Today, over $1.2 trillion in private capital sits on the sidelines. Her work focuses on unlocking it.
Before Scroobious she spearheaded a medical device startup and raised $10 million before it was acquired, experiencing bias during fundraising first-hand. Today she’s an advocate for equal access to capital and co-authored California Senate Bill 54, signed into law, that requires venture funds to report diversity metrics. Allison is also an angel investor, Boston Co-Chair of the national non-profit All Raise, Executive in Residence at Merck Digital Sciences Studio, DEI task force member of the Angel Capital Association, sought-after mentor, and dynamic speaker.
