The AI-driven capital access platform that helps both new and experienced founders and investors build strategic relationships that lead to learning, growth, and funding.

Hi there,

Earlier this month, I shared my origin story on LinkedIn about the painful end of my first startup and the lessons it left me with. To my surprise, it resonated beyond my normal reach: over 90,000 impressions, 1,600+ interactions, 300+ comments, 50+ reposts, and dozens of direct messages from founders and investors sharing their own stories.

Here’s why I think it struck such a chord. 

I told it with radical honesty. We had raised $9.6M. Our medical device was FDA-registered, we had paying customers, and published results. Yet I still couldn’t raise our Series B. Ultimately, our Board of Directors and majority shareholders authorized an asset sale. Months later, I learned the acquiring company, led by an all-male management team, went on to raise $55M. 

The inequity was palpable. I wasn’t sharing some abstract statistics, but how the bias came through in a single, real moment: the same work and idea, but with different faces, and wildly different outcomes.

Sharing how devastating that felt, after years of travel, two small kids at home, and tying my identity to the company, was uncomfortable but necessary. Many founders have been there, but don’t often see it laid out in public.

But the story didn’t end in a “failure.” I shared what I did next, my redemption arc: years of research, advocacy, and launching Scroobious to build a system that actually serves those of us systemically pushed aside. That shift from despair to agency is what made people want to cheer and share.

The incredible response was a reminder that storytelling is the most powerful part of a pitch. Numbers, milestones, and traction matter, but it’s your “why” that creates connection. Strong relationships grow out of stories, and those relationships are what open the doors to access, resources, and capital.

This is my origin story and the reason I do what I do: not to fix founders or VC, but to build a capital access system designed for The Rest of Us.

Here’s to telling our stories to shape the opportunities of tomorrow,

Startup Boston Week

All industries, all startup departments, all company stages come together for five days of jam-packed networking and content--and it's free. Allison will be speaking on Monday, September 8th at 4pm.

September 8-12 | Free | Boston

👩‍💼 Women Founders Grant is a no BS, no strings attached $5,000 grant for women entrepreneurs.
Applications due 8/31

✊🏿 NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant in partnership with Medium Rare and The Shark Group offers $25,000 for Black entrepreneurs.
Applications due 11/1

✂️ Etsy Disaster Relief fund grants $2,000 for Etsy sellers affected by federally declared disasters.
Applications rolling

Sushmeeta Jolly Nanda is the co-founder and CEO of Altheia Inc, a digital health company that just launched its SaaS Platform Acuvía. A first-of-its-kind solution, Acuvía empowers patients to aggregate all their clinical data and augment it with social determinants of health, patient-generated data, and personal preferences. The result? A holistic health profile with smarter risk analytics, patients can share with care providers, enabling personalized services and better outcomes, all while saving time and money for the patients and the healthcare ecosystem. Altheia is currently raising their pre-seed/seed round.

“Healthcare is riddled with inefficiencies and costs. Misdiagnoses and adverse medication interactions are just two examples of preventable problems that cost the U.S. healthcare system billions annually. Acuvía addresses these challenges directly by giving patients and providers the tools to see the whole person. My co-founders and I have deep expertise in healthcare and data, united by a personal connection to the chaos of navigating the complex healthcare system. We understand firsthand the pain points of patients, particularly women in the 'sandwich generation' who are juggling care for their children, aging parents, and their own health.”

- Jolly

• Stéphanie Joseph, Co-founder of Kura, officially joined the Circle Alliance Program.
• FoXX Health, founded by Maria Catherine, partnered with OhmBody.
• Denielle Finkelstein, Co-CEO & Co-founder of UNICORN in EVERY stall, was on the cover of The KNOW Women Magazine and named one of the 100 Women to KNOW. 
• Dr. Charmain Jackman, Founder & CEO of InnoPsych, spoke at the American Psychological Association in Denver.
• John B. Sanwo, Founder of WearableDose, spoke at the Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics’s 2025 Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium.
• Venova Technologies, co-founded by Emily Man, received an NIH SBIR Phase II award.
• Tara Ryan, Co-founder & CEO, Confidante, is going to be demoing their MVP next month.
• Irena King, President & CEO Surgicure Technologies, Inc., announced HORSESHOE™ – patient-centered innovation in airway management.
• Whitney Duenas Richardson, Founder of Global Sprouts, announced Kaitlyn Ivancic as their Advisory Chair, Marketing.
• Julie Griggs, Co-founder & CEO of Fourplay Social, was named a Top 25 Founder for H1 2025, and was featured in Morning Honey.
• Ethan Pierce, Founder of Adaptive Reader, created a panel for SXSW.

• Joanna Shu, CEO of Cartwheel, pitched at First Look. 

• Pallavi Pande, Founder of Dtocs LLC, was selected as a USPAACC WISE (Women Initiative for Strategic Empowerment) Academy Scholarship Recipient by USPAACC.

• Dr. Karen Wilson, Founder of ChildNEXUS, was selected as one of 12 Fellows in the inaugural Caribbean Venture Collective Founder Fellowship.
• Cindy Belardo, CEO and Co-founder of SunnyPeriod, will be speaking on September 10th at Startup Boston Week.
• Platinum915, founded by Elijah Davis, was officially RangeMe verified.

Entrepreneurial Thinkers

Follow the Money: Why Startup Investing is Broken and How to Fix It!

In this episode of Entrepreneurial Thinkers, Rob sits down with Allison Byers, founder of Scroobius, to unpack the hidden barriers in startup funding and how to think differently about this reality. 

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