Kerry Schrader is the CEO and co-founder of Mixtroz, a mobile app boosting event engagement by helping attendees make virtual and in-person connections. Kerry is the 37th black female founder to ever raise $1M+ in a venture-backed pre-seed round.

We talk about what Mixtroz is, how it works and how event organizers can use it to boost their gathering’s engagement. Kerry details the inner workings of the app, and how it can be customized to fit different scenarios and use cases.

Kerry shares an amazing backstory behind Mixtroz, and how the idea for the app was born over a phone conversation with her daughter Ashley (now her co-founder). We dig deeper into how Kerry, as a non-technical co-founder, has found developers to carry out her vision for the product.

Kerry also shares interesting insights about the startup ecosystem in Birmingham, Alabama, and discusses her many experiences with fundraising for Mixtroz, winning a couple of pitching competitions, and getting into a startup accelerator. We talk about the fundraising landscape for female founders of color and why certain things get more funded than others.