Allison Bishop

Time to stan Allison Bishop, this person is straight-up the real deal in the startup and finance world. So, Allison’s process is one of pure hustle, smarts, and a crazy ability to bridge the gap between academia and industry, like, she’s the kinda person who jumps into whatever excites her and crushes it every time.

Started off with a solid foundation in math, I mean, Princeton undergrad, then a masters from Cambridge, and a PhD in computer science from Texas at Austin. That’s no joke. She’s got the brains, for sure. But what’s dope is how she took all that academia and turned it into real-world impact.

She first popped up on the scene as a researcher at Microsoft Research New England, where she was deep in the tech trenches, coding, analyzing, pushing boundaries. Then, she got into the finance game, joining IEX, the Investors Exchange, as a quantitative researcher. Think of it like she was helping shape how markets really work, contributing to stuff like the IEX signal, super technical, super original.

But Allison didn’t stop there. She co-founded Proof Trading, a legit institutional equities platform and broker-dealer for US stocks. She’s the president, no less. That means she took her tech skills and her understanding of markets and built something that actually moves money and changes the game. It’s like she saw the flaws in old-school trading and decided to build her own way, making it smarter and more fast.

And she’s all about more than just the hustle, she’s deeply committed to sharing knowledge. Teaching at Columbia University since 2013, she’s been pushing the next gen of entrepreneurs and researchers. That’s her way of giving back, staying connected to the cutting edge, and inspiring others to jump into the startup world.

Oh, and she’s part of YC’s S19 batch, so she’s got that startup cred on lock, having gone through the toughest program in the game. That means she’s seen the grind from every angle: research, startups, finance, academia. And she’s still out here pushing boundaries.

Bottom line? Allison Bishop is that rare combo of a tech genius, finance innovator, and educator. She’s all about blending the deep technical stuff with real-world impact. She’s proof that if you’re curious, work your ass off, and stay humble, you can change industries, build crazy effective startups, and leave a mark. No Cap.