EST. 2026 · BUFFALO · BROOKLYN · NATIONAL
First capital for overlooked founders.
A pre-seed venture fund anchored in Buffalo with a national mandate. We back founders the market misreads — and capture the returns that come from closing the gap.
THE THESIS
Overlooked founders are not weaker. They are mispriced.
The venture industry believes capital flows to where talent is. The data says otherwise. Two percent of U.S. venture capital reaches women-founded companies. Less than one percent reaches Black-founded companies.
That is not a talent gap. It is a mispricing — created by people who pattern-match on signals that have nothing to do with whether a company will work. They misread hedging as weak conviction. They misread iteration as lack of focus. They overvalue being first and undervalue being right.
Brooklyn Bison Ventures exists to close that gap.
WHO WE BACK
The insight is the asset.
We back founders whose understanding of their market is materially better than their competitors' — usually because they have lived inside the problem they're solving. The demographics are a signal. The lived-in insight is the thing we underwrite.
HOW WE SEE
Five pillars. One lens.
A research-grounded underwriting lens, pressure-tested against more than 800 founders over six years. Each pillar pairs a marker of originality with a misjudgment the market keeps making.
Insight
A familiar problem seen freshly, from the inside. The market funds insight that looks like its own.
Output
Ships, tests, iterates at velocity. The market misreads iteration as a lack of focus.
Risk Posture
Manages downside intelligently. The market misreads the hedge as weak conviction.
Pull
Moves people, earns trust, names their own flaws. The market mistakes salesmanship for strength.
Window
Right about timing — a settler, not a stuck pioneer. The market overvalues being first.
WHO'S BEHIND IT
Operator-built.
Derrick A. Parson
Founding General Partner
For six years, Derrick has run The Exchange at Beverly Gray, a Buffalo entrepreneurial support organization regional hub, engaging more than 800 founders directly and deploying over $150K in non-dilutive capital. A two-time venture-backed founder himself, he has sat on both sides of the table—and built a documented methodology for developing founders the market overlooks. BBV is the natural extension of that work, not a pivot away from it.
First capital for overlooked founders.
Buffalo · Brooklyn · National