Business

Internet Pioneer Lisa Gelobter Helped Create Technologies for Web Animation

Many Black women have made significant strides within technology, yet they remain significantly underrepresented across the computer sciences spectrum. According to the United Negro College Fund, Black women make up only 3% of the tech workforce, and less than 0.5% have leadership roles in Silicon Valley. These statistics did not keep Lisa Gelobter (b. 1971) from living her dream. As a computer scientist, technologist, and chief executive, she has spent 25 years in the software industry.

Published

3 years ago

March 9, 2023

Oakland Post

Lisa Gelobter is the CEO and co-founder of tEQuitable, which promotes fairness in the workplace. tEQuitable web site photo.

By Tamara Shiloh

Many Black women have made significant strides within technology, yet they remain significantly underrepresented across the computer sciences spectrum.

According to the United Negro College Fund, Black women make up only 3% of the tech workforce, and less than 0.5% have leadership roles in Silicon Valley.

These statistics did not keep Lisa Gelobter (b. 1971) from living her dream. As a computer scientist, technologist, and chief executive, she has spent 25 years in the software industry.

By working on several pioneering internet technologies and creating web animation and online video (Brightcove and Joost), she has designed products used by millions of people.

Gelobter was instrumental in the creation of Shockwave, a technology that formed the beginning of web animation, and oversaw its product release cycle. She coded the ActiveX control for the player and coordinated the engineering transition.

A Brown University graduate (at age 20), Gelobter’s degree in computer science with a concentration in artificial intelligence and machine learning was instrumental in launching her career. She served as chief digital service officer for the U.S. Department of Education during Barack Obama’s presidency and led the team that built the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.

This is an online tool, created by the federal. government, for consumers to compare the cost and value of higher education institutions in the U.S. At launch, it displayed data in five areas: cost, graduation rate, employment rate, average amount borrowed, and loan default rate.

Gelobter’s background in strategy development, business operations, user-centered design, product management, and engineering is expansive. She served as chief digital officer for BET Networks and was a member of the senior management team for the launch of Hulu.

Little is known about Gelobter’s childhood. Her father was Jewish and from Poland, and her mother was Black and from the Caribbean. There is no public information available about where Lisa Gelobter was born or raised.

In 2019, Gelobter was named one of Inc’s 100 Women Building America’s Most Innovative and Ambitious Businesses. Serving on boards for the Obama Foundation, Time’s Up, and the Education Trust, she is proud to be a Black woman with a degree in computer science.

Today, Gelobter runs her own company, tEQuitable (2006), an independent, confidential platform to address issues of bias, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace, according to its website. She raised more than $2 million for the start-up, making her one of the first 40 Black women ever to have raised more than $1 million in venture capital funding.

She is also a former member of the New York Urban League STEM Advisory Board and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People.

Encourage young girls by helping them learn about pioneering women in STEM with faces like theirs who shaped the world. Read with them T.M. Moody’s “African American Women Pioneers in STEM Activity Book.” It’s part activity book, part educational workbook

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.