The founder of an early stage company, which is still trying to figure out product/market fit, was asking me questions about getting acquired. He’d reached out because of some thoughts I shared in my newsletter. He’d latched onto my suggestion that Big Companies are slow and, suggested, that they hold the bulk of the cash in his industry and were consequently stifling innovation. He wanted to know how he might get the attention of BigCo to get his company acquired. It would have been laughable if he wasn’t so serious.
As a woman, a Millennial and a minority working in the tech industry, it should come as no surprise that I am part of a demographic highly susceptible to imposter syndrome. Also referred to as fraud syndrome, imposter syndrome refers to a high-functioning individual’s inability to internalize his or her achievements and an associated state of perpetual fear of being exposed as an imposter or a fraud. Like most small glitches that accompany starting a new job in a new location, I presumed this was something that would merely disappear
In this piece, I talk about my journey, building a meeting room personality, and Apple’s hostile work environment. #MyFamily When I was younger, I loved reading. I would read on average four books a day. My brother would read to me as I fell asleep. My father would tell me stories in the morning and at night. He was a writer, with passion. Words, sentences, novels— they shaped my childhood. Another thing that subconsciously shaped my childhood was my perception of the working world. My father was a kickass engineer; he
What comes to mind when you hear the word mentor? If you’re a Star Wars fan like me, you might think of Yoda. Or maybe you’re thinking of that special person who’s guided all your big career decisions in life. Maybe having a mentor is a concept that’s still intangible. They might be an all-knowing, super helpful person who could solve all your job issues with a silver bullet if only you could find them. After years of doing mentorship while working at companies like Amazon, Groupon and HotelTonight and
Recently Aytekin Tank, founder of JotForm wrote a compelling piece titled, “Why startups are dying left and right.” In this article, he shared the less glamorized view of entrepreneurship where he demystifies the experience. The slow, patient road, at times, bootstrapped, always tough, riddled with lessons from failure and prioritizing profit over growth. I shared this article with the community at ustwo Adventure. It was encouraging and enlightening to see some of the common strands that resonated with this collective of ‘less glamorized’ entrepreneurs. In this article, I have shared the top 3 of
This is a collaboration with onchek.com, a platform that helps you shop luxury fashion from Africa [You can purchase all the looks worn via their site]. They spoke to Software Engineer Iheanyi Ekechukwu, someone who should be familiar with POCIT audiences. He featured as one of our very first spotlights all the way back in 2015! Here he talks about his style, his fashion inclinations and of course some tech talk. Enjoy. It was about 9 AM, right before it started raining, that Iheanyi walked into the studio, wearing layers
I recently attended a coding workshop hosted by the wonderful Node Girls in London where I was asked to give a talk about my journey into the technology industry. I gave a fairly honest and humorous (or so I’m told!) account of how I started learning to code, things I struggled with and a few tips and tricks that worked for me. After I got over my I-didn’t-do-Computer-Science-at-uni-so-I-will-never-become-a-developer phase, I finally took the plunge and started learning how to programme. This was almost a year ago and overall this experience has been
We are so used to the narrative of the starving artist, or the former star crashing and burning, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at those hip-hop artists using tech to buck the trend. The ones who have been wise enough to capitalize on tech’s slow coup-ted of every industry. The ones who have been investing in startups, raising capital and founding their very own. This is far from the canonical list, and I’ve missed out on many others [honorable mention to Chamillionaire, and of course Dr.
Denise Hamilton is founder and CEO of WatchHerWork, a digital media training platform closing the professional achievement gap for women. It’s February and our focus shifts to celebrating Black History Month. Celebrating history is important, and acknowledging the contributions of Black heroes is critical to understanding the true story of America. I love hearing about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, but I’m equally interested in MAKING Black history and in honoring those who are working every day to expand the boundaries of the Black experience in America. One group
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the pleasure to attend several conferences that focus on progress towards diversity, inclusion & equality from the non-profit, advertising and commercial sectors. Most recently, I attended the 3% Conference in New York City on behalf of Adobe. As I sat there, I tried to wrap my mind around this topic. I realized that being a 28-year-old African-American male, I have subconsciously thought about this topic every day of my life. I have always been in the position to view myself as others
