What we know for so far Colin Kaepernick intends to raise $250 million through a SPAC, a blank-check company. Named ‘Mission Advancement’ it will target a $1billion US company that has a social mission. The SPAC board is made up entirely of Black, Indigenous and people of color and majority women. Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who took a knee during the national anthem to protest systemic racism and police brutality —is now searching for a $1 billion company with a social purpose. Kaepernick known for his
Kicking off Black History Month in the US Backstage Capital has announced they’re opening their fund to allow regular people to invest alongside Backstage Capital. Through the crowdsourcing platform, Republic, individuals will have easier access to become venture capitalists. Opening the doors of opportunity for regular people to invest like a VC. It’s already raised $1M from over 2000 investors, with amounts as a little as $100. Leading the way with a new approach to venture capital investing, accredited and non-accredited investors can invest alongside Backstage giving talented underrepresented founders access to capital.
The number of Black-owned businesses has risen dramatically. Research shows, since 2007, the number of firms owned by African-American women has grown by 164%. Yet despite the knowledge, innovation, and let’s face it – the hustle, minority entrepreneurs, are being shut out when it comes to access to capital. However, many Black and Brown celebrities are growing their investment portfolios and flexing their VC muscle. Not only are they investing in startups and hooking up founders with serious capital, but they are also using their platform and wealth to empower
Duo is hiring on pocitjobs.com Originally from Guinea in West Africa. Thierno moved to the U.S for college, earning an MBA at St. Cloud State University in Northern Minnesota. Settling on the West Coast, Thierno is now Product Manager at Duo Security, a Cisco company. We had the opportunity to chat with Thierno about his journey into product development, his experiences at Duo, and how to navigate a tech environment with a non-technical background. (Edited for clarity) How Did You Get Into Product Development? I don’t have a hardcore tech
In the 1930s Dr Gertrude Blanch led the important Mathematical Tables Project, a nearly 450-person effort to compute logarithmic, exponential, and other calculation results essential to the American government, military, finance, and science. After earning her doctorate in mathematics at Cornell, she led new approaches to computation and published volumes of tables and calculations in scientific journals. Despite her contributions, Blanch did not appear as the author of the papers she wrote. For the majority of her time on the project, her male supervisor Arnold Lowan instead received credit. This is a lasting
Damilola Olokesusi is the Co-founder and CEO of Shuttlers, a tech transport startup. In 2015, Olokesusi and her friends — Damilola Quadry and Busola Majekodunmi — were frustrated by the stress of commuting in Lagos, Nigeria. And following some nasty experiences, they decided to start Shuttlers. “One of my sisters got into a one-chance bus (a commercial bus used for robbing passengers), and it was a traumatic experience for me. She was taken to another destination where they were abducted and robbed. Having had our different bus experiences, we realised it was a collective pain point for us.
Techish is back with a brand new episode! Abadesi and Michael discuss ex COO and two Black women (now former employees) who allege a toxic work culture at Pinterest. Can shareholders sue to force a company to change its ways? (11:00) They also break down: Airbnb IPO price skyrockets, but is it overvalued? (0:15) Pyramid schemes (5:24) Pornhub removes all unverified content (19:30) Is Squire the first Black-Owned Unicorn? (22:04) Facebook in trouble (again) (24:33) Extras: Techish on Patreon:Advertise with Techish:Please rate and review the Techish podcast Subscribe To The Techish Podcast On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, And Other Platforms.
Techish is back with a brand new episode! Abadesi and Michael discuss the ProjectDiane report, revealing that 93 Black women have secured more than $1 million in venture capital [triple the number from 2018] (9:20). They also break down: Dr. Timnit Gebru ‘firing’ from Google (0:15) Can newly acquired Slack compete with Microsoft? (13:10) Are we cancelling Black celebs too quickly? (17:38) Headspace vs Calm – the battle between the meditation apps (22:19) The power of Netflix (29:37) Sponsors: Gruntwork is hiring a Senior Sales Engineer! Apply here Olark is hiring a Product Manager!
The news rippled across the Internet of Google’s sudden firing of prominent AI ethics researcher Dr. Timnit Gebru. Renowned for her groundbreaking work in making AI more equitable and exposing its potential for racial and gender bias – Gebru was recently highlighted in our article: the Black women fixing AI. In a series of tweets, Timnit announced the tech giant had fired her [via email] after she expressed frustration internally about Google’s lackluster diversity initiatives. Timnit explains via Twitter that she was previously asked to retract a research paper she co-authored that highlighted potential pitfalls
It’s no secret that artificial intelligence, algorithms, and big data have a problem with gender and racial bias. These systems can be biased based on who builds them, how they’re developed, and how they’re ultimately used. Trying to solve the problem is a community of Black data scientists, researchers, and organizations. This article highlights the Black women amongst their ranks, who are exposing algorithmic biases, empowering communities of color with data, and arguing for more diverse representation. Fighting racial and gender bias in algorithms Joy Buolamwini is a Ghanaian-American computer scientist
