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.
Cummins is hiring on pocitjobs.com “I realize that I am one of the highest-ranking African Americans in a Fortune 200 company across all of North America,” David Ojo confesses. “That is a very scary proposition for me.” As Cummins’ Director of Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, David shares his career journey, the important guidance and mentorship he’s received to rise through the ranks, and his next initiatives to improve the company’s pipeline for Black hires. He understands his important role in not only affirming the self-beliefs of many Black employees and
Snap is hiring on pocitjobs.com Tammarrian Rogers has had an accomplished 30-year career in tech. Her journey began after graduating from HBCU Tuskegee University and Stanford. She’s worked at General Motors, Apple, and Microsoft before joining Snap as their first Black ‘Inclusion Engineering Director’. We had the pleasure of talking to Tammarrian about her career journey, the power of curiosity, her role at Snap, and what advice she has for people of color in the industry. This interview was condensed and edited for clarity. How did you develop an interest
Three months ago I joined Brandwatch as their first-ever VP of Global Community & Belonging. I initially approached this newly created role with an unsettling combination of enthusiasm and self-doubt. Would I be able to deliver on the expectations I created during the interview process? Would I be able to gel with the team and make an impact in my first few months? Would I be able to be authentically me, and challenge racism and other forms of oppression wherever I see them manifesting? These are the questions that kept me up
Techish is back with a brand new episode! Abadesi and Michael discuss how Black Linkedin users who post in forceful tones about racial issues and injustices say they feel the platform has silenced them (13:21). They also break down: The Clubhouse app controversy (00:40) A new dating app for short kings? (05:40) Are Chief Diversity Officers necessary? (17:13) The death of cinema (22:04) 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. Main image by Benjamin Norman via NYT of Aaisha Joseph, a diversity consultant, who had
The other day, I posted a poll on what post I should write next, and 57.1% voted for a “founders resource guide.” And because I’m working on a first-time founders course, I thought I’d focus the guide on first-time founders. Here we go… In this post, you’ll find: Founder Basics A Note for Underestimated Founders Resources And although the concepts that I share in the Founder Basics are simple, in the +1,000 startups I’ve reviewed for investment, I’ve seen first-time founders skip these foundational blocks, spend a lot of time and money, and
In early June, I wrote to diversity professionals and others advancing workplace inclusion about corporate statements responding to the killing of George Floyd. I did this to discourage companies from releasing PR-type statements that were heavy on buzzwords, light on substance, and unlikely to disrupt racial injustice occurring within their reach. Instead, I wanted corporate leaders to examine practices within their organizations that adversely impact Black talent and use statements to convey how they would dismantle the internal structures and systems that allow these injustices to perpetuate in the workplace. Fast forward
There’s a mad dash in the professional world to improve diversity. Every high-profile company is working to boost the statistics in hopes of a favorable public profile — one in which people from all backgrounds and ethnicities are welcome. The tech industry, especially, is at the forefront of this diversity movement as it’s come under fire more than other business categories. However, diversity statistics are just that — statistics. Without inclusion, diversity just creates another problem. That problem is tokenism. Tokenism is defined as the following: “the practice of making
Latinx founder numbers are growing at a faster rate than any other group and we’re expected to yield $1.4 Trillion in US GDP. A couple of years ago, I started my journey in supporting Latinx founders as an investor at Backstage Capital through the Accelerator and with this post. And I believe what I wrote then even more now! TL;DR Latinx entrepreneurs are a strong force to be reckoned with! With capital and support, we can grow our businesses to produce in the trillions — trillions that can better the lives of our
As a 13-year-old, it was hard for me to understand why my mother insisted that I cut off my baby dreads or that I get rid of any oversized jeans that imperceptibly sagged. Dating back to my adolescence, my parents instilled in me this notion that, as a black man, I had to carry myself a certain way if I wanted to be successful. Even more imperative than what I wore or how I looked, I distinctly remember a conversation with my father where he explained that I would have
