What made you decide to work in the tech industry? Initially, I was pursuing a career in accounting. I declared it my major at college. After an accounting internship, I decided it was not for me, but I had done it for so long I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. So, I decided to do a second internship, with the hope of getting a full-time offer. It didn’t happen. I was devastated at the time and had no idea what I was going to do next. I was counting
What made you decide to work in tech? Problem-solving. Specifically, problem-solving with little costs for exploration. I was really attracted to solving problems with code. I loved that code could be changed to explore new ideas and improve on existing ones with the only real costs being my time and energy. What was an obstacle you faced and how did you overcome that obstacle? Transitioning to management, though I saw and see that as a challenge more than an obstacle. At the time I was a peer of the teammates
What made you decide to work in tech? My two older brothers introduced me to engineering. They’re both engineers and I grew up watching, and eventually joining, them take apart household appliances. When I got to high school, I had a series of amazing teachers who helped a group of us start a FIRST Robotics Competition team and who introduced me to programming. I decided to go into the tech industry because I love putting things together and this was a place where it was possible to create something tangible
What made you decide to work in tech? I think at the base of it, was my brother in law [who is a good deal older than me, maybe like 11 years older]. Growing up I followed in his footsteps, so whatever he was doing I wanted to do (laughs). He studied electrical engineering and so in the summers I would work on tech hardware problems with him, and that got me excited about technology, and when I was in the ninth or tenth grade I took a class in
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do? My name is Fadumo. I’m going to be a third-year student at NYU, New York University. I study computer science and politics. This past summer I was at Facebook working with a product marketing manager as well as a civic engagement team. What I eventually want to do is work at the intersection of programming and government, making government more efficient. What interested you in technology as a [vehicle] for you wanted to do? I started college two years
You have an amazing backstory – going from studying engineering in college to being temporarily homeless to founding your own venture. How do you want to introduce yourself to the POCiT audience? I’m a black trans woman (with all the struggles that generally invites) and a successful web developer, project manager, and activist. In 2014, you started a queer trans collective called CollectQT. What was the inspiration behind it? The inspiration was two-fold. First was the incredible community support I experienced after moving to San Francisco. I had never felt
Congratulations on getting into YC and being the first non-profit. Yeah. We’re about one of 15 non-profits, so I think USA Today called us out as the first diversity non-profit. It’s still a very early program for non-profits in there, they’re still adjusting to it. Why did you start /dev/color? And what has it been like thus far? I started it just seeing my friends and people that I had been connected to, as I discovered tips and secrets that were novel to me, I would share them with people
I recently took the opportunity to head down to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California to see the arrival of Juno from behind the scenes. I was there as a social media ambassador with a group of other thought leaders to share in NASA’s next big moment of space exploration. While I was there, I met people I would not otherwise meet; the scientists who had an active part in designing the instruments on Juno, the project managers who drove the mission forward and even the Assistant Director for
Senior Frontend Engineer at Eventbrite Why don’t you go ahead and tell me about yourself? I got excited about computers at an early age. Probably early elementary school. My mom had a 286 computer that only ran DOS (pre-Windows). When she’d come home from the store, I would take the receipts and type them up in the word processor. I loved it! I learned basic DOS commands; enough to games like Math Blaster, Word Muncher, and Typing Tutor. I owe so much of my trajectory to those early moments. I went
How did you get involved in technology? When I was thirteen years old I was extremely obsessed with documentary films. I ended up watching a documentary about the history of computers. Everything from the first computers in the 40s/50s, to Microsoft and then the internet as it is today. I was like ‘this is so cool I’d like to learn about all this stuff’. So, I just self-taught myself programming from high school, and my interests were in artificial intelligence and machine learning. So, I come in from a sort
