TL;DR We don’t have a diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) tech industry. We need one to serve the market better, take the money that’s being left on the table, and produce outsized returns for all. There’s a lack of dollars going to underestimated founders and companies addressing underserved communities, and a lack of diverse check writers. How can we make it a DEI tech industry? Approaches can include, but are not limited to: Increasing the number of underestimated tech talent (also promote, sponsor, and pay well) Increasing the dollars going
What a whirlwind of a weekend! On Saturday, Feb 1, 2020, the first day of Black History Month, ✊🏾 if you opened your Apple App Store, you would’ve been greeted with some unapologetic Black Girl Magic ✨. That’s me. I never thought of myself as a techie up until just a few years ago, but here I was this weekend on millions of screens as the “Meet the Developer” spotlight. This experience has taught me so much about the expectations I set for myself and the authenticity I choose to share with others.
RIIIICKYYYYYYYYYYY. That moment the red saloon cruised towards the alleyway, as the window slowly came down to reveal a shotgun-wielding menace to society (who upon writing this I’ve come to learn wasn’t, in fact, Chris Tucker), his eyes gazing with the worst of all intentions towards our lovable Ricky, is etched into movie Folklore. Poor Ricky. Singleton’s acclaimed masterpiece introduced mainstream cinema and the wider world to the life and times in South Central LA, where life for those living in it was akin to living in a warzone; where
Kerry Schrader is woman, Black, and a Baby Boomer. She overcame the odds to make her tech company, Mixtroz, big news. Kerry Schrader was the 37th Black woman to raise $1 million for a startup. Her daughter and business partner in their company, Mixtroz, Ashlee Ammons, was number 38. Schrader is proud of her achievement but admits, “Each time I say it, I become more disenchanted with it.” Why? She has a hunch that if she and her daughter could have presented Mixtroz anonymously, it would be valued at a quarter
This article captures the pain-staking yet exhilarating fundraising journey of the TRIM-IT App founders Darren Tenkorang, Nathan Maalo, Nana Darko and Peter Lloyd. TRIM-IT is a mobile barbershop service that via an app offers a subscription service for men to get their hair cut [sans the hassle of traveling or long queues]. On the brink of shutting down their companyy, the universe threw a life jacket of $250,000! Based on this viral twitter thread, CEO Darren shows us that resilience is key when it comes to fundraising! For those that
My birthday is in exactly six weeks. I wake up every night thinking about telling this story. So I am telling it now. Six months ago, I was living in New York and flew back home (San Francisco Bay Area, Redwood City) for a board meeting and to be part of an entrepreneur video series profile of me. Before the board meeting, I asked for an aspirin. I had a weird headache but I thought it was the travel. My board meetings are never stressful because I have great board
Every year around 0.2% of business funding goes to Black women so last year when Joycelyn and I set out to raise £360k ($450k) whilst I had a very visible baby bump, we knew we’d have a serious fight on our hands… At this years London Tech Week, I was flicking through my notes and saw that a year ago we didn’t know the difference between VC and angel investment. Under a year after attending events to learn about investment, in an environment where young black women aren’t funded, we
Originally published by Wogrammer here. For Kishau Rogers, a love of technology starts with understanding the problems it can enable her to solve. “I like the impact. I need technology to have some meaning behind the use.” Drawn to the field of computer science while a college student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Kishau took her first job as a programmer when she was a junior in college and has been building software ever since. “I worked primarily in the research, health, and social service space, using tech to create solutions to
Three days ago 157 people lost their lives in my worst nightmare. Just six minutes after takeoff, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 heading for Nairobi, crashed near Bishoftu, Ethiopia after a struggle by the pilots to gain control of the aircraft. Initial reports predictably focused on the safety record of the airline (we see you Financial Times) and the number of Western lives affected or lost (a fail). However, just 48 hours later outlets like The Points Guy, The Atlantic, and NewsOne quickly called BS on the hierarchical value of lives evident in early reports
Truss.works are hiring on pocitjobs.com Everett Harper’s story in tech began long before he helped healthcare.gov achieve its ambitious mandate of registering 1 million Americans by the end of 2013. At the start of the interview, Everett talks fondly about his parent’s career trajectories. “I was raised in a family of IBM engineers back in the ’60s. Neither of my parents went to college. They were programmers. IBM was one of the first companies to hire African Americans in any kind of white-collar technical role – at any scale or
