Isoken Igbinedion was just 10 years old when she had a “very dangerous encounter” with chemical relaxers that caused her natural hair to fall out. After this experience – she then went on to spend the next 20 years using extensions to give her hair a chance to regrow and in that time, she realized how much friction there was in the hair products and services market. Now at 30-years-old, she’s the CEO of Parfait, a Black-owned company that uses AI and facial recognition technology to provide custom wig products
Melissa Pegus has been chosen as the Managing Director for Techstars Atlanta Powered by J.P. Morgan, the latest accelerator to open up in the city. The new program, backed by an $80 million investment by J.P. Morgan, will support diverse entrepreneurs across the country. While the program is open to founders of all backgrounds, it is designed to provide equitable access to funding and support for Black, Hispanic and Latino, Indigenous American, and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs. In the first half of 2021, Black entrepreneurs received just 1.2 percent of U.S. venture capital funding. Additional data show
Founder and CEO at Seidea CIC, a career development platform with a social mission to diversify the cybersecurity industry, Stephanie Itimit sat down with us to discuss building a thriving organization, finding the right co-founder, initially balancing her mission with a 9 to 5, and more. The goal for Seidea is to break down barriers for Black and Minority Ethnic women and help them start their cybersecurity careers through cyber career programs and industry events. Itimit and her team also work with employers to develop virtual internships, strengthen their employee
Komodo is hiring on pocitjobs.com Vanessa Anderson is a director of engineering for product teams at Komodo Health. In the following interview, you will learn how she got into tech and obtained her first job as a software engineer without a Master’s degree, before eventually being offered a key position in a health tech startup valued at $3.3 billion. Hi Vanessa, What Do You Do at Komodo? I just transitioned out of a senior DevOps role where I was the tech lead of the infrastructure team. I now manage teams
TechLit Africa redistributes recycled technology to build computer labs in African schools. With 4,000 students and 20 teachers, the organization has built 10 computer labs in rural Kenya and is working on the next 100 computer labs. Nelly Cheboi, who grew up in a poor rural village in Kenya, landed a full scholarship to study computer science at Augustana College in Illinois and later built a school in Kenya, Zawadi, where she then started TechLit Africa. The program is unique because it teaches relevant classes; they hire local teachers to make
Briana Marbury, executive director of the Interledger Foundation has spoken candidly with POCIT for an in-depth interview. As one of the only Black women leading the major tech philanthropy, she is overseeing a $100 million foundation and the Grant for the Web fund that has already committed more than $10 million to projects around the world. Growing up in Detroit, she witnessed the lack of financial access that many people who were living below the poverty line endured, forcing them to use predatory check-cashing services and now she’s working directly
DrugStoc, described as Nigeria’s leading health tech platform, is focused on improving access to quality and affordable pharmaceuticals for healthcare providers and professionals on the continent. Africa’s pharmaceutical market is primarily known for its broken supply chain and chaotic distribution channels, which affect the delivery of quality medicines, affordability of pharmaceuticals, and efficient healthcare delivery for health workers. Each year, at least 150,000 Africans die from substandard and counterfeit medications and an even more significant number due to lack of access to affordable medicines. Launched in 2017, DrugStoc currently has
Apple hired Intel’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Barbara Whye, back in 2021. Whye, who has years of experience and made it on Fortune’s list of Most Powerful, spent 25 years at Intel, helping the company make more meaningful and durable positive change. But she decided to take a leap and move on and work for tech giant Apple. In June, following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a $100 million racial justice initiative. Other tech executives have also spoken out against
According to U.S. Labor statistics, as of December 2020, the global talent shortage amounted to 40 million skilled workers worldwide. By 2030, the global talent shortage is expected to reach 85.2 million—сompanies worldwide risk losing $8.4 trillion in revenue because of the lack of skilled talent. But the reality is more complicated than just a shortage of developers. The problem also has a lot to do with how most companies hire developers. A 2017 Indeed survey found that 80% of U.S. tech managers have selected a candidate who has graduated from a coding boot camp
Mattaniah Aytenfsu is a 24-year-old UX engineer for YouTube and a budding TikTok influencer. Always being open to new opportunities and avenues led Aytenfsu to the land of TikTok, where she started posting videos revolving around the intersection of art, design, and engineering. She is the definition of the best of both worlds when it comes to art and tech. With multiple viral moments under her belt, it was one particular video that got the social media community buzzing — her painting that she turned into a musical instrument. Talk
