Nia Asemota is a self-taught programmer interning at NASA as a software engineer. Despite being 21 years old, Nia has dozens of accolades behind her back. From collaborating with Black Girls CODE as a technical instructor, being a Game Design TA at the City College of New York’s free STEM Institute, to launching her own kids’ book about Black women engineers. She’s doing it all. But her journey has not been as smooth sailing as some might assume, as she’s had to navigate being one of just a few girls
Cayaba Care, a maternity health startup, has announced the closing of a $12 million Series A round that will work to expand the company’s footprint within underserved populations. The funding will be used to increase staff, launch in additional markets, and further invest in technology solutions that will increase access to much-needed holistic maternity services. Seae Ventures and Kapor Capital led the Series A round and new investors include Wellington Partners, Citi Impact Fund and Rhia Ventures. Founded in 2020 with a mission to improve community outcomes by reimagining how maternity and pediatric care is delivered, Cayaba
Honeycomb is hiring on pocitjobs.com Alayshia Knighten is a seasoned DevOps Engineer with a love of infrastructure and a focus on breaking down technical learning barriers for customers. She recently spoke to POCIT about navigating life in the tech sector as a woman of color and her role at Honeycomb, an observability tool that lets developers quickly make sense of the billions of rows of data needed to fully represent the user experience in your complex and unpredictable systems. Since joining Honeycomb as a Senior Implementation Engineer in October 2020,
In February, Prestige magazine published a list of the top-selling pieces of crypto-art to date, with all entries sharing some common traits – they were all men and all white. And when you look into the news reports of those who’re supposedly ‘killing it’ in the NFT or crypto space most of them look the same. But here at POCIT – we’re all about shining a light on the communities that are sometimes cast to the side and forgotten even when they’re making a considerable impact. Before we begin – for
There’s a billboard in Detroit promoting The Lip Bar, a business Melissa Butler launched 10 years ago: “Shark Tank told me to quit. 10 years and 2 million units sold. Thanks, Mr. Wonderful.” That moment on the show when “Mr. Wonderful,” whose real name is Kevin O’Leary, and other investors harshly rejected Butler’s products didn’t stop her because she knew the investors were not the customers she was targeting. She has previously told media that she knew her customer base and she was determined to press forward. The Lip Bar celebrated its 10th year of operation with
After opening a pop-up in Westfield London last year, Black Pound Day is now set to open a permanent store in the shopping center. Black Pound Day founder, Swiss of So Solid Crew, announced the opening of the permanent store on social media. “This is an absolute special one for us because we are proud to officially say, we have signed a permanent lease to trade at Westfield London, the biggest shopping center in Europe, and we couldn’t have done it without You!!!!” Swiss wrote. The launch of the pop-up
Recently, Esusu, a firm that builds the accountability and systems you need to save more, joined the list of growing Black-led startups that have hit the $1 billion valuation mark and it got me thinking…how many of you know that there are quite a few unicorns that have been led by Black founders or CEOs? So here’s a small but mighty list that might act as a source of inspiration to you. Firstly – a “Unicorn” is a venture capital term used to describe firms that have achieved a valuation of more than
Precious Drews’ personal story is one of perseverance and passion. She’s the second youngest of eight children and first became an entrepreneur in middle school – making YouTube videos for her favorite artists in exchange for easy money. Although she didn’t consider herself an entrepreneur – anyone that hears her story can be quick to identify her as a natural-born leader. She was also the first in her family to go to college and later start her own small business – a natural skin care line that uses recycled coffee
Donald Boone, CEO of BoxedUp, an equipment rental company, started the company back in 2019. He would spend hours and even days packaging orders himself with dozens of equipment lying around his family home. Now he runs a three-person company that’s got $2.3M in funding. The 30-something-year-old Maryland native had the realization that in order to make an impact on his community- he needed to find a way to pursue entrepreneurship full time. After a corporate career in engineering, a failed startup, and a career at Amazon, he’s found a
Thinking of getting angel investors, but not sure where to start? Where should you look? What questions should you ask them? Firstly – let’s address the elephant in the room. What is an angel investor? Angel investors are individuals who invest in entrepreneurial ventures like startups using their own capital in exchange for equity. They often provide the startup founders with capital for their business, but they do not have any operational voting rights in the company. Angels can come from different backgrounds, such as venture capitalists, corporate investors, wealthy
