Tech Forward

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How LGBTQ and Black Women in Tech Can Be Their Best Advocate May 30, 2018

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Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week, I spoke with Angelica Coleman, tech aficionado and Director of Community at Lesbians Who Tech. A global community of over 35,000 queer technologists, Lesbians Who Tech connects talent with existing companies by hosting summits nationally as well as globally. They partner with hundreds of companies every year, and offer coding scholarships to queer and gender nonconforming women. As an advocate for diversity and inclusion, Angie is always finding new ways to use tech to build communities and bring people together.

Black women face abundant challenges in their professional lives. Not only are they frequently offered lower wages, they're often steered away from the positions they apply for, and towards administrative or other non-technical roles. As a result, black women in the tech sector regularly end up underpaid, overworked, and pigeonholed into low wage, low status career paths regardless of their experience. Here are two tips from Angie on avoiding that fate:

Don't market skills you don't intend to use. A self-described generalist, Angie has worked at myriad companies and worn many hats during her tenure at each one. "There are skills [from previous jobs] that I never want to touch again. Don't put it on your resume if you don't want to do it! Remember you can tailor your resume for different roles."
Don't be afraid to say no to companies. Turning down an offer can feel risky, especially if you have financial concerns. Staying in a role that doesn't fit you, however, can negatively affect your career trajectory down the line: either you end up changing jobs too often, or your performance could suffer.

Black, queer, and gender nonconforming professionals each face their own set of hurdles when advancing in companies, though there is plenty of overlap. So how can these underrepresented groups advocate for change without being labeled as someone who doesn't fit in? Angie's advice: play the game. "I'm always going to be myself, in a way that still complies with the job culture, until I can start changing that culture. If you show up as your best self, being all in and being a team player, you gain trust and responsibility. Then you can assert more of your views."

To companies who want to increase diversity of their staff, Angie offers this advice: "Think about where you're looking. When you make 'top 10 schools' a qualification, you're cutting out entire populations who might be just as qualified, if not more. Expand your search. You can keep the same criteria. You don't have to lower the bar, you just have to look somewhere else."

Angie, thank you so much for coming onto the show to share your insights and advice. I want my listeners to know that the next Lesbians Who Tech summit will be held in New York, September 12-14th, and is open to non-binary and LGBTQ women, as well as allies. As always, thank you for listening, and see you next week!

Getting People Involved in Their Local Communities With Technology May 23, 2018

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Hello, listeners! Welcome to another exciting episode of Tech Forward. On this week's episode, I spoke with Andreas Freund, co-founder of DiveIn, a platform where people can easily get involved with causes they care about at the local level. As a proud son of immigrants and a San Francisco native, Andreas was inspired to create DiveIn after witnessing the effects of the refugee crisis in Germany in 2015. In an era where we have so much at our fingertips, Andreas realized it was unacceptable that we can wake up with the desire to help in our own communities, but not be able to use technology to make that process seamless and frictionless.

DiveIn helps its users connect on two levels: location, and causes. Whether your passion is the environment, animal welfare, or social justice, DiveIn allows you to access relevant content and discussions, and find opportunities to get involved in those causes with like-minded people at the local level. So what does "getting involved" look like? "The types of experiences themselves can be really diverse. If you're going to go out and get a beer after work, why not go to a place where there's someone speaking? Or where the proceeds will go to a good cause? Getting involved can be putting on a pair of gloves and getting your hands dirty doing volunteer work, but it can also mean going to a screening and exposing yourself to new ideas."

Andreas acknowledges that his status as a millennial played a significant role in the formation of DiveIn — and how it will make money. "Millennials may have grown up on the internet, but that doesn't mean we want to spend all of our time on it. We love experiences. We want to get out there and be active in our communities, but the barriers to access need to be lowered." As part of a recent wave of social entrepreneurship, Andreas wanted to ensure that DiveIn's revenue model didn't undermine their core values. Currently, they operate with a "pay by participant" model, where event hosts are charged a fixed fee for ever new person they activate at the local level.

As a Latino man who grew up attending protests with his grandparents, Andreas has made diversity a strong priority for DiveIn. "It's important that our team reflects the communities we serve. Diversity matters, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense. More diverse companies generate more revenue, so the moral element is really backed up by the numbers." Moving forwards, Andreas is committed to doing the work to push back against internal biases as the team grows.

Over the next few years, Andreas aims to expand DiveIn at the national level by establishing a presence in the top 5 metro areas of the US (Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas/Fort Worth, and New York City). Andreas, I can't wait to see your community grow as people across the country get activated with DiveIn. Thank you so much for joining me on the show, and thank you to all of you who tuned in. See you next week!

Diversifying Tech by Teaching Mothers How to Code May 16, 2018

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Welcome back to Tech Forward! This week, I spoke with Tina Lee, Founder and CEO of MotherCoders. Based in San Francisco, MotherCoders is a non-profit that's expanding the tech talent pool by helping women with kids gain the skills, knowledge, and connections they need to thrive in today's digital economy. Tina's career journey has taken her from management consulting and recruiting roles in the private sector, to philanthropy and nonprofit roles in the public sector. She's passionate and prolific about the digital economy, especially the changing needs of women and families in a digital, globalized world. We discussed how MotherCoders came to be, and how Tina is helping moms of all types launch their tech careers.

Currently, 86% of women will become moms, and with millennials becoming parents, there are more moms than ever with college degrees. As a person with caregiving responsibilities of her own, however, Tina discovered first hand that the free or low-cost and easily accessible options like meetups and workshops were not easy for her to attend. Recognizing a huge opportunity to provide moms with both caregivers and a space to learn, she launched the MotherCoders pilot in 2014. Since then, they have trained over 150 women, both through standalone events as well as a part-time 9 week program.

MotherCoders — which serves working moms seeking career advancement, reentering the workforce, and starting down the path of entrepreneurship — isn't a boot camp or job training program. Instead, it's a space where moms can integrate their past experiences, skills, and resources with technical skills and contextual knowledge to get them into a role where they will have wage security and advancement opportunities. Providing this support for mothers now also supports their children down the line. Not only do children of working mothers go on to earn more as adults, but studies show children's academic trajectory compares to that of their mothers. "It's a great way to inspire the next generation! Why would you not do this for mothers?"

MotherCoders addresses the top 3 barriers for mothers: time, money, and caregiving. Along with competitive pricing, they offer a mother-friendly schedule and on-site childcare. This way, they provide a welcoming environment for people who have been systematically shut out.

Moving forwards, Tina's ultimate goal is to expand MotherCoders to new locations. She wants to design a flexible program with core components that people can adjust according to the unique needs of their local ecosystem. If you're interested in helping make this licensing model a reality and having MotherCoders come to your city someday, you can donate today. Tina, as a mom myself, I love the work you're doing. Thank you so much for coming on the show, and thank you to all of you out there listening. See you next week!

Closing the Wealth Gap for Underrepresented Founders May 09, 2018

Show notes

Hello, listeners! Welcome back to another episode of Tech Forward. This week I spoke with Allie Burns, Managing Director at Village Capital. This global venture capital firm wants to build bridges for entrepreneurs looking to create an inclusive and sustainable world. Having worked with Revolution, the Case Foundation, AOL, Atlas Venture and more, Allie honed over the years a passion for working with young and emerging technologies. We discussed Village Capital's unique model and goal to broaden access to capital worldwide, and to close the wealth gap for founders from underrepresented backgrounds.

Village Capital is on a mission to reinvent the venture capital system in such a way as to truly back the entrepreneurs of the future. "The work we do is united by the principle of getting more capital to more people in more places, to solve the significant challenges in environmental stability and economic inequality." Seeing as how 75% of venture capital goes to only 3 US states, and most of that to white men, there's room for significant improvement. Village Capital deliberately sources and recruits entrepreneurs outside of the dominant geographies, both within the US and worldwide at their offices in Mexico City, Nairobi, and India.

Village Capital operates with a community based support model, where cohorts of 10-12 entrepreneurs share information and constructive criticism with each other. The peer evaluation method is an attempt to flip the current power dynamic: at the end of the 3 month program, the cohort selects which among them will receive investment from Village Capital's own fund. The model also connects these entrepreneurs with mentors in order to build a common language on both sides of the table. "If entrepreneurs can think like investors and speak to them in a way they're more receptive to, we'll have better matchmaking between investors and entrepreneurs." In fact, many entrepreneurs return to the program as mentors down the line! In this way, the community built within these cohorts at Village Capital is meant to last well beyond the duration of the program.

In their work internationally, they've found that only 10% of investment goes to emerging markets, and of that small percentage, the distribution echoes a lot of what we see in the US. "In 2015-2016, 72% of all startup investment in East Africa went to only 3 companies, and 90% went to companies founded by non-local founders." Companies in emerging markets also have unique problems, such as gaps in the value chain, that make these businesses more challenging to finance. "Traditional venture capital doesn't know what to do with these types of businesses."

In order to measure near term success, Village Capital has partnered with Emory University to compare companies who participated in the program against a control group of companies who didn't. "We want to know, are the companies we've supported able to access capital and grow their businesses in a more accelerated way?" The answer, so far, is positive: companies who went through the program are raising more than 2.5 times the capital, creating 70% more jobs, and generating 25% more revenue.

Big thanks to Allie for joining me on the show this week, and to all of you out there listening. See you next week!

Using Technology to Eliminate Hiring Bias May 02, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week I spoke with Stephanie Lampkin, founder and CEO of Blendoor, technology that mitigates unconscious bias in hiring through artificial intelligence and people analytics. During Stephanie's 14-year career in the tech industry, she has founded two startups and held technical roles at Lockheed, Microsoft, and TripAdvisor.

Despite a tech background beginning in her teen years, Stephanie still faced hiring bias from recruiters who told her she was "not technical enough," and tried to steer her towards sales and marketing roles. This was her inspiration to start Blendoor, which enhances the ability of humans to judge other humans based on merits — not molds. On Blendoor, qualified candidates are presented to recruiters with no names, photos, or age listed — just that they are a fit for the role. Once the company selects a candidate, the person's identity is revealed.

Stephanie designed Blendoor around the idea that certain demographics are disadvantaged, and often very small details can signify someone as a member of such a demographic. Something as simple as someone's name can indicate race, nationality, religion, class, and more. She chose which aspects of candidates' identity to mask based on this knowledge. By choosing when to reveal those details, Blendoor can track how far along different demographics of qualified candidates make it in the hiring process. From there, they identify where bias happens and bring some transparency and accountability to the objectivity that recruiters and hiring managers have.

"In the knowledge worker economy, it's important to hire the smartest and best people. And if you allow your own bias to get in the way of seeing those people, you are handicapping your business. This is not a 'nice to have.' This is a 'need to have.' ...You are so reliant upon different types of people to drive innovation and marketing and sales. You need to equip yourself with devices that ensure you're being as objective as possible in your assessment."

While Blendoor has focused primarily on large tech companies for their initial target market, Stephanie wants her platform to be industry agnostic. They'll be expanding their scope later this year to include Fortune 500 companies in finance, retail, consulting, and more.

Stephanie, thanks so much for coming onto the show to tell us about your incredible work with Blendoor. I can't wait to see where you go from here. Thank you also to all of you out there listening. See you next week!

Creating a Community to Support Women in Tech Apr 25, 2018

Show notes

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! This week I spoke with Hayley Leibson, founder of the award-winning technology and lifestyle blog, Lady in Tech. Through Lady in Tech, Hayley is dedicated to inspiring women to become technologists and entrepreneurs, and to create a life that they love. As an empathetic technologist and inclusion advocate, Hayley also contributes to Forbes; her column moves millennial women to enter the tech industry and build important products at scale to improve the world.

Upon taking her first undergraduate engineering courses, Hayley noticed how few women were in her class — and that none of them planned to pursue a career in technology. "The best way to make a positive impact on the world is through building technology. [...] A lot of what people are doing in tech is looking at the problems in their own lives, and solving them. For populations not well-represented in tech, nobody is looking at how to solve their problems."

With code and algorithms influencing more and more aspects of our lives every day, it's important to remember that machine learning models reinforce the biases and beliefs of the people who write them. The underrepresentation of women and minorities in the tech sector is alarming because of the role the industry plays in shaping the future of humanity.

All of these factors played a role in Hayley starting Lady in Tech. From its first iteration as a Medium blog, Lady in Tech grew rapidly, gaining over 25 thousand followers in a year. Hayley attributes this success, in part, to her community of Bay Area women who were excited about the industry but discouraged by the "boy's club" narrative. They wanted to serve as a positive beacon for other women, to show them that meaningful change is happening. Lady in Tech focuses on up-and-comers and mid-career professionals. By showcasing the early stages of women's careers, Hayley hopes readers will feel as though their own career aspirations are attainable.

Hayley's main advice for women looking to enter the tech sector? "Surround yourself with a positive community, both digitally and offline." In this spirit of community building, Hayley attended the first Female Founders Office Hours. The organization, whose mission is to increase the number of successful women-led companies, gives women the space to foster connections and have one-on-one time with female VC partners. Looking to the future, Hayley hopes to start her own tech company in a few years.

If you'd like to hear more from Hayley, reach out to her on Twitter. Thank you so much to Hayley for coming onto the show this week, and thank you to all of you out there listening. See you next week!

Democratizing Startup Investment Through Equity Crowdfunding Apr 18, 2018

Show notes

Welcome back to another episode of Tech Forward, listeners! This week I spoke with Caroline Hofmann, COO and Co-Founder of equity crowdfunding platform Republic. In her role as Chief Operating Officer, Caroline manages the company's multi-faceted operation and its fast-growing team. Prior to Republic, she spent seven years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in London and New York. Caroline is also an active angel investor and mentor to several startups.

In 2016, title 3 of the Jobs Act opened up venture investing to non-accredited investors, which thereby opened the doors to equity crowdfunding. If you're unfamiliar with the term, think of equity crowdfunding as a combination of angel investing, and crowdfunding as you know it through platforms like GoFundMe and Kickstarter. The investment itself is similar to those donations, but the investor holds a stake in the company moving forward. While Republic does not require investors to disclose their net worth, Caroline estimates that 80% of investors on their platform are non-accredited — which means that they would not otherwise have access to startup investing!

Many founders struggle to get access to venture capital because they either lack the necessary connections to tap into Silicon Valley money, or they simply don't live on the coast. Equity crowdfunding opens doors for founders with great business ideas and extended networks of friends and families. The model allows them to raise funding within their communities, and from a much broader user base.

While they accept founders of any origin or geographic location, and companies in any industry, Republic specifically targets founders from underrepresented groups. Republic has a strong commitment to accessibility, and the democratization of startup investing. "We believe it's important to support underserved founders, because good ideas can come from anywhere. [...] Supporting these founders is great for us, but it also has a fundamentally positive impact on the economy. If more diverse ideas get funded, more diverse companies grow, and create jobs, and create something that customers all over the country really want."

During our conversation, Caroline also spoke about the transition from consulting to the world of tech, the rewarding balancing act of life as a working mother, and navigating the regulations involved in equity crowdfunding. I hope all of you out there listening find this interview as informative (and, in the case of one fact, as surprising) as I did. Thank you for listening, and a big thank you to Caroline for joining me this week!

Opening Doors in Tech for the Autistic Community Apr 11, 2018

Show notes

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! As you know, this podcast addresses all types of diversity in the tech world, including neurodiversity. This week, I spoke with Oliver Thornton, CEO of Coding Autism, about just that. At Coding Autism, an autism-specialized coding bootcamp, autistic adults learn the necessary skills to obtain employment within the tech industry.

For Oliver, this is a very personal endeavor. Diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at the age of two, Oliver worked hard to overcome many of the challenges associated with life on the spectrum. He came to think of Asperger's syndrome as his "secret weapon" for success, especially when combined with his entrepreneurial mindset.

The major goal of Coding Autism is to reduce the high unemployment rate within the autism community. Autistic adults have an 80% unemployment and underemployment rate, regardless of academic credentials, intellectual capabilities, and skill sets. Learning about these trends was Oliver's primary motivation to develop the startup concept behind Coding Autism.

Stigma, unfortunately, plays a large role in that statistic. The "social" aspect of the traditional interview structure can feel confrontational to autistic candidates, which makes the interview process challenging. Lately, Oliver notes, there has been a shift towards a more technical approach in interviews, which allows autistic candidates to demonstrate their skills to potential employers.

Some employers have developed hiring initiatives that maximize the potential of what an autistic individual can bring to the company. SAP began their autism hiring division — which provides programs in both training and retention — in 2014. Their goal is to have at least 1% of their workforce comprised of individuals on the spectrum by 2020. This reflects the global rate of autism.

With Coding Autism, Oliver took a "tech first" approach because so many characteristics of autism lend themselves to careers in software engineering, quality assurance, and cybersecurity. By focusing on characteristics such as attention to detail and analytical thinking style, Coding Autism aims to maximize the potential of what an autistic individual can bring to the workforce. The laser focus of the bootcamp model is also advantageous to autistic learners, who might have been discouraged by more traditional academic models.

Thank you again to Oliver for joining me this week. I can't wait to see what the future holds for Coding Autism, and for autistic adults everywhere seeking meaningful employment. See you next week!

Creating a Sustainable Fashion Business With a Diverse Team Right From the Start Apr 04, 2018

Show notes

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! This week, I spoke with Janet Wu, co-founder and CEO of SilkRoll, about sustainability in the fashion industry as well as the importance of building diverse teams from day one. An avid traveler, Janet was born in China, grew up in the UK, and currently lives in the Bay Area. During her 10 years as an investment banker, she helped over 50 publicly listed companies raise over $30B in financing. She then went on to serve as the CFO of clean tech startup One Earth Designs before founding SilkRoll.

During a 2011 sabbatical, Janet connected with an issue that had long been important to her: sustainability. In traveling through South and Central America, she directly witnessed the environmental impact of modern industry on ecology, biodiversity, and indigenous culture of these regions. She found herself wondering, "How can I contribute my skills in business and finance to this area?"

The answer came to her as she confronted the cost of moving from Hong Kong to San Francisco to work with One Earth Designs, and wondered "What am I going to do with all of my clothes?" There existed no good way to purge valuable items, much less to get them into the hands of someone who would appreciate their style and value. "How can I leverage technology and the quick uptick in the sharing economy to [...] create a sustainable way for women to exchange and trade fashion that they no longer need, and refresh their closets at fair value, and with minimal waste?"

And so SilkRoll was born. At SilkRoll, women can exchange high quality pieces — either unworn, or lightly worn — among a growing base of users, and keep their wardrobes fresh and fashionable without contributing to landfills. With such designers as Coach, Free People, and Prada on offer, the pieces on SilkRoll will ideally be traded as many as five times.

Comprised equally of men and women, the SilkRoll team are globally diverse. This was no accident! Though her team is presently still small, Janet made a point to hire people with different employment backgrounds and perspectives.

"Innovation is a product of differences in perspectives. There's no one way to see the world, there's no one way to solve a problem. Bringing diversity into the conversation allows us to solve problems creatively, and innovate our product faster, too."

Janet, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast this week. I can't wait to see what the future holds for SilkRoll.

Funding Immigrant Founders and Investing in Innovation Mar 28, 2018

Show notes

Hello listeners, and welcome back to the Tech Forward podcast! This week, I spoke with Maria Salamanca, a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures. She was named 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. Unshackled Ventures fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by funding teams with immigrant founders.

Maria's own journey — she immigrated from Colombia at age 7 and became a citizen at 18 — has motivated her to uplift others by eliminating barriers to entrepreneurship and education. Due in part to her history, Maria has a deep understanding of the challenges immigrants face when starting a business in the United States. She and Unshackled Ventures have identified the barriers that immigrant entrepreneurs face:

Access to capital
Office space
Lack of support network
Immigration support

These barriers are what led them to specifically support immigrant founders. "It's hard to be an immigrant entrepreneur and jump into that full time while also juggling concerns about who will sponsor your visa." As 45% of Fortune 500 companies have immigrant founders, there's clearly a high level of entrepreneurship among immigrants despite the significant barriers to the tools and resources which would enable them to fully execute that entrepreneurial spirit.

When it comes to the immigration process, Maria says, "Usually immigrants have to figure all of this out on their own, and most of them do. But that really takes away from the time they could be spending on their projects. They have to keep on top of deadlines and court dates, and struggle with the instability of, Will I be here in 3 months? What about my family? That stress puts a burden on founders." That's why some of the funding at Unshackled Ventures supports an in house counsel, allowing entrepreneurs to work closely with an immigration lawyer. "We fund only a small percentage of immigrant founders, but we want them to focus on their product as much as possible."

Research has shown that cross cultural experiences lead to innovation. "As an immigrant, you come into a new country where there's a different context for a variety of things. Many times, that means you can see a gap where a need isn't being met." To really foster those cross cultural experiences, Unshackled Ventures has created an ecosystem of universities, mentors, advisors, and investors who really believe in the value that immigrant entrepreneurs bring to the table.

Maria and I also discussed the possible future of immigrant entrepreneurs in the current political climate, as well as the advice she would offer to immigrant founders in search of funding. Thank you so much to Maria for joining me, and to all of you out there for listening. See you next week!

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