Increasing The "Shades Of Tech"-Post TechCrunch DISRUPT SF 2018
After a recent trip to San Francisco to attend TechCrunch’s DISRUPT SF conference, I am super motivated to dive deeper into the world of tech to learn, inform and advise many people of color the value and importance of interjecting into this thriving industry.
While I am no stranger to tech, there is still more information to become familiar with daily.
In March of 2018, I along with a team of partners, developers and creative advisors launched a mobile entertainment social application called MURGE.
MURGE was fortunate to be featured for two weeks on the main page in the App Store and later on Google Play. The journey to building and launching a social app was quite intense, accompanied by several highs and lows. Working on user acquisition and funding was even more intense. MURGE had the success of launching and now the team was working to get users to see the value. In brief, the work never ends.
To get to my main point, DISRUPT SF reminded me that a room of tech talents can come together to showcase their amazing prototypes, seek funding, communicate their business objectives and overall hope they have created a product that will be in high demand.
Many of the attending tech talents were searching for information, opportunity, access or financial resources. They had the confidence, determination and team. All were hoping to acquire the right investor or branding opportunity.
What I also noticed was the limited representation of African and Latin American inclusion. This is not to say, we are not welcomed, this is simply questioning if we are engaging enough in the tech space?
While there are several types of niche resources, forums and entry level opportunities for those who aspire to code, build websites, design apps, etc. That is not the only element to entering the Tech industry. This blog post is simply not about that. This blog post is about building awareness and sharing a perspective of a branded forum (TechCrunch) that I embrace.
For example, I focus on business development, project management, creative UX/UI advisory, fundraising and overall product branding. I want to find aspiring people of color that have an interest in the work that I do and help them find their way.
My initiative “Shades Of Tech” will focus on finding people of color that have an aspiration to get into tech but may not be aware of how to start. I want to seek aspiring coders, developers, creators and more. Where are you? What are your app ideas? What skills can you apply to the tech industry? Are you aware of your tech talents? Do you need capital? Lets help you find it!
I truly believe there is a stigma applied to people of color and their lack of interest in tech. I want to change that narrative and build the ecosystem that grows immensely.
“Shades Of Tech” will aim t prove that “Information and Opportunity is never Black and White!”…….Or is it?
