Anderson@Large

Race and Silicon Valley

Created by: Online IT Degree

Everything Must Change

Seven years ago, I launched my blog. Today, marks a new beginning as I focus on the development of the Cost of Freedom App, a location-based web app that will provide voters with concise information on how to apply for a voter ID.

Marketing guru Seth Goldin recently observed that if you don't adapt to the post-industrial economy, “never mind the race to the top, you'll be racing to the bottom.” Goldin added:

Instead of waiting around for someone to tell you that you matter, take your career into your own hands. In other words, don't wait for someone else to pick you and pick yourself! If you have a book, you don't need a publisher to approve you, you can publish it yourself. It's no longer about waiting for some big corporation to choose you. We've arrived at an age where you choose yourself.

Sadly, today also marks the death of the “Matriarch of the Blues,” Etta James, whose truth-telling helped me get through many nights.

I will miss Ms. Etta's motherly advice. May she, at last, rest in peace.

Web 2.0 and Black Joblessness

I LOL when I read that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's “New Year's resolution is to learn to code.”

The same day Bloomberg tweeted his plan, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest jobs report. And it was no laughing matter. While the overall unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in nearly three years, black joblessness rose from 15.5 percent to 15.8 percent.

Private employers added 1.9 million jobs in 2011. Black workers are disproportionately employed in the public sector which lost 244,000 jobs last year. The writing is on the wall: A secure “good government job” is going the way of six-day mail delivery.

Innovation will accelerate public sector downsizing. The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

The nonprofit Code for America plans to open a first-of-its-kind “civic accelerator” in San Francisco, a program designed to house, mentor and fund startups focused on using technology to improve government efficiency.

[…]

The details are still being worked out, but Code for America will work with the city to identify departments in particular need of new online tools. Code for America will sponsor so-called hackathons this spring and summer to find and fund entrepreneurs building the most promising solutions.

As cities and states rethink how they deliver public services, workers will feel the impact. So if Bloomberg has resolved to learn code in 2012, why not you?

Breaking Down the Barriers in Tech Sector

I would like to share my post published on Startup America Partnership’s blog.

During the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee convened a panel discussion on diversity in the technology sector, “African Americans: Joining the Leading Edge of the High Tech Boom.”

This first-ever CBC convening of tech entrepreneurs and thought leaders was designed to identify strategies to open up “a whole new area of job growth and wealth creation for our communities.” Jackson Lee said:

The whole industry has moved and the question is: Where are we? We have no time to wait.

Where are we? African Americans make up 1.5 percent of the Silicon Valley workforce. Black founders represent one percent of VC-backed startups.

[…]

Rep. Jared Polis, a co-founder of TechStars, sees opportunities in disruptive services and products. The value proposition is the new efficiency the idea introduces in the economy. But keep in mind investors fund the team not an idea. “They’re funding the team rather than a great idea because an idea can change depending on the market reaction.”

To be successful, you must know the language and culture of the industry. Polis said:

It’s a different language that these people speak. It’s the language of capital and entrepreneurship. You need to study the language so that you speak the language of venture capitalists.

That doesn’t mean you have to go to business school. In fact, most founders don’t. You must know the basic principles of finance, including your ABCs – Series A, Series B and Series C funding rounds.

You also must learn the culture. So mind your Ps and Qs and dress for success.

While networks matter, Polis observed:

It’s not an old boys’ network. It’s a young boys’ network. When you have a young boys’ network, it’s easier to break into…You still have to build the networks.

Read more: To Break Barriers, Know Your ABCs and Ps and Qs

Too Important to Fail

I will blog about the forum on STEM education that I attended yesterday at the Brookings Institution, at which Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank unveiled a report, “Education Supports Racial and Ethnic Equality in STEM.”

But right now, I want to focus on a national initiative to stem the high school drop crisis among black boys, Too Important to Fail.

Tonight at 8:00 p.m. EDT, PBS will air Tavis Smiley Reports’ “Too Important to Fail,” an investigation of the root causes of education crisis.

To check your local listings, go here.

Dreams Can Come True

I attended the kickoff reception for the Fall 2011 class of DreamIt Ventures on Friday at University City Science Center.

The 15-member class includes five minority-led startups selected under the Comcast Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program. Two of the Comcast MEAP startups are led by black founders. Jonathan Gosier, co-founder of metaLayer, and John Njoku, CEO of Kwelia. BTW, John is a fellow Stanford Law grad.

Kerry Rupp, Managing Partner of DreamIt, said in a statement:

We’re excited to run our second program this year, coming hot off the heels of a very successful Demo Day in New York City in August. The caliber of this class is equally impressive. Additionally, we’re excited about the diversity of this group. In addition to the Comcast Minority Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program, this batch includes an Olympic medalist, an Iraq and Afghanistan combat veteran and a TED Senior Fellow, as well as several people from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

While all founders have a tough row to hoe to get to the next level, black founders must face a “harsh reality.”

Wayne Sutton, co-founder of NewMe Accelerator, recently wrote:

The harsh reality for black entrepreneurs in the web/tech space. Your chances of raising startup capital are slim to none. If you’re an entrepreneur, good luck and prove me wrong. If you’re an accelerator or incubator, open your doors and prove me wrong. If you’re a venture capitalist please prove me wrong!

I hope Jonathan and John will prove Wayne wrong.

What It Takes to Get Over

Philadelphia is revving up efforts to change the conversation about young black males. Anthony Martin, executive director and co-founder of What It Takes Foundation, is showing the way. WIT is a national outreach initiative to connect black boys with black men who can show them “what it takes” to achieve success.

Yesterday, I attended the launch of What It Takes E-mentoring program, which will use social media to connect 200 black males with 100 e-mentors in structured, caring online relationships.

Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Program Director for Philadelphia Knight Foundation, said the program will “show how technology can be used to engage people… It will show what technology can do when people come together.”

Indeed, Martin wants to augment the reality of what it means to be a black man:

Black males are portrayed in a negative light. When you’re portrayed in a negative light it becomes a negative reality… Kids see a lot of negativity and they start thinking negatively… We need more positive mentors in the community who can deliver the message about what it takes.

Martin said What It Takes will accentuate the positive:

Mentoring is vitally important… There are a lot of black men who are doing positive things and they need to be brought to light.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Anthony Junior, Education Program Manager for the Department of the Navy Office of Naval Research, is a black man who is doing positive things. He is also living proof of what can happen when someone takes the time to share knowledge and wisdom.

Dr. Junior shared his story of being one of those kids that folks cross the street to avoid. With the encouragement and support of a mentor, he went from a GS-4 federal employee to a high-ranking administrator and sought-after speaker with a Ph.D. from Jackson State University:

When you look at where people have arrived, you forget where they come from… Regardless of your circumstances, you were once that same kid, the disruptive kid, the kid who stayed out too late and knew too much.

He encourages young men to dream big:

Do you. Be you. You don’t need to be me. It’s not your circumstances that dictate where you are. Your blackness is not a handicap. Your blackness is a sword and shield that got you where you are.

Dr. Junior reminded us that we stand on the shoulders of unnamed and unsung heroes and heroines who cared enough to get involved in their community. Also, people who dreamed big.

If What It Takes takes root and is successful in Philly, Frisby-Greenwood said the Knight Foundation will roll it out across the country.

So if you have what it takes to show African American males how to get over the barriers to success, take the pledge.

Someone has to care.