by Uchechi | Oct 10, 2014 | Blog
Topic: Can social capital support diverse tech entrepreneurship?
Date: Sunday October 12,2014 8pmCT
Thank you for showing up, for trusting and for engaging in these conversations. The next diversity in tech #yeswecode twitter chat happens on Sunday September 28th at 8pm Central Time. Please connect with me on Twitter to stay updated. I am so inspired by all of you.
If you’re reading this, I hope you can join us for the next one. If you missed the first chats, you can read more about them here. Before participating, please read the guidelines so you know what to expect and how to best participate.
During the last chat, we talked about VC funding and how it can be a barrier to tech entreprenurship. But lately I’ve been wondering, does it have to be? What if they there were creative ways we could all support diverse tech startups, including bootstrapping companies. Does lack of VC funding have to mean the end? What if social capital could help bootstrap tech entrepreneurs until we all got the venture capital resources we all need to go big.
Think about it! Remember the last time you smiled to yourself after your blog post got retweeted, favorited, liked or shared? It felt pretty awesome now didn’t it?
Finding backing for your project, idea or blog post is essential because it validates what you are already doing and gives you the momentum to keep going.
The truth is, we’re not all VCs and we might not all find VC funding to help us get to market. But, we all have social capital–the ability to invest in ideas with our social media networks and connections. So, what if we could use it and leverage it to support diversity in technology?
For the next chat, here are some questions to think of:
- How can social capital help bootstrapping startups get to market before receiving VC capital?
- Are there specific ways to leverage social capital towards generating more users and sales?
- How can we leverage social capital in positive ways, without it becoming more of a popularity contest?
Bring your thoughts and your great ideas. This conversation needs you!
by Uchechi | Sep 25, 2014 | Blog
Creating a diverse VC pool to support diverse tech entrepreneurship
Sunday September 28th at 8pm
Guests: Rob Lalka, J. Anthony Miguez & Hank Torbert
Thank you for showing up, for trusting and for engaging in these conversations. The next diversity in tech #yeswecode twitter chat happens on Sunday September 28th at 8pm Central Time. Please connect with me on Twitter to stay updated. I am so inspired by all of you.
If you’re reading this, I hope you can join us for the next one. If you missed the first chats, you can read more about them here. Before participating, please read the guidelines so you know what to expect and how to best participate.
Creating a diverse VC pool to support diverse tech entrepreneurship
These days, it’s hard to talk about the startup tech space without also talking about diversity and efforts to help bridge the digital divide.
From initiatives like Google’s Made With Code to Van Jones’ Yes We Code, more and more organizations are using tech education to bring more diversity to technology.
But, what about those of us in the tech space whose needs are more related to startup funding than tech education? As a tech startup co-founder, I definitely have a personal stake in the subject.
In 2013, 2% of VC funding went to women-led startups, while the majority of the funding went to white male led companies.
Here’s the thing: To me, diversity in technology has never been about a numbers game. It’s been more connected to opportunity and access for all tech entrepreneurs, especially if you don’t fit the stereotype of the 20 year old Stanford CS major.
- It’s about older tech entrepreneurs who are interested in starting companies, but wondering if there’s space for them.
- It’s about anyone who never went to college, who wonders how much a degree matters.
- It’s about non coders who want to bring their UX Design or Information Architecture skills to the table, but aren’t sure if there’s space for them in the startup world, especially as non coders.
- It’s about saying that all of us, yes all of us, need to be creators & users of technology products if we are to be at the forefront of tech innovation.
In order for us to get there, I believe we need access to tech skills AND startup capital – including a diverse pool of Angels and VCs – to support an equally diverse pool of entrepreneurs.
During this chat, we’ll discuss unique ways we can find financial support for tech entrepreneurship. We’ll be joined by VCs and startup mentors, so you don’t want to miss this one.
Bring your thoughts and your great ideas. This conversation needs you!
by Uchechi | Sep 3, 2014 | Blog
Thank you for showing up, for trusting and for engaging in these conversations. The next diversity in tech #yeswecode twitter chat happens on Sunday September 7th at 8pm Central Time. Please connect with me on Twitter to stay updated. I am so inspired by all of you.
If you’re reading this, I hope you can join us for the next one. If you missed the first chats, you can read more about them here. Before participating, please read the guidelines so you know what to expect and how to best participate.
Is a college education necessary for gaining access to tech jobs?
Many successful tech startup founders have one thing in common: they were all college dropouts or didn’t go to college at all. The success of college dropouts in the tech space has raised this question: Is college a necessary piece of gaining access to tech jobs?
A recent article in Fast Company tells the story of alternatives to college for youth interested in tech careers. During the next #yeswecode chat, we’ll discuss the following ideas:
- Is college attendance/graduation a necessary qualification for a career in tech?
- How does having a degree affect one’s access to tech jobs?
- Should we encourage tech career oriented youth to attend college in the first place?
- Do cultural & socioeconomic factors play a role? How?
Chat Goals:
- To always focus on solutions
- To network and create visibility around diverse tech communities
- To find out what the diverse tech community needs are and help support it
Feel free to hit me up in the comments with your ideas. Note: If you’re here to share positive suggestions, feel free to post. You don’t have to agree with me (in fact, I encourage everyone to share their perspective), but being respectful is important. If you feel the need to name call or say mean things for the sake of being mean, then this conversation is probably not a good fit. Thank you!
by Uchechi | Aug 24, 2014 | Blog
Thank you for showing up, for trusting and for engaging in these conversations. The next diversity in tech #yeswecode twitter chat happens on Sunday August 24th at 8pm Central Time. Please connect with me on Twitter to stay updated. I am so inspired by all of you.
If you’re reading this, I hope you can join us for the next one. If you missed the first chats, you can read more about them here. Before participating, please read the guidelines so you know what to expect and how to best participate.
Is there space at the tech career path table for non coders?
Yes, there is! From my perspective, diversity in technology is about finding a place at the table if and when you don’t fit the stereotype of who you think you’re supposed to be to work in tech. This week we’ll be talking about the importance of diverse tech skills as a way to make the tech space more diverse.
I’m a user experience designer, which means I’m in charge of shaping the emotional experience you have when you interact with a website or mobile app. There’s more to it, and you can see my ideas about UX here.
Coding is great, and we definitely couldn’t run our web development company without it. But, our team also does user experience design, graphic design, seo, social media consulting for clients and more. We couldn’t create great websites and apps for our clients or our social wedding planning startup if we didn’t have diverse skills.
Here’s the quick history of the #yeswecode twitter chats: A few days before the #yeswecode events in New Orleans, LA from July 3rd-6th, I decided to host a tech inclusion chat, focusing on creative ideas to help make the tech space more diverse. My husband and I run a tech startup in New Orleans, and our company collaborated as local partners with the #yeswecode hackathon.
I wanted to host a chat for the following reasons:
- I wanted to engage the #yeswecode participants who would be traveling to New Orleans in a conversation as a way to connect us all.
- Secondly, I wanted to leverage twitter to have a global conversation about a topic that affects all of us in this space.
Chat Goals:
- To always focus on solutions
- To network and create visibility around diverse tech communities
- To find out what the diverse tech community needs are and help support it
Feel free to hit me up in the comments with your ideas. Note: If you’re here to share positive suggestions, feel free to post. You don’t have to agree with me (in fact, I encourage everyone to share their perspective), but being respectful is important. If you feel the need to name call or say mean things for the sake of being mean, then this conversation is probably not a good fit. Thank you!
by Uchechi | Aug 14, 2014 | Blog
In honor of turning 36, I’m sharing a letter I wrote to myself last year on my 35th birthday.
Birthdays mean so much to me, and here’s why:
It is the morning of August 14th, 2013 and today is my 35th birthday. It is barely sunrise and I want to get this all down before my day starts. We are spending our summer in Barcelona, and so my husband has planned a get away to the Girona, Spain, a lakeside town an hour away. I am sure we will eat somewhere lovely for dinner, and of course there will be delicious Spanish food and a white wine because it is summer and I love white wine in the summertime.
Today is also my twin sister’s birthday. We don’t look anything alike, but sharing a birthday with someone is a not so easy to describe yet concrete set of emotions, especially when that person is someone I have not spoken to for almost two years now.
There is a heartbreaking yet extremely delicate sliver of absence that washes over me on mornings like this. These are days I experience just a few times a year, when I crave, no actually when I hunger for home and what that means.
Since my younger brother died 13 years ago, I started seeing birthdays as my personal new year’s celebrations.
When August rolls around, I start thinking about what I want my year to look like until my next birthday, what I want to let go of, keep near and the risks I want to take.
When I turned 32, I had only one resolution: I wanted to be alive to celebrate my 33rd birthday. 33 is the year my older brother died, just a few years after my younger brother died, so I wanted to know what it was like to live longer than both of them ever did. Now I know.
The truth is, I don’t really know exactly what to say or write on my 35th birthday. There is nothing specific or necessary to explain to the people I love. But there is something important for me to be able to express, and that is this: More than anything my dear life (so far) has been a full and rich one. And, this birthday means something of so much significance to me for so many reasons, especially because this is the year I’m thinking of having children, the year I start a company, the year I learn how to say CEO as if it belongs comfortably on my tongue, the year I believe more and more in not only my right to be in this world but my purpose for being here.
Today I am 35 years old, married to a man I dearly love, in business with this same man, co-founding our start up company, publishing my second book, thinking about starting a family and deeply in love with the family that has become my own by experience and by a depth of love and acceptance I am so lucky to have in my life.
A few weeks ago I talked to my god mother, who reminded me of what I have accomplished in my life. I was having a tough day and she reminded me that I should go “read my resume” and that this would help me feel better. I have read that resume over and over again and I am beyond proud of the woman I am. I am in awe. If I read my story in the newspaper I would be in awe, so why not give that same acknowledgment to a story that is true and that belongs to me.
Today is my New Year’s Day. For the next year, my resolutions look something like this:
- be braver
- listen more
- love the most when you don’t feel like it
- bet on yourself first
- forgive yourself easily & often
- read your resume more often
- when you don’t feel like being brave, ask someone else to help you
- know that your life has always had a purpose & that each moment add to that
And so, Happy New Birthday Year to myself and the ones I love.
xoxo,
Uchechi
by Uchechi | Aug 3, 2014 | Blog
This week, I had my first startup meltdown.
Sound familiar?
Have you ever been up to your eyeballs (or should I say the water is already floating over your head and you’re trying not to drown) in overwhelm?
That was me yesterday. I didn’t want to do anything and felt completely exhausted.
As a bootstrapping company, we’ve had some hard times over the past year, but yesterday was really hard.
Let me give you a little social wedding planning startup 101.
We built wedocracy to plan our Nigerian-American-Jewish wedding in Mexico, and it helped us celebrate one of the most amazing days of our lives. Since then, we’ve been bootstrapping our company for a year. I can’t overstate how much this has helped us shape the product, and focus on building something to help engaged couples and their guests have an amazing wedding experience via social wedding planning.
And now, we’re hurting because we’re running out of money.
I know the statistic: 90% of startups fail. But, I want us to have a fighting chance. I want to know we gave it our all.
Right now, we’re working our butts off to launch the mobile app (6 weeks away & we’re keeping our fingers crossed) and we’re counting the pennies to make sure the money will be enough.
Remember your childhood piggy bank? I remember how excited I was to turn it over and collect my savings when I really wanted something special. I saved for my first grown up bike. It was exactly 63 dollars and I remember counting each dollar and penny and feeling my palms sweat as I prayed it was enough.
I pray we have enough to get us launched.
My husband and I both worried that we won’t have enough money and a flood of emotions came crashing down. And so, instead of stopping them, I let myself cry. I let myself feel tired. I let myself lay in bed. I let myself stop, and I let myself ask: Why are you doing this?
Let’s get the money part out of the way. Of course I’m doing this because I want it to be a financially lucrative business. Who doesn’t want that for their company. But, I can take a pass on the craft beer and ping pong tables.
Before I wrote this post, I listened to a poem I wrote called To the poet not yet born, which deals with what happens when we know what we were born to do. Here is my favorite line:
You now know what you were born to do
Although I was referring to being a poet, the words still ring true when it comes to running our startup.
After publishing my first book of poetry, I was asked why I chose writing.
I wrote this poem as my response to this question because I never thought about choosing to be a poet. I always knew it was something I was born to do.
I’ve always enjoyed helping people by sharing my experiences. I’m good at taking my life experiences and giving it back to people in a way that’s useful to me and to them. As a poet, I got so much out of performing and watching people in the audience nod their heads (don’t worry, the post about my experience as a poet-techie is coming soon) when something I said resonated with them. There’s a craft to poetry. There’s the art of taking life as we know it and transforming it into something else. There’s something magical about saying: This is not how it has to be. Here’s another way to look at this.
I had to figure out why solving this problem was so important
I reminded myself of the fact that so many people don’t get to enjoy their weddings as much as I did. So many people have wedding horror stories and after spending tons of money, have nothing to show for it except regret. I realized that the same motivation for my writing also influences my creativity in tech startup land. I found myself saying: This is not how it has to be. There is another way to do this.
We created wedocracy because we want to help more and more people live with less regret, especially on one of life’s most important days. Life is short. Life celebrations don’t happen so often. Let’s make them count. Let’s make them amazing!
Today, I feel inspired again.
I know that I’m doing this because our lives are made up of these amazing moments that shape them. We have a chance to engage and transform our experiences. I created wedocracy because I want to help people enjoy this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Weddings should be amazing. Mine was, and if I can help you do the same, then I’m all in.
Have you ever had a business-related meltdown? What got you back on your feet again?
