Thread by @SamDeBrule

1/ Only 1% of venture-backed founders are Black.

I'm one of them.

On May 31, I sat crying next to my fiancee as she drove us from Santa Cruz to SF. I was overwhelmed by George Floyd's death and ashamed by how little I'd done to support the Black community.

That changes today.

2/ There are many Black people doing incredible work in Tech.

We need more visibility so we can be examples of what's possible for others who looks like us.

Today, let's shine a light on some of us.

links.usejournal.com/black-in-tech

3/ @swissbeatz is first up. Nathalie is a sales manager at Figma and an OLYMPIC RUGBY PLAYER (!!!)

4/ @6Gems, founder and CEO of Black Girls Code, introduces young women of color to programming and provides them with tools and opportunities to become innovators in STEM.

5/ @FrankDenbow is the big bro. Frank is a Christian artist, DJ, dancer, computer scientist, entrepreneur, and founder of @inkacustom.

You'll never meet a more resilient, resourceful person.

6/ @dewayneroyj withdrew from school, booked a one-way ticket to San Jose, landed at a "hacker hotel" (a hostel!), and now does Business Development at Lambda School - one of the most talked about Tech startups!

7/ @tristanwalker is the founder of Bevel. I've admired him from a distance ever since I read the cold email he used to get his foot in the door at foursquare.

8/ @haleymbryant recently took over as COO at Animalz. If you've ever read a Tech blog post, it's likely that Animalz had a hand in writing it. Watch out for Haley!

9/ @web writes the fantastic 2PM newsletter and co-founded Mizzen+Main. Follow Web!

10/ @OneBandwagonFan is a community builder and founder+CEO of Bandwagon in Austin, Texas!

11/ @TalktoHenryJ helps people find jobs in Tech through his Rocketship Jobs newsletter!

12/ @ArlanWasHere is an all around boss. She is an author, podcaster, and founded Backstage Capital when she was HOMELESS.

13/ Shout out to @MandelaSH! Mandela is the founder and CEO of Founder Gym, a company that helps underrepresented tech startup founders raise money.

14/ @iaboyeji founded freakin ANDELA!

15/ @PhillipJLAubrey was an investor at the venture capital firm Initialized, and is now building a stealth financial technology company. 👀

16/ @JemYoung was always so kind to me when we worked at Chartbeat back in the day. Today, Jem is a software engineer at Netflix and panelist on the Frontend Happy Hour podcast.

17/ @serenawilliams needs no introduction. The most dominant athlete of all time? Yep.

Now she also invests in Tech startups - ~60% of which are WOMEN OR MINORITY LED!

18/ @sarahkunst is the Managing Director at Cleo Capital, and works to empower a network of female angel investors who will help more diverse businesses succeed.

19/ @km founded Kindred Ventures and made early investments in companies ranging from Uber to Blue Bottle Coffee!

20/ @chudson is the Managing Partner (and founder!) of Precursor Ventures.

21/ @mwseibel is an ICON. He founded Justin . tv (you might know it as Twitch), is a partner and the CEO of the YC startup accelerator program, and was recently named to Reddit's board of directors after Alexis Ohanian stepped down.

22/ Adeyemi Ajao co-founded a startup that was sold to Workday, started a $1B+ Latin American ride-sharing company, and is now the co-founder & Managing Partner @Base10Partners.

23/ @mercebent is a Venture Capitalist at Lightspeed, a top VC firm, and writes about the future (check out her post on the experience economy!)

25/ @EricaJoy is a CHAMPION for diversity, equity, and inclusion in Tech, and has been an engineering leader at Google, Slack, Microsoft, and now GitHub.

26./ @david_doswell is a software engineer and an AUTHOR of a science fiction book about the future of Silicon Valley!

27/ @mrjabarihearn is the Vice President of Brand at Lyft and was a Global Marketing Director for years at Google.

28/ @SocialJeremy is the co-founder of a volunteering event that gets startups to give back to local nonprofits, and celebrates diversity through his Spotlight series at Crunchbase.

29/ @justbalbi is has shaped products at Vimeo and Squarespace as a product manager.

30/ @kelseyhightower has brought major products to market through Developer Relationships through roles as an engineer, engineering manager, engineering leader, and now as a Staff Developer Advocate for the Google Cloud Platform.

31/ @recursivefunk has built high-performing engineering teams as an engineering leader at Mapbox and now Till AND helps job-seeking adults in the Washington, DC area and Baltimore learn technical skills through @ByteBackDC.

32/ @fadeke_adegbuyi is a fantastic writer, sharing insights that help people turn tweets into opportunities and stay productive while working remotely.

33/ @kkomari is a senior business leader the VP of Corporate Development at Lyft and helped take the company public.

34/ @swannodette has built applications for the New York Times, the Modern Museum of Art, and frequently gives speeches about ClojureScript.

35/ @hadiyahdotme of HBCUvc is a software engineer who is teaching venture capital and building a community of innovators rooted in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

End/ And there are so many more of us out here.

We have and will continue to excel in Tech.

RT or @ mention someone to celebrate them for setting an example.

thanks for all the wonderful suggestions of folks i wasn't able to highlight the first time!

I've added the following people to the list: @devarispbrown, @monifa, @iamgeoffpope, @ja_akinyele, @MichaelwEllison, @lo_toney, @timsalau, @rulesbycam, @MosesFeaster, @lymusing ....

and more:

@antoniokey, @BrandonDHoffman, @MrStartup, @jongos, @kdwalker, @julesdwalt, @Sherrell_Dorsey, @michellebess

and I'll keep adding to the list here:

links.usejournal.com/black-in-tech