This has been an important weekĀ for our country. For the tech industry, it hits close to home:

  • African Americans are 14% of the U.S. population but receive less than 1% of venture capital.
  • Black workers only make up between 1-2% of the workforce at several prominent tech companies.
  • Black men represent only 2% of employees at VC firms. Black women don’t even rank a full percentage point.

Powderkeg supports the Black communityĀ in the face of systemic racism and injustice. There’s a lot of work to be done in our industry and in our country to help provide equal opportunity for allā€”no matter who you are, what you do, or where you live.

We did not publish podcast episodes this week to make more space for the important conversation happening right now and there is so much more we can be doing to help make a difference. More to come on that front.

Youā€™ll find some of the most important articles surrounding this topic in todayā€™s email, as well as some of the other top stories from this week.

In today’s edition of TheĀ Spark:

  • šŸ’°$100 Mill. for Founders of Color
  • šŸš€Opportunity Sky Rockets
  • āœˆļøCali Jobs Move Inland

This Week’s Stories…

$100 Million for Founders of Color

Tokyo basedĀ SoftBankĀ announced a new investment fund to help back entrepreneurs of color, part of its contribution to trying to redress the imbalance of power as it has played out in the tech world. Launching theĀ Opportunity Growth Fund, SoftBankā€™s COO Marcelo Claure announced that the fund will initially start with $100 million and ā€œwill only invest in companies led by founders and entrepreneurs of color.ā€

Midwest VCs Stand Together In Support

Mary GroveĀ and other members of the VC community in Minneapolis affirmed their values and commitment by standing with the BLM movement. Following the murder of George Floyd,Ā Forge North announcedĀ their focus to ā€œlevel the playing fieldā€ for access to capital in the tech community, stating, ā€œWe are committed to broadening and demystifying the closed networks that usually accompany venture capital.ā€

VC Firms Speak in Solidarity

More than 90% of venture capital funding goes to white-led ventures.Ā Twitter statements from many white-dominated venture funds, from Silicon Valley and across the country, point to rising awareness that permanent change for equality in venture funding is needed:

  • Sequoia: ā€œChange starts with each of us holding ourselves accountable.ā€
  • FirstRound: ā€œThereā€™s a tremendous amount of work to be done in our industry and in our country.ā€
  • Gener8tor:Ā ā€œAs a company, we demand action and donated $5,000 ($100 per employee) to the Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) to fight for meaningful and necessary change.ā€
  • Hyde Park Venture Partners:Ā ā€œWe stand against social injustice and racism and laud peaceful organization and protest as a means of social change.ā€
  • KleinerPerkins:Ā ā€œWe can, and will, do better.ā€
  • Revolution:Ā ā€œEveryone, including all of us at Revolution, who backs startups needs to do more.ā€
  • Benchmark:Ā ā€œThe partners of Benchmark have been and are contributing to organizations such asĀ @eji_org,Ā @NAACP_LDF, andĀ @innocence. Please consider joining us, there’s much more to do.ā€

Whether these statements will translate to more investment from these funds in BIPOC-led ventures remains to be seen, but we hope this is the start of a big change.

Opportunity Sky Rockets

Last weekendā€™s SpaceX launch put the spotlight back on space startups. Innovation around space exploration is happening around the country, especially around what is known as the ā€œSpace Coastā€ on the east coast of Florida. ā€œRise of the Restā€ ChampionĀ Steve Case recently resharedĀ video footage from last yearā€™s Rise of The Rest trip in Florida, where Powderkeg was able to join and meet some of the most innovativeĀ space startups.

Cali Jobs Move to ā€œMighty Middleā€

San Francisco based fashion company Stitch FixĀ announced this week that it is planning to cut over 1,400 jobs at its California location and move these opportunities to less expensive markets in the middle of the country. This cut will represent around 18% of Stitch Fixā€™s staff but most will be given the opportunity to relocate to different markets in order to keep their role.

Startup Hits 100k, Pledges $100k

Career Karmaā€™s CEO Ruben Harris recently announcedĀ that his company Career Karma has reached over 100,000 users this year and called for more action and collaboration from the tech community on the BLM movement. To celebrate this major milestone Career Karma is raising $100,000 worth of resources to help the community to continue training. Just last month the company launchedĀ FastTrackĀ to help users to get matched with coding bootcamps.


Startups Still Hiring Amidst Crisis:

Know someone looking for a new gig?Ā The economy is unpredictable right now, but startups in the middle of the country are still hiring.

We have a few of our Top Powderkeg Picks below:

Companies who are hiring:

  • Indianapolis, IN
    • SEPĀ is a software product design and development company hiring a senior software engineer.
  • Cincinnati, Ohio
    • Cerkl BroadcastĀ is a workforce communication tool hiring software engineers and quality assurance analysts.
    • LosantĀ is an enterprise IoT platform hiring front-end and software engineers.
  • Philadelphia, PA
    • SchollyĀ is a student success platform hiring developers, designers and marketers.
  • McKinney, TX
    • PestRoutesĀ is a pest control platform hiring developers, an HR generalist, marketers, and product managers.
  • Atlanta, GA
    • PindropĀ is an authentication and fraud detection platform hiring a production support engineer.
  • Raleigh, NC
    • KlarrioĀ is an IoT, big data, and analytics company hiring site reliability engineers.
    • LifeOmicĀ is a cloud-based health platform hiring machine learning, full stack and software engineers.
  • Las Vegas, NV
    • PigeonlyĀ is a communications platform hiring engineers, business development representatives and an account manager.
  • Multiple Locations
    • Brite Systems is an application development company hiring IT/cybersecurity consultants, developers, CRM consultants, Salesforce administrators, Sharepoint administrators, and business analysts.

Igniting Potential

Get the inside scoop on even more interesting companies, stories, and strategies to help you reach your full potential.

This blog post was curated by Alexander, Meg, Casey, and myself from the Powderkeg team, and written with the help of our friends at Metonymy Media.

Got 30 seconds?Ā Share some good news with us! The Powderkeg team will share the best stories in an upcoming virtual event, on social, or in a future blog. Let us know!

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