Our Black in Tech series features the career path & advice from Black professionals in the tech industry. In this Q&A, Dheeman Abshir, Customer Support Specialist at NuvoAir shares her story.

Where did you grow up and what were you like as a child? What did your parents do for work? 

I had the wonderful opportunity to grow up in two diverse and vibrant cities. I spent most of my childhood in the scenic south of Stockholm, Sweden, where I embraced the outdoors and enjoyed the safety of my neighborhood. Exploring the local parks and playgrounds was a daily adventure. Additionally, my love for books led me to spend countless hours in the local library.

When I turned 11, my family relocated to London, which marked a significant shift in my upbringing. Living in a bustling, multicultural metropolis like London exposed me to a fast-paced and diverse environment. I quickly adapted to the vibrant energy of the city, honing my street smarts and embracing the multicultural tapestry that surrounded me.

Both my parents are remarkable individuals who hail from Somalia. They were young refugees when they came to Europe, seeking a better life. 

Episode #298 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Larry Kim, Founder & CEO of Customers.ai.

Becoming an influencer for a particular topic is very challenging. It’s hard to build up a following at scale. It requires a lot of work in terms of building up an effective content, social media, and speaker strategy to build up engagement.

As a serial entrepreneur, not only was I interested in learning about Larry's journey around building companies, but I was also interested in learning how he went on to become one of the top names and faces in the world of digital marketing.

Larry is an influencer and a highly recognized expert in the digital marketing circles. He has over 725,000 followers on Twitter and is ranked the #8 most popular author on Medium. He is pretty much everywhere - Inc. magazine, CNBC, Business Insider, plus lots of niche publications in the digital marketing industry and he is also involved in lots of speaking engagements at top conferences like Dreamforce, INBOUND, and others.

During our interview, he discusses this topic and shares advice on how others can become an influencer too.

His latest company, Customers.ai is an AI powered sales outreach automation platform. The company recently announced a $4.99M Series A round of funding.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

• The early days of Larry’s career and how he ended up making the change into digital marketing.
• The full lifecycle story of WordStream from the initial ideal to scaling to an exit, plus the story of the AdWords Performance Grader product that was a massive and early PLG success story.
• Advice for founders on bringing in a CEO from the outside and the benefits.
• What led Larry down the path of starting Customers.ai and all the details on the company.
• AI and its impact on digital marketing.
• The meaning behind Larry’s statement - “be a unicorn in a sea of donkeys.”
• And so much more.

If you are listening to this podcast, then it is highly likely that you are interested in the founder journey and lessons learned around building companies. Please make sure you don’t miss any episodes by subscribing to The VentureFizz Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or Soundcloud. Oh, don’t forget to leave us a review. It will really help us out!

Here's your look at the latest hires and promotions across the tech community at Transcarent and RiskOptics.

Did I miss your new employees? Send me an email with their name and details about their new role. I'll add them to next week's edition of Talent on the Move. 

Transcarent

Jarrett Mackin

 

Director, Talent Acquisition at Transcarent

Previously, Director Talent Acquisition at Klaviyo

RiskOptics

Lisa Mogensen

 

Chief Financial Officer at RiskOptics

Previously, Chief Financial Officer at Super Studios Inc.

 

 

Our Black in Tech series features the career path & advice from Black professionals in the tech industry. In this Q&A, Vivian Carter, Instructional Designer at Acquia shares her story.

Where did you grow up and what were you like as a child? What did your parents do for work? 

I grew up in two small towns in northern Florida. Both were in rural settings—the type where you’re almost guaranteed to run into someone you know when you leave your house. As a child, I was very quiet and reserved. I loved to read and excelling in school was always easy for me. 

My mother worked as a housekeeper and eventually owned her own cleaning company. My father was a construction worker at Disney World for several years. He later helped my mother with her cleaning business. Both of them worked hard, physical jobs and would never have dreamed the opportunity to have a career like mine would be available for their children. 

Where did you go to college? What did you study and what did you do after graduating? 

I went to a local community college that offered bachelor’s degrees. I graduated with a degree in supervision and management. Immediately after graduating, I continued to work at Nordstrom before deciding to move on to another company to further my career. 

Later down the road, I wanted to try something new and I moved to China to become an English teacher. Living in China for 2.5 years was an amazing experience that helped me grow so much as a person. I completed a master’s degree in instructional design while working in China and transitioned to my current career soon afterwards.

What has your career path looked like in tech and the various positions you’ve held before joining Acquia? 

Acquia is my first job in tech. Over the last 10 years, I’ve worked in industries such as retail, hospitality, real estate, and international education. In each industry and at each job, I’ve adopted useful habits and processes that helped me improve in the future. 

While attending college for my undergraduate degree, I worked at Nordstrom and was promoted to two different people-leadership positions. This was one of my first forays into creating corporate training because there was always a unique method we used that needed to be documented and taught to new employees. 

A few years later, I worked as an English teacher in China. I moved there 5 months before the pandemic began and left in 2022. I developed curricula for 3 different grade levels, taught classes, managed projects, analyzed learner data, and many other ad-hoc responsibilities (like most teachers). 

Can you share the high-level responsibilities of your current position at Acquia? 

I am responsible for managing the curriculum and associated learning projects for Acquia DAM, a digital asset management system. My work enables customers and employees to competently use the software we create. I build courses, administer a learning management system, develop 

certification exams, and simplify technical documentation. I also work on special initiatives to help raise the bar within our team such as team training, content accessibility audits, and customer education data dashboards. 

What has attributed to your success thus far and what types of obstacles have you had to overcome along the way as a Black professional? 

I attribute my success to being flexible, persistent, open-minded, and working systematically. I’m a huge proponent of documenting everything I can about my work and experiences. It helps in so many ways:

• The act of writing things down makes processes or ideas more memorable.
• It facilitates reflection and the identification of ways to improve processes.
• If you ever need to teach your process to someone else, it’s readily available. 

As a Black professional, especially as one with locs, I’ve had to overcome obstacles related to negative assumptions about my qualifications, abilities, and professional integrity. Sometimes it is subtle and sometimes it is loud. Either way, it’s a recurring issue that’s important to work towards fixing. 

What types of programs and initiatives does Acquia have that support diversity, equity, and inclusion? 

Acquia has a very extensive DEI library of courses on its internal learning management system. It covers a variety of topics from responding to microaggressions to recognizing and overcoming biases to building an inclusive workspace. 

There’s also a DEI roadmap which delves deeper into multiple subjects throughout the year. The meetings help people learn about DEI and provide an opportunity for people to connect. Additionally, Acquia has employee resource groups (ERGs) and Slack special interest groups. 

I am the employee leader for an ERG for Black Acquia employees. Some of our goals include supporting our members in their career goals, educating employees about discrimination, bias, and racism, and providing a space to share lived experiences. 

What advice would you give to other Black professionals who are interested in joining the tech industry? 

I would treat it like joining any other industry or job. Make sure the position and company aligns with what you want to do in the future. Figure out your ultimate (or even medium-term) career goals, break that down into actionable steps, and consistently work at it. Become proficient at using as much software as possible that will be relevant to your future career. 

Networking is always extremely helpful when attempting to get a new job, especially in a new industry. We have the ability to be more connected than ever due to companies like LinkedIn, Fishbowl, Blind, Reddit, and more. Use in-person and online networking to your advantage to get job referrals and insider information about companies. 

Don’t lose hope if networking is not your thing. I got my current job from an Indeed application and I didn’t know a single soul here. If cold applying is your strategy, then you definitely need to find ways to stand out or apply to specific jobs with less competition.

While general awareness of the problem of diversity in the tech industry is a step forward, to make a lasting change, real actions need to be taken. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on what companies or employees can do to step up and make a difference? 

Ideally the DEI commitment is discussed at the executive level, planned and executed like any other business initiative, and regularly mentioned in company-wide meetings. I believe every employee has the ability to contribute to a more diverse and inclusive workplace, and they absolutely should do their part! 

However, the difference of potential change when comparing a person in an entry-level position to someone in the C-Suite is large. Senior leadership sets the tone for how the entire organization behaves and what projects are prioritized, so they are instrumental in creating lasting change. 

Current and potential employees also want to see diverse faces in all levels of seniority in the organization. They may feel like DEI statements are empty promises when diversity is only seen in entry level positions.

Episode #297 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Hari Ravichandran, Founder & CEO of Aura.

The world of cybersecurity gets a lot of attention in companies and enterprises, but when you look at what’s happen with consumers, the numbers for cybercrime and identity theft are staggering. Here are some stats:

• According to a report from the FBI, Americans lost more than $10B last year to cybercrime.
• According to the FTC, there were 1.1 million reports of identity theft in 2022.
• 71% of Veterans and active duty service members have experienced digital crime.
• Let’s not forget about all the data breaches that seem to be a daily occurrence.

It’s a major problem and like any good storyline, you need a hero to take on the bad guys. In this case, the hero is Hari and the team at Aura, who are all working to make a safer internet for everyone with their all-in-one digital protection for consumers. They even have Hollywood superhero Robert Downey, Jr. and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg involved as investors and board members of the company.

Hari is a serial entrepreneur, who started Endurance International Group early on in his career and scaled it from scratch to an IPO in 2013 and grew to over $1B in revenue.

His decision to take on cybercrime and identity theft with Aura was a personal one. In this podcast, he shares his story of being a victim of identity theft which opened up his eyes to the problem. Fast forward, this unicorn company has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors.

In this episode of our podcast, we cover:

• A deep dive into the world of consumer cybercrime and Hari’s thoughts on how AI will factor into the equation.
• The full lifecyle story of Endurance International Group, an early cloud / SaaS company focused on the SMB market.
• All the details about Aura’s platform and how it is helping consumers in terms of its comprehensive approach, plus how they have been building a consumer brand.
• Why you should always bet on yourself and other lessons learned from his entrepreneurial journey.
• And so much more.

Is your company hiring? If yes, then what are you doing to build up your company’s employment brand? If you don’t have a content strategy, then it is likely that you are just flying under the radar. The good news is that we can help! A subscription to VentureFizz includes a content playbook for sharing all the details on your company, culture, and hiring process. We leverage all formats of storytelling to include videos, podcasting, employee profiles, and more. Reach out to [email protected] to learn more.