Closing the Adult Education Gap for Employers and Employees, with Ned Zimmerman-Bence, GogyUp
GogyUp removes language barriers from the workplace. According to the most recent report from the US Department of Labor, there are currently 6.9 million job openings in the US. In the last month alone, job openings in nondurable goods manufacturing increased by more than 30,000. Businesses are finding it difficult to find qualified employees who […]
The Many Side-Hustles of Sherrell Dorsey, ThePLUG and BLKTECHCLT
ThePLUG is the first daily tech newsletter covering founders and innovators of color. What do these people have in common: Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry Page, Tim Cook, and Larry Ellison? Yes, these are all icons of the tech industry. They also happen to be white men. Sherrell Dorsey of ThePLUG […]
Making Technology Fun, Relevant, and Accessible for Girls, with Betty Gronneberg, uCodeGirl
uCodeGirl offers pathways to technology careers for teen girls by tapping into their curiosity, skills, and potential. Betty Gronneberg grew up in Ethiopia. She attended Addis Ababa University where she majored in statistics. Betty recalls a day in college when she saw her name on a list of students who had been accepted into the […]
Civic Engagement in a Digital World, with Damola Ogundipe, Civic Eagle
Civic Eagle is a technology startup that creates Software as a Service (SaaS) tools for local and state governments, and policy advocacy organizations. Damola Ogundipe says, “I’ve always kind of known that I wanted to take an entrepreneurship route.” During college, he ran a successful sneaker retail company on eBay. In 2011, Damola graduated from […]
Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Humanitarian Missions, with Lori Most, BinaryBridge
BinaryBridge creates software that helps humanitarians do their work effectively and efficiently. Lori Most grew up seeing television commercials of humanitarian crises, especially in Africa. Lori recounted, “I always wanted to go to Africa and help…I thought ‘I’m going to grow up and go over there.” In college, she started as a pre-med student. Partway […]
Removing Barriers to Healthcare in Ethiopia Through MedTech, with Yohans Wodaje Emiru, helloDoctor
Dr. Yohans Wodaje Emiru is the founder of Telemed Medical Services. Their flagship service is helloDoctor. For every doctor in Ethiopia, there are more than 30,000 patients. Compare that to less than 400 patients per doctor in the United States. Millions of Ethiopian patients are cut off from medical services due to geography and infrastructure. […]
Fighting Air Inequality through Open Data, Open Source Tools and Collaboration, with Christa Hasenkopf, OpenAQ
OpenAQ aggregates and shares air quality data from around the world in order to fight air inequality. How big of an issue is air pollution? The World Health Organization estimates that one out of every eight deaths on the planet is related to air pollution. That’s more than HIV/AIDS and Malaria combined. Most of these […]