5 Tech Innovators Share Winning Career Advice

It’s been proven time and again that African Americans, Hispanics, and women are largely underrepresented in the technology field. A 2011 CNN report found that ethnic minorities and women are generally underrepresented in management roles–white and Asian men typically dominate those roles. A 2010 report by CB Insights found that less than 1% of venture capital-backed Internet companies were founded by African Americans. Sure, the statistics are alarming and the reasons for the lack of diversity in the technology industry is debatable, to say the least, but it doesn’t mean African Americans have not successfully forged their own career paths in technology. Check out some of the best pieces of career advice from a few African American trailblazers who have launched successful careers in technology.

[Related: Black Enterprise Launches Inaugural Tech Conference in Silicon Valley]

Tristan Walker, CEO of  Walker & Company Brands, which makes health and beauty essentials for people of color. As one of the most successful African Americans in the technology industry, Walker shared his biggest failure and best piece of advice to entrepreneurs on building a great business.

“Being too safe earlier in my life. I thought I had to work on Wall Street to make my mom proud. I had no idea Silicon Valley even existed.”

“You need to pursue the idea for which you are the best person in the world to solve that problem. It can be freeing. Even though other people may not see it and may tell you that you are wrong, if you are connected to that thing and know you are right, you can succeed. If you are doing something different, someone else with that same idea but with more authenticity will crush you. Jonathan Ive from Apple said in an interview that customers can discern care for a product and they can also discern carelessness. When you are authentic, you care more and that comes through in the product and the brand in such a compelling way that customers will believe it.”

SOURCE: Stanford Business School

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Angela Benton, recognized as a change agent and one of the Internet industries influencers, is the CEO of Black Web Media, founder & CEO of NewME Accelerator, a developer, and a mother. During a 2013 interview with Forbes, she offered some powerful words of advice to young single mothers contemplating careers paths.

“My biggest advice would be find

something that works for you and be persistent. A lot of people get caught up in what you major in and what school you go to just so you can ‘get a good job’ and make a lot of money. I encourage woman to find something they like and are passionate about and see where it takes you. The dots will end up connecting themselves in the end.”

If Benton could go back in time and give herself a pep talk at the beginning of her career:
“I would tell myself to listen to my intuition a little bit more than I did in the past.”

SOURCE:  Forbes, 2013

Don Charlton founded the Resumator, an online recruiting software used by over 6,500 employers including Mashable, Hootsuite and Warby Parker eyewear. During an interview with BlackEnterprise.com, he talked about the biggest challenges he faced launching a startup.

While the Rochester Institute of Technology alum says that time and money were the two biggest challenges he faced starting out as a sole founder of the company, he credits hard work and having a good product as the factors that helped him to raise $18 million in venture capital funding.

“I think, obviously, the

simple answer is if you want to be a tech company you basically have to grow your business and understand how capital is raised and put yourself in a position to actually raise venture capital,” says Charlton who admitted to getting his company name out there by going to a lot of accelerator programs. “I think, to be a little bit more specific, the way we were able to do it was by first and foremost having a really good product. It’s easier to raise capital when people know who you are already because you’ve built a product that people are using and they like.”

Jon Gosier is a data scientist and investor. On his personal blog, he shared the (bad) advice you’ll get as a minority startup founder and his approach to navigating uncharted waters in tech.

“As a black-American I represent less than 2% of the types of tech founders who get backed by VCs [venture capitalists]. I represent even less of the norm of the founders who go on to exit. Also, I didn’t go to an Ivy League school. In fact, I didn’t even go a to a ‘real’ college. I went to an art school. I

never finished. I never formally studied tech. I taught myself how to code on an IBM PS2 in rural Georgia, in a single-parent household. I never considered a career in tech until I took the leap and just did it. I also, never took venture capital. Instead, I bootstrapped myself through several business (Appfrica, MetaLayer, D8A) until I became an angel investor myself.”

“Get used to failure and high-risk scenarios. Those are your two new best friends.”

SOURCE: Jon Gosier.org

Malik Ducard is the Global Head of Family and Learning at YouTube. During an interview with Black Enterprise he offered some winning career advice for young professionals. He urges young professionals to follow their passion for achieving what they want.

“It’s equally important that parents recognize and support the natural interests and curiosities exhibited by their children at [a] young age,” he says. “As for opportunities with the Web, now is really the time to get involved. For content creators, the barriers are real low to creating projects–from the cost of production to distribution. I would encourage new media entrepreneurs to take advantage of this window by creating product and gathering an audience to support your work.”