This is part 3 in a 4 part series of my thoughts on diversity in tech.
Even if you are a “startup of one” and don't plan to change that employee number anytime soon, I believe that it is--pardon my french--a cop-out to say that diversity initiatives only matter when (and if) you have open positions to fill.
We don't live in a tiny “startup-sized” vacuum (despite how much it can feel like that at times!) We are a part of larger tech ecosystem of the city of Chicago, and beyond.
The new, tiny startups with just a few employees today will eventually grow, and their ability to hire a diverse team 5 to 10 years from now depends on what we are all doing today to retain great diverse talent in our city, attract a host of diverse individuals to our great city, and built relationships and support systems to help bring up the next generation of stem individuals.
To share a recent anecdote, we recently interviewed a woman who moved here from Spain and obtained her masters from IIT. She made it far along in our interview process, but ultimately, the role we were hiring for required a very specific passion area and focus that she was able to explain was an area of interest for her, but not the direction she wanted to take her career.
She already had a work visa, but if she did not find a position with an American-based company by October, that work visa would become invalid. Realizing her awesome potential and what Chicago would lose if she was forced to return to Spain, I began introducing her to the CTOs of similar stage companies in my network. She landed a job 2 days ago at an awesome Chicago-based startup.
That means that one more amazing, bilingual, multicultural, brilliant female engineer stays here in Chicago instead of being forced to leave.
Our community's diversity just improved by one.
No, Packback doesn’t get to see our individual team's diversity change. But this was one of my proudest moments this year to see this talented woman stay in Chicago; 99.99% from her own merit and work ethic, and <0.1% from the introductions we were able to make for her.
Building Diverse Teams Starts LONG Before Hiring Begins
I think a true commitment to diversity is not just about being able to boast the metrics for our own company, but also the less flashy and less visible work that you've done to touch lives and build an inclusive, supportive tech community overall.
And there are countless organizations doing far more than Packback has to support diversity in the Chicago community; Kelly O. Cambry, founder of Paige & Paxton; Nicole Yeary, founder of Ms.Tech; Tosha Ottey, founder of CBWIT; and more. Shradha Agarwal and Rishi Shah have immediately reinvested back into the Chicago community, incubating and funding many social-impact founders who might have been passed over by traditional VCs. Startup incubator and community nexus 1871, led for the past 4 years by Howard Tullman, has been leveraging its influence and network to shine a light on and provide resources to founders from under-represented backgrounds.
But companies don't have to be social-impact organizations dedicated solely to diversity to make an enormous positive impact. There are so many ways that all companies (regardless of industry) can contribute to a more inclusive community, including promoting thoughtful hiring practices, hosting meetup events, offering office hours, volunteering at grade and high schools, volunteering at amazing programs like CodeNow dedicated to supporting the next generation of STEM professionals.
Building a diverse community is about planting seeds of support that your own organization may not be the one to reap. When we all contribute to community-building, we cultivate a richer ecosystem for all of the companies to follow us.
By working together, we can make Chicago the best place to build a business. It starts by making Chicago the best place for all individuals to start, grow and succeed.
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