Black Tech Pipeline, LLC

Since launching in September 2020, Black Tech Pipeline (BTP) has posted 60+ jobs on its job board, worked with over 30 companies on building an inclusive recruitment pipeline, & built a database of over 900 candidates. There's an appetite for our DE&I focused services, our model works, and we're ready to scale.

The Elevate Prize would enable us to: 

1. Increase candidate pipeline. We attract Black talent through community engagement on social media platforms (#BlackTechTwitter), our newsletter, & Slack. With this grant, we'd hire a social strategist & copy-writer to continue managing the community I've built. I'd also hire sourcing assistants that'll locate talent from non-traditional sources. 

2. Increase employer pipeline. I’d like to hire a sales person to field calls, send contracts, & track invoices. Also enlist the support of a COO as a thought partner to strategize on next phase of growth for BTP. 

3. Sustain technological capacity. Most of BTP’s business is conducted online through our job board, video calls, & manually completing tasks. I’d like to hire a CTO & designer to automate tasks & improve our processes but also ensure that our platform can grow with our business as we sign on more candidates & companies.  

I'm an actress, turned Wax Specialist, turned Software Engineer. I learned to code and got my first job as a Software Engineer in 2017. In 2018, I was laid off and on the hunt for a new role. Around that time, I started tweeting about my journey to find a job in tech and vent about the trials and tribulations of being the only Black person at a company. I wanted to know if there were people in tech who looked like me, so I posted a tweet asking, “What Does Black Twitter in Tech look like?” The tweet went viral. Thousands of Black technologists from all around the world responded, starting a movement and community around the hashtag #BlackTechTwitter. Together, we challenged the myth of the pipeline problem according to which the tech industry lacks Black talent because it doesn’t exist. We had made the pipeline visible. Soon I was approached by employers to connect them with the #BlackTechTwitter, and thus Black Tech Pipeline was born. Our mission is to make visible the pipeline of Black talent in tech and increase their access to, and retention in, tech careers. 

Black Tech Pipeline (BTP) brings exposure and opportunity to Black technologists by connecting them with companies committed to diversity and inclusion through our recruitment and job board service. For our recruitment service, we focus on placement and retention through our 90 day check-in model.  For each hire, we provide bi-weekly virtual video check-ins for the first 90 days on the job to ensure employees are having a good experience and have the tools and resources necessary to do well in their role. We then relay this feedback  to the employer and advise them on actionable next steps to set their new hire up for success. 

For our job board, employers fill out a questionnaire that asks about their company values, DE&I practices and policies, relationships between leadership employees, safety and support in the workplace, etc. They also provide us with images of their employees which we then use for our landing pages. This allows candidates to get a  real sense for what the company looks like, the actionable steps they're taking to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive, as they make their decisions about whether to apply for a specific job. Transparency is best and that’s what BTP likes to provide. 

Our recruitment model prioritizes the happiness, safety and health of our hires. Typically, recruiters are solely focused on getting their candidates the job. At BTP, we want our candidates to get the job, but we also want to make sure that they aren’t working at a company that’s being performative and simply checking off a box for a diversity hire. This is why we are

1. We are selective with our clients through our comprehensive check-in process. We act on behalf of the candidate, not the employer.; 

2. We provide continuous support to our candidates through our 90-day onboarding process.

We work with companies seeking to give real opportunity for growth and success, who care about their employees goals and needs, and who want to improve in their DE&I practices. Our model allows for transparency, accountability, and the chance to improve as an organization. 

#BlackTechTwitter brought exposure to the existing Black community in tech and debunked the ‘pipeline problem’ excuse that companies use when we reproach them about their lack of diversity. The hashtag itself is used by companies, organizations, different communities, conference organizers, and even celebrities when promoting opportunities or just good news. #BlackTechTwitter is an official hashtag used on all social platforms to find other community members as well. 

Black Tech Pipeline builds on #BlackTechTwitter to bring job opportunities to our community of Black technologists while supporting companies committed to DE&I and holding accountable. Through our DE&I focused job board and placement and retention services, we have created an authentic and transparent process that redefines what it means to hire equitably. We turn employers away if we feel they aren’t in a space where they could retain one of our candidates. We prioritize the candidate experience and will take actionable steps to hold our employers accountable. Through our recruitment service, we’ve worked with 31 companies since launch and have successfully placed 5 candidates. Through our job board service, we’ve knowingly placed 24 candidates thus far.