This Black Woman Talks Tech. What Do You Talk About?
Part of a series | Women's History Month Series
Celebrate Women's History Month throughout 2024 with Esosa Ighodaro, cofounder of Black Women Talk Tech.
Technology entrepreneur Esosa Ighodaro showed up to a meeting.
"Hello, I am Esosa Ighodaro. I am the founder of CoSign. We are an image recognition company that uses the power of machine learning to turn social media posts into shoppable content."
"Okay, nice to meet you. "You can sit down. We're just going to wait for the founder."
Had this person heard her?
… I am the founder …
"People don't expect me to say I'm an image recognition founder," Esosa says. "So many times, I've had to figure out adversity as a person of color, but that just comes with the stripes."
A Black woman talks tech
Esosa and her CoSign cofounder, now her husband, have since sold the business. But that remark in the meeting left a lasting impression. Years later, it still stings.
"Even when I was in finance, people often thought I was in a nonleadership role," Esosa says. "They didn't think I was leading the charge."
But she was leading the charge. Before CoSign, she was an executive at one of the largest banking companies in the world. She was comfortable and accomplished yet unchallenged ("I could do it in my sleep") and unfulfilled ("I was so bored"). She'd grown up in a highly entrepreneurial family, graduated business school and spent years climbing the ladder before the ennui of success set in. She might still be in finance if not for a Big-Five developer she met through mutual friends.
"He said he wanted to leave his full-time job to reskin apps. He was telling me how people were selling apps for millions," she says. "I asked him to create a class so I could get a sense of it, and I learned about technology there. I started going to conferences to learn more about what was going on in the app world. I ran into a stranger on the subway who happened to be in technology and was picking his brain."
Suddenly, Esosa was talking tech everywhere she turned. Mere months after meeting that subway stranger – a Black man who talked tech – CoSign was founded.
Two Black women talk tech
While leading CoSign, Esosa expanded her network. She attended a technology event focused on fashion and beauty founders, where she met Regina Gwynn. Regina was building an on-demand beauty-booking app for curly-haired women.
"I started sharing the challenges I was having, and she was like, 'I'm having the same challenges!'" Esosa says. "She was the only other Black woman in the room."
While talking tech and commiserating, the two arrived at an idea: a space where other Black women could do the same.
That type of chance meeting – between two Black women in technology – is hard to come by. Just 3 percent of all women working in computing-related occupations in the United States are Black women, and Black women account for just 0.7 percent of all information technology (IT) roles. Seventy percent of Black women technology founders are solo founders, and 91 percent say they have other jobs, given the lack of funding to support themselves solely through their ventures. Overall, entrepreneurship for Black women has experienced an upward trajectory. Black-women-owned employer businesses increased by 18.14 percent between 2017 and 2020, outpacing women-owned businesses (9.06 percent) and Black-owned businesses (13.64 percent). But simply owning a business doesn't equal business longevity or business funding. As of 2021, 3 percent of Black women entrepreneurs ran mature businesses, or businesses surviving past five years. As of 2022, Black women entrepreneurs receive less than 1 percent of total venture capital (VC) funds.
A roadmap to billions
Freshly inspired, Esosa and Regina planned their first event supporting Black women technology entrepreneurs. They sent an email blast to their networks to test the waters, expecting a modest response. Was there demand for this type of event? Were they alone in their interest?
"We had over 300 people apply," Esosa says. "We discovered that there were a ton of Black women building businesses who were interested in how to grow and scale in a safe environment. We thought, 'We'll have a community of women who can support each other and each other's businesses.' We thought, 'We can surround ourselves with people and resources specific to our needs as Black women because we are often overlooked.'"
That event was Black Women Talk Tech's (BWTT's) first conference, Roadmap to Billions (RTB). "There wasn't a roadmap to billions designed for us, so we created our own," reads the BWTT website. RTB offers "resources and support to help Black women technology founders turn their dreams into billion-dollar realities." According to the RTB website, "It is the largest gathering of Black female technology founders created by and for Black female technology founders in the world." With sponsors from numerous companies, including ADP, RTB will celebrate its eighth year in 2024.
Expansion, generative AI and BWTT's impact
In addition to connecting Black women technology entrepreneurs with technologists, investors and VC funding opportunities, career opportunities, a membership platform and various programs, Black Women Talk Tech has also launched "The New Face of a Founder," a report on Black women technology founders, and "The Face of a Founder Summit," dedicated to fundraising for Black founders. Affiliate organizations, specifically Black Men Talk Tech, co-founded by Esosa's husband, and the Google-sponsored Black Students Talk Tech, have also been launched. And now, Esosa is putting effort into generative artificial intelligence (AI).
"AI is being introduced through our events and membership programs," she says. "We have started delving into AI-driven data analytics to gather insights from participant interactions, AI-personalized content and recommendations and AI skills assessment and development. BWTT has always created a cutting-edge environment."
On BWTT's purpose and future, Esosa says, "I hope BWTT empowers women to embrace their roles as tech entrepreneurs. We want to give them the opportunity of visibility and representation, which is crucial in challenging stereotypes and promoting diversity in the broader tech community. By advocating and connecting Black women in the tech industry, BWTT helps contribute to a more diverse, inclusive and innovative tech ecosystem."
BWTT, ADP and diverse businesses
ADP established a partnership with BWTT at the 2023 RTB conference. ADP sponsored the event and entered into a diverse markets partner agreement with BWTT, providing a discount for RUN Powered by ADP, complimentary HR consultations, a dedicated ADP representative and resources and tools such as custom webinars.
"This partnership is important because business owners in underrepresented demographics are growing faster than ever and have expressed needs for education, support ecosystems and financial assistance," says Lauren Akainyah, vice president, sales, diverse markets, ADP. "ADP's diverse markets program provides us with tangible ways to support these business owners through our existing infrastructure, ultimately supporting long-term pathways to sustainability."
Discover ADP's solutions for diverse markets
Learn more about:
- Black Women Talk Tech [Business website]
- Roadmap to Billions 2024 [Conference website]
- Black Men Talk Tech [Business website]
- Black Students Talk Tech [Program web page]
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