For years Black women have fought for a seat at the table in their respective industries. People of color are often excluded and neglected in the tech industry thus proving it difficult to find safe spaces to convene together. The disparity for Black women in tech has made it a struggle to level the playing field across the board, but these three founders created a platform to disrupt the lack of diversity in tech and empower Black women looking to grow billion-dollar enterprises. Esosa Ighodaro, Lauren Washington, and Regina Gwynn all recognized the challenges that many Black women face trying to launch and maintain businesses when they first met. They then banded together to create Black Women Talk Tech (BWTT), an organization founded to connect Black women in the tech industry and provide them with the tools they need to be successful business owners. Established in 2017, the organization has grown to expand into 10 local chapters in cities across the country with one overseas in...

While Detroit’s tech ecosystem is booming, the venture-backed startup teams raising a record amount of funding fail to reflect the diversity of the Motor City, according to a new report. EntryPoint—a startup entrepreneurial community dedicated to fostering inclusion—released the 2018 Detroit Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Report showing a 54 percent increase in the number of Detroit venture-backed startups in the last four years. The report found that 18 of the 37 active startups raised $41 million in venture capital investment. In a city where the Black population is nearly 80 percent, the tech community is 85 percent white men. Despite the growth, only three out of the 37 active startups are led by a diverse founder. “We’re really seeing that Detroit has a flourishing high-tech entrepreneur ecosystem and it’s really not hard to see why, whether it’s robust engineering talent, a lower cost of living, proximity to (research institutions),” said Emily Heintz, founder and managing director...