During the latest episode of AfroTech’s Black Tech, Green Money podcast, Elliott Robinson had some time for reflection as he sat down with host, Will Lucas.

“We’ve seen more digital transformation decisions and initiatives being taken by customers and clients in the last two months than in the last two years,” he said, as he reflects on a quote from Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, during episode three.

As partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, Robinson’s main focus is growth investment in cloud and SaaS companies. He looks to team up with management teams and companies who are not only defining their market category but maintaining core values in the process.

Robinson says what this digital transformation means is that there have been legacy industries that have purchased software in a certain way for more than two decades. However, this is changing because they’ve now been forced to do so remotely.

He also reflects on the current pandemic and shares that COVID-19 has been interesting now that everyone is working from home and may be doing so indefinitely, particularly in the tech space.

“This means people don’t have to move to LA to find suitable employees or jobs within the tech space,” said Robinson.

In the episode, he further elaborates on how companies can now grow large, efficient teams from anywhere in the country thanks to this new remote working landscape. Although there’s some promising ways to look at this current shift, Robinson also gets candid about what lies ahead.

“We’re about to enter a period of uncertainty that we’ve never seen,” he said.

In the same light, Robinson also makes it clear that the future is promising for Black startups around the world who have now had to make changes in the wake of a pandemic that will alter the way we view cloud computing and enterprise software forever.

Robinson is a co-author of Bessemer’s iconic 10 Laws of Cloud Computing and the annual State of the Cloud Report. For him, the excitement that comes out of this uncertainty is the growing number of enterprise and cloud software opportunities that are founded by not just Black founders, but LatinX and women founders as well.

Listen to episode three below for more on how cloud computing accelerates innovation during the age of COVID-19 in stubborn industries, how Black people can finally capitalize on the culture we lead, and how to get more Black-led startups past series A.

Elliott Robinson

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