The issue of diversity in technology and startups has risen to the national spotlight in recent months. Here in Sacramento, Sacramento Business Journal reporter Victor Patton addressed the issue in his August 3 article, “Diversity: The Sacramento tech sector’s advantage.” This article was the inspiration and motivation for StartupSac to host a series of roundtable discussions among Sacramento’s ethnic groups about diversity in our startup and technology community.
I reached out to several Black entrepreneurs and innovators to invite them into the podcast studio to record a roundtable discussion about diversity in the Sacramento startup and tech community. The central question in my mind for this particular episode was, how can we, the community, encourage, empower, catalyze, and grow innovation and entrepreneurship in the Black community in Sacramento to create a more diverse startup and innovation ecosystem.
I invited Victor Patton to be the moderator of the discussion that included entrepreneurs and innovators from Sacramento’s Black community:
- Nicholas Haystings, founder of Square Root Academy
- Mariah Lichtenstern, founder, Cineshares, DivereCity Ventures, Founder Institute Sacramento
- Donte Morris, Dominic Morris, co-founders of Hoop Maps
- Victor Patton, Sacramento Business Journal
- Michael Purnell, founder of Sievent
- Veronica Smith, City of Sacramento economic development and Sacramento Employment and Economic Development (SEED) Corporation
Check out the video below for an engaging discussion on diversity and activating entrepreneurship in Sacramento’s Black community.
Audio Podcast
We’d also like to thank local startup Trifecta for opening up their podcast studio to accommodate us. They’re a great team there and very gracious in giving back to the Sacramento startup community.
If you’d like to hear more from some of the panelists, I’ve interviewed several of them over the past year. Check out the interviews below:
Catch more profiles and interviews with Sacramento startup founders.
