Austin has won countless accolades for its fast-moving startup scene, ballooning tech sector and chart-topping population boom. But there's another story happening. The percentage of African Americans in Austin has decreased over the past two decades as the flow of predominately white tech workers has helped fuel the growth of the tech sector and driven up the cost of living.
Austin's entrepreneurial spirit -- and the addition of big offices for companies like Apple and Oracle -- create a lot of opportunities for people of all races. But major questions remain, for both the global tech community and the city of Austin.
For example, black female founders made up just less than a percent -- 0.2 percent -- of all venture capital deals from 2012 to 2014, according to study released earlier this year by #ProjectDiane. Meanwhile, only about 1 percent of Hispanic-owned businesses got venture capital or angel investments between 2007 and 2012, a Stanford Graduate School of Business survey showed. And, despite significant efforts, only about 2 percent of the workforce at Google, Facebook and Twitter are black.
We all know that must change in the near term. And, in Austin, organizations such as Urban Co-Lab, Diversity Fund and others are helping encourage diverse entreprenuers to start companies and navigate the venture capital landscape.
"Truth be told, being in Austin, I’m probably the only Black tech startup founder/CEO 95 percent of the people I know have met," Joah Spearman, co-founder of Localeur, wrote in a blog earlier this year. "But, even still, I feel like it’s not so much a burden as an opportunity to show a city what is possible."
In this article and the related "Diversity in Tech Reception" at Urban Co-Lab, we are focused on celebrating diverse founders and advancing the conversation around how startups, venture capitalists and major tech companies can increase diversity.
We used our experience reporting on startups and tech in Austin, combined with nominations and suggestions from founders, VCs and friends, to build this list of diverse founders to watch in Austin.
Sterling Smith, founder of Sandbox Commerce: While users shift to mobile for just about everything, Smith has found an opening. Sandbox Commerce helps retailers create clean, sleek mobile apps in a few steps. Sandbox is his second company, the first being app development company Keystoke, also located in Austin. He was named the 2015 Austinpreneur of the Year by the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce.
Mark Phillip, founder of Are You Watching This?!: Phillip started Are You Watching This?! in 2006 after a career that took him from Microsoft to Trilogy to T3. The platform sends emails and texts when a sports event is hitting its crescendo, making sure users catch the most exciting moments. It licenses the real-time data to cable companies and sports properties around the globe.
Marcus Carey, founder of Vthreat: Carey, a former National Security Agency hacker, founded Vthreat to give companies of any size a suite of apps IT security professionals use to test networks and computer systems with a variety of hacking techniques. It provides detailed reports about the simulated breaches. Late last year, it advanced in the 1776 Challenge Cup at Capital Factory.
Tony Aguilar, founder of Student Loan Genius: Aguilar was inspired to start Student Loan Genius after being the first in his family to graduate high school and college, only to be left saddled with over $100,000 in debt. The company gives workers options pay down debt while saving for retirement. The company has raised a $3 million seed round and Aguilar met with President Obama to discuss ways to ease the student debt crisis.
Adrianna Cantu, co-founder of Revealix: Cantu, a former VP of clinical operations for American Medical Technologies, co-founded Revealix in 2013. The company provides healthcare analytics software that is in stealth mode.
Joah Spearman, co-founder of Localeaur: Spearman built Localeur to tap into a growing trend of experience-seeking travelers. With over 1 million users and a partnership with JetBlue and Tablet Hotels, the company gives travelers access to local insight so they can find their next favorite coffee shop or boutique when they travel.
Sam Ulu, founder of Kandid.ly: Olu co-founded Kandid.ly in Cincinnati in 2013 with Maria Walley. The company, which has since relocated to Austin, connects consumers with freelance photographers at a relatively low cost. The company is a recent graduate of Techstars accelerator program in Austin. Prior to Kandid.ly, Olu was a simulation engineer at Proctor & Gamble.
Alejandra Rodriguez Boughton, founder of La Flaka Urban Gardens: Rodriguez Boughton, a freelance business intelligence consultant, founded La Flaca in 2014. It's an urban agriculture startup that grows herbs and other ingredients for chefs and catering companies.
Tausha Robertson, founder of Primpii: Robertson, who co-founded and was a senior director at Alterity Group LLC, founded Primpii, an app that connects consumers with beauty professionals, in 2015. She was named among 10 outstanding innovators by MVMT50, a coalition focused on improving employment diversity, cultural representation and leadership development in tech.
Roxana Castro Camargo, founder of Akumal Shop: Camargo co-founded Akumal Shop in 2015. It buys crafts from indigenous communities in Mexico, providing income for the artists and giving consumers a piece of unique cultural heritage. Camargo is also marketing manager and co-founder of Elanboard, an IT company based in the Mexico City area.
Jordan Sterling, founder of AlibiX: Sterling, a VP of sales at Datafiniti, founded Alibi X in 2014. It's a diverse group of young men and women concerned with unifying and uplifting diverse communities. It helps generate conversations, blogs and other content.
Naji Kelley, founder of BLNDED Media: Launching in October 2016, BLNDED Media is a platform where underrepresented entrepreneurs can tell their story to inspire, educate and inform other underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Peter Walker, c0-founder of JamKazam: Walker, a former IBM researcher, founded Spawn Labs, a real-time cloud gaming company that was acquired by GameStop in 2011. In 2014, he co-founded JamKazam, a platform that lets musicians jam and record in real-time video sessions.
Gregory Gibson Jr., founder of Dashingfoot: Dashingfoot launched in 2012. It's an online branding and consulting firm that helps businesses and brand-conscious individuals be heard. Gibson is a former project manager at AMD and Dell.
W.Watson, partner at Vulk: Watson is a partner, founder and developer at Vulk, a worker-owned, software development co-operative. It launched in 2013.
Natalie Madeira Cofield, co-founder of Urban Co-Lab and Walker's Legacy: Cofield co-founded Urban Co-Lab, a co-working and networking space in east Austin in 2015. She is also the founder of Walker's Legacy, which launched in 2009 to inspire and promote women entrepreneurs.
Eddy Reyes, founder of Tasqr: Reyes, a former senior software engineer at LifeSize, founded Tasqr in 2015. The company built an a tool that simplifies and records commands to automate development on web-based systems.
Marcos Cunha, founder of youroam: Marcos Cunha founded YouRoam three years ago and has built a global communications company that has amassed over half a million users across 190 countries. He’s also an entrepreneur in residence of Code2040, Google’s program aimed at growing opportunities for black and Latino/a engineers and entrepreneurs.
Miguel Vazquez, c0-founder of PenPal Schools: Vazquez helped launch PenPal Schools, which connects students and adults around the world through interactive conversations, in 2014. He's the company's CTO, and he was previously a co-founder and software engineer at Los Quatro, a development agency.
Do you know of other black and Hispanic tech entrepreneurs who should be on this list? E-mail suggestions to brent@austininno.com.
