This story is part of Chicago Inno’s ‘Inno on the Road’ series, which ran in December and looked at the tech and startup scene in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn. You can see all Twin Cities tech stories here, and other Inno on the Road series here. 

While Silicon Valley may have the upper hand on every other region in terms of startup activity, talent and funding, emerging tech hubs have one advantage: The ability to make startups and tech inclusive from the ground up.

That’s the goal of a handful of founders, entrepreneurs and innovators working to improve diversity in Twin Cities tech.

There’s Silicon North Stars, a program that brings students from Minneapolis to Silicon Valley to tour top tech companies and meet with mentors. Sofia Fund, a woman-led fund investing in women-led businesses–is currently investing a $4 million fund (they previously invested a $1 million fund). Last spring, Clockwork, a local interactive firm created a Diversity Pledge that challenged local companies to be more inclusive of underrepresented communities (about 80 companies have signed up so far). There’s an active local chapter of Blacks in Technology, and several meetup groups for women developers.

That conversation has also found a home at COCO Coworking, where two leaders in the space–Alex Rodriguez and Jenna Pederson–are based. Both are founders running their own companies, while simultaneously at the helm of several organizations pushing diversity in the Twin Cities ecosystem. They sat down with Chicago Inno to discuss opportunities, and challenges, of building inclusion into growing tech hubs.

Alex Rodriguez, founder of WorkMand, Graveti, and Code2040 entrepreneur-in-residence at COCO

Rodriguez has always been interested in entrepreneurship–his dad owned a construction company and he hoped to start his own small business that could one day grow into a corporation. But as he started to attend startup and tech events in the Twin Cities, he noticed something frustrating: “I was often one of the only people of color at these events, specifically the only Latino,” he said. “It didn’t bother me, but I found it so weird that I knew so many talented people that weren’t in here or didn’t know about tech.”

So when he decided to start his company WorkMand, a project management platform for construction companies, he also launched Graveti, an organization connecting people in tech from underrepresented backgrounds. This past spring, he was named one of seven Code2040 entrepreneurs-in-residence nationwide, just one of seven fellows nationwide who received funding and support from Google to grow his startup while creating opportunities in technology for minorities.

He’s up against a few challenges: While Minnesota is among the most prosperous and well-educated states in the country, it has the highest financial gap between races nationwide. And once people of color enter the professional world, they’re not likely to stay in the Twin Cities: 60 percent of Twin Cities professionals of color who took part in recent focus groups through regional development nonprofit Greater MSP said they plan to leave the state within the next three to five years.

“Minnesota is really tight knit,” said Rodriguez. “Once you have your group of people, that is your people. That’s what makes it hard for people of color–although it’s friendly, it’s hard to break into it. You might meet people who are nice, they might say hi, but will they invite you to hang out afterwards or invite you to their business meetings? You don’t see that as often.”

Due to this, Rodriguez is focused on creating community, providing an inclusive space that supports people of color in the tech world. Graveti has held events that both address diversity and provide value to a wider audience (such as an upcoming pitch event featuring founders of color). “I want us to be the best startup program or community here, so regardless of your skin color you’re getting true value out of this, but at the same time we’re a truly inclusive space,” he said.

Graveti is focused on connecting “high potential” founders, techies, investors and organizers of color who can work together, push one another to succeed, and eventually invest money into the local community or start more ventures. Eventually he’d like to expand Graveti to cover youth programs to introduce students to tech at an early age, and create a seed fund to invest in underrepresented founders.

Ultimately he said the Twin Cities will need some breakthrough successes, but he’s optimistic, citing Player’s Health, Upsie and Retrace Health as a few startups he has his eye on.

“There are some really talented people who plan to stay here,” he said. “Being around those people, I’m very bullish that we can make the change we want to see happen here.”

Jenna Pederson, founder of Hack The Gap and 612 Software Foundry

When talking with hiring managers in the tech world, Pederson often gets the question, “Where are all the women?”

As founder of all-women hackathon Hack The Gap, organizer of women founder group WE*, local ambassador for women in technology organization Geekettes, founder of development firm 612 Software Foundry and software engineer with over a decade of experience, it’s a question that gets old.

“There are women out there, people of color out there that are in technology,” she said. “You just have to talk to them. You just have to find them. You can’t wait until they come to you.”

Pederson said women in the Twin Cities face many of the issues that are prevalent in the larger tech world: a pay gap, need for better work-life balance, difficulties with tech culture. While Geekettes provided a place to talk about these issues, she found women were more interested safe spaces to pursue their passion.

“We found that they just wanted to do tech,” she said. “That’s been the driving force behind the stuff that we do, the people that we partner with, the events that we participate in. We want to be done talking about this, and actually be doing something about it.”

That’s why she cofounded Hack the Gap, an annual hackathon for women, which is headed into its third year this January. While previously they had to cap the event at 50 participants, this year they’ve moved to a larger venue to accommodate increased demand. Previous participants have used the hackathon as a way to build prototypes that have later become startups and businesses, and so this year Pederson pushed up the event from May to January to funnel those startups to the MN Cup, a premier statewide startup competition held each spring.

WE WANT TO BE DONE TALKING ABOUT THIS, AND ACTUALLY BE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

It has also paved the way to organizing WE*, an group she runs with MN Cup, Sofia Fund, COCO, Cairn Ventures, Startec, Capita3 and Good Food BOOM! that connects women with resources to support their startups, including funding, mentorship and promotion. They recently held a showcase with 12 local women-founded startups.

“We shouldn’t have to put on an all women pitchfest, but we do,” she said. “We shouldn’t need to put on an all-women hackathon, but we do, because we need a space for women to go through the same process everyone else is going through.”

“Every conversation I have comes back to, ‘where are the women?'” she said. “Well actually, here’s an event full of them…There is actually a community behind this, and we’re doing some really great things.”

Note: Updated to reflect that Pederson is no longer an ambassador with Geekettes.