Deon Bradley has been in the tech industry since 1992, right before the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers brought to light racial issues many were unaware of.
Now, he's seen an even stronger reckoning after the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police officers.
"With the recent awareness of struggles with African Americans in business, a new charge to the tech industry is, 'When are you going to reach out to (people of color)?'" Bradley said. "They don't want affirmative action. They don't want a gift. They just want an even playing field."
Bradley plans to do that with the launch of Hire or Wire Now, a nonprofit that puts it simply: "Either hire minorities or write them a check."
"The lightbulb went off and I said 'I need to do this,'" he said. "I'm starting a national nonprofit geared toward those two missions, geared to people with disabilities and minorities: get jobs in tech or get funding to launch their companies. There is some tremendously hard working people out there who just need a fair shot. We don't need anything more, just a fair opportunity."
He envisions the "hire" side of the organization to provide mock interviews and job preparation from top HR executives, while the "wire" side will eventually have an incubator and accelerator to help entrepreneurs "go from start to finish" with a business.
Bradley has been in the industry for over 20 years, serving as an advisor for the Tampa Bay Wave, Chicago-based entrepreneur center 1871 and was an operating partner at Morgan Hill Partners. As a black, blind male in tech, he believes now is the time to address the inequality he's seen his entire career.
"For the first time, I am hopeful," Bradley said. "I am seeing companies respond, I'm seeing coworkers — one of mine made a video saying 'Silence is complacency and it's time to do something.' I see companies writing checks and changing laws."
Bradley plans to launch the Tampa-based nonprofit across 14 cities in the next five years: Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Washington D.C., Raleigh, Charlotte, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boulder and Austin.
While the nonprofit is in the early stages, Bradley is raising a $2 million fund and searching for interested partners, board members, volunteers and business advisors across the nation.
"I want to do it right and want it to be lasting thing," he said. "In a couple months people will forget about George Floyd. They wrote a check or posted something on Facebook or sent a letter to me saying 'We stand with you.' I don't need someone to stand with me, I want them to do something."
