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Black Women Talk Tech Co-Founder Discusses Diversity Challenges in Tech Industries

Regina Gwynn talks about her experience as a woman of color in technology and how the hospitality industry can learn from her example to do better.
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Five years ago,  Esosa Ighodaro-Johnson and Regina Gwynn, co-founded Black Women Talk Tech (BWTT) after they met by chance at a tech conference and shared common ground over the racial disparity they both experienced firsthand in the tech funding world. BWTT was started with the mission to identify, support and encourage black women to build the next billion-dollar business.  The success of the organization has also led to the expansion of Black Men Talk Tech and Black Students Talk Tech, as well as the company’s first acquisition of Black Female Founders (BFF). 

BWTT’s Annual Roadmap to Billions conference (held this year on June 16 and 17)  is the only tech conference created by Black female founders for Black female founders and supporters of the community. It showcases the brilliance of Black women building scalable companies while building deep connections and creating real funding opportunities. 

Following it's fifth annual Roadmap to Billions conference, the organization launched a global membership community encompassing over 750 founders regionally with a total of more than 2,500 entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals. Additionally, BWTT has distributed more than $200,000 in cash prizes to Black founders and contributed to more than 45 startups receiving investment.

In the below Q&A, we speak with Regina Gwynn about the challenges she faced as a Black female tech entrepreneur and how her experience can help us create change within the hospitality technology industry.

 

What were some of the issues you faced as a woman of color when you began your first tech startup?
As a tech founder, I had to build my own seat at the table and work harder to make connections and learn. When I was going to events, there were very few other Black and minority women in attendance, so my co-founders and I wanted to create our own organization to meet, empower and support each other as Black women tech founders.

Did you find that these issues were commonly shared by other women of color in the tech industry?

Yes! The numbers for Black female founders are dismal. Black women represent 12.9% of the female population.  In the first half of 2021, startups overall raised a record-breaking $147 billion. Only 1.2 percent of it went to Black founders. In 2020, Black founders received 0.6 percent of all venture capital deployed. Take those percentages, divide that in half, and divide it in half again. Funding opportunities have not been the nicest for women of color.

How does Black Women Talk Tech empower and help women of color in tech careers?

Black Women Talk Tech (BWTT) is a worldwide collective of black women tech founders who uniquely understand Black women startup owners' challenges in the industry. Still, most importantly, they know the contribution of these innovators. The organization seeks to identify, support, and encourage Black women to build the next billion-dollar business. The platform provides a job board for members to search, programs and courses to be involved in that include annual conferences such as Roadmap To Billions and Face Of A Founder, and investor matchmaking.

What tips/recommendations do you have for the hospitality industry when it comes to recruiting and hiring women of color?

Go beyond the resume.  Really sit down and speak with women.  We are innate nurturers, so many of our decisions are made beyond what is on the surface of a piece of paper.  We start out at young ages helping our mothers and grandmothers host events in the home.  Hospitality is engrained and some things just can’t be taught.  They have to be lived.

How might hotel brands and hotel tech companies reach out to women early on to introduce women of color to tech careers?

Having networking events, career fairs focused on DEI hiring, actively recruiting on the scholastic level at high schools and colleges.
 

Any other comments? 

Continue striving forward in diversity and inclusion.  All industries should have an eclectic balance in the boardrooms.  People will gravitate and look for products that are promoted by a familiar face, i.e. a direct reflection of themselves.  We are getting there, but more allies are needed to champion for change.  To quote Anne Richards in terms of the power of a woman, “After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”

 

Regina Gwynn

ABOUT REGINA GWYNN

Regina Gwynn is the Co-Creator of Black Women Talk Tech, the largest membership organization of black women tech entrepreneurs and the only conference designed for that community. This collective has a unique understanding of the challenges faced in the technology ecosystem, but also of the advantages they can bring. Its mission is to identify, support and encourage black women to build the next billion dollar business. Regina has been named to the 100 Most Powerful Women by Entrepreneur Magazine and Top Ten Women in Tech by Essence Magazine.

Regina Gwynn launched her first tech startup in 2014 with TresseNoire, a beauty tech startup that empowers women of color to celebrate their textured hair with a personalized beauty routine that works. Its virtual beauty coach (currently in private beta) takes the guesswork out of finding the right natural hair products & services by matching your individual hair profile to a beauty regimen designed by experts (so you can get the best twist out or the perfect wash n go style the first time, every time!). Corporate retail experience includes Macy’s Inc., The Apparel Group & Monitor Group-Deloitte. MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Regina started her career in the Product Development Executive Training program at Federated Department Stores (now Macy’s Inc.), and successfully launched several exclusive brands during her tenure. After graduating from the Kellogg School of Management with her MBA, Regina was a management consultant with the Monitor Group (now Monitor/Deloitte Consulting) and worked with clients within the beauty, media and healthcare industries. She was then tapped to lead marketing at The Apparel Group, where she built the department from scratch and launched the company’s first ecommerce site for its signature brand, Foxcroft Collection.

Regina loves to travel, dance and watch football. She’s on the Cabinet for Black Entrepreneurship for the City of New York, and a former Board Member of BRAG, a nonprofit for diverse retail professionals & Rising Tide Capital, an entrepreneur development program based in Jersey City, NJ.

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