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Atlanta is becoming the country's black technology capital, where one out of every four technology workers in the region is African-American.
UNITED STATES TODAY & # 39; HUI
ATLANTA – On an iPad and a cup of tea, Marcus Blackwell, Jr. talks about his mobile application that uses music to help kids learn math. Jewel Burks Solomon is sitting in front of him at an elegant wooden table. After selling his business to Amazon, he invests time and money to help other entrepreneurs stand out in the technology sector.
While Blackwell shows how Make Music Count's algebra formulas play melodies and chords from popular hip-hop and pop songs, Solomon advises on all possibilities, from finding funding to applying it.
This kind of informal coaching session takes place every hour in the cafes of San Francisco and Palo Alto. The difference here: almost everyone in this room is black.
Welcome to the city becoming the black technology capital of the country. For a growing number of African Americans in the world of technology, Atlanta is waving. Tired of coastal centers that do not reflect the growing diversity of America, they are preparing their lives and careers for a city with a rich history of entrepreneurship, a burgeoning black middle class, a quality of affordable living and a small but growing technology scene.
Jewel Burks Solomon, who sold his startup to Amazon, is investing time and money to help other black entrepreneurs stand out in Atlanta, which is becoming a new tech hot spot. (Photo: Lynsey Weatherspoon, for the US TODAY 'HUI)
The black innovation wave in Atlanta is nowhere more evident than here at The Gathering Spot, a member-only hub that collaborates on the job and allows for professional networking at the site of a railroad station. turn of the century iron located west of downtown Atlanta. You never know who you're likely to meet: voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, who nearly lost the 2018 race for the governor of Georgia, rappers TI and Killer Mike, the cast of "Greenleaf" of the Oprah Winfrey Network , and one who is from the local Digerati group, like Solomon.
"I do not think there's a better place in the country if you're a black entrepreneur," said Ryan Wilson, co-founder of The Gathering Spot, in Atlanta. "I am certainly an example of what is possible in this city if you stay really rooted here."
While technology companies are spending money to increase the diversity of their workforce, African Americans remain significantly underrepresented in technology jobs across the country. But not in the city dubbed Silicon Valley South.
One in four technicians in the Atlanta metropolitan area is African-American, far more than San Jose, where 2.5% of the technology workforce is black, and San Francisco, where 6.4 % of the technological workforce is black, according to a Brookings Institution study on the under-representation of Blacks and Hispanics in the industry.
Opportunities are not distributed equally at all levels, even here. Although AtlantaThe black workforce in technology is much larger, as is the equity deficit. The Brookings Institution estimates that the representation of black workers in technical positions in the region is eight percentage points lower than their presence in the labor market.
As in Silicon Valley, white men dominate the leadership of technology companies in Atlanta. Blacks account for 5% of executives and 11% of managers of sector technology companies, according to regional data from the Commission for Equality of Employment. And venture capital dollars are not much easier to find in Atlanta than in Silicon Valley for black entrepreneurs.
For years, investors have mostly crossed the city, but not the city. The winds began to move south, sending a pinch of venture capital to Atlanta. More than $ 1 billion was raised in 2017 and nearly $ 1 billion in 2018, four times the amount invested by technology financiers in the region ten years ago, according to the data. of the company PitchBook analysis.
Even so, the volume in Atlanta barely records the size of Silicon Valley's enormous wealth-generating machine, and very little of this money reaches black entrepreneurs.
"There is not much initial investment in African-American start-ups," says Kathryn Finney, who runs a digitized organization, prepares black and latin technical founders for field meetings with venture capitalists. "Digitalundivided therefore teaches the founders of Atlanta to focus on building a strong business and then seeking financing for their growth."
Atlanta attracts Silicon Valley registries
None of these disadvantages has begun the enthusiasm of recent transplants. In December, when Tristan Walker, one of the country's most prominent black entrepreneurs, ceded his business to consumer giant Procter & Gamble, he sent riots into Silicon Valley announcing that he was in trouble. he would also move Walker & Company Brands to Atlanta.
Its modern range of personal care products for people of color, from shaving to shampoo, has brought together millions of venture capitalists, such as rapper Nas and singer-songwriter John Legend, targeting a market worth billions but terribly wrong served. Walker, who runs a majority-owned company, said he wanted to bring his business closer to his customers and the pulse of black culture.
"It's such a thrilling time for the celebration of darkness and the hope of what it means for this country," he said.
Tristan Walker, a prominent entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, has moved his business to Atlanta, where one out of four technology workers is African-American. (Photo: Martin E. Klimek, USA TODAY & # 39; HUI)
Transnational move comes six years after Walker co-founded Code2040, a non-profit organization that channels African-American and Hispanic engineers into technology companies.
"I can not count how many articles have been written about the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley, but the problem is not improving, and why?" He leaves the question in abeyance. "There is no reason for it not to be or not."
Silicon Valley may have the country's highest density of engineering at square kilometer, he says, but Atlanta boasts the highest density of black genius. "The feeling I feel when I go to Atlanta now," he said, "is the same as I had in 2008 when I moved to Silicon Valley."
At the end of last year, Jareau Wadé, vice president of growth of a financial technology company, Finix Payment, traded a $ 3,800 townhouse that he had rented but could not afford to buy a mortgage on a four bedroom house in the Bay Area. in Atlanta, it's less than half.
It's not just the differences in quality of life and cost of living. Wade said he and his wife wanted to raise their six-month-old daughter closer to the family and black community.
"Blacks can not move anywhere in the United States and expect to live near other blacks," he says. "So, when black families move into the Bay Area, the absence of blacks is obvious."
This feeling of isolation extended to work. Wadé remembers seeing someone he once knew in the CEO's office of his start-up and nodding to say hello. "How do you know each other?" the CEO asked. "We are both black in technology," said Wadé.
Silicon Valley was not made for Sheena Allen either. Allen, who grew up in rural Mississippi and whose startup, CapWay, is a digital alternative to the traditional banking system, moved to Atlanta in January to move into the financial capital of financial technology. She landed for the first time in Silicon Valley in 2012 and came back in 2018, only to discover that despite all the industry's talk of becoming more inclusive, she was still the only black person in the room.
"They call Atlanta the capital of black excellence, and I see here many people of color.It is also a melting pot of fashion, athletics, entertainment, music, television, reality, "she says. "For me, it makes a huge difference."
"We are warming ourselves up"
Paul Judge, a veteran of successful technology companies and widely regarded as the godfather of the tech scene in Atlanta, has spread the word for 20 years.
In 2014, Judge published a guide to the Atlanta start-up scene on Pando's new techniques website called "Hip-Hop, Housewives and Start-ups". "Many people outside Atlanta are more familiar with the old: hip-hop and the" real "housewives," he wrote at the time. "Among those two things, one makes us proud and the other makes us, let's say, less proud." But the startups are hot – we've been busy on that front. "
Paul Judge, technology entrepreneur in Atlanta, said the region is "warming up". (Photo: Elliot Liss)
Today, the last security company that he co-founded, Pindrop, which raised an additional $ 90 million in December, is spread over three floors of the historic Biltmore Hotel, just a few miles away. no TechSquare Labs, where Judge helps the other entrepreneurs flight ideas. Her fiancé, Tanya Sam, is the Director of Partnerships at TechSquare Labs and, ironically, recently joined the cast of "Real Housewives of Atlanta".
"It has become very clear that what is happening in Atlanta is unique," said the judge. "We must continue to feed him and talk to the world better."
This philosophy is behind his recent investment in the A3C festival and conference in Atlanta. He works to bring the big names of Silicon Valley to the annual festival that serves music, hip hop, culture and technology every October. His vision: an event that rivals Austin South by Southwest or the Aspen Ideas Festival.
"The next chapter in Atlanta is going to be exciting," said the judge. "We are warming up."
Melting pot of colleges, businesses and culture
Parts of the country – New York, Route 128 in Boston and Austin, Texas – have attempted to replicatethe Bay Area's alchemy, with its well-placed investors, risk-taking culture, world-class universities, technical talent, and ability to turn early-stage business dreams into successes peer.
Atlanta has its own competitive edge with a melting pot of colleges (Georgia Tech and historically black colleges such as Morehouse and Spelman, which produce more black engineers than across the country), large corporations (Atlanta is home to the 39 one of the largest concentrations among Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola and Home Depot) and a high-profile culture in film, television and music (filmmaker Tyler Perry, musician and actor Donald Glover and the rap duo Outkast, not to mention "Black Panther", which was filmed in and around Atlanta).
Job offers are in the tens of thousands. The labor pool in the technology sector has increased by almost 35% over the last five years, making it the third fastest pace in the country and faster than the Bay Area. , according to the real estate company CBRE.
"The technology sector is growing rapidly in terms of entrepreneurship and space for new businesses," said Marcellus Haynes, founder of the Atlanta Technology Forum, which has a list of 2,600 emails. "We create a fertile environment that many businesses want to exploit."
"I do not think there's a better place in the country if you're a black entrepreneur," said Ryan Wilson, co-founder of The Gathering Spot, in Atlanta. "I am certainly an example of what is possible in this city if you stay really rooted here." (Photo: Lynsey Weatherspoon, for the US TODAY 'HUI)
What could make Atlanta an unprecedented success is the racial diversity of its technology sector and a wave of activities aimed at increasing the chances of blacks and other colored entrepreneurs. Solomon Was flirting with the idea of settling in Silicon Valley in 2013 when she founded her company Partpic, a software that allows you to point a smartphone camera at a hardware component to find a replacement without knowing the name of the device. supplier or part. Today, she is looking for black entrepreneurs all over the country hoping to attract them to Atlanta as well.
"I think Atlanta has pretty much everything a startup community needs," says Solomon. "You just have people who are ready to help."
The history of Atlanta as a black mecca
The welcome sign here has been flashing since the Civil War. The city was turned into a black mecca in the 1970s under the direction of Maynard Jackson, the first black mayor and grandson of Atlanta's slaves, who won the first of his three mandates in 1973 and oversaw the construction of what would become the busiest airport in the country.
Today, African Americans are in the process of reversing the great migration by abandoning the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Detroit to recapture Southern cities.
The Brookings Institution demographer, William Frey, author of "Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographic Data Reshapes America," says that Atlanta is leading all other metropolitan black migration regions, their number having been multiplied by five from 1970 to 2017.
The youngest and most educated blacks who want quality of life without the price of avocado toast are at the forefront of this migration. Over 99% of Atlanta's postal codes – 210 out of 212 – are cheaper than the least expensive postal code in the metropolitan area of San Jose, according to Bert Sperling, founder of Best Places, a website that ranks locations in across the United States. That means you can trade $ 200,000 in San Francisco for $ 75,747 in Atlanta and sacrifice nothing.
Another great attraction for African Americans is the large number of entrepreneurs. According to a study by demographer Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow on the urban future of Chapman University, about 20% of the black working population in Atlanta is a self-employed worker. It is the highest proportion of the country.in Orange, California, and Executive Director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism.
In a predominantly black city where 22.4% of people live below the poverty line, black tech entrepreneurs jump on the opportunity to work in a place that is conducive to solving problems that affect blacks. and marginalized communities.
Horace Williams launched Empowered, an app providing information about elected officials and connecting people to advocacy groups, in 2015, after George Zimmerman 's acquittal of the murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida in the US. hope to involve more blacks in the democratic process.
In 2017, Jasmine Crowe founded Goodr, a mobile app that fights hunger and food waste by encouraging restaurants and businesses to donate surplus food to homeless shelters, affordable housing communities and businesses. 39, other agencies.
Blackwell said his app, tested in Atlanta Public Schools, had been inspired by his desire to see black kids excel in math. "I think what's missing in education is meeting students where they are and in the communities they come from," says Blackwell. "It is important for me to help bridge this gap."
Morgan DeBaun, general manager of Blavity, a popular digital media center for black millennials, said he decided to open a technology office in Atlanta last year to take advantage of all that local talent. black engineering.
DeBaun spends a week in Atlanta each month. One of its co-founders, Jeff Nelson, the technical director of the company, is based here. She believes that Atlanta will become a major player in the technology sector.
"The more we are all attached to it, the more it will manifest itself," she says. "It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy."
USA Today TODAY cover for inclusion, equity and diversity in technology
Kathryn Finney has created a pipeline in the world of technology to help the Black and Latinx founders succeed.
UNITED STATES TODAY & # 39; HUI
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