5 Black-Owned Tech Companies Hiring Amid 2022 Layoffs
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The Great Resignation has seen Black employees leaving behind toxic work environments in search of meaning, equitable pay, and more support. Now, Black professionals are turning to entrepreneurship at unprecedented rates. As a result, the number of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. is sitting at 30% above pre-pandemic levels.
While there’s been progress, there’s a growing concern that the current wave of hiring freezes and layoffs in tech could reverse workforce diversity. At Meta, for example, the company reached its goal of doubling its Black workforce, but according to Meta’s chief diversity officer, the need to watch budgets and work leaner is threatening their current employee mix. Tesla, Netflix, Peloton, and many others have laid off tech workers in recent months.
The failure of companies to make cultural changes that enable the retention of Black tech workers is all the more reason why there is a critical need for more Black founders in tech.
Atlanta-based Calendly is the fastest growing company in scheduling automation; their simple scheduling software has connected over a million people. The founder, Tope Awotona, is one of just two Black tech billionaires in the U.S.
Gro Intelligence was founded by Sara Menker to help customers tackle big data challenges. With offices in New York City and Nairobi, the company uses AI to help companies make sense of agriculture and climate data to forecast supply chains, fight climate change, and improve food security.
Co-founders Kalam Dennis and Reham Fagiri of New York City-based AptDeco are working to do for interior design what Airbnb did for short-term rentals with a peer-to-peer marketplace for buying furniture. The site offers same-day pickup and delivery.
Check out our list of companies headed by Black founders hiring now.
CalendlyCalendly helps you schedule meetings without the back-and-forth emails501-1000 EmployeesActively Hiring- B2B
- Scale StageRapidly increasing operations
- Valuation $1B+This company has a valuation of $1B or more
- Website
- https://calendly.com
- Employees
- 501-1000
- Locations
- Atlanta
- About
Calendly is the fastest growing company in scheduling automation, connecting over a million people. We provide a simple, yet powerful scheduling software that allows business professionals to easily meet with customers, prospects, partners and candidates.
- Industries
Jobs
Staff Product Manager, EngagementFull-time3 weeks ago$237k – $300kIn office • San Francisco10 years of exp
- B2C
- Early StageStartup in initial stages
- Top InvestorsThis company has received a significant amount of investment from top investors
- YC FundedStartup funded by Y Combinator
- Website
- http://www.aptdeco.com
- Employees
- 11-50
- Locations
- New York City
- About
AptDeco is a peer-to-peer marketplace for buying and selling furniture (no warehousing). We offer a fully integrated e-commerce platform which facilitates payments and delivery for our buyers and sellers.
- Industries
The AI-powered decision engine across agriculture, climate, and the economy51-200 Employees- B2B
- Growth StageExpanding market presence
- Top InvestorsThis company has received a significant amount of investment from top investors
- Employees
- 51-200
- Locations
- New York City, Nairobi
- About
Gro is a global team of technology, climate, and agriculture experts. We have built an AI-powered platform that helps our customers tackle their most pressing challenges - from forecasting and assuring supply chains to climate change and food security.
- Industries
- B2B
- Growth StageExpanding market presence
- Website
- http://www.careacademy.com
- Employees
- 51-200
- Locations
- Boston
- About
CareAcademy helps home care and home health businesses onboard their new caregivers more quickly, automates their initial and ongoing training compliance and does it all with easy-to-use technology.
- Industries
ElderlyCaregivers
- B2C
- Growth StageExpanding market presence
- Top InvestorsThis company has received a significant amount of investment from top investors
- YC FundedStartup funded by Y Combinator
- Website
- https://careerkarma.com/
- Employees
- 201-500
- Locations
- San Francisco
- About
At Career Karma, we have taken a software-first approach to tackling challenges that blue-collar workers face when selecting job training programs based on our own experience. This is how our product works. The user journey begins by exploring career paths. Then, our app matches them to different job training programs.
- Industries
- Advice
5 Black-Owned Tech Companies Hiring Amid 2022 Layoffs
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Security in the Skies: 5 High Altitude Balloon and Satellite Startups Hiring Now
Nearly nine decades after the Hindenburg disaster, some speculate we’re entering the Second Age of the Balloon. “As all these objects fall, a new space race is rising,” Vox (https://www.vox.com/world/2023/2/7/23588464/suspect-spy-china-balloon-sputnik-moment-space-race) proclaimed. Tens of thousands of balloons float into near-space every year, and the numbers rise every year. The National Weather Service alone launches around 60k high-flying balloons each year. The Pentagon spent nearly $4B over the past two years on its own high altitude balloons, according to Politico (https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/05/u-s-militarys-newest-weapon-against-china-and-russia-hot-air-00043860). Why the interest in such old-school tech? “They’re cheap, easy to transport, can be fielded in large numbers and are payload agnostic,” industry expert George Howell wrote. Tucson, Arizona-based World View (https://spacenews.com/world-view-emphasizes-remote-sensing-as-it-prepares-to-go-public/), a stratospheric ballooning company, last month announced plans to go public via SPAC merger. The company develops a “stratollite” that provides high-res imagery for extended periods. (The company also offer space tourism.) Colorado-based Urban Sky (/company/urban-sky) is creating what it claims as the first ever reusable stratospheric balloon. Called “micro-balloons,” they’re the size of a VW bus and can hover in near space to collect data over urban areas. Company founder Jared Leidich (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/04_fm2017-alan-eustaces-jump-1-180961678/) has some chops in this arena, having designed the space suit used in the world record space dive in 2014 via a balloon at nearly 136k feet. Near Space Labs (/company/nearspacelabs) invites people to “step inside a new way of thinking about all things geospatial imaging (https://nearspacelabs.com/blog/).” The company's high-altitude balloons that carry a small, autonomous robot called Swifty to capture the world around them at 60k to 85k feet in the air. The company says it’s done zero carbon emissions and recently launched (https://www.zdnet.com/article/near-space-labs-provide-free-high-resolution-imagery-to-universities-nonprofits/) a program to make its high-resolution Earth imagery available to universities and nonprofits for free. Sounds fascinating, right? Luckily, with a new wave of space technology, comes a brand new, cutting-edge wave of jobs. Check out 5 top startups aiming skywards and hiring now.
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