Laura Weidman-Powers
Cofounder and CEO of Code2040
Laura Weidman Powers is the co-founder and CEO of CODE2040, a nonprofit that creates pathways to success in the innovation economy for Blacks and Latino/as. She brings to this work a background in entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, youth development, and technology.
Laura has started two organizations in the education space, one nonprofit arts education organization in West Philadelphia that is currently celebrating its 10th year, and one for-profit tutoring company that gave rise to a book.
Courtesy of code2040.org/
What is CODE2040?
CODE2040 is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities with a specific focus on Blacks and Latino/as.
CODE2040 aims to close the achievement, skills, and wealth gaps in the United States. Its goal is to ensure that by the year 2040 — when the US will be majority-minority — Blacks and Latino/as are proportionally represented in America’s innovation economy as technologists, investors, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs.
Courtesy of code2040.org/
Why did you start CODE2040?
I started CODE2040 after working in product management at a tech startup and really recognizing for the first time the power of the engineering skillset — it was something I hadn’t been exposed to before. My co-founder Tristan Walker and I had coffee in summer 2011 as I was moving back to the Bay Area and discussed the fact that there was so much opportunity and demand for people with tech skillsets in Silicon Valley, and yet at the same time we saw a striking underrepresentation of people of color, particularly Blacks and Latino/as.
We knew there was talent from these groups out there — 18% of computer science grads each year are Black or Latino/a — but that talent wasn’t making it into the very companies that were desperate for talent to grow. We thought there was something broken in the system and set out to try to fix it.
Describe a time you’ve felt discomfort or discrimination in the workplace or classroom. How did you handle it?
I feel discomfort all the time in my current role for CODE2040. I spend a lot of my time meeting with potential partners and funders at tech companies, showing up at their offices to talk diversity inclusion, and usually having that conversation with white men.
You can tell pretty quickly whether you’re talking to an ally or a skeptic.
Thankfully I’d say the number of allies I meet with has increased dramatically since we started CODE2040 — the discourse has really evolved in the last three years.
I also spend a lot of time speaking at conferences. Particularly at the beginning, I was the only person who’d be on stage at a conference talking about race. My first keynote was in front of 2,000 open source developers in Portland. The rest of the sessions were about coding, and I was talking about systemic issues that exclude minorities from opportunities in tech.
It wasn’t comfortable, but I’ve learned to sit with the discomfort and manage it. If you’re doing something comfortable, you’re probably not creating much change.
What makes being a woman of color in tech awesome?
I really do feel like people are rooting for me to succeed. About once a week or so, I get some spontaneous message of support — a tweet, an email from an old acquaintance, someone I run into who has been following CODE2040’s work… It’s been really meaningful as CODE2040 grows.
Things inevitably get hard when managing scale and working on such a sensitive issue, and it’s pretty cool for me, my team, and our students to know that they have fans and supporters rooting for us.
What advice do you have for any members of minority groups pursuing a future in Silicon Valley?
Put yourself out there. Follow people you admire on Twitter and tweet at them — sometimes they tweet you back! Go to networking events, you never know who you might meet and what they’ll be doing next.
Find products that you love and think about how you would make them even better — it’s great fodder for interviews. Work on projects of your own — people in the Valley love to see your passion manifested in tangible ways.
And recognize that launching a career in Silicon Valley isn’t just about what you know, or even who you know; it’s about how you demonstrate what you know and how you score karma points with who you know.
For all the cultural challenges in the Valley, it’s a place predicated on the idea that what goes around comes around and that karma points do mean something, which is pretty awesome. Because you don’t need anyone to give you permission to start offering to help other people out.
Oh yeah, and check out CODE2040, especially playbook.code2040.org for tips on how to get a job in tech!
