• Co-Founder, Chezie: Toby Egbunda

    (1) Who are you and what do you do?My name is Toby Egbuna, and I’m one of the Co-Founders of Chezie. I’m also a diversity strategist and management consultant. Outside of work, I love playing basketball and watching the latest romantic comedy movie. (2) In two sentences or less, describe how you participate in the…

  • Featured Startup: Chezie

    (1) Describe your startup.Chezie is an anonymous career insight platform for minorities.  We provide a platform where diverse employees can safely share their experiences and where diverse job-seekers can find those experiences and learn what it’s like to work at a company from people that identify similarly to them. We also provide employers an end-to-end…

  • How Do We Balance Niche Versus Mass Production? Not Just A General Economy Problem But A Silicon Valley Problem As Well

    “while everyone focuses on big technology companies with their financial war chests and how these companies are influencing the economic system, we need to start paying attention to how the economic system can be re-balanced to help the small scrappy startup that definitely does not have the financial resources of the more established companies.”

  • Is The Era of Startup Customer Coercion Over?

    “While strides have been made in terms of business models and technology that has allowed startups to serve smaller market segments, there is still a long way to go. This, unfortunately, means that we continue to have both startups and corporations push the majority of its consumers toward profitable uses cases while intentionally ignoring edge…

  • Co-Founder, Grupa: Sam Ekpe

    (1) Who are you and what do you do?I am Sam Ekpe, co-founder of Grupa – a Silicon Valley startup that connects cross-functional products teams made up of employees from FAANG companies with startups that need to scale quickly. (2) In two sentences or less, describe how you participate in the startup ecosystem.We help startups…

  • Featured Startup: Grupa

    (1) Describe your startup.Grupa is a silicon valley company that connects early-stage startups with the technical teams that work at FAANG. Early-stage startups are desperate for the best product engineering teams, meanwhile, FAANG engineers are bored, yearning for interesting and impactful work, and ways to get early into startups. Through our platform, we connect them…

  • Respect In An Era Of Change

    “One of the biggest initiatives that we can all undertake whether as an individual or as a society is to find the ability to continue to respect one another regardless of individual differences…”

  • Is It Such a Bad Thing That More Employees Are Asking For More Flexibility and Freedom?

    “Whether it is remote work flexibility, better work culture and more meaningful work, employees are increasingly demanding their employers treat them less like widgets and more like individual human beings. One could argue that the trend was a long time in coming…”

  • Founder, Sales Catapult: James Watson

    (1) Who are you and what do you do? James Watson, Fractional VP of Sales  (2) In two sentences or less, describe how you participate in the startup ecosystem.I help small to midsized tech companies scale their sales processes and profits.  (3) What are you currently reading right now and would recommend to others?‘The Go-Giver’, ‘Atomic…

  • Featured Startup: Sales Catapult

    (1) Describe your startup.My startup is focused on helping other startups scale their sales processes and profits.   (2) What inspired the creation of the startup?I spent over 30 years in sales, sales leadership, and consulting roles working for others. Starting my own sales consulting company provided me with the opportunity to do this on my own…