Newsletter - July 2020

Accelerator: Black Founders | Meet our 2020 Cohort

• Read about 4Degrees , a relationship-driven, AI-enabled CRM for professional services that helps businesses unlock the power of their network.
• Clerkie uses a marketplace automation platform to help people simplify their finances and get out of debt.
• Get to know Florence Technologies .This clinical labor marketplace and on demand labor marketplace is dedicated to healthcare organizations, and is an integrated accredited degree granting online nursing school.
• Get inspired by Kanarys , a tool to help companies monitor, analyze, measure, and benchmark diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
• LoanWell is an enterprise solution for community banks, credit unions, CDFIs, and loan funds. Learn more about their end-to-end cloud based management system for intake, origination, underwriting, closing, servicing, and reporting.
• Discover MedHaul , a startup dedicated to providing transit solutions for our most vulnerable communities by enabling users to find and book safe, skilled, special needs transportation. 
• Learn about MindRight Health , a service focused on providing culturally responsive mental health coaching over text messages to communities of color and low-income families.
• ShearShare is geared toward small business owners, featuring the first mobile marketplace for stylists to manage and grow business, starting with available, affordable space nearby to rent. 
• The startup TQIntelligence supports healthcare providers focused on at-risk youth using voice recognition technology and AI to measure toxic stress and transform trauma care.
• Upswing uses a virtual assistant and student services platform to partner with colleges and institutions to improve dropout rates of online and non-traditional students. 
• WeatherCheck uses predictive analytics to monitor properties for hail damage caused by severe weather to help property owners, insurance carriers, and mortgage companies take preventative measures.
• Focused on local businesses, ZeroStorefront is a purpose-built customer acquisition and retention platform that generates more sales with data from the apps you already use.

Advocacy

• Take the pledge from Anykey.org . Join 650K+ video gamers and esports who are focused on creating more diversity, inclusion, and equity for competitive gaming. 
• Register and save the date for The Lesbians Who Tech and Allies San Francisco Summit October 28-30. Learn more about the organization to get involved. 
• Apply and lead a Google Developer Student Club. Graduate or undergraduate students who are interested in Google’s developer technology will grow their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning environment and learn to build solutions for local business, their community, and more.

Business

• Apply now to the Black Game Developer Fund, a 1M annual program supporting Black game developers through publishing, production, and marketing support. Humble Bundle is dedicated to empowering and uniting communities through gaming and leverages its platform to help achieve racial equity everywhere.
  
• Sign up and learn more about Hillman, an inclusive entrepreneurship program based in the Midwest of the United States. Hillman serves underrepresented tech-driven startups through mentorship, specialized curriculum, partnerships, funding, and more. 
• Support Pocket.app, an early stage startup tackling the challenge of international money transfer in Africa.

Education

• Google for Startups Africa 2020 announces Class 5 Online. To learn more about this growing accelerator program, check out this year’s top 20 startup participants.
  
• Donate to support Black Girls Code . Help empower young women of color between the ages of 7-17 to embrace the current tech marketplaces as builders and creators.
• Join the Black in AI community group to increase the presence of Black perspectives and contributions to AI development. Be a part of an annual technical workshop series, join mentorship programs, and more.
• Support Code.org, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented youth. 
• Get involved with Black Boys Code. Workshops expose young Black boys to Black male industry role models for inclusiveness, encouragement, and empowerment to inspire young men of color to pursue learning paths with technology. 
• Sign up and accelerate your early-stage business ideas. Join NewMe , a week-long boot camp educational program focused on entrepreneurship, mentorship, specialized curriculums, and funding. As the first underrepresented founder-focused program in the U.S., NewMe has led founders to more than $47 MM in funding.
• StreetCode LIVE is launching free tech classes as part of a collective effort to reach students at home and expand community connection.
• Register by August 12 for First Fridays by Google for Startups. Co-hosted with the LATAM startup ecosystem, the event features on-demand talks for founders, UI/UX design leads, design thinking, visual design, product, and product development teams.

Inclusion

• Check out the annual 2020 Code2040 Summit recap from July 25. Its mission is to activate, connect, and mobilize Black and Latinx communities to encourage full participation in the innovation economy.
  
• MovilHack AFRO Brazil hosted a 30H hackathon event for Black people to discuss and develop solutions for educating young people in vulnerable situations. Read more about Movile and how to join as a mentor in seven countries.
• Find and support black game developers, designers, artists, and more. Add to the Black Game Developers list on GitHub. 

Inspiration

• Download the Recruiters Black Book app. RBB was designed by Tyrone Ivery, a developer and Gulf War veteran focused on helping athletes gain exposure to potential recruiters. 
  
• Watch Founded by Women Techmakers. Meet Tanya Sam, a tech entrepreneur and founder of TechSquare Labs, who is committed to paving the way for change for underrepresented and women founders.
• Get insights about the Trevor Project and how, through a grant from Google.org, is leveraging AI to help prevent suicide. The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ youth.
• Watch Google Developer Groups lead Danny Thompson in his inspiring Juneteenth Conference keynote. Says Danny, "I went from frying chicken in a gas station to becoming a software engineer. The road is long and hard, but it is absolutely possible to reach your dream in tech.”

Misc

• Take five minutes to fill out this anonymous survey about your development practices. Responses will help improve the services and features that are offered to the developer community and will help build better developer tools for you.