So here we are with another profile of Behind the Click!  This series is actually the first and largest running living interview archive on African-American females in the technology industry.  I’m happy to continue to select and spotlight my fellow colleagues in the industry so that we can continue to dispel myths and inspire action globally!  As the series continues, you will find that I am re-defining what it is to be note-worthy in the tech industry.  For too long the pool of talent has been much too limited.  Ideas and contribution take many shapes and forms so it’s about bringing a broad vision to identify powerati in all its forms – not just what the mainstream deems worthy.  Evelyn Castillo-Bach falls into such a category.  I’ve selected her because she is bringing a unique vibe to the tech game. She is an Afro-Cuban power player and just may be one of the only few women in the U.S. who is heading two digital start-ups simultaneously.  She is also a champion for digital privacy, particularly as it pertains to teenagers.  What follows is a snippet of my recent conversation with her:

Current Occupation: Founder and CEO of CollegiateNation.com and UmeNow.com

LdC:   So you run the start-up called Collegiate Nation.  Tell me more about (the mission) and how you got the idea?

LdC:  Tell me how your degree from Columbia U (I attended there as well, btw   aided you in this venture?

by R. Asmerom

In January of 2011, Adrissha Wimberly birthed her baby Smarteys, a paycheck management and personal finance product targeted to millennials. Considering her and her co-founder left lucrative jobs in the finance industry to break out on their own, Smarteys was a labor of love. For this latest installment in our Behind The Click series, profiling Black women in the technology field, we ask the co-founder and COO of this startup about taking the road less traveled.

Current Occupation: Co-founder and COO, Smarteys.com

Favorite website: www.cnn.com

Favorite read: Magazine – ELLE Decor; Book – Steve Jobs by by Walter Isaacson

Recent read: Pillars of the Earth; The Lean Startup

2012′s ultimate goal: Personal – run a 8 minute mile. Business – grow Smarteys to 17000 subscribers.

Quote that Inspires You: Walk the line between the known and the unknown and you will find that courage is not in the absence of fear but in the judgement that there is something more important than fear.

Twitter Handle: @adrissha; @smarteys

How did you decide to not return to go from a high-position of VP at Bear Sterns to founding a personal finance startup?

My decision was based on many things, but the three salient reasons were (1) I was more passionate about the future than I was about the past. Although I enjoyed my career immensely prior to business school, I had an unshakable feeling that my future career was about expressing a passion for helping young people. (2) I no longer wanted to move vertically but instead horizontally. In a corporate gig you move vertically, both higher in title and deeper in skill. In entrepreneurship you move horizontally, covering many different areas. And given the startup culture, where the weak shall parish, you somehow grow in skill across those many areas too. (3) I figured the world would never ben the same again. When I came to business school in the Fall of 2008, the world of investment banking-type finance had changed for the worse. Conversely, the world of entrepreneurship, particularly in Chicago with the rise of GroupOn and GrubHub, was changing for the better. There was just no better time to start; the stars may not have aligned like this again.

How did the idea for Smarteys come about?

We were leading a seminar for graduating college students at the local university and realized that seminars aren’t the most effective way of creating behavior modification for people. The issue is that money is personal so unless an example directly uses your financial situation, you are likely to discount the lesson being exemplified. As the students crowded around us after the seminar to ask their unique money questions and choices for life after school, it dawned on us that what graduating students needed was an easily accessible and simple way to load their financial profile – future income, bills, debt, savings – and see how that, plus other lifestyle choices like having a roommate, effects them. It was clear that these soon-to-be graduates had great educations but little understanding of the money choices they would need to make over the next few months and how it impacts their future.

There are many online financial planning tools being offered in today’s market? How did you seek to define your product? Was “standing out’ even a concern for you?

Product differentiation is important to us. To make sure that we don’t become another “me-too” financial company we devote a bunch of time to understanding our core market – people one year from or after graduation. Our focus on that critical time in a student’s life is what sets us apart. We seek to stand out by sticking to our core beliefs:

Great products are inspired by simple everyday things.
User experience is a technology’s life source.
Security and data privacy are foundational.
Financial software should educate and cause you to do something.
Simple is better.
Understanding should be instant, time is a luxury.
Customer service matters.

Did you start working on the company with your co-founder while you were both still working full-time or did you quit your jobs before building the foundation of the company?

We started working on the company while attending the full-time MBA program at Chicago Booth. So, I’d say it was like starting the company while “working.” Before school, my co-founder had the mission and sense of purpose for the company and we used time in business school to flush out the idea, raise money, and start branding the name.

The lack of support networks has been identified as a critical aspect to involving more African Americans in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  While I agree that this is very important, I do not agree that African Americans lack technology support groups.  I assert that the problem is that the African American community at large is not aware of the networks that do exist.

There are three that I have worked with over the years. I am sure there are others and I am even more certain that most of our people, particularly our young people are not aware of these groups.  I know this because I do quite a bit of public speaking around the country.  When I ask students if they are familiar with The Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), BiTWiSE, or Blacks In Technology the answer is invariably no.

In all fairness, BiTWiSE and Blacks in Technology are recent developments.  But BDPA has been around since 1975.  I have been a professional software developer since 1986 and I only recently became aware of BDPA.  We must do a better job of making our folks aware of these organizations.

This is not an indictment against BDPA as I personally know that they make every effort to ensure that our people know about their good work.  The charge is ours.  Any time I speak to a young person who has demonstrated an interest in technology, the first question I ask is ‘where do you live’ and if BDPA has a chapter in that city, I direct him or her to contact the chapter in their area.

The abundance of knowledge, experiences and social capital that exists within BDPA must be leveraged if our community is to become a player in the global technology game.  As a speaker and blogger I am constantly receiving questions related to technology and how to get involved in the technology arena.

I am happy to answer these questions but how much better would it be for the learner to not only pose the question to a larger group but possibly someone who has experienced the same circumstance.  This is a common occurrence on the web community, Blacks In Technology (BIT).  BIT is a wonderful online community of Black technologists who are ready to share their stories, knowledge, wisdom and encouragement not only to those who are looking for others like themselves who are already involved in technology careers but also technology aspirants.

Without these kinds of support groups, African Americans in technology may began to deal with feelings of isolation.  I can attest to this circumstance personally.  Since I graduated from college with my undergraduate degree in computer science in 1986 I have rarely had the pleasure of working in an IT department with another African American.

This issue of isolation occurs in high school, the workplace as well as on college campuses.  It is also one of the main reasons that African Americans do not persist in STEM careers.

Many scholars studying this issue from S. Craig Watkins in his book The Young and the Digital as well as Jane Margolis in the book Stuck in the Shallow End have reported on the importance of support groups or networks to combat the issue of isolation.

I would have loved being a part of either of these groups when I first became a software engineer.  Why?  Because it is great to be able to speak with someone who can relate to your circumstance.  Someone who can understand what you may be going through.

I can remember having to explain to members of my family and friends what exactly it was that I did as a computer programmer.  The people in my community simply did not understand that I was CREATING software, not using it!  I also never had anyone to talk shop with for the early years of my career.

This is why I am so excited about this third group, BiTWiSE, which is a networking group dedicated to the African American software engineer and is sponsored by Microsoft.  You can find BiTWiSE on LinkedIn under LinkedIn Groups.  You can simply search Groups and enter ‘BiTWiSE’.

Technology support groups do indeed exist in the African American community.  However they become less effective if they are unknown to the people who can benefit from them the most.  We must do a better job of promoting the efforts of these groups in order to remove yet another obstacle to the inclusion of African-Americans participation in the digital society.

 Kai Dupé is a doctoral student at Pepperdine University where he is conducting research on Why African American Males Are Underrepresented in Computing. Kai can be reached by email at kai.dupe@kaidupe.com or by visiting his website at www.WhereAreBlacksInTechnology.com or follow him on twitter @KaiDupe

There are over 425,000 mobile apps available on Apple’s App Store for the iPhone. The Android Marketplace now has well over 30,000 apps for their devices. According to the website TechCrunch, there has been more than 1 Billion downloads from the App Store as of April 2009. Here is a question? How many of these apps are produced by African Americans?

I would venture to guess we are producing very little. Mobile phones are the most ubiquitous way people communicate and interact with information. With more than 5 billions users communicating and interacting on these devices, the lack of African Americans producing mobile apps has to change.

Further, suppose you want to support Black-owned mobile businesses? How would you go about doing that? We need more African Americans creating products in the mobile space, but in order for that to happen we must support those who are doing just that. How do we find them? I am happy to report things are changing.

In the August issue of Black Enterprise, there is a feature about African Americans who are shaking things up in Silicon Valley called Rule Breakers, Risk Takers: The New Faces of Silicon Valley. This is a very inspiring read and I highly recommend the article. Also, not only is there now an online market for applications for the undiscovered and undeveloped, Inky-Apps, but brothers and sisters are also fully engaged in developing applications for the mobile platform.

Inky-Apps is one of Americas first web stores dedicated to the promotion, advertisement, and development of mobile applications for the undeveloped and undiscovered mobile markets. The site was founded by Richard Fields. Fields is a long time Silicon Valley veteran with over 20 years of information technology experience in computer networking for the enterprise. He has worked for such companies as Xerox, MCI, LSI Logic, MFS DataNet, Tandem Computers, Compaq Computers and Hewlett Packard.

I have also learned of several apps that have been developed for mobile devices that were developed by African Americans. The first to come to my attention is an application called Multiple Madness, which is a math game that tests how well you know math multiples.

The application was developed by Veda Rogers. When I spoke with Veda a few months ago, she revealed that she made the decision early in the development process to keep the app simple. It only took her 3 months to develop the application working part-time in the evenings and on weekends.

Then there is Celly. Celly can be used on any cell phone. I am currently evaluating it on my iPhone 3Gs (I am awaiting the release of the iPhone 5). Celly creates mini social networks called cells that connect you with people and topics that matter most to you. A cell can contain anybody with a cell phone, people from your existing social networks, or any web feed.

The app lets you define filters based on hashtags, location, time, and user identity so you can eliminate noise and get alerted only when relevant messages occur. The potential for this application is huge for schools. The beauty of Celly is that you do not need a Smartphone. Any phone that allows text messaging will work fine.

Finally, there is the Sankofa Solar app, which is more informational in nature. The ability to access information on the go, particularly information that is relevant to the African American community is certainly important and at the present time very unique.

Sankofa Solar provides solar technology innovations from the Black community and the solar industry. This is a free app and you can learn more about it and install the application by visiting the Android MarketPlace and searching on “Sankofa Solar”.

There is simply too much opportunity here and we as African Americans need to make sure that we get our share of this mobile app pie. I received my blessing from Apple this week to provision my creations to the App Store. I intend to do just that. I have two ideas that I will submit before the end of the year. What are you going to do?
 Kai Dupé is a doctoral student at Pepperdine University where he is conducting research on Why African American Males Are Underrepresented in Computing. Kai can be reached by email at kai.dupe@kaidupe.com or by visiting his website at www.WhereAreBlacksInTechnology.com or follow him on twitter @KaiDupe

Black Web 2.0 Founder Angela Benton

By Alexis Garrett Stodghill

The lack of diversity in the technology field is a dirty non-secret of the industry. Software firms, game designers and other businesses seem futuristic but in one way are very entrenched in the past: these entities tend to be overwhelmingly white and male. But there are contenders in the tech sector who break this mold — female trendsetters in both Silicon Valley (the California-based area of the technology industry) and Silicon Alley (the NYC tech community) — creating despite a tradition of sexism. And many of these women are black.

The latest installment of The Huffington Post’s long-running Women in Tech series showcases some of these women. Their latest piece, “27 Female Founders In Tech To Follow On Twitter,” features three African-American ladies blazing new tech sector trails. Huffington Post senior editor Bianca Bosker writes about the compilation:

As part of our Women in Tech series, we’ve compiled a list of 27 female founders who are changing industries, reshaping the public sector, doing good, and helping others, all by using technology in creative new ways.

These women are also active Twitter users who are each worth following for the insights and advice they offer about everything from entrepreneurship and VCs to social media and coding. They include CEOs and CTOs, experienced entrepreneurs and experts, scientists and engineers.

The three black members of this special “must follow” female clique are:

Don’t let lack of money stop you from reaching your goals! This is the advice I share most often with young African-American technology aspirants. There is an abundance of opportunities available today for those interested in computing careers that were not available when I started my career in 1982.

For example, today there is free software available. That was not the case in 1982. In fact, I can remember struggling in one of my early programming classes because I could not afford a copy of the required software, Borland’s Turbo Pascal. My problem was lack of money. Today, there are many options for not only acquiring free software, but also for a free technology education.

Today companies such as Microsoft are looking to strengthen the pipeline of future technoloists in order to keep fill future technology jobs. As a result, students are alllowed to download free copies of development software from their DreamSpark website. The DreamSpark website states: “DreamSpark is about giving students Microsoft Professional Tools at no charge.” Unbelievable!

For the last few years there has been much in the media about how America is falling behind the rest of the world in terms the numbers of students who are majoring in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). It has been written that what makes the most sense is to tap those groups that have been historicallly under represented in STEM: minorities and women.

One of the factors cited for the lack of adoption of technology in America is wealth. As such, many organizations have stepped up to provide opportunities to increase the participation of low-income families in technology. One such company is Comcast with their Internet Essentials program. Although the traditional digital divide (at least the definition that has to do with physical machines), has narrowed, a gap still persists.

The Internet Essentials program brings the power of the web to more students and more families all across the country. This program offers home Internet service for less than $10.00 a month. The program helps families connect to the Internet for less in 4 principal ways:

1. Internet service for only $9.95 a month, plus tax

2. No price increases or pay activation or equipment rental fees

3. The option to buy a computer at initial enrollment for the low price of just $149.99 + tax

4. Free Internet training–online, in print and in person.

Can you beleive that? You can get a computer for approximately $150.00 and it can be connected to the web for $9.95 a month. As soon as you get connected, navigate on over to the DreamSpark and download your software and you are in business my friend. In my opinion, these are the two most important pieces of equipment that our young people can possess in the 21st century.

Folks can talk about our connectedness to cell phones all they want but until someone develops an application on a cell phone and provides income for their families and their community I am not impressed.

If that is not enough. You can pay a visit to my friend Eric Hamilton’s offering The Web Academy, which provides free web design classes to the community and low cost web development services to non-profit organizations and low-income businesses. The course work is 100% distance learning taught by live instructors in real time. Students are required to work on at least 3 web development projects in exchange for the knowledge they receive. These projects gives their students actual work experience in the web industry.

There are many more opportunities such as these that young African American technology aspirants and others can take advantage if they only knew about them. There are scholarships, competitions, grants, equipment, websites and other resources that are available for free that are in place to help you thrive in a technology career. Take advantage of it. At the outset I shared that my advice to young technology aspirants was that they “not let a lack of money stop them from reaching their goals”. In this day and age, lack of information should not stop you either.

 Kai Dupé is a doctoral student at Pepperdine University where he is conducting research on Why African American Males Are Underrepresented in Computing. Kai can be reached by email at kai.dupe@kaidupe.com or by visiting his website at www.WhereAreBlacksInTechnology.com

by Sakita Holley

Tiffani Bell, 26, isn’t your typical Silicon Valley CEO. She’s a Howard University-trained engineer from North Carolina, who after missing one too many appointments with her hair stylist was inspired to create Pencil You In, a business that streamlines the appointments process for grooming-based business providers.

Fresh off of a stint at NewMeAccel, the first minority-owned start-up accelerator, Tiffani sat down with the Atlanta Post to discuss how she built her business, the lack of diversity in the technology industry and what it’s like being filmed for the fourth installment of CNN’s Black in America 4.

What is Pencil You In and who is it for?

TB: Pencil You In allows hairstylists, barbers, make-up artists, and nail techs to more efficiently and professionally manage their businesses by accepting appointments online.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

TB: The inspiration for Pencil You In goes back to 2008 during my last semester at Howard University.
I had a full schedule that included classes, presentations and interviews and needed to look presentable at all times. Showing up in a headscarf and track pants was no longer acceptable.

I’d been going to the same hairstylist for 2-3 years, but thanks to my schedule, I was no longer able to see him every two weeks. After an extensive game of phone tag, I’d end up getting appointments at extremely odd times. 7am once. And I figured that since I was a Computer Science major, I could probably write some software that could solve this problem for myself, and others.

What year did you launch Pencil You In?

I threw the first prototype together back in 2008, but didn’t get serious about the app until 2010. Prior to that, it was just another project in a long list of ideas I was tinkering with at the time.

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

TB: I’ve always been a person that’s gone against the grain and disagreed with the notion that I had to “get a real job” where somebody else determined what kind of salary I made and what I’d get to work on or think about everyday.

And not to sound greedy or anything, but I knew I wanted to be wealthy and as I got older, it became increasingly obvious that to be wealthy, I’d have to determine my own salary, through entrepreneurship.

One of reasons cited for why African Americans choose not to pursue a career in technology is that they rarely see people who look like them involved in computing. I can certainly identify with the research. In a career that spans 25 years as a software engineer, I can count on one hand the number of African Americans I have worked with during that time.

While it is true that African Americans are severely under represented in computing, there are role models in technology that can help our young people to identify with these fields. The African American community must do a better job of not only showing our young people current role models, but we must also do better at informing our young people that Africans as well as African Americans have played a role in the evolution of the computing industry. This is key to closing the digital divide, and traditional Black media can play a significant role in bringing this information to our communities.

As a black man who believes in supporting Black-owned businesses I have patronized all forms of traditional Black media most of my adult life to include networks such as BET and TVOne, print magazines such as Ebony and Essence, as well as local, national, and satellite radio. With the exception of XM Radio’s The Mario Armstrong Show, which focuses on helping folks to embrace a digital lifestyle, and Black Enterprise magazine there is scant mention of the of technology and its importance in the lives of African Americans.

I do not believe in complaining about a problem, I believe in taking action. I wrote to newspapers as well as magazines and suggested that space be allocated to provide this critical information to the black community. I offered to provide the information free of charge as a service to the community and I made the case that at this point in our history, making sure our people embrace technology as we move forward in the 21st century is CRUCIAL to our survival – of this, there is no doubt.

Most of the organizations that I wrote simply did not respond. A few others responded with a “thanks, but no thanks”, and a couple offered me the opportunity to bridge the gap. This is simply not good enough. What is the reason for the resistance? How do we expect our young people to view technology as important if we are not discussing it in our media? Why do most of these outlets not consider the topic of technology just as important as finance, spirituality, or health?

Most often when there is a mention of technology in Black media it is coming from a consumer perspective. National publications may make mention of a great new iPhone app that you can purchase, but there is no mention of the 2 sisters at Spelman College who won the AT&T sponsored mobile application development competition or that Morehouse College hosted a National Business Plan competition that was focused on students submitting smart phone application ideas. And even when they were mentioned in a few outlets, there is not another such story for weeks or months. We need a steady diet.

Those 2 sisters and the young men who participated in the competition at Morehouse could provide wonderful role models for our youth. We have the role models, what is lacking is the distribution of this information to our communities. What is lacking is the coverage of these technology-centric stories. Who better to fill this void than our beloved traditional black media.

 Kai Dupé is a doctoral student at Pepperdine University where he is conducting research on Why African American Males Are Underrepresented in Computing. Kai can be reached by email at kai.dupe@kaidupe.com or by visiting his website at www.WhereAreBlacskInTechnology.com

by Lauren Coleman

Mobile phone applications are being downloaded at an impressive rate. In fact a research company called Gartner just announced earlier this year that by the end of 2014, over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile app stores, since the launch of the first one in July 2008.  Apps are being developed to do everything from monitor your health to organize your finances, but what are the favorite applications being used by those who work in various parts of the tech industry?  I  decided to go behind the screen with a few members of the technorati and find out.

Cardio Trainer tops Mark Nyon’s list.  “My favorite app right now is easily Cardio Trainer by Worksmart Labs. It’s free, and uses GPS to track my route as I rollerblade (I rollerblade between 30 and 50 miles per week). This exercise is helps me maintain my life/work balance as the principal and CEO of Grand Kru Technologies.”

Let’s face it. We ALL have a great idea that we think could make money. Some of us have even taken the time to do research, perfect the idea, draft a business plan, get funding, and even make it market. What the majority of people who don’t follow through with their ideas attribute their lack of action to is the amount of time it takes to go from an idea to a minimal viable product (MVP).

As a result, MANY great ideas die from the hands of time. One of the sole purposes behind a startup accelerator program is to round up people with great ideas with those who have the means to support those ideas.

Most startup accelerators (or incubators) focus primarily around software/technology ideas and are willing to invest the time and the money to help people with dreams of being the next Microsoft, Apple, or Google or Facebook. The accelerator programs bring in speakers and mentors to encourage participants and serve as examples of what can be accomplished. They provide networking opportunities for the participants to possibly spread the word about your idea to the rest of the industry. Many well-known investors and venture capitalists frequent or even monetarily support startup accelerator programs in hopes to find and (finance) the next big thing.

Some of the top-tier startup accelerator programs include Y Combinator in California, TechStars in Colorado, and Capital Factory in Texas. Some of these well-known programs receive hundreds of applications, so your idea has to be special AND well thought out in order to make the cut. Major companies are taking notice of the talent that is born from startups and invest heavily in the programs and the participants futures.

One such company is Comcast and its Interactive Capital affiliate. As part of its deal with NBC universal, Comcast Interactive Capital has created a $20 million dollar fund in an attempt to bring in more minority led-startups into the startup culture.

Comcast Interactive Capital has teamed up directly with the DreamIt Ventures  startup accelerator program in Philadelphia to create a special three month minority startup track for five minority-led startups that will provide brand building, business development, financial modeling, business plans, distribution and customer acquisitions. In addition, they will be provided with office space, working alongside the other startups selected and be provided with donated legal, accounting and administrative help. At the end of the three-month period, the startups will have the opportunity to pitch to venture capital and angel investors at a demo day in Philadelphia to secure further funding to create a sustainable business. This year, the application deadline is July 8^th, and the program starts on  September 9^th.

So if you think you’re sitting on the next big tech company, but not sure where to start for advice, assistance…or funding, do your research into startup accelerator programs. If you have the talent and the time to cultivate your idea, these programs just may supply the rest of what it takes to take your idea to market quicker than you ever imagined.

“I’m a Husband, Father, Brotha and “Jack of All Tech” who is constantly giving folks the “Low Down” on technology on my blog BrothaTech. I also get my tech-writing hustle on via various tech-related sites all over the interwebz. My main tech topics include: mobile apps, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, social media and related web-tech. Yeah, I Tweet about tech (and some other stuff) too. Look me up @BrothaTech“