Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the tech industry has yet again found itself in a vulnerable state.
As we saw in the dot-com era, when the economy takes a hit, so do companies, and they need to make critical decisions — whether it’s laying off or furloughing employees, pausing operations in select markets, taking on additional debt or some combination of all four.
Given the disproportionate impact the coronavirus has on people of color and low-income communities, the tech industry — a predominantly white male ecosystem that struggles to foster diversity and inclusion — has an opportunity to approach this new reality through an equitable lens.
As part of Extra Crunch Live, our new virtual speaker series with trusted tech experts, I’ll talk to Kapor Capital’s Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor on Tuesday, April 28 at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern. Full details are at the bottom of this post.
Freada Kapor Klein, a founding partner at Kapor Capital, has advocated for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry for more than a decade. Through Kapor Capital, she invests in startups focused on social impact and closing gaps for people of color, as well as folks in low-income communities. Kapor Klein is also a founding member of Project Include, which works to help founders and investors implement effective diversity and inclusion strategies.
Mitch Kapor, also a founding partner at Kapor Capital, similarly invests in startups geared toward social good. Prior to Kapor Capital, he co-founded The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that protects digital rights and civil liberties. Together, Mitch and Freada also lead the Kapor Center for Social Impact to remove barriers in education and in the workplace.
I’m looking forward to chatting with Freada and Mitch about how startups should approach this ever-changing new reality, strategies for helping companies eliminate inequities and the differences and similarities between how the recent pandemic and the dot-com era are shaping the tech industry.
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During the call, audience members will be able to ask questions, but to join the conversation, you’ll need to be an Extra Crunch member — if you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up here.
If you’re already a member, you can join the call by adding this AddEvent link to your calendar. See you next week!
