We all live in a world significantly impacted by systemic racism and inequality—and we all have a responsibility to do what we can to drive real change. That's why in June 2020 Braze joined with several likeminded technology companies to launch Tech for Black Founders (T4BF).

This initiative focuses on creating an effective, sustainable ecosystem capable of providing resources and technology to empower Black-founded businesses and help level the playing field for underserved founders. Over the past eight months, the number of technology providers supporting the program and the number of participating Black-founded firms has only grown. To highlight the program and its impact, Braze invited the CEOs of two T4BF companies to participate in our annual Braze Kickoff (BKO), a virtual company-wide event that celebrates the past year’s successes and walks Braze employees through the vision and goals for the year ahead.

In that session, Omari Matthews, Manager, Technical Support, Braze interviewed Theresa Shropshire, CEO at Nalaverse, a breathwork and meditation virtual studio, and James Chapman, Founder and CEO at Plain Sight. Both firms joined the T4BF program in recent months and both Chapman and Shropshire are focused on breaking down barriers, disproving preconceived expectations, and creating communities where Black founders can open up more opportunities for themselves and the younger generation. The conversation touched on a number of different topics, including what it’s like being a Black-founded startup, what companies should be doing to combat systemic inequality in the tech industry, and what they hope to achieve through their participation in the T4BF program.

Next Steps

T4BF is still expanding, and we’re always looking for new businesses to take part. If you’re a Black founder who has bootstrapped or a Black-founded business that has raised less than $30 million in venture capital funds and has fewer than 150 employees, we’d love to work with you: Just visit our T4BF information page to apply.

Are you a technology provider interested in supporting this growing effort? If so, please email [email protected] for more information on how to get involved.