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Tech Leaders Come Together To Solve Industry's Diversity Problem

"This was about meeting people who can help you take those dreams to scale."
By 

Voices Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post

and

Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post

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The tech industry has long faced a challenge that can only be fixed from within -- diversity. And leaders in the industry want a solution.

Last weekend, 150 leading innovators in the tech world convened in New York to attend the sixth annual Cultural Shifting Weekend to celebrate diversity in tech and discuss ways to shape the future of tech, business and society in a two-day event, including a Think Tank and an Awards Brunch.

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The Huffington Post

The theme of this year's event was “Disrupting Traditional Business Models.” Participants included corporate representatives from Google, Microsoft, Intuit, Uber, among others and policy makers.

"This is not just about a theoretical exercise. This was about meeting people who can help you take those dreams to scale," Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake said. "Culture Shift Labs is connecting us to the opportunity and to each other."

Culture Shift Labs, an advisory organization for businesses, coordinated the event. Andrea Hoffman, the organization's founder, has been advising corporations in engaging their underrepresented consumers and employees for over two decades.

“My convenings are known for deal flow and collaboration opportunities among senior leaders,” Hoffman said.

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of Culture Shift Labs and tech leaders the industry is slowly but surely changing for the better. 

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The Most Buzzed About Female-Led Tech Startups Of 2013
Alexandra Chong -- Founder and CEO of Luluvise(01 of08)
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Chong is the founder and CEO of Luluvise, which The Good Web Guide described as a “male database which allows female users to shame or praise potential dates, exes or simply men they know." It's more colloquially known as a "Yelp for Men" and, according to Time, has been downloaded over 75,000 times. (credit:Twitter)
Poornima Vijayashanker -- Founder and CEO of Bizeebee(02 of08)
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Bizeebee helps fitness studios and other membership based businesses across the world grow. According to Bizeebee's website, Vijayashanker was inspired to start the company after consulting with local businesses looking to improve their management practices. She is also a dedicated athlete -- she practices Bikram Yoga and runs half-marathons. (credit:Twitter)
Leah Busque -- Founder and CEO of TaskRabbit(03 of08)
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Busque describes TaskRabbit as a service "for automating your most annoying errands and outsourcing your chores. Whether it's getting groceries, putting together furniture, or picking up a Craigslist purchase, Task Rabbit's network of reliable do-ers will take it off your hands." According to TaskRabbit's website, "since bootstrapping TaskRabbit in 2008, Leah has expanded the company nationally, grown the team to more than 60 employees, raised nearly $40 million in venture funding." (credit:TaskRabbit.com)
Amy Sheng -- Co-Founder of CellScope(04 of08)
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According to its website, “CellScope builds disruptive hardware and software systems for mobile disease diagnosis." According to INC.com, CellScope "also gives doctors the ability to capture a patient’s visual history over time…[it] ultimately aims to build a digital first aid kit for the home." (credit:CellScope)
Dr. Michal Tsur -- Co-Founder and Presidentof Kaltura(05 of08)
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Kaltura, according to its website, is "the world's first and only Open Source Online Video Platform." Tsur has also written for The Huffington Post about employing women in the tech industry and how video technology is the new frontier for schools. (credit:Kaltura)
Shikoh Gitau -- Founder of Ummeli(06 of08)
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Ummeli is "a mobile network that helps communities create their own employment opportunities." Kenyan tech blog iHub called Gitau, "passionate about technology especially mobile phones and their possible catalyst effect in empowerment and development," and wrote that, "Shikoh provides mentorship and support to various start-ups and research efforts in Africa both in the academia and industry that strive to make technology relevant, usable and useful in the everyday life of African users." Gitau was also the first African to win the Google Anita Borg award. (credit:LinkedIn)
Mary-Alice Brady -- CEO of MosaicHUB(07 of08)
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A graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School, Brady worked as an attorney and in a venture capital firm before founding MosaicHUB. The Boston Business Journal described MosaicHUB as "an online community created to help entrepreneurs find the people and resources they need to succeed." (credit:Twitter)
Prita Uppal -- Founder and CEO of Hooked(08 of08)
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Hooked is a game recommendation app which, according to Forbes, "uses machine-learning algorithms to suggest apps with the highest potential relevance to users up to an exact percentage." Hooked has an impressive 24 percent conversion rate of apps suggested to its users (as compared to the more typical 3 percent response rate of mobile ads). (credit:LinkedIn)
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