HPH 015 - Diversity in Tech With Jason Towns of @CODE2040

Her Power Hustle | The Power Resource for Women Entrepreneurs |Inspiration | Motivation | Perspiration for Women in Business

"I'm dedicating my life to supporting entrepreneurship in our communities and making sure that we're not only supporting our top performing founders from non-traditional communities...but that I'm also doing the work of inspiring our young people to pursue startup life as an option"

Jason Towns is the director of residency with CODE2040, whose mission is to create access, awareness, and opportunities for top Black and Latino/a engineering talent to ensure their leadership in the innovation economy. Jason has 15 years of experience as a founder and advisor to startups, campaigns and nonprofits. Before heading to the Silicon Valley, he sat on the Washington, DC Mayor’s Tech Roundtable and served as an advisor to Digital DC, an initiative formed to promote and invest in the continued growth of DC’s tech ecosystem. Jason is a lifetime learner committed to the idea that technology can be a great equalizer and served as a CODE for Progress Fellow, focused on creating software to tackle large scale social issues.

Jason and I chat about:

• The importance of diversity in tech
• Issues surrounding launching a startup, including team building
• The role of women and women of color in tech
• Current events and diversity initiatives in tech, including Project Diane, Stanford's new free tuition program and the launch of Tidal by Jay-Z and others
• Where Jason and I disagree on the best hip hop album
• And much, much more

Tweetworthy! I just learned so much from @jhtdc of @CODE2040. My biggest takeaway was... Click above to tweet at Jason and share your greatest takeaway from his interview! Resources from our conversation:

CODE2040' s website has all of their information including for the Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Fellows program

Connect with Jason and CODE2040 on social media:

Jason Towns Twitter - @jhtdc

CODE2040 Twitter - @CODE2040

CODE2040 Instagram - @CODE2040

Free tuition for Stanford students

Learn more about ProjectDiane

DC Code for Progress

DC Web Women

R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center in Southeast Washington, DC

Each week we highlight a woman-owned business in her own words-FOR FREE. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming episode and here on our website email [email protected] with your questions and comments.

Michelle Y. Talbert is an author, recovering attorney and the curator of the Her Power Hustle Community. She’s passionate about networking and relationships and writes on business and entrepreneurship topics for a number of sites, including Black Enterprise and Killer Startups. Her new ebook, ‘Why White Guys Having Fun Make Great Mentors for Black Women,” (2015) chronicles advice and mentorship for Black women in business gleaned from her conversations with Guy Kawasaki, Peter Shankman and other guys in business having fun and at the top of their industries.

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