George Floyd is just one of the latest in the list of too many names illustrating continued years of systemic injustice against the Black community. Black lives matter, and we call on police and government leaders to reconstruct a public safety and criminal justice system that delivers equal safety and equal justice under law. 

We stand with the Black community in our city, our state, and our country against inequality, injustice, and institutional racism. And at this moment — for our Black friends and colleagues, fellow community members, and citizens — we call for dignity, justice, and action. 

TechPoint exists to advance regional prosperity by growing and strengthening our tech ecosystem. That prosperity should be inclusive, but today and for far too long, it has not been. 

We acknowledge the role we can and should play toward longer-term solutions. We have been very intentional and diligent, weaving diversity and inclusion objectives into everything we do, but we can do more, and we can be more transparent about those goals and where we stand today. Diversity and inclusion commitments aren’t solutions for the current injustices we are witnessing, but they can help usher in the long-term shared prosperity we seek. These are not panaceas, nor are they sufficient to the scope of the problem, but we will not be paralyzed by the pursuit of perfection, or complicit by our silence. Therefore, moving forward, we commit to the following:

  • Evaluation of our base of members and board members, with an intention to seek out minority-led tech employers to add, and elevate their voices in board leadership.
  • Publishing our existing diversity and inclusion goals, including those for talent program applications and hiring, and transparency in our progress towards them. 
  • Facilitated introductions for Black entrepreneurs to venture capital firms.
  • Building alliances with Black community and business organizations and continually highlighting minority voices, contributions, and perspectives to the tech ecosystem via the TechPoint Index.
  • Additional promotion of Black voices in professional speaker and panelists opportunities, in our own programming, and to the greater tech community.

Above are things that TechPoint can do directly. But we can do much more as a community. We will embrace our role as the nucleus of the tech community to engage our member companies and universities to identify bigger collective goals and actions we can make to accelerate equity. We welcome outreach from organizations who desire to join us in this journey.