A Black woman tech entrepreneur built a privacy guidance business after McDonald's and PBS asked for help understanding complex regulations. She describes feeling isolated as the only woman of color in rooms full of tech leaders, and credits diverse mentors with helping her navigate the industry and develop a leadership style grounded in data, dignity, and discipline.
Chapters
Yeah, I think after I had people like McDonald's call me about privacy and PBS call me about privacy, I thought, well, maybe I should focus there, right? So a lot of people were calling me about that. I thought, well, this is going to be like a big interest. And it has turned out to be a really big interest. It was funny at the time because when I would be telling people about it, they were like, well, is there like a summary of this? And I was looking, I'm like, no, there's no summary of anything because no one's really looked at it, right? Over those years, I had tried to create a lot of, you know, articles, a lot of speaking things, so there at least be some guidance for people who are looking for stuff as opposed to reading 300 pages of a regulation. So I did a lot of that early on, and I still do that.
Wow, that is quite, uh, amazing. Now you've built a global brand right from the ground up. So what were some of the early challenges you faced, especially as a woman of color in tech? And how did you overcome them?
That's a good question. You know what? I've had some phenomenal mentors. Just being a woman in tech and a Black woman in tech, a lot of times, you know, I go to conferences or I go to shows or go to meetings, and a lot of times I was the only woman and I was the only person of color anywhere, right? And so eventually I start to see little sprinklings of other people like, hey, who are you? You know, trying to introduce ourselves to one another. And so I think the thing that really helped me is that I've had mentors from just all over, right? So regardless of color, race, creed,
