Delivering the Changeup
Courtesy: Launch Angle Media
This week my friend Keith Hernandez and I got into it on his podcast The Changeup. We talked about advancing economic equity through talented tech founders and leaders, how I pivoted my career from driving change at Google to starting Glidelane, today’s DEI headwinds in the larger context of Civil Rights, and more.
Today my friend Keith Hernandez of The Changeup Podcast dropped our episode together. In our discussion I covered:
• Advancing Economic Equity: understanding systemic marginalization in the industry including my own (tech); how I think about Economic Equity and why advancing it is important; the business (not philanthropic) reasons to focus on getting real and social capital to founders from underrepresented communities;
• How I pushed to advance Economic Equity at Google: how the perspectives of many black Googlers not seeing their communities represented in customers, partners, suppliers and ultimately products led to the Business Inclusion processes, policies and programs that embedded DEI principles throughout Google’s products and operations. (Shout out Project BBOP!);
• Starting the Product Inclusion movement: how crises in Google’s products evolved our focus to designing inclusive products with and for communities of color and the broader spectrum of diverse users, and the role Rev’d Jesse Jackson played in helping push the movement and as a mentor;
• Why I started Glidelane: how Glidelane leverages strategic tools, expertise and networks to provide value to black founders, founders of color, women founders and founders from a diversity of backgrounds to address strategic issues; transitioning founders from a “bootstrap” mentality to an investment mentality;
• Facing DEI headwinds: my optimism about the arc of combating racism and hate despite the fear and backtracking in public and corporate life in the wake of the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision; how to ride the DEI roller coaster by practicing self-care, and the legacy of perseverance in the fight for civil rights and racial justice;
• The Real Tech Unicorns™: How, much more so than any high-valuation startup, people of color succeeding in and changing tech are the real Unicorns of the tech industry. Their ability to enter these space, stay in them and thrive in them despite the incredible barriers and bias they face, and their dedication to changing the industry from within, is nothing short of magical. And the frequent erasure of their contributions often, sadly, makes them somewhat mythical.
I listen to Keith week after week because these discussions consistently spark insight and inspiration. Keith’s show is all about career changes and risk-taking (“The Changeup”) with a focus on including voices of people of color. So we naturally focus on how I pivoted out of the once dream job I created at Google to launch Glidelane. This may be particularly timely for my Googlers and recent ex-Googlers, and anyone else out there feeling the urge to follow their purpose, and to ditch the itch of the golden handcuffs.
We also focus a bit on some personal themes including my journey to understanding my bi-racial identity, how I think about the duality of privilege in my life (both what I haven’t had and what I’ve had in buckets), how my mom and her struggles forged me. Keith and I both share how our dads and their absence did the same. And we discussed the power of using your voice for change – mine as a singer and as an advocate for equity – a topic I discuss with people doing this work nearly every day.
And it wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t cover the euphoric ride of football in Michigan these days (Go Blue! Go Lions!).
If you liked this conversation please follow The Changeup, and I’d love to hear from you on LinkedIn.
– cg