Start-up aims to bridge racial wealth gap via tech industry

A New Hampshire start-up is connecting tech companies with qualified candidates of colour in an effort to close America’s racial wealth gap.

The Manchester-based online employment service Shtudy utilises an assessment programme to identify what skills an applicant has and matches them with a company searching for that skill set, The Boston Globe reported.

Shtudy was founded by University of New Hampshire graduates Geo Miller and Rayvoughn Millingsput. The pair raised US$150,000 in funding from family and friends, including a US$40,000 fellowship from Camelback Ventures — a New Orleans-based non-profit that supports minority entrepreneurs.

A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that Black and Latino workers made up nine per cent and seven per cent, respectively, of STEM workers. African Americans make up 13 per cent of the United States’ population, and Latinos make up 18 per cent.

Scott Garell, an executive coach for Camelback Ventures and an adviser to Shtudy, said that the company provides a pipeline for small to mid-sized tech companies that want to expand recruiting but do not have the resources. Garell is the former president of Ask.com and chief executive of the online retailer Goodshop.com, companies he said which fell short in minority recruitment.

“We weren’t seeing a lot of the resumes,” Garell said. “We just hadn’t established the kind of high-powered, robust pipeline I would have wanted to see.”

– AP