Technical.ly commits to adding 5 Black-owned businesses to its Talent Pro community

From Technical.ly’s earliest days, our reporting and convening has included a focus on how economic growth relates to systemic inequality — and racial inequity.

In 2012 we co-hosted a summit on “What it takes to be a Black tech entrepreneur.” Network effect in investing, and representation at technology conferences and in engineering teams have been frequent parts of newsroom efforts to challenge the communities we serve to be better. In June that reporting seemed to culminate with a month-long series on racial equity in tech and beyond.

But if this year has brought into stark focus what work still needs to be done, we at Technical.ly aim to increase the level of our contribution to that work.

One of the most meaningful ways we drive results for the clients we work with is to help them talk about their company culture and tell their employer brand story, supporting talent attraction, retention and long-term pipelining. We do this work for growth-stage startups like Perpay and Ordway; for dev firms like Promptworks and SmartLogic; and for large corporates like CareFirst, PNC and Vanguard.

These are our Talent Pro clients. To help the growth and development of Black-owned businesses, Technical.ly is committing to add at least five companies to this client list that are majority owned by Black entrepreneurs. We will aim to support accelerating their growth with this complimentary access. That’s the commitment to invest a year of services and support in Black-owned businesses — without a financial charge.

This program is best suited for tech-enabled companies that intend to make at least 5 to 10 hires in 2021, but we want to hear how we can be supportive. We’ll aim to choose an initial cohort by Dec. 1.

Talent Pro comes with several benefits:

• Company culture page with organizational insights
• Intake process that reinforces your Employee Value Proposition
• Employer brand storytelling to elevate that EVP
• Unlimited jobs board posts
• Placement at Technical.ly events
• Access to a community of professionals

One of Technical.ly’s longtime points of pride is the diversity of our community. One in four of our readers identify as a person of color, and though fully a third are deeply technical in background, we do have readers from a range of professional and tech-adjacent backgrounds. More than 40% of our readers identify as women — strong gender parity for a news site focused on industries with little of it.

In this initial version, we’d aim to drive results during 2021. The commitment is for a year, to learn what is most effective. We’ll commit to building this kind of support into further advancements in our product and client community.

This is not the start of Technical.ly’s contribution to combating the racial wealth gap. It also won’t be the end.