Conference Presentation, Fireside Chat, Interview, Keynote
Kimberly Bryant Speaks at Female Founders Conference 2015
- Black Girls Code projects that U.S. demographics will shift to make minorities the majority by 2040, a trend driving the organization's long-term goal to train one million girls of color in coding by that year.
- The organization anticipates that former members will establish high-tech startup companies by 2020, with the "feature vision" of these successful founders serving as a primary motivator for the team.
- Planned expansion includes growing chapters across the U.S. and internationally, building on the "Summer of Code" initiative's success in migrating the organization from a hyper-local model to a chapter-based structure.
- Historical program data indicates the "Summer of Code" grew from an initial 200-student plan in 2012 to 1,000 students that same year, reaching 2,000 students by 2013, while fundraising targets were exceeded with $125,000 raised in 2013 against a $100,000 goal.
- The speaker identifies building a great team as a significant challenge, emphasizing the need to hire individuals smarter and more knowledgeable than the leadership to drive growth and surrounding themselves with people who "take you higher."
- Risks and strategic concerns include the historical decline in women receiving computer science degrees, which fell from 35-36% in the late 1980s to 12-14%, with African American women receiving only 3% and Latinas and Native Americans less than 1%.
- The outlook frames diversity of thought as both a business and social justice imperative, noting that male-dominated technology design lacks innovation solutions that a broader talent pool can provide.
- The organization positions itself as the only entity singularly focused on underrepresented communities, anticipating that the field of youth coding will continue to expand in size and scope from its 2011 "beginning" stage.
- Future growth strategies rely on setting ambitious goals that induce a degree of fear in founders to ensure sufficient scale, operating with a "reckless disregard" for perceived limits to achieve targets deemed initially impossible.
- The speaker asserts that discovering one's passion is the sole reason for existence and that focusing entirely on passion will resolve other existential questions, guiding the "work of the life" to be living out a defined purpose.