Coltech's Tech Leader Series

Eric Kelly, Chairman and CEO of a portfolio of tech companies, joins us for our Diversity in Tech Leaders podcast to discuss the issue of where to find diverse talent. It is out there, you just have to look in different places! His

Passion project’ turned ‘passion company’, Bridge 2 Technologies, will provide a platform for companies, talent, and communities from diverse backgrounds to come together.

Nic has worked in technology for over 20 years having done everything from help desk analyst to VP of Tech, focusing mainly in web development and team management. He’s currently Co-Founder and CTO of Punchlist. Punchlist has recently finished a 3-month accelerator program at Techstars Atlanta and raised a $2 million seed round to continue building the future of creative feedback and collaboration.

Co-founder of Meroxa, DeVaris Brown, joins our Diversity in Tech Leaders podcast for another insightful episode on the importance of diversity in the workplace. Meroxa was founded with the belief that the future of data engineering lies in better, more efficient, and accessible tooling for companies of all sizes and all levels of data engineering expertise. The company has amazing diversity with 90% of its leadership identifying as a person from an underrepresented group.

Rodney, Co-Founder of Solo Funds, created a capital marketplace, allowing consumers to lend and borrow from each other. Founded alongside Travis Holloway, both Rodney and Travis found that many people, including friends and family, were needing access to emergency loans. They began SoLo with the hope to provide access to this, and in turn have created a platform that has had a positive impact on many peoples lives, including within underrepresented communities! In this podcast, Rodney shares his view on the importance of representation within the tech industry and shares an exciting announcement from Solo!

Lauren, founded FUNDR after noticing inefficiencies within the funding space for start-ups. While on average it took around 6 months for companies to get funding, as a person of colour or a woman this could take a lot longer, even years. FUNDR has created a platform that automates seat investing to remove bias from the process, creating accessibility and equity in the space, as well as maximising returns for the investors.

We were joined by Angell Tsang, the CTO at TSO, a fast-food delivery app with a difference. Tso Chinese Delivery is an Austin-based modern take on the traditional Chinese restaurant and food delivery industry. They are a technology-based, online-only scratch kitchen Chinese delivery and takeout restaurant. All customer orders are placed on a custom e-commerce solution, then prepared and delivered from a local central kitchen.

In this conversation, we covered how Angell produced the idea for TSO and the planned growth for the business.

Ali Salhi is the CTO of LOOP. Loop is a Public-Benefit Corporation and insurance provider, using Artificial Intelligence to create more equitable insurance products.

Ali has been with the business for over 3 years growing with the business from a Data intern to the CTO.

In this episode, we discuss the ups and downs of building a start-up tech business. How working across different time zones has it ups and downs and how the insurtech market is changing people’s lives for the better.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Rick Bunker from Inveniam, he is currently working as a CTO leading an Engineering team of just over 60 employees. In this episode we get a great insight of how Inveniam are changing the way we look at the Financial Services industry and what Rick has done to become the decorated C-suite employee he is today!

Andrew is currently the Product innovation manager at Vouch insurance the latest unicorn in the Insurtech Space. He is also the organiser of the Insurtech ATX meet up and has a wealth of knowledge in the sector.

His passion is for improving the Insurtech market and building a world class network of professionals that can share ideas and help push each other forward.

Rich is known as a high energy leader who has deep experience deploying technology-driven solutions for high growth, global organizations. A roll-up-your-sleeves, creative and collaborative leader with a passion for building high-performance teams.

In this episode, we discuss how organizations can best prepare for large scale digital transformation in order to bring legacy businesses into the modern era.