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Speaker 1: I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech Green Money.

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Speaker 1: A pro tech tween San Francisco, California. Nicole Well was

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Speaker 1: on the stage and he's at the time vice president

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Speaker 1: of engineering at redditt, one of the largest online community

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Speaker 1: platforms and the ninth most visited website in the world. Today,

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Speaker 1: Nick is a general manager at Twitter, having just recently

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Speaker 1: been promoted from vice president of engineering at Twitter. Today's

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Speaker 1: class is for engineers, black engineers, specifically people who are

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Speaker 1: interested in black engineering. Now. Look, we sit in a

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Speaker 1: lot of worthy roles at companies both large and small

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Speaker 1: in Silicon Valley and in tech startups. We can find

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Speaker 1: ourselves without having to search necessarily high and low in

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Speaker 1: senior roles in HR diversity inclusion, even as CEO. But

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Speaker 1: one of the roles that has escaped many black professionals

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Speaker 1: is the senior role in engineering and some of the

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Speaker 1: biggest tech companies around, black representation is dismal among their ranks,

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Speaker 1: with the most well known companies listening their black workers

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Speaker 1: in single digit percentages. So it takes a guy like

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Speaker 1: Nick who's held leadership roles at companies like I've mentioned before,

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Speaker 1: but also including HubSpot, Google and Microsoft to drop a

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Speaker 1: few gyms with how we increase our numbers among engineering

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Speaker 1: senior staff. I want to see more black executives in

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Speaker 1: Silicon Valley. I've been down here for about a year

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Speaker 1: and a month. I came up through the engineering track.

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Speaker 1: I have met exactly four other black vps of engineering. Four,

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Speaker 1: all right, So this is not acceptable to me in

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Speaker 1: an area where engineers rule. You guys are all engineers, right, good?

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Speaker 1: All right? We're engineers rule to only have four of

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Speaker 1: us representing, all right. So I'm hoping that you get

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Speaker 1: something out of this talk. I'm hoping you take away

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Speaker 1: something that puts you on an executive level career path.

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Speaker 1: That's why I'm up there on stage today. So first

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about myself. We'll talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about ancient history. In order to become an executive,

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Speaker 1: you've gotta have a deep well, a deep drive. You

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Speaker 1: gotta have some some motivation, some passion, right, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of people ask me how did I do that?

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Speaker 1: You know, where do I get my inspiration from? So

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Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about myself. I

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Speaker 1: promise it won't be too long. I don't have a

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Speaker 1: big ego, and we'll move on to giving you guys

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Speaker 1: some tips you can take home with you. All right,

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Speaker 1: So first let's get started here comes from a very

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Speaker 1: early age. Now, my mother was a first generation Jamaican immigrant,

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Speaker 1: all right, and she was a d C public schools teacher,

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Speaker 1: all right, so you got some some discipline coming out

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Speaker 1: of there. My father was actually a public defender, and uh,

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Speaker 1: he is a very creative kind of guy. He brought

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Speaker 1: home all sorts of you know, calligraphy kits all listen,

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Speaker 1: all sorts of different music. He was in a jazz

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Speaker 1: R and B really really interesting guy. And one day

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Speaker 1: he brought home from work. Uh, this thing that is

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Speaker 1: a Tandy one thousand computer. Right. It was one of

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Speaker 1: the very first personal computers. If you didn't know. It

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Speaker 1: has a zero eighty six processor. It's been upgraded to

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Speaker 1: a whopping six hundred forty kilobytes of RAM, and it's

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Speaker 1: running ms DOSS two point oh. Alright, so those stats

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Speaker 1: basically make it a pocket calculator in today's terms. But

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Speaker 1: this thing was great because I'd sit on my father's

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Speaker 1: lap for hours typing on this thing. Not that I

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Speaker 1: could type anything that made sense. It was just gibberish.

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Speaker 1: But It's how we spent our time together. So my

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Speaker 1: dad got me into computers. Now, a couple of years later,

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Speaker 1: when I was ten, my father brought me a copy

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Speaker 1: of this book. All right, this is my first coding book.

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Speaker 1: It's called Learned C plus plus in twelve Easy Lessons.

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Speaker 1: So let me tell you something. This is an absolute

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Speaker 1: god m lie. You cannot You cannot learn C plus

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Speaker 1: plus in any configuration of twelve easy lessons. And and

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Speaker 1: twenty five years later, I still don't think I quite

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Speaker 1: know C plus plus. Now, the second chapter of this book,

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Speaker 1: this is a real book. I'm not kidding. So the

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Speaker 1: second chapter of this book, it has a very critical

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Speaker 1: assignment in it, and I call it the Hello World test.

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Speaker 1: And I think this is the simplest way to know

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Speaker 1: whether or not you're going to have a successful career

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Speaker 1: as a computer program or the The idea is very simple.

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Speaker 1: It's write a program that prints the words Hello World

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Speaker 1: on the screen. Right, And took me about a day

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Speaker 1: and a half. You gotta set up your tools, you

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Speaker 1: gotta figure out how compiler works, you gotta learn a

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Speaker 1: little bit of language. Took me out a day and

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Speaker 1: a half to set this up. So the reason I

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Speaker 1: think that this is the most important test for knowing

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Speaker 1: whether or not you're gonna like the program is because

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Speaker 1: you're either gonna think, wow, I just wasted an entire

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Speaker 1: afternoon trying to print like a few words on the screen,

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Speaker 1: or if you pass this test, you're gonna imagine everything

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Speaker 1: that's possible from there. And that's that's what happened. I

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Speaker 1: passed the test, all right, Now, next up? Uh, I

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Speaker 1: know I look young, but I'm I'm I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: older cat if you don't believe me, so h. One

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Speaker 1: other thing that was going on at this time was

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Speaker 1: the early Internet started to become popular. You guys, maybe

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Speaker 1: some of you guys in my age, remember you open

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Speaker 1: the mail, uh and A O L C D start

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Speaker 1: falling out. It really once you get online. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: I had access through A O L through bulletin board

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Speaker 1: systems to the early Internet. So the reason that this

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Speaker 1: mattered to me is because it gave me a connection

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Speaker 1: to the world beyond p G County, Maryland. And with

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Speaker 1: online services, you can connect with people in ways that

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Speaker 1: really just aren't possible in real life. So I'm able

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Speaker 1: to have conversations on I r C Internet relay chat

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Speaker 1: or a well, forums with people across the entire globe.

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Speaker 1: And I used to play a computer game called Doom

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Speaker 1: Doom fans okay good, And I played that game with

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Speaker 1: online with someone I'd never met in person. So you know,

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Speaker 1: I could learn anything I wanted to on the Internet.

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Speaker 1: And I could you know, I could use early search

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Speaker 1: engines like Yahoo if you believe it, to get way

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Speaker 1: more information than I had access to uh in school.

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Speaker 1: So here I am. I've got uh, you know, a

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Speaker 1: computer I fall in love with. I kind of know

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Speaker 1: how to code. I've got access to the Internet. But

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Speaker 1: the problem is I'm in PG County, Maryland. I'm alone,

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Speaker 1: all right. I'm one of the only people in my

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Speaker 1: age group to have a computer or the Internet. I

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Speaker 1: talked to my friends and uh, you know, they thought

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Speaker 1: computers were for nerds, and they thought I was a nerd.

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Speaker 1: They thought I was the biggest nerd. And my school

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Speaker 1: didn't have computer science classes, didn't even it just wasn't

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Speaker 1: even on the radar. So my heroes at this time

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Speaker 1: had become people, uh like John Carmack, the programmer of Doom,

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Speaker 1: one of the greatest game programmers to live. Uh. Bill

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Speaker 1: Gates trying to make PCs available to every desktop and

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Speaker 1: getting insanely wealthy doing it. Uh. I wanted more than

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Speaker 1: anything to be a part of that world because I

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Speaker 1: understood really how much change an opportunity was about to

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Speaker 1: come from technology. And I also realized, unfortunately that in

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Speaker 1: PC County, Maryland, I didn't have access to the right people,

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Speaker 1: the right tools, the right opportunities to get where I

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Speaker 1: wanted to be. So something had to change. And uh,

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Speaker 1: there's a quote that I read a couple of weeks

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Speaker 1: ago and it really explains my mindset at the time.

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Speaker 1: And the quote is from Randy Zuckerberg. This is Mark

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Speaker 1: Zuckerberg's sister. She said, work, sleep, family, fitness, friends. You

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Speaker 1: get to pick three and I said, well, I'm just

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Speaker 1: gonna pick one and that's gonna be work. And what

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Speaker 1: I did was I decided to go all in on

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Speaker 1: computer programming, like pretty much dropped all my hobbies, used

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Speaker 1: to play a musical instrument, used to go outside, play football, basketball,

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Speaker 1: all gone. Lock myself in my room, did nothing but

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Speaker 1: coding for three months straight, and it became a gateway

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Speaker 1: to another world. After I learned to code, I was

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Speaker 1: able to study hard and transfer into a different school

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Speaker 1: that had a computer science program, and it really set

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Speaker 1: me on the path to where I am today. So

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna talk about my whole

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Speaker 1: academic career. I think that, Uh, I think it would

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Speaker 1: take a little bit too long. But I do want

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Speaker 1: to I do want to talk about a few special

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Speaker 1: turning points, uh in my career. I will say the

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Speaker 1: first one was where I decided to work after I

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Speaker 1: graduated from college. Uh. And this was back in two

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Speaker 1: thousand two. So a lot of people asked me like, hey,

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Speaker 1: why didn't you go and join Google or Facebook back

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Speaker 1: in two thousand two, you'd be a multimillionaire. Not well,

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Speaker 1: you know, Okay, that's true. But but in my defense,

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Speaker 1: Microsoft for me was a good place because it was

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Speaker 1: and it was a more established company back then, and um,

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Speaker 1: you know, for me at that time, I just graduated

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Speaker 1: from m I T. I had like crazy amounts of

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Speaker 1: money to pay off of my student loans, and I

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Speaker 1: was looking for something stable. So when you come to

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Speaker 1: Silicon Valley, uh, you're really taking a kind of risk.

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Speaker 1: You're really falling into a world where people say things

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Speaker 1: like fail fast, It'll be okay, come work for a

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Speaker 1: twenty five year old CEO with no college degree but

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Speaker 1: a vision to change the world. That's insane to me,

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Speaker 1: And it was insane to me at the time. And

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Speaker 1: I decided that that that risk, that ability to take

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Speaker 1: that sort of risk, was a privilege that I just

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Speaker 1: didn't have. I didn't think I had it. I had

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Speaker 1: that student loan debt. I wanted that to get paid off.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to help my parents pay their bills. I

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Speaker 1: want to get a car, you know. So it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until I really had a safety net of professional skills

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Speaker 1: and network UH you know that I was able to

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Speaker 1: consider Silicon Valley and and end up here with you

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Speaker 1: guys today. So I start it did my career at Microsoft.

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to talk about the whole thing. It's

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Speaker 1: gonna take too long, but I'm gonna talk about three

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Speaker 1: important moments important to meet. First one, I want to

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Speaker 1: talk about the day that I learned the difference between

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Speaker 1: UH leadership and management. So I start Microsoft. I've got

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Speaker 1: about three years into my career UH, and they promote

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Speaker 1: me into a management position. And Microsoft's a big company.

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Speaker 1: It's living up to its reputation as being extremely slow moving.

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Speaker 1: Some of you guys may have worked in kind of

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Speaker 1: a waterfall development model. I don't know if you remember that,

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Speaker 1: but it was taking like literally months or years to

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Speaker 1: plan new products. Uh So, one day I just found

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Speaker 1: myself totally piste off. I was in a rage. I

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Speaker 1: kicked the door into my my mentor's office and his

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Speaker 1: name was robb uh and I just unloaded a bunch

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Speaker 1: of complaints on him. I was, you know, the product

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Speaker 1: managers are dumb, we're shipping stuff too slowly. I just

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Speaker 1: ranted at him for like ten minutes straight, and then, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, after I finished, he said the words that

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Speaker 1: really kick started my management career. So I'm unload on him.

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Speaker 1: He steps back and he says, uh, Nick, you're a

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Speaker 1: great manager and you can run the team like clockwork,

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Speaker 1: but you aren't a leader at all. You aren't a leader.

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Speaker 1: I was like, damn, that hurt my feelings because this

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Speaker 1: guy is my mentor right now for five years. And

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Speaker 1: he said, all the things that you're complaining about right now,

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Speaker 1: who do you think is responsible for fixing them? He said,

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Speaker 1: are you going to continue sitting here bitching at me?

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Speaker 1: Or are you going to step up and do something

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Speaker 1: about it? He said, leaders take responsibility for what happens next.

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Speaker 1: And I immediately got what he was saying. I left

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Speaker 1: his office. I thought for a little bit, and I

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Speaker 1: went to the office next door, the office of the

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Speaker 1: general manager, and I said to him, Uh, put in

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Speaker 1: charge of the product plan. Things are moving too slow.

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Speaker 1: I want to be in charge. And I don't know

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Speaker 1: how I said it or why this guy believe me,

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Speaker 1: but he put me in charge of the product plan

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Speaker 1: and I developed a roadmap that lasted this team for

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Speaker 1: the next two years. So remember, leaders take responsibility for

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Speaker 1: what happens next. Now, that led me to a series

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Speaker 1: of projects around n LP and machine learning. Uh and

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Speaker 1: eventually a project sponsored by a guy named Bill Gates

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Speaker 1: called info Navigator. You can look that up. I won't

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Speaker 1: describe exactly what it is, but it was a project

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Speaker 1: sponsored by Bill Gates, my childhood hero. Now, one very

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Speaker 1: interesting thing about this project is that it meant I

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Speaker 1: because it was pretty transformative for me. And UH, first,

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Speaker 1: I'll just say, you don't just go to meet Bill Gates.

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Speaker 1: You can't just walk in his office. Hey, how's it going? Right?

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Speaker 1: Going to him takes about a month of preparation, all right,

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Speaker 1: Uh to have an hour long meeting. Takes far longer

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Speaker 1: to present, to to prep to talk to Bill Gates

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Speaker 1: than it did to take to to prep for this conference.

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Speaker 1: All right. Now, finally the day comes. We go to

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Speaker 1: his office building. He's got like a little secret elevator.

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Speaker 1: You have to go around back. We go to the

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Speaker 1: top floor, this gigantic office overlooking Lake Washington, the biggest

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Speaker 1: office I've ever seen. And there's Bill sitting at his

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Speaker 1: desk and he's playing solitaire, which, uh it's a little

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Speaker 1: bit stereotypical, but you know whatever. Uh, and we sit down.

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Speaker 1: Presentation starts. Now. Bill Gates is in the room, My

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Speaker 1: boss is in the room, Sat Adela, who's the current

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Speaker 1: CEO of the companies in the room. There's the leaders

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Speaker 1: of multiple billion dollar businesses in the room with me,

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Speaker 1: and we all are just absolutely terrified because we have

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Speaker 1: to present to build Now. Eventually my turn comes along.

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Speaker 1: Such into my presentation, I got thirty minutes to talk

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Speaker 1: and I observed three things. All right. First, Uh, Bill,

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Speaker 1: he looks like a really nice guy, but he curses

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Speaker 1: like a sailor. Uh. But the thing is he always

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Speaker 1: attacked ideas. He never talked, attacked the people in the room, Right.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was really important. And then second, even

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Speaker 1: the smallest words that he said carried immense weight. You know,

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Speaker 1: the pms in the room, the vps took little notes

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Speaker 1: about every little facial expression that he made and then

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Speaker 1: brought it back to the teams. So I thought to myself,

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Speaker 1: you know, when you're a leader, how do people interpret you?

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Speaker 1: Even your smallest actions carry weight? How do people interpret

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Speaker 1: what I say when I'm leading my teams? And then

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Speaker 1: the final thing, Uh, and probably the most important thing

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Speaker 1: I took away from this is that I was giving

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Speaker 1: a presentation on a pretty obscure topic. It was natural

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Speaker 1: language interfaces to in memory database systems. All right, So

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Speaker 1: I'm in, I'm presenting the bill for thirty minutes about that.

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Speaker 1: He's asking me questions, Bill Gates, asking me questions about

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Speaker 1: a piece of technology. And it occurred to me at

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Speaker 1: that moment that even the most brilliant leaders are only

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Speaker 1: as good as the people that they can get to

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Speaker 1: follow them. Right that, for that moment, I was the

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Speaker 1: smartest person in a room full of billionaire executives. And

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Speaker 1: I felt pretty good. And I think it's an important

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Speaker 1: lesson for you guys as leaders. All right, who can

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Speaker 1: you get to follow you? And how will you take

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Speaker 1: care of them? That's what I took away from it,

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Speaker 1: all right. So that's a bill that Project inf and

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Speaker 1: have shipped. That took us about a year and a

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Speaker 1: half to ship. It ended up going really well and

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Speaker 1: uh one second here, and it led me to my

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Speaker 1: next career move, Reddit. So uh, A lot of people

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Speaker 1: were shocked when I moved to Reddit. Uh who here

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Speaker 1: knows what redd it is? Oh? Yes, I love black people.

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Speaker 1: I did not expect that. Uh excellent. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of people ask me why I I'm gonna talk a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about Reddit uh later, But if you

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Speaker 1: didn't know what it was until now, here's some stats. Read.

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Speaker 1: It's the fourth largest website in the United States. According

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Speaker 1: to Alexa, It's got three million monthly active users. I

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Speaker 1: joined because one, I love the side. I've been on

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Speaker 1: it for many, many years. It reminds me of that

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Speaker 1: early spirit of the Internet. We've got an all new

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Speaker 1: executive team with a vision to grow the company and

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Speaker 1: make it more welcoming. Uh. And then culture wise, one

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Speaker 1: thing I'm really really proud of it at Reddit is

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Speaker 1: we're supporting diversity. And I'll talk about that later because

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Speaker 1: we're hiring, so remember that. But here's a picture of

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Speaker 1: me and the executive team. Uh. First week it read

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Speaker 1: it me and the entire exact team presenting a tech

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Speaker 1: inclusion So so that's where I'm at. Now, I'm having

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Speaker 1: the time in my life. I want to switch gears

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Speaker 1: a little bit and talk about I want to talk

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Speaker 1: about things that are gonna help you guys. All right, So,

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Speaker 1: going back to what I said earlier, I want this

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Speaker 1: talk to be useful in the sense that you guys

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Speaker 1: should walk away with the tools you need to be

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Speaker 1: come executive leaders. All right, there we go. So I

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Speaker 1: want to give you four fast track tips for diverse leaders.

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Speaker 1: I was able to get from internship to executive level

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Speaker 1: position in twelve years. There's got to be someone in

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Speaker 1: this room that can beat me, all right, So I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna give you my secrets. Number one, I want to

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Speaker 1: talk about this get comfortable being uncomfortable? What do I

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Speaker 1: mean by that? Um? Now, the tech industry, you guys are,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure, aware is about continuous change. I'm certain that

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Speaker 1: like three JavaScript frameworks have been released while we've been

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Speaker 1: in this room, and I expect you to learn them. All.

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Speaker 1: You have to get in the mindset of continually growing

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Speaker 1: if you're gonna be in the in the tech industry

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Speaker 1: and tech. If you aren't continuously growing, trust me, Uh,

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Speaker 1: you're falling behind. But it doesn't just mean learning new technologies.

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Speaker 1: It means trying different things, learning things outside your comfort zone.

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Speaker 1: For me, this meant leaving Maryland, going to school in Boston,

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Speaker 1: then Seattle, very very far away from home, family, people

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Speaker 1: like me, people like us. It meant getting an m

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Speaker 1: b A while I was working full time. It meant

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Speaker 1: leaving my cushy Microsoft executive job at the height of

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Speaker 1: my career and going to a little startup. Uh. You know,

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Speaker 1: so every time I've gotten uncomfortable in my career, my

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Speaker 1: career has taken a step forward. So I encourage you

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Speaker 1: to do the same thing. Number two. This one's a

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Speaker 1: little bit controversial because I'm sure people have given you

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Speaker 1: opposite advice. But um, but hey, I'm an exact so

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Speaker 1: listen to me. All right. Yeah, So the big one

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Speaker 1: of the biggest mistakes I see people making in their

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Speaker 1: career when they want to advance, uh, is they take

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Speaker 1: on too many mentors and not enough sponsors. And most

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Speaker 1: people I talked to don't know what the difference is.

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Speaker 1: So a mentor is someone that you're gonna go get

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Speaker 1: coffee with every couple of weeks. You're gonna tell them

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Speaker 1: your problems. They're gonna give you some advice. Now, a

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Speaker 1: sponsor is someone who's gonna give you more than advice.

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Speaker 1: They're gonna give you opportunities. And I've had people that

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Speaker 1: I've learned from I might call a mentor, but I've

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Speaker 1: never gone to anyone and say, hey, would you mentor me?

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Speaker 1: But I have hundreds of times gone to people and said,

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Speaker 1: take a bet on me, what do you need done,

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Speaker 1: I'll do it for you. You do that, you'll find

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Speaker 1: you're surrounded by opportunities all the time. All right, So

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Speaker 1: don't ask for mentors. I want you to ask for opportunities,

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Speaker 1: all right. Number three, I want to talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about bias. This is gonna be a bit of

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Speaker 1: a downer because I don't actually have the solution for this,

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Speaker 1: but hopefully can get you in the right mindset. So

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Speaker 1: When I talk about bias here, you may have heard

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Speaker 1: unconscious bias. I'm not talking about unconscious bias. I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about straight up bias, because there are people in this

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Speaker 1: industry who are going to have no shame in being

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Speaker 1: biased against you. I'm talking about those people. And if

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Speaker 1: you're gonna be a leader, the higher that you climb,

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Speaker 1: the more you're gonna get criticized. The more people can

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Speaker 1: see you, more criticism is going to come at you.

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Speaker 1: And if you're a minority or a woman, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have a unique experience and that they will criticize you

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Speaker 1: before you even get off the ground. And this affects me.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you guys respect that. I'm I'm an m

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Speaker 1: I T grad at Berkeley n b A. I've built

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Speaker 1: UH product teams with hundreds of people in them. I

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Speaker 1: have shifted hundreds of millions of dollars worth of software

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Speaker 1: to billions of people around the world, and I still

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Speaker 1: get called a diversity higher. I can't imagine what boot

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Speaker 1: camp grads are going through today, people who are just

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Speaker 1: struggling to change careers. I don't think there's a way

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Speaker 1: to beat this, but I can tell you what I

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Speaker 1: do all right, And it's a certain mindset that I

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Speaker 1: know everyone in this room has, and it's very simple.

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Speaker 1: It's called hustle. So I don't know how I think

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Speaker 1: there's gonna be bias, but hustle, which is what this

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Speaker 1: whole presentation is really going to be about. Hustle is

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Speaker 1: the r in practice of finding a way to rise

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Speaker 1: up through hard work, through cleverness, through persistence, through community.

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Speaker 1: You can't eliminate bias, but one thing you can control

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Speaker 1: is hustle. I believe firmly that hustle is going to

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Speaker 1: be the solution to overcoming bias for you. Now, that

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Speaker 1: unfortunately does mean one thing. It means you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to outwork people, but you can't. It may not be fair,

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Speaker 1: but you can do it and you can control it.

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Speaker 1: I know the people in this room can out hustle

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Speaker 1: the people around them. So that's my tip for you.

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Speaker 1: But I don't want to leave it on a negative

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Speaker 1: note because I knew when I got into this section

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Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna have the answer to how to overcome bias.

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Speaker 1: But I do think I have a trick. I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about that, all right, it's the last secret. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is something you guys can all do today to

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Speaker 1: help overcome bias. All right. So the reason I got

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Speaker 1: to be an executive is not because of the code

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Speaker 1: I wrote or the products I shipped. I'm telling you,

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Speaker 1: it is because the people that I met along the way,

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Speaker 1: all right. So that Bill Gates project that I mentioned earlier, Uh,

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Speaker 1: that got introduced to me by a guy who I

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Speaker 1: met when he was an estet, a tester on the

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Speaker 1: team my job at read it. I met what was

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Speaker 1: referred to me by a guy I met ten years

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Speaker 1: ago working on some photo team at Microsoft. Just pointed

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Speaker 1: out there was an opportunity to recommend it for me.

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Speaker 1: So I have two favors to ask from everybody in

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Speaker 1: this room if you believe what I just said. First one,

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Speaker 1: I want you to look to your left, look to

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Speaker 1: your right, do it, I line, do it? Come on.

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Speaker 1: I want you to make friends with the people next

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Speaker 1: to you, all right, because I guarantee you that this

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Speaker 1: room contains future leaders. Man, don't don't try and get

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Speaker 1: her number. We're talking about leadership here. So first, make

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Speaker 1: friends with the people next to you. There are there

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Speaker 1: are future leaders in this room. I guarantee you. Second,

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Speaker 1: agree to help each other out. Just do those two things,

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Speaker 1: and I believe that we can change now in the

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Speaker 1: long run. Just remember, your network is going to be

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Speaker 1: the most powerful way to advance your career. All right, now,

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Speaker 1: those those are my tips. I want to switch gears

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Speaker 1: a little bit and talk about Reddit, if that's cool

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Speaker 1: with you guys, because it is one of my favorite topics. Now,

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Speaker 1: you guys know what redd it is read is the

428
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 1: front page of the Internet. By the way, the reason

429
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:34,480
Speaker 1: I'm leading into this, yes, this is gonna be a

430
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:38,080
Speaker 1: hiring pitch. I have to hire fifty people next year.

431
00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: Anyone looking for a job. This is what you're yes, Okay,

432
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,680
Speaker 1: here we go. This is gonna be worth while, all right, yes,

433
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,400
Speaker 1: all right? So Reddit from page of the Internet. Uh.

434
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,119
Speaker 1: It is a social network where there are tens tens

435
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 1: of thousands of active communities about any topic you can imagine.

436
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,120
Speaker 1: And we think those are the most passionate communities anywhere

437
00:23:57,119 --> 00:24:02,040
Speaker 1: on the Internet. Um. Now here the numbers again, uh,

438
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,880
Speaker 1: fourth largest site uh in the world of Cornea Alexa

439
00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:07,360
Speaker 1: three interestin a million m a U one point one

440
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,920
Speaker 1: million communities, one million posts per day, five million comments today,

441
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:14,040
Speaker 1: seventy five million votes per day, a lot of activity.

442
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 1: What is that the most interesting status? This one? It's

443
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 1: uh engagement. So if you look, these are all the

444
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 1: top site in the United States, Google, YouTube, Facebook, read

445
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: at Amazon, Yahoo Metric. Next to that is daily time

446
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:30,200
Speaker 1: on site. So eight minutes for Google, nine minutes for Facebook,

447
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,280
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, and fifty seconds for Reddit. It is one

448
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,400
Speaker 1: of the stickiest sites on the Internet. People ask very

449
00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,360
Speaker 1: frequently why that is. So I will talk about that.

450
00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:42,960
Speaker 1: Reddit has a lot of unique things that we do,

451
00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:45,640
Speaker 1: and as anonymous accounts, you can go on to read

452
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,680
Speaker 1: it without really revealing your real identity. We have tons

453
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,719
Speaker 1: of unique communities about passionate topics with very unique rules.

454
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:55,600
Speaker 1: We've got voting that automatically selects the best content for

455
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,520
Speaker 1: any community, and we've got this thing called the hot

456
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,440
Speaker 1: front page, so you can see uh, the best content

457
00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,560
Speaker 1: across all of those million communities in one place. You

458
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: put that together with three hundred million people and you

459
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: get this endless stream of addictive content. It is weaponized procrastination.

460
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,639
Speaker 1: That is what we build it Reddit. All right, now,

461
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:24,639
Speaker 1: what are we doing with all that power? The design

462
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:26,800
Speaker 1: team love making that one. Uh, so what are we

463
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,040
Speaker 1: doing with all that power, that ability to bring all

464
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: these active, passionate communities together. What are we doing? Well?

465
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:35,920
Speaker 1: Here we are, all right. On the on the left,

466
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:40,760
Speaker 1: we've got a cat fits bumping a human eight thousand views,

467
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: and on the right, a cat walking a human. Yeah,

468
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: I love this man. All right. Okay, it's not just

469
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,960
Speaker 1: cat pictures. I promise there's more to it, and I'm

470
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: gonna spend the next four minutes trying to convince you

471
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: of that. Trust me, all right, it's not just cat pictures.

472
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: So on Reddit, we have this unique formula. We think

473
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 1: that community is greater than content, is greater than the individual,

474
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: all right, And that means that three unique things happen

475
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 1: on Reddit. First is authentic conversations, authentic dialogue. Second is

476
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:15,520
Speaker 1: lots of creative freedom and support for people who want

477
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: to create content. And third is what we call empathy

478
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 1: at scale. So I'm gonna give you a quick example

479
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 1: of each of those. Let's let's start with authenticity. So

480
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 1: on Reddit, there's a group it's called our slash Confession,

481
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,520
Speaker 1: and you can post secrets that, if revealed, would change

482
00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: your life forever. So let's let's get a taste of that,

483
00:26:33,560 --> 00:26:40,680
Speaker 1: all right, Okay, number one. Let's go okay number one

484
00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: from tom gold account. He says, I cut off all

485
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: contact with everyone I know, and I moved to Kenya.

486
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: I tell people a fake name and a fake background,

487
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: and I've made it appear to my family that I

488
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: died on a boat trip in the Pacific. No, I'm

489
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,600
Speaker 1: not joking. I am dead in the United States. And

490
00:26:55,640 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: the first reply tupac. There you go get that on Reddit. Now.

491
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: The next one is pretty good too. Let's look at

492
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:11,120
Speaker 1: that throw away two three eight nine. I once helped

493
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: out a female friends family by taking care of their

494
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:15,480
Speaker 1: cat for a week. Every day for a week I

495
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,800
Speaker 1: would go over there snoop around their house. I found

496
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,919
Speaker 1: my friend's diary, proceeded to read the entire thing. I

497
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:22,879
Speaker 1: use this information to get her to like me. She

498
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:30,640
Speaker 1: is currently my wife. All right, authentic, all right? Next up,

499
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: content creation. So this is an example of a Reddit

500
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,359
Speaker 1: thread uh the It started with the uh with the

501
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,200
Speaker 1: title imagine that a time portal opened up and modern

502
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: day military hardware We're transported back in time to ancient Rome.

503
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 1: And it resulted in a thirty thousand comment long thread

504
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 1: that went on for weeks, writing out that entire scenario

505
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,160
Speaker 1: that uh, that thread, that comment thread was eventually picked up,

506
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,359
Speaker 1: uh by Warner Brothers and converted into a major motion picture.

507
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,359
Speaker 1: All right, it's called Rome, Sweet Rome. All right. So

508
00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:08,520
Speaker 1: content creation at scale, And now let's take a look

509
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:12,840
Speaker 1: at empathy at scale. Are slash assistance empathy and support

510
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: at scale. This is a community of millions of people

511
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: simply connecting to offer help to each other, all right,

512
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,439
Speaker 1: And uh, this like this Lady Kala Davis on the right,

513
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:25,359
Speaker 1: she's in bed and her kidney donor donor Jennifer Moss

514
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 1: met on Reddit. Actually through a threat. She asked for

515
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:30,680
Speaker 1: a kidney and found a kidney. All right. So these

516
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,120
Speaker 1: are the sorts of things that happen on Reddit. We

517
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:36,680
Speaker 1: believe that individually you can create something. Together you can

518
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 1: create something more. And if you're interested in tech jobs,

519
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run through that. These are all the major

520
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,600
Speaker 1: technical challenges we hit during this year. New moderator, new

521
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 1: mod male, new launcher, profile pages, self service ad platform,

522
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 1: international reddit video, new video platform, new search platform, new

523
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: chat system, and an upcoming complete site wide redesign. Uh

524
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: in the next few But are you applauding because the

525
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:05,440
Speaker 1: old site looked uglier just because there's a lot of

526
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,680
Speaker 1: work getting done here. That's okay, old old sides ugly.

527
00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: I know, I know, that's okay. Now, we got a

528
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 1: lot of other challenges, product challenges as well, uh, personalization

529
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: and onboarding. Reddit is really hard to get into. It's

530
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 1: hard to find a lot of those communities that I

531
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: just described, even if you're interested in them. If you

532
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: aren't on Reddit, I recommend start looking for black people Twitter.

533
00:29:26,960 --> 00:29:29,680
Speaker 1: It's one of the best ones. Uh. Number two, we

534
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 1: want to make Reddit feel more welcoming. That does mean

535
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 1: we have to redesign the site to make it more

536
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 1: welcoming to people have never seen it before. It also

537
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 1: means that we have to make the site more appealing

538
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,400
Speaker 1: to a broader class of people, uh, not like geeky

539
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 1: white males. Uh. And that means a changing the types

540
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:51,480
Speaker 1: of communities we support, maybe enforcing the rules that we

541
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 1: have on the site more effectively. It also means, uh,

542
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 1: we want to have a more diverse audience. And I

543
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 1: think that having a diverse audience nowadays means that you

544
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: also have to think about who works within your company.

545
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 1: So for Reddit, we think if we can build a

546
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:12,040
Speaker 1: diverse workforce, it will translate into a diverse, more welcoming product. So,

547
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:13,920
Speaker 1: as the VP of Engineering, that's the thing that I

548
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: get to work on. I'm gonna end this presentation just

549
00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,080
Speaker 1: talking a lot a little bit about the things that

550
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,479
Speaker 1: we do UH to build diverse teams. And then if

551
00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: there are any managers here, I hope you'll get some

552
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:27,760
Speaker 1: usefulness out of that as well. All right, So why

553
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 1: build diverse teams? Firmly believe you can build better products

554
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: if you have more ideas. Uh. I believe that diverse

555
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: teams are simply more fun to work in. And the

556
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,640
Speaker 1: other thing that I like to say about diverse teams,

557
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:42,560
Speaker 1: because I could rattle off a lot of stats view

558
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: a lot of people get on stage and do that.

559
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 1: I think building diverse teams is just the right thing

560
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 1: to do. And that's a that's a personal feeling for me,

561
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,600
Speaker 1: all right, and it read it. We've got an opportunity

562
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 1: to get this done. On day one, I will tell

563
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 1: you what we're doing and some quick advice. First, we

564
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: don't just have a head of diversity. We have executive

565
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 1: level support across the board. Every executive at Reddit has

566
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,719
Speaker 1: KPIs associated with their own performance for building diverse teams.

567
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: Number two, we don't assume by default that every diverse

568
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 1: employee is going to care about this topic. But we

569
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 1: try and make resource groups that people can join and

570
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 1: opt into so they can feel welcome if it's something

571
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:27,479
Speaker 1: that they care about. Number Three, we don't complain about

572
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: the hiring pipeline. We build a better pipeline. And it

573
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: read it that means going to boot camps. It means

574
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 1: going to HBCUs, going were traditionally large companies haven't gone.

575
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 1: We are happy to go there. And finally, I want

576
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 1: to talk about commitment to diversity. Uh I was. I

577
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 1: was at an event the other day and one of

578
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 1: the diversity thought leaders got on set on stage and said,

579
00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: we're no longer pursuing uh, you know, racial and gender diversity,

580
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: We're trying to pursue diversity of thought. Uh. They said,

581
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: we don't see gender at color at this company. And

582
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: I found that like really offensive. I don't know if

583
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:07,960
Speaker 1: you guys find that offensive, Yeah, okay, cool, Like because

584
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,960
Speaker 1: I I think when people say they don't see color,

585
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,240
Speaker 1: it means they don't see me, they don't see everything

586
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:14,800
Speaker 1: I've been through, So, uh, it kind of hurt me

587
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,200
Speaker 1: that a diversity thought leader got up on stage and

588
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 1: said this, so I read it. Uh, we're trying to

589
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: be intentional patient. We're gonna put the time in to

590
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 1: make it, to make sure that this actually happens. When

591
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:30,200
Speaker 1: we say diversity, we're not talking about diversity of thought,

592
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: talking about come work for us. All right, So let's

593
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 1: wrap it up. Final thoughts. Uh, I spent most of

594
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,440
Speaker 1: my tech career in Seattle, so there was times I

595
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:47,840
Speaker 1: could go weeks without seeing another black person. And uh,

596
00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:51,000
Speaker 1: I was at Microsoft and went literally years without seeing

597
00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: another black person in a leadership position. All right. Now,

598
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 1: this is a photo of me the first week I

599
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,400
Speaker 1: moved to San Francisco with three hundred other black people

600
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:02,400
Speaker 1: at a dev caller event. This is really the first

601
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,719
Speaker 1: time in my fifteen year career that I felt welcome,

602
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 1: that I felt like I had a home, all right.

603
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 1: So what I want to say is that this is

604
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: the first time I really feel like I've got hope,

605
00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:15,360
Speaker 1: all right, that people of color and tech aren't going

606
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: to be a rare commodity. Uh, that we're gonna start

607
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 1: seeing more black tech execs. And now more than ever,

608
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: there's a broad awareness uh that diversity in Silicon Valley

609
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: is a problem, and there's opportunity to get the right

610
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: skills through boot camps to bring new people in and

611
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,240
Speaker 1: secondary education programs as well. And there's more and more

612
00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: leaders and role models emerging every single day. So I

613
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:41,880
Speaker 1: think the time is now, and I've got two calls

614
00:33:41,880 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: for action. First, I do want to thank those who,

615
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: for the last ten years have been raising awareness about uh,

616
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: you know, problems with diversity in Silicon Valley. But I

617
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: do think that the time for raising awareness is past.

618
00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: You guys have accomplished your mission. Now awareness, to me

619
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: is not good enough. Now we must act. So if

620
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: you're in this room and you're a leader who has

621
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: the power and ability to make a difference by actually

622
00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 1: hiring someone who's diverse, please step up and do it.

623
00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:17,200
Speaker 1: I think that the door is now cracked open so

624
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 1: that we can bring in a new generation of diverse leaders,

625
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,480
Speaker 1: and I am asking, I'm pleading with you to help

626
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:28,279
Speaker 1: bring them in. Uh. And the second thing is, UH,

627
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: going back to what I said earlier about not wanting

628
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:34,960
Speaker 1: to take a risk going to Microsoft instead of Silicon Valley, Uh,

629
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: it turns out I was wrong, and in hindsight, I

630
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,320
Speaker 1: realized something very very important. Ever since I came down

631
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 1: to Silicon Valley. The thing that I realized, Silicon Valley

632
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:48,319
Speaker 1: is the biggest engine for opportunity on the face of

633
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,800
Speaker 1: the earth. And even though there is a lot of risk,

634
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:57,760
Speaker 1: the rewards are insane. And maybe I should have skipped

635
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,440
Speaker 1: out on that Microsoft career. My wife, if it's like

636
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:03,839
Speaker 1: shaking her head at me, okay, well, I won't take

637
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 1: it back. I'll simply say I'll simply say that for

638
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:10,720
Speaker 1: those of you who are coming from out of town,

639
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 1: for those of you who aren't in tech or maybe

640
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,919
Speaker 1: thinking about getting into it, I'm telling you, like, yes

641
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:20,400
Speaker 1: there will be bias, Yes there will be risk, but

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Speaker 1: there will be opportunity as well. There will be opportunity

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Speaker 1: for you to change your life. There will be opportunity

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Speaker 1: for you to change the world. So get out here

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Speaker 1: and get it. Black Tech, Green Money and production to Blackty,

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Speaker 1: Afro Tech, Black Effect Podcast Network and I Hire Media.

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Speaker 1: Is produced by Morgan Dabone and me Lucas, with additional

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Speaker 1: production support by Love Beach and Marissa Lewis. Special thank

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Speaker 1: you to MIKEE. Davis, Jamaine hall of A, necess Serrano.

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Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech. This shop

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