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Business coach Precious Azuree is helping Black-led organizations measure their impact. Precious Azuree Group The Houston, TX, native has been leading her own coaching business for more than a decade. The pathway nearly fell into her lap upon graduating from high school as a self-taught web and graphic designer and blogger. Quickly gaining a reputation for social media marketing, many began to reach out to Azuree for her services, which evolved into the launch of the Precious Azuree Group, originally established as a project management and branding agency. “I was working with influencers, helping small business owners develop their brand identity, monetize their brand, build out their teams,” she told AFROTECH™ in an interview. Through her business, she worked with a myriad of clients which included Stacy Ike Inc., earning them over $100,000 in brand deals, as well as Essence Festival, AT&T, Pantene, and Regal Cinemas, on social media strategics that enhanced their brand engagement...
The tech industry continues to offer some of the most lucrative careers , with roles that drive innovation and transformation across every sector. As demand for digital skills rises, technology jobs are not only high-paying but also essential to business success, data security, AI development, and more. Here’s a look at some of the best-paying tech jobs in 2024, featuring roles across development, security, and management. Artificial Intelligence Engineer Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) Engineers specialize in creating algorithms, designing machine learning models, and developing neural networks that allow machines to make decisions and predictions. With AI applications expanding rapidly in sectors like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce, demand for AI engineers is high. Salaries in this field average around $130,000 to $200,000 annually, with senior AI engineers earning even more, particularly if they have advanced machine learning and deep learning expertise. Data Scientist Data...
Ever dreamt of building the next game-changing app or crafting the software that powers our world? There are endless possibilities. But what if you have no prior experience? Can you learn how to become a software engineer from scratch? Jobs in software, data, and technology have grown within the past 20 years. The need for programmers and other IT workers has grown dramatically as technology has permeated every industry. An increasing number of individuals are drawn to software employment due to its profitable nature , which provides an adaptable work environment and a highly competitive salary. You might be curious about the precise duties of a software engineer. You probably use mobile and web apps and visit different websites every day. Thousands, or perhaps hundreds, of lines of coding go into making these contemporary technologies. A software engineer wrote those lines of code. So, how can you become a software engineer from scratch? As the United States Labor Bureau projects...
Technology dominates society in our everyday lives. From smartphones to web-enabled dashboards in our cars to smart homes, it is all around us. For this reason, there has been an explosion in the job market over the past decade. While data engineers and programmers have always been in demand, the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence in the past few years has added further fuel to the fire. The job market is full of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) related jobs that offer some of the highest salaries out there. More and more new positions are being created daily to keep up with this technology-driven world, and they do not always require a college degree. An increase in technology-related certificates and coding boot camps has given people new access to very high-paying careers. With an average six-figure salary for each in-demand job, the education or time spent in a boot camp can be well worth it. Furthermore, once in this field,...
With the rapidly growing demand for short-form videos on streaming and social media, the world has a much greater appetite for high-quality content that clocks in under 20 minutes. But with short films primarily being shown at festivals around the world, Janvier Wete, CEO and Founder of Minute Shorts, saw an opportunity to make festival-quality content more widely accessible and generate revenue for short films. After feeling frustrated with the process of entering his own short film to festivals in 2017, Wete wondered if he could create a platform to distribute the film and carve a path for others to reach a wider audience. At the time, most short filmmakers couldn’t distribute their work until they’d created a larger budget film. Wete saw how these barriers prevented many talented filmmakers from sharing their work with the world — especially diverse filmmakers. Inspired by how Spotify provided a platform for indie artists, Wete launched the first version of the Minute Shorts...
With millions of new businesses started by Black founders, it’s more important than ever to connect visionaries in our community with the resources to turn ideas into profitable opportunities. Microsoft has created a solution to empower more startup founders at any stage with tools for success. Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a digital platform to connect startup founders with the resources, mentorship and tools to go from product ideation, to launch, to long-term expansion. Equipped with free Microsoft tools, platforms and resources, founders can design businesses and products that run more efficiently from the ground up. Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is democratizing innovation to help create a startup world that reflects the world around us by being open to all. By offering resources and tools, Founders Hub is leveling the playing field by giving more Black founders the opportunity to be successful without needing personal connections to Silicon Valley. Here are our...
Will Smith and his firm Dreamers VC have found their latest product to invest in. According to a press release, the VC fund participated in a $4 million funding round for Better & Better — a wellness startup. The round was led by Fifth Quarter Ventures (FQV) and included Azure Capital, Alpaca Ventures, and more. The New York-based company aims to innovate within the oral healthcare industry in a way that betters its customers’ health and the Earth, which is how they pulled Dreamers VC in to back their mission. “We invested in Better & Better due to the brand’s focus on social good and ethos of making better habits for everyone, that are better for the planet as well,” Will Smith and Keisuke Honda’s Dreamer’s Fund stated, according to the press release. “The brand’s innovative and unique product lineup has the potential to revolutionize personal health through existing habits, making healthier living easy. We look forward to continuing to work closely as Better & Better evolves and...
Ambitious startup Lien Library that’s solving the problem of “interacting with and processing lien information on properties” has been awarded a $25,000 grand prize at the Endeavors Pitch Competition, Miami Herald reports. Lien Library founded by Haitian native Macdeur “Mac” Alabre was conceptualized while encountering issues with lien processing during his time working for the city of North Miami. The 27-year-old was on his way to completing his master’s in business administration and Ph.D., so he put his acquired programming and financial knowledge to the test and developed a new system. The system proved to be promising as it received a stamp of approval from the city of Miami, which is now considering embedding the Lien Library into their internal systems. “I said, ‘I found something, and I think it’s big,’” Alabre said. Now, the startup has won big, taking home the grand prize of $25,000 and an additional $25,000 in credits for Microsoft’s Azure platform. The competition was...
My first time attending AfroTech was an amazing experience. I got to connect with so many people from all walks of life (I even made some friends from Canada!). My goal for attending was really to expand my network and experience an environment where I wasn’t the only Latino/Black in tech. Day 1 JFK -> SFO 6 hours. Real Intimate Setting; Jackie Bavaro on the right. The first event I attended was the Product Manager Chat with Jackie Bavaro, co-author of “Cracking the PM Interview” (FYI: she has another book on the way called “Cracking the PM Career”) hosted by my now good friend, Olumide Longe . As someone interested in becoming a product manager, I thought it should be a priority this weekend that I push my narrative and promote myself as someone in that space. We traversed many topics from the road to PM to how to handle interviews, what makes a good PM, KPIs, etc. After the session, I got to ask an extra question to Bavaro which was: “How do you balance the relationship between...
In 2019, the Peter G. Peterson foundation reported that at $649 billion, the U.S. spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined. However, as the world continues to evolve, so does the military-industrial complex. With digital technologies emerging as their own industry, tech companies have become heavily involved with developing military technology. Tech writer Navneet Alang described it as a “military-technology complex” designed to replace the military-industrial complex of the 20th century. Others have described it as the “military-technological complex,” “military-digital complex,” or “military-AI complex.” Although the phenomenon may currently be too new for everyone to have a single unified term, the questions surrounding it remain the same. Namely, what business does big tech have in developing weapons of war for the U.S. government? There is nothing benevolent about war; especially ones launched by a nation founded through the genocide of enslaved Africans...
Many tech companies — including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon — have produced object recognition algorithms. This form of artificial intelligence is meant to do exactly what it says: recognize objects. It sounds like something that can’t be messed up, but a recent study found that object recognition is worse at identifying items from lower-income countries. The study was conducted by researchers — Terrance DeVries, Ishan Misra, Changhan Wang, and Laurens van der Maaten — from Facebook’s AI Lab. The team focused on analyzing five popular object recognition algorithms: Microsoft Azure, Clarifai, Google Cloud Vision, Amazon’s Rekognition, and IBM Watson The global dataset included 117 categories focusing on common household items, like shoes and soap. Researchers also made sure to diversify both household incomes and geographic locations. Researchers found that the difference in accuracy was striking. The object recognition algorithms made had an increased 10 percent error rate when...
British R&B singer NAO is the latest artist to incorporate artificial intelligence into her work. She just released a personalized AI music video for her hit song “Orbit” which is featured on her latest album “Saturn.” Before the interactive video begins, viewers are asked to enter their birthday to identify their zodiac sign and other constellations, which creates a custom experience. Once the video starts playing we see two cosmic figures dancing among a night sky. The design of the video is based entirely on the information entered prior. Users are can also adjust the colors of figures, the sky, and the stars while the video is playing. When the video is finished playing, fans can share an image or video what they’ve created. Here’s ours: NAO partnered with Microsoft — one of the biggest movers in the AI industry — to make the video. Team members used Microsoft Kinect to pull biometric data and a custom application programming interface to help highlight viewers’ zodiacs within...
Diversity and inclusion can be buzzwords in the tech world. That’s why it’s so important when brands invest in underrepresented communities and remain committed to centering diverse perspectives through every level of their business. One company that has been dedicated to diversity is Microsoft. Founded in 1975 and publicly traded since 1986, Microsoft has long demonstrated an interest in increasing diversity in the industry it arguably transformed. For example, it established its first black employee resource group in 1989 making it the first and longest lasting diversity constituency at Microsoft. Beyond nurturing diverse talent among its ranks, Microsoft continues to cultivate new talent in the pipeline as well as in business. Through partnerships with organizations such as Black Girls Code and Technology Access Foundation Microsoft is tackling intractable pipeline issues through education strategies and early exposure to tech. It helped Black Girls Code bring its 14th chapter to...
It didn’t take long for Jasmine Greenaway to realize she wanted to reach developers who used Microsoft’s technical stack. At the time, she was working as a software engineer at web-based hosting service GitHub, focused on its extension for Microsoft Visual Studio. Greenaway found herself constantly discussing her now employer’s tech stack, a combination of software products and programming languages used in the development and deployment of a digital product. “What I ended up realizing is there was a need,” says Greenaway, who began attending conferences and explaining VS at length. “It made me want to speak more to those folks, at least at booths, and it started to make me realize I had a voice in general, so I started doing more talks. Most of my skills or responsibilities lie within fixing bugs, doing features; being a software developer, I started to realize that I should go out more and speak more. That led me to Microsoft.” As a Cloud Developer Advocate at Microsoft, Greenaway...
Houston, Texas-native Donovan Brown didn’t intend on becoming a prominent speaker in the world of tech. But with the countless hours he’s invested into his passion of programming, it’s no surprise Brown has honed his craft and found greater confidence on stage. Brown credits many of his career highs and overall opportunities to Microsoft. “My entire career has been on Microsoft software,” says Brown, who’s been writing software for over 20 years. “Microsoft is literally why I have everything that I own. Even when I was a consultant, it was all Microsoft. When I joined Notion Solutions, it was Team Foundation Server [a Microsoft product]. To work for a company that’s literally given me everything, professionally, I take that extremely seriously. I’m extremely proud to work for Microsoft.” His first big stage debut began with a cold email. A technical sales rep at Microsoft at the time, Brown was preparing for a customer visit and pushing Release Management, a product that automates...