Veni Kunche runs Diversify Tech, a newsletter-based business all about helping people who are underrepresented break into the tech world. After working as a Software Engineer since 2003, her main goal now is to help make the tech industry inclusive.Veni’s got a really interesting business model: a mix of sponsorships and also a job board, taking advantage of the robust community that surrounds her newsletter.Nathan and Veni cover everything from how she transitioned from working in tech to starting her business. They dive deep into the mistakes companies make when seeking to hire a diverse team, and and what they can do differently.Veni also shares real numbers. Listen to the end to hear:• How much she’s making per month from her newsletter.• How her revenue has changed over the last year.• How the pandemic has affected her sign-ups.Links & Resources
Black Tech Pipeline
Techqueria
Out in Tech
Veni Kunche’s Links
Diversify Tech
Business & Ally Newsletter
Personal site: veni.dev

Twitter: @venikunche

Episode TranscriptVeni: [00:00:00] Companies write job descriptions, they’re writing for mainly men in tech. Also they’re writing for younger people. Oh, we have ping pong. We have pool at our office. Those are the benefits. My community don’t even care about that. What they care about is focused on how the company will support them in their career.And so those are the signals that they’re looking for.Nathan: [00:00:26] Today’s interview is with Veni Kunche who runs a newsletter-based business called Diversify Tech, which is all about helping people who are underrepresented break into the tech world. She’s got a really interesting business model of a mix of sponsorships, a job board, which I think is a business model on newsletters that we don’t talk about enough when you have that community.There’s a great opportunity there. Anyway, it’s a great episode. We cover everything from how she got started, transitioning from tech to starting her newsletter. We dive deep into companies who are looking to hire a diverse team and mistakes they make and what they can do differently, how transparency really matters.So there’s a lot of good stuff in there. Towards the end of the podcast, she gets into sharing the exact numbers behind the business, how much she’s making per month, how that’s changed over the last year. I think you’re going to love it.Let’s dive in.Veni, welcome to the show.Veni: [00:01:16] Thank you so much for having me happy to be here.Nathan: [00:01:19] So I thought I’d just start. If you could tell listeners a little bit, what is Diversify Tech and, you know, at a high level, like what’s the business model behind it.Veni: [00:01:30] Yeah. So Diversify Tech is a curated newsletter, primary purpose is to connect people who are underrepresented in tech with career opportunities. So I share scholarships that are available, jobs, events that are happening, around the U.S. so the main purpose is to connect, people who are underrepresented, to these opportunities.The reason I started it is because when you’re underrepresented, when you’re in your workplace or in your college at college, or wherever you feel where you’re alone, and you don’t really have a network, of people like you. So I wanted to bring something where I could be that resource for people.Nathan: [00:02:19] Yeah, that makes sense. So when you were working as a software developer in tech was this an idea that you were thinking about for a long time and you’re like someone should make this, and then you realized that that someone was you, what was that? What was that leap?Veni: [00:02:37] So actually like, had no intention of starting something like this. It was, I actually just wanted to start a business. I didn’t know what that was. so I was a staff engineer for quite some time and I didn’t quite fit into the corporate world. I kept switching jobs a lot, so I was like one day I was like, you know what?I think I want to try something on my own. So I started explorin