For as long as I have known how, I have stood for equality, truth, and fairness.
That said, I have had an unfair advantage in my life, and that is the color of my skin.
When I started Technical Integrity ten years ago, I was welcomed by the startup community with open arms as an honest partner.
Upon reflection, I recognize that if the color of my skin were different, that may not have been the case. Especially if I were in a community that was not so collaborative, generous, accepting and helpful as Colorado. Colorado, while generally welcoming, still has plenty of issues, not the least of which is that it is predominantly White.
The road to success for a Black entrepreneur would be far more difficult than was my journey.
That is, simply put, because our current economic and social system values White people (and White males in particular) more than it values Black people.
That reality cannot stand any longer.
As part of our namesake, Integrity, is everything to us. It invokes incorruptibility and an unwavering approach to liberty and justice and to transparency.
Every day, we build diverse, resilient, innovative, and profitable executive and engineering teams. Diversity and Inclusion have been at our core since our founding, but we can still do more. We still have a lot to learn, we are re-evaluating the way things ‘have always been done’ and we are listening. We will continue to do more.
We’ve been forever advocating for mental health in our community, and actively working for equal opportunity for all. We can still do more.
Today, alongside our brothers and sisters in the Black community, we reaffirm our commitment to dismantling the system of oppression and discrimination in America.
We reaffirm our commitment to effecting real change that will foster true equality in our economic and social systems.
We reaffirm that we will continue to denounce police brutality and overreach and work to fix the system that made them think their actions were acceptable.
We reaffirm that we are with you in the startup community and everywhere you need us to be.
We are grateful for the Black community. We are better because of you. We stand with you.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/our-namesake-commitment-black-community-dave-mayer/?trackingId=DDaspWULpXAKJk2c1dgQPw%3D%3D
