Who’s doing the work? Geek Girl Tech
By: Helen Davidoski
Tags: Gender Equality, Sdgs, Racial Equity, Black Tech, Cybersecurity

Geek Girl Tech

An Interview with Jenn Diesi, Founder and CEO.

If we’re to reach the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, businesses , regardless of scale, need to be involved. Geek Girl Tech is a small b-corp, woman-owned, cyber-security firm out of Oakland California, focused on providing security coverage to other mission-driven small businesses. CEO, Jenn Diesi, has tethered the business model equality and opportunity, values that translate easily to the 17 SDGs. Through their work, organization, and operation, Geek Girl Tech is in alignment with the following SDGs: #1 — No Poverty, #5 — Gender Equality, and #10 — Reduce Inequalities.

1 — No Poverty:

Geek Girl Tech’s core mission has two parts. First, provide job opportunities in tech to under-represented people, namely BIPOC communities and women and non-binary persons. And second, provide affordable cyber security to small, values-driven businesses. She has first hand experience with the obstacles that one must overcome to break into the industry and is determined to help people overcome them with a business model that provides value to all involved — clients, trade partners, and owners.

“I came from [being] a young, single mom struggling to get opportunities and I think it’s very easy for me to connect with this idea that we don’t all go off to [college]. And that’s okay. We’re still good. And women, people of color, LGBTQ — some of us just need opportunities. There are training programs out there that focus on underserved communities getting into cybersecurity and tech, but even once you have some training, it’s still really hard to get in and get your first job.”

Driven by the concepts explored in Leila Janah’s book, “Give Work”, Jenn understands that providing opportunities to work is a more sustainable and effective solution to poverty as compared to charitable giving. This is why she has built GGT on this business model that bolsters emerging industry workers, in addition to helping small businesses — to ensure that everyone has access to work that provides a livable wage, industry experience, and growth.

5 — Gender Equality:

This idea of ‘giving work’ especially to women, is rooted in empowerment and gender equality. With more opportunity and experience, comes more power and influence. 17 Ways’ CTO, Kristann Orton, has stated the importance of gender equality in the work-place saying,

“…The benefits of women with [wealth and] influence are substantial and enduring. When women have greater influence and power, the decisions they shape or make tend to be more inclusive, more oriented toward triple-bottom lines (financial, social, environmental), and more balanced between short-term and long-term objectives. Public policy, business practice, and social well-being all benefit significantly from women’s leadership.”

10 — Reduced Inequalities:

Across the world there are systematic inequalities in almost every dimension of society. In the United States, black, Indigenous, and women of color make just .62 cents on the dollar compared to white men. White women are better off but still behind in the wage gap, making .79 on the dollar. Because of this, Geek Girl Tech is dedicated to finding and employing people who are otherwise systematically barred from similar opportunities. Often, employers cite the lack of under-represented communities in their workplace as a result of “limited talent”, but GGT knows there is ample talent, employers just have to look in the right places.

“If you want to hire women and black and brown people [in this industry] you have to be really intentional”, she notes. By being intentional through her networking objectives on social media and being involved in communities long term, she has been able to create a funnel for high-quality talent to help run her business while reducing the inequalities abundant in her field.

At 17 Ways, when we think about the SDGs, we think in terms of two buckets: reducing harm and increasing good. While it is necessary to reduce harmful and inefficient practices, it is no longer enough to overcome the barriers we now face globally. We need business to increase good — increase equitable opportunities, increase wealth and power for those who need it, increase equality at every level and in every sphere. GGT’s work does more than reduce harm. They do business as a force for good.