One woman’s quest to bring new people and perspectives into the tech industry
How is technology changing our lives and enabling us to create a better world? To find out more, we kicked off a series of blogs on the topic by speaking to June Angelides, founder of Mums in Tech, and one of a handful of black women in venture capital.
While on her second maternity leave, June Angelides decided that she wanted to learn to code. The problem? There were no courses geared towards mums. This wasn’t not for lack of demand: According to 2019 research published by charity #techmums, about 40 percent of mothers think that better digital skills would make them more confident, and help them join the workforce again; at the same time, almost 20 percent of them singled out the lack of such skills as a major factor for their inability to go back to work after their maternity leave.
That’s why Angelides took the matter into her own hands—and that was how Mums in Tech, the UK’s first mum-friendly coding school, was born.
“I reached out to a lot of my clients and entrepreneurs [from tech-focused Silicon Valley Bank] and I convinced them to teach the courses. I wrote down the modules. They all said yes.” She also struck partnerships with toy companies and nanny services to provide childcare and ensure the course was accessible as possible.