In 2019, Agbolabori got to work. He began scraping website data to compile a list of over 30,000 Black-owned businesses across the country and developing an accessible tool to comb through all of them. But just as he was preparing for launch, COVID hit. The momentum he had built over the prior year stalled. Conversations with potential partners and funders paused, and the community of business owners he was building was suddenly occupied more with surviving than with his new venture.
But as the economic closures continued into the summer and broader societal conversations intensified the demand for his platform, Agbolabori realized he’d need to find a way to push through. “Sometimes you have to embrace your own vulnerability to be able to get the help you need,” he says. “If you don't ask for help, you may never find it.”
marketer, helping mostly minority small business owners set up their websites, establish branding and gain exposure. Through that work, he discovered two important trends: Most of his clients didn’t know much about marketing or advertising their businesses aside from word-of-mouth efforts, and most of his clients wanted to support other entrepreneurs of color, but didn’t know how to find them.
The two phenomena were no doubt linked, and Agbolabori was in a perfect position to address them.
“If you’re a Black person looking for a Black fashion designer or a Black barber in your neighborhood, it’s very difficult,” Agbolabori says. “People are constantly asking me where to find a day care or something very specific like that, so finally I said, ‘Let’s create a listing platform for Black businesses.’”
Nenaji Agbolabori, founder of GoBlaq
If you don't ask for help, you may never find it."
I was part of a talented team ... working for a business I believed in."
pledged or provided services, ranging from hosting and project management tools, to payment processing and e-commerce support. All for free.
But the biggest thing he still needed was help fine-tuning the directory, which Agbolabori called GoBlaq. For that, he needed dedicated coders who could take it across the finish line.
Agboloabori had heard of a new program offered by Coding Dojo, Tech for America, that provides struggling small businesses with volunteer developers, graduates of the Coding Dojo boot camp and in varying stages of their coding careers.
Through Tech for America, GoBlaq was paired with Jocelyn Jeriah, a full-stack engineer with prior coding experience who had graduated from boot camp right before COVID hit, and several other volunteer coders. Jeriah met with Agbolabori and the team a few days later and jumped right in on several critical projects. “Once I had spoken with everybody, they understood how I could contribute,” says Jeriah. “The next day they were assigning me tasks.”
Agbolabori's calls for help
Providing support during
a critical phase
Many might not even know where to look — or even how to ask — for support when it comes to back-end wiring or front-end interfaces. But when external or internal circumstances force change, technology is critical.
Last spring, as business closures spread across the country, small business owners and employees were thrown into a void of uncertainty. Now almost a year later, many feel as if that void has only grown in size and complexity as our ways of working, consuming and living continue to shift.
“COVID really accelerated the digital transformation,” says Richard Wang, a small business owner who is CEO of Coding Dojo, an online and in-person bootcamp for software developers. “Now, you are forced to have a digital footprint and businesses need a digital infrastructure to thrive.”
Supporting digital infrastructures is at the core of Wang and his team’s mission at Coding Dojo. Not only does Coding Dojo train and educate full-stack software developers, they actively seek out ways to leverage their alumni community when the need arises.
That’s why the Coding Dojo team teamed up with the broader tech community to help businesses open digital doors when physical doors slammed shut. For some, like entrepreneur Nenaji Agbolabori, those efforts made all the difference.
Not every small business owner has the time to become a full-stack coder.
Wang and the rest of the team had no idea the initiative would generate as much interest as it has, and now Wang wants to expand it by launching a new learning program for small business owners to learn about technology and how to communicate with programmers. He hopes that by instructing entrepreneurs and tech laypeople on the vocabulary, process and possibilities of new technologies, they’ll be better equipped to take advantage of them.
As for Agbolabori and GoBlaq, he says Tech for America helped give him “all the tools we need to create what the community has asked for. We can help everybody — from the top level down to the little guy selling things with a smartphone — navigate through whatever may come next.”
Richard Wang, founder of Coding Dojo
Our mission is about transforming lives through technology."
as it was a new manifestation of its original mission: eliminate economic disparities through technology and education. The original impetus for Coding Dojo was Wang’s experience seeing how powerful coding can be as a tool for economic mobility. Wang immigrated to the U.S. when he was 13 and is a first-generation college graduate. When speaking about Tech for America, Wang often alludes to his grandmother, who was uneducated and sold ice cream on the street corner in China.
“Our mission is about transforming lives through technology, and we’ve always had things going on in the background to that end,” Wang says. “So, when COVID started, we thought about how to leverage our community to fight for these small businesses.”
Since the launch of Tech for America, over a hundred coders have signed up from across the U.S. and more than 20 other countries. Those volunteers have been matched with around 15 different businesses that needed help, ranging from gyms and food trucks to digital initiatives like GoBlaq.
Coding Dojo's decision
Ask questions and don’t be afraid of mid-project pivots.
1. Get out of your comfort zone
Creating a multiplier effect through education and mission
Securing resources and support
to bring a mission to life
Richard Wang
meets
Jeriah helped build the backbone of the front-end application, worked with CSS to style the UX and contributed to form work across the site. Thanks to her contributions and the work of the other volunteers, GoBlaq was able to launch a beta version of the platform in July 2020. Since then, GoBlaq has added an additional 400 businesses to the directory through organic sign-ups. And now the team is working on incorporating machine learning and AI into the search tool to better understand the details of each individual business and what users are looking for.
For Jeriah, whose job search was disrupted by the pandemic, the opportunity was invaluable. “It was an awesome experience,” she says. “I was part of a talented team, while working for a good cause and a business I believed in.”
Nenaji Agbolabori worked as a photographer and digital
were not ignored; more than 10 tech companies
Jocelyn Jeriah, Tech for America alum
“There's more to the world than what we know, and what we don’t know can hold us back, because the information is out there.”
Jocelyn Jeriah
to launch Tech for America wasn’t as much of a pivot
Nenaji Agbolabori
The
“We have this cause. What's the plan? Right now, we want people to sign up.”
Map out where you want to go, and assess your initial vision with how people are using the business.
2. Look at the big picture
“I always try to associate myself with people that are smarter than I am."
Having a basic understanding of all aspects of the business can help you make smart decisions.
3. Be vulnerable
“I wanted to freshen up my skills and get back into the field.”
Regularly sharpening your skills can keep your resume competitive in the tech field, especially if you’ve had a gap in experiences.
1. Keep your skills fresh
“You're getting experience, but you're also doing it for a good cause and for businesses that you believe in.”
Stay in touch with past clients, since you never know how their business will grow and what their needs may be in the future.
3. Connect with your team
"Instead of doing a project on my own, I wanted more hands-on experience with a team.”
Volunteer opportunities and part-time work can be great growth avenues to enhance your knowledge base.
2. Be open
“I'm fighting for people like my grandma, who did not have any help.”
Use your passion to create an impactful platform. When something matters to you, it will matter to future customers, too.
3. Make it matter
“A lot of people think software building is almost like this black box."
Confusion and frustration is where growth may lie.
2. Solve for the pain points
“We can try it out and see what kind of impact we can make.”
Once you see what’s working, you can smartly scale up. Starting small gives you room to pivot and adjust as needed.
1. Perform experiments
The
The
For over 15 years,
