Can minorities win more gov tech deals as pandemic eases?
A guest article by 2021 Hutch cohort MMBR and Founder Emmanuel Iroanya of Theta, and Hutch Program Manager, Stephanie Chin
Despite calls to increase diversity in gov tech contracting, women and minority business owners still struggle to break through. A accelerator program called Hutch offers lessons in how to get more voices into procurement.
Emmanuel Iroanya, a 32-year-old Nigerian-American software engineer and entrepreneur, wants to bring more diversity to government technology — and help ease the climate crisis while doing so.
Just a few weeks from graduating from a fledgling incubator program in Baltimore designed to increase minority participation in the vast gov tech space, Iroanya said he has learned vital lessons about how to scale his digital services and consulting company, Theta LLC, as it works to add to its eight-member workforce and win more work from public agencies.
“I want to build tech that works for everybody,” said Iroanya, who had worked in financial technology before deciding that influencing how governments use software and related tools could bring more important rewards. “How government uses technology impacts everyone.”
