#24: Divine - The journey from going in and out of prison to Breaking Into Tech
Breaking Into Startups7 Helmi 2017

#24: Divine - The journey from going in and out of prison to Breaking Into Tech

A Newport-native, Divine started dealing drugs at 13, got incarcerated at 18, and found himself not only locked up physically in federal prison, but also, in a psychological cycle of recidivism. Always knowing he was bound to be more than that, Divine tapped into his spirituality, fortitude, and his quick grasp of knowledge and turned his 7-year sentence into a self-development workshop. Along with some help from his mentor, Divine was finally able to break out of his destructive pattern going from incarceration to innovation. From crack to rap to tech, Divine currently provides financial literacy and entrepreneurship education to people through his new startup BLAK Fintech (where BLAK stands for Building Leverage Acquiring Knowledge).

Jaksot(124)

#36: Austin Belcak - Career Coach and Virtual Career Mastery Summit Founder

#36: Austin Belcak - Career Coach and Virtual Career Mastery Summit Founder

Austin Belcak didn’t have it all figured out when he picked a Biology major in college and landed his first sales job in the medical field, both of which he didn’t actually like. However, he used them...

27 Maalis 20171h 7min

#35: Everette Taylor - How a 17-year-old who was homeless in HS rose to become the CMO at Skurt

#35: Everette Taylor - How a 17-year-old who was homeless in HS rose to become the CMO at Skurt

Everette Taylor is not just any 27-year-old. Don’t be fooled by his age. To date, Everette built four companies including GrowthHackers.com, which he co-founded with Sean Ellis, Millisense Marketing C...

22 Maalis 20171h 25min

#34: Michael J Walker - How a Marketing Exec Became an Engineer at 51 Years Old

#34: Michael J Walker - How a Marketing Exec Became an Engineer at 51 Years Old

For Michael Jay Walker, his career was more likely driven by the motivation to do what people thought he couldn't do, fearlessly working his way up the marketing ladder until a decision to take a pass...

20 Maalis 201755min

#33: Stevon Cook - From Public Housing to bringing Tech Training through Mission Bit

#33: Stevon Cook - From Public Housing to bringing Tech Training through Mission Bit

Being a 3rd generation San Franciscan who grew up in public housing, Stevon has always been aware of the challenges of his community including the major lack of access to Computer Science education am...

16 Maalis 20171h 5min

#32: Carlos González de Villaumbrosia – Product School Founder on How to Become a Product Manager

#32: Carlos González de Villaumbrosia – Product School Founder on How to Become a Product Manager

It is his love of tech that got Carlos González de Villaumbrosia to immigrate from Spain to the United States. Being good at numbers and video games, led him to study computer science at one of the to...

12 Maalis 201753min

#31: Kenyatta Leal - Surviving San Quentin Prison By Walking The Last Mile into a Job in Tech

#31: Kenyatta Leal - Surviving San Quentin Prison By Walking The Last Mile into a Job in Tech

One thing Kenyatta Leal knows is that while there’s no manual for surviving a life sentence, tapping into the power of visualization can definitely get you far (in fact, as far as getting out of priso...

8 Maalis 20171h 10min

#30: Yan Fan - How a Bootcamp Grad is teaching Syrian Refugees How to Code

#30: Yan Fan - How a Bootcamp Grad is teaching Syrian Refugees How to Code

Born in China and raised in the U.S., Yan Fan knows that her coding skills are a superpower she can apply in any industry or role. Yan started out working as a commodities trader on Wall Street. Sever...

6 Maalis 201732min

#29: Charlie Harrington - From Finance to Biz Dev before finally becoming an Engineer at LendUp

#29: Charlie Harrington - From Finance to Biz Dev before finally becoming an Engineer at LendUp

A New Jersey-native, Charlie Harrington believes that you can’t find luck unless you take that courage to jump off the train and put yourself out there. From New York to London, Charlie transitioned...

1 Maalis 201747min