Upstate Venture Connect (UVC) Founders and Leaders
Mar 4, 2026 · 38 min · 10 segments
Patrick Bosek talks with Lauren Washington—serial entrepreneur, community builder, and Director of the University at Buffalo’s Cultivator Program—about her amazing journey through multiple ventures to…
So while I was actually building that company, I ended up meeting these two women who were also building their tech companies, Sosa and Regina.
And we ended up talking about what it was like to be a Black woman in the tech industry.
there wasn't as much conversation around bias within the industry or funding gaps.
Those words just literally did not exist 10 years ago, which is really surprising to think about given how much progress we've made around that.
And so we started talking to each other about the difficulties we were having in terms of fundraising and the fact that we were hitting barriers that we weren't hearing that our peers were hitting.
And we decided to get together and see if we can support each other and share learnings and figure out how to move forward in our businesses.
That ended up turning into what is now Black Women Talk Tech, which is now the largest conference for Black women tech founders.
We expanded that into Black Men Talk Tech, into a nonprofit, Talk Tech Association.
And the reason I think that jumped off and grew so quickly was because, again, at the time, it was really radical to start having those conversations.
And so we were able to really build on that momentum at the time and create access for a number of different people.
Yeah, I love that piece of this, like the going from, you know, an actual standard company founding into community building because you realize you had another problem that needed solving.
And I think it's one that, you know, plenty of people are still running into today.
And we've also had a number of companies that were founded at our event that got funding, got their first checks at our event, that found their co-founders and teammates, and some that have even won 43 North.
And I'm really proud of the work that my co-founders have been doing over the last couple of years as I stepped away from it.
And I think you and I would both recommend anybody who fits into having those set of challenges to go and to seek it out and get involved with it.
So as you just mentioned, your co-founders are still there, but you moved on and you moved on to your next venture after Black Women Talk Tech.
So while I was actually building that company, I ended up meeting these two women who were also building their tech companies, Sosa and Regina.
And we ended up talking about what it was like to be a Black woman in the tech industry.
there wasn't as much conversation around bias within the industry or funding gaps.
Those words just literally did not exist 10 years ago, which is really surprising to think about given how much progress we've made around that.
And so we started talking to each other about the difficulties we were having in terms of fundraising and the fact that we were hitting barriers that we weren't hearing that our peers were hitting.
And we decided to get together and see if we can support each other and share learnings and figure out how to move forward in our businesses.
That ended up turning into what is now Black Women Talk Tech, which is now the largest conference for Black women tech founders.
We expanded that into Black Men Talk Tech, into a nonprofit, Talk Tech Association.
And the reason I think that jumped off and grew so quickly was because, again, at the time, it was really radical to start having those conversations.
And so we were able to really build on that momentum at the time and create access for a number of different people.
Yeah, I love that piece of this, like the going from, you know, an actual standard company founding into community building because you realize you had another problem that needed solving.
And I think it's one that, you know, plenty of people are still running into today.
And we've also had a number of companies that were founded at our event that got funding, got their first checks at our event, that found their co-founders and teammates, and some that have even won 43 North.
And I'm really proud of the work that my co-founders have been doing over the last couple of years as I stepped away from it.
And I think you and I would both recommend anybody who fits into having those set of challenges to go and to seek it out and get involved with it.
So as you just mentioned, your co-founders are still there, but you moved on and you moved on to your next venture after Black Women Talk Tech.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
