Before the pitch came the prayers.Then came the push-ups.
The Dev Difference’s Jovanay Carter huddled together with her cofounders, Jolene Bernagene and Myosore Okeremi, and teammate Kate Kim to pray and let out nervous energy. The team was poised to pitch to the judges in the finals of the 2024 John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC), the social impact track of the University of Chicago’s nationally ranked business launch program.
It turned out to be a winning formula. The Dev Difference won the top prize of $70,000 at the Edwardson SNVC. Jointly hosted by the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation and UChicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the SNVC has helped jump-start more than 200 social ventures that have collectively raised more than $168 million.
The Dev Difference’s cofounders, who met at Dartmouth as undergraduates and who all have technical backgrounds, are acutely conscious of the lack of diversity in the tech sector, and its impact on products and services. Technical interviews, which test technical, behavioral and communication skills, are often the biggest hurdle for candidates with limited access to networks or training. The Dev Difference team says qualified candidates from underrepresented backgrounds get interviews, but often lose out on offers.
The Dev Difference provides AI-driven personalized mock interviews, building candidates’ confidence and improving the odds of an offer. Beyond the initial offers, the team’s vision is to build a pipeline of technical talent with diverse perspectives that can ultimately help shape products and drive strategic decisions in the industry.
Jovanay, a computer science graduate student at UChicago and a former technical recruiter at Google; Jolene, a product manager and incoming Chicago Booth student; and Myosore, a software engineer, spoke about their venture, future plans, and the SNVC experience.
Jovanay: The tech industry has a representation problem. As a recruiter, I saw people with great resumes whose communication skills didn’t match their technical skills. People from underrepresented backgrounds were getting interviews but not offers. It was pulling at my heart.
Jolene: There were not many people who looked like us in tech. It makes you reflect. When we talked to underrepresented people, we would often find that the interview was the problem. We want to change that and see more people like us in the industry.
Moyosore: We talked to a lot of hiring managers about the criteria that they use. We use the criteria to help candidates prepare and see how they can be stronger. We have different kinds of interviews, so candidates can focus on different tracks. We have an MVP [minimum viable product], we have some success stories, and we are collecting feedback so that we can continue to improve and build partnerships.
Jovanay: We did a pilot with a technical boot camp that focuses on Latinx students. These students had never interviewed before. It was great to see them grow in their interview skill set and hopefully be better prepare
Jovanay: We are targeting historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), women’s colleges, and institutions that serve the Hispanic community. Over the next two years, we hope to build 30 to 40 partnerships with universities. We hope to help 15,000 students, at least half of them coming from underrepresented backgrounds.
Jolene: We’ve used our networks to talk to career services at universities, including UChicago, Dartmouth, and Georgia Tech. That gave us insights into how universities think about providing tools for their students. There is demand to better prepare students.
Jovanay: We estimate the B2B market to be $80 billion. There are 4,000 universities in the US. We can partner with multiple career services in each university, for undergraduates and for schools like business and engineering. We are also excited about global expansion, especially into African countries, targeting people interested in studying in the US. There is scope for direct to consumer, to target students who want to keep using the service after they graduate.
Jovanay: The Edwardson SNVC transformed our business model. We came in with the idea, but we had not done the depth of research or customer discovery that the SNVC pushed us to do or built a financial model. It was hard work. But I would tell anyone to do it. It made us better.
Jovanay: Winning was emotional for us because it was the first time we have competed in any competition. We started this project a little over a year ago. To see that people believe in our work, and in us, was such an overwhelming experience.
Jovanay: Our goal is to help a million students, half of them from underrepresented backgrounds. It’s not just about getting jobs. It is about changing who is at the table making decisions and changing the way technology is created. Our vision is to bring in people with different perspectives who will train models and create products.
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