INTRO

It’s Wednesday, you know what the means — it’s time to do a deep dive into the life and tech stack of some of the coolest founders out there.

In today’s edition, we have community guru, founder, and software engineer, Veni Kunche talking about the products she uses to manage her community and power her day-to-day.

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MEET THE MAKER

Veni Kunche

Hi! I’m Veni Kunche. I’m a mom, coder, maker, and founder. After a 15-year career as a Software Engineer, I launched Diversify Tech in 2018 on Product Hunt. It's a newsletter and job board for underrepresented individuals in tech.

Our community has grown to include over 15,000 members who are underrepresented in the tech industry, and 5,000 members who are founders, recruiters, and allies supporting diversity.

I built Diversify Tech for people like me who are underrepresented in tech. It is also for everyone in the tech industry who wants to make it a welcoming and inclusive place. And we have a lot of work to do!

Links:

• https://twitter.com/venikunche

• https://www.diversifytech.com/join

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/venikunche/

Veni’s Stack

• Feedly for bookmarking and curating resources to share in our newsletters

• Airtable for storing resources and creating sections of our newsletters

• Canva for creating graphics

• Notion for collaborating with my team

• Todoist for organizing my tasks

• llamalife for helping me focus on my daily to-dos

• brain.fm for music to help me focus

• Mercury for banking

• Wise to pay my contractors

• Social Media like Twitter and now LinkedIn

What spurred the idea for Diversify Tech?

Before founding Diversify Tech, I worked as a Software Engineer. However, none of my positions felt like the right fit. I frequently felt underestimated and found myself constantly trying to prove my worth. Without a mentor or a strong peer network, I often felt lost. As I thought about starting my own venture, I met many women and minorities who were experiencing similar challenges. I created Diversify Tech to ensure that others don't feel isolated and are aware of the various resources available to them.

Is there any product in your list that has been critical to building your community?

Twitter has changed over time, but it was crucial for me when I was starting out. Although I rarely encountered women or people of color who were Software Engineers in real life, I met many through Twitter. It has helped us grow our community.

Everyone uses Notion differently, what does your workflow look like?

Notion is my external brain. I document everything from how to write Diversify Tech’s newsletters to how to manage our social media. I document every single part of our process in detail so that anyone can pick up the task if needed.

When I had to go on maternity leave a couple of years, it made it easy to hand over the tasks to others on the team.

Todoist is legacy! What makes it stand out against some of the newer options?

I initially tried Todoist when it first launched and wasn't particularly impressed. However, after testing several other tools, I gave Todoist another shot last year and ended up loving it!

A big plus is that you can enable sticky notifications. For example, when I get my reminder to take out recycling, I may not be able to do it right away. The notification stays on my phone till I click Complete. As someone who is very forgetful, it helps me complete my todos that may have slipped my mind.

Another big plus for me is that Llama Life has a Todoist integration. I start the day by importing my to-dos for the day into Llama Life and get to work.

Do you have any pro tips for any of the tools you use?

If you find your inbox overwhelmed by newsletters, Feedly is a great tool to use. It lets you follow newsletters in the same way as an RSS feed. I use it to sign up for newsletters. When I have time, I browse through my newsletters on Feedly.