This 29-year-old is on Track to Build a $1,000,000 So ware Development Company

This 29-year-old Left his Job, and now He's on Track to Build a $1,000,000 Software Development Company

By Charlene Rhinehart

TECH ENTREPRENEUR Oladosu Teyibo

founded software company Analog Team in 2018. Now, the 29-year-old is on track to net seven fi gures in 2021, according to Business Insider.

Analog Team was cofounded by Oladosu Teyibo, Myesha Luster, and Yao Adantor to connect diverse talent to tech companies. The software company works with tech fi rms that are looking to build transformative software products. Analog Team acts as a matchmaker, identifying the needs and developing the solutions. Tech fi rms collaborate with individuals from underrepresented communities to power their digital business.

Teyibo’s work isn’t limited to the United States. He provides opportunities to African engineers who want to work with startups in the United States. For decades, India has been the primary outsourcing destination for IT services. Teyibo’s goal is to make Africa a go-to resource for talent.

“There is not a pipeline issue or a knowledge gap,” Teyibo told Insider. “It’s just about providing opportunities and looking for the gems that are in the rough.”

Teyibo is Using Tech and Innovation to Build His Software Development Company

Africa’s emerging tech landscape is unlocking a wealth of opportunities. Teyibo is positioning his business to be on the cusp of change and leverage the talent in Africa.

“The world is on the “precipice of innovation and change,” and positioning oneself as a business leader early can pay off in the long run,” Teyibo told Insider. “In the next 10 or 20 years, you can actually have a say in where we go as a global community.”

Prior to launching Analog Team, Teyibo pursued a degree in information systems technology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Then, he spent some time at the Cyber Innovation Center. It’s a not-for-profi t corporation on a mission to “develop a sustainable knowledge-based workforce that can support the growing needs of government, industry, and academic partners.” While at the company, he managed mergers and acquisitions.

In 2016, Teyibo decided to shift directions. He left his job at Cyber Innovation Center and pursued the path of entrepreneurship.

For aspiring or new entrepreneurs who want to build an impactful business, Teyibo off ers these words of wisdom: “The most important thing about building a business is to be the last one standing. The right way to do that is to constantly innovate.”

www.blackenterprise.com/this-29-year-oldleft-his-job-and-now-hes-on-track-to-build-a1000000-software-development-company

They Pulled 63,000 Pounds of Trash from the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch, but That's Just the Start

By Jay Cannon

A FRIDGE, TOILET SEATS, AND MORE than 63,000 pounds of trash.

That's what a cleanup team recovered in a monthslong eff ort to chip away at the so-called Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch, a massive collection of marine debris plaguing the Pacifi c Ocean.

A half-mile long trash-trapping system named "Jenny" was sent out in late July to collect waste, pulling out many items that came from humans like toothbrushes, VHS tapes, golf balls, shoes and fi shing gear.

Jenny made nine trash extractions over the 12-week cleanup phase, with one extraction netting nearly 20,000 pounds of debris by itself.

The mountain of recovered waste arrived in British Columbia, Canada, in October, with much of it set to be recycled.

But this was not a one-off initiative. In fact, it was simply a testing phase. And the cleanup team is hoping it's only the start of more to come: more equipment, more extractions and cleaner oceans. Crew sorts through marine debris collected by The Ocesn Cle Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup

Ramping up the Cleanup

The catalyst behind the cleaning is The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit trying to rid the world's oceans of plastic.

Boyan Slat, who founded the organization in 2013 at the age of 18, called the most recent testing phase a success, but said there's still much to be done.

The 27-year-old from the Netherlands said the group can enter a new phase of cleanup after testing eased some scalability concerns and proved that the system could accomplish what it was designed to do: collect debris.

A cleaning system named "Jenny" was created by Th Ocean Collective to collect mass amounts of waste from Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch. Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup

“The goal wasn’t to maximize catch, otherwise the operation would’ve looked a lot diff erent," Slat told USA TODAY. “The primary goal was to collect data, not plastic."

The testing phase was a step forward in completing the organization's lofty set of goals. It hopes to deploy enough cleaning systems to reduce the

size of the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch by 50% every fi ve years and to initiate a 90% reduction in fl oating ocean plastic

by 2040. Netting 63,000 pounds of trash is an eyepopping number, but it pales in comparison to the enormity of the patch, which covers an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France, according to The Ocean Cleanup. The group estimates the inner part of patch contains more than eanup in October 2021. 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that amount to roughly 88,000 tons, though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration cautions that it's tough to make a true estimate on its size due to constantly changing borders and content.

The patch is fueled in part by a steady stream of trash and debris that fl ows from rivers into

oceans. A peer-reviewed study published in 2017 estimated between 1.27 million and 2.66 million tons of plastic waste fl ows into oceans via rivers every year. Another study, published in April, put that estimation between 880,000 and 3 million tons. If it doesn't wash right back onto shore, debris fl owing in from rivers can be pushed by ocean currents and end up in the North Pacifi c Gyre,

one of the world's five major gyres and the glue that holds the Great Pacifi c Garbage

Patch together.

That's where Slat hopes build up a fl eet of cleaning systems that can greatly reduce the size of the waste patch over time.

Slat said The Ocean Cleanup will shift its focus back to cleaning the patch on Friday, October 29th, when Jenny, the prototype cleaning system, gets deployed back into the Pacifi c to collect anywhere from 22,000 to 33,000 pounds of waste every week.

While Jenny tackles the garbage patch, The Ocean Cleanup will work on a larger, full-scale cleaning system set to be released in summer 2022 that expects to be the blueprint for creating a fl eet of systems.

Slat projects they will need 10 full-scale systems to clean the patch at a rate of just under 20,000 tons per year, which would put the group on par to reach its goal of reducing the mass by 50% in fi ve years.

Reducing the existing patch is only one phase of the battle, though.

“We need to clean the legacy, but we also need to tackle the source,” Slat said.

The Ocean Cleanup plans to roll out new devices called "Interceptors" that aim to trap waste in rivers before they enter the ocean. The solarpowered contraptions, which closely resemble a boat, use a long barrier to direct waste towards a conveyor belt that drops all the debris into dumpsters.

Three "Interceptors" are already up and running in rivers around the world: one in Indonesia, one in Malaysia and one in the Dominican Republic. Another one, in Vietnam, is installed but it not yet operational, a spokesperson from The Ocean Cleanup said.

Where Does all the Waste Go?

Getting trash out of the ocean is a herculean task in itself, but perhaps just as important is what to do with it once it's on dry land.

The Ocean Cleanup says 95% of the plastic it collects can be recycled. The organization has already begun turning that plastic into products like sunglasses to be sold on its website. Slat said the

► A conveyor belt moves waste onto an "interceptor" in the Klang River in Selangor, Malaysia. The device was developed by The Ocean Cleanup to collect debris from rivers. Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup ◄ An "interceptor" is shown in the Rio Ozama in Santo Domingo, Dominica Republic August 2020. The contraption is designed to clean debris from rivers before it reaches the ocean. Courtesy of The Ocean Cleanup

Ocean Cleanup from page 85

group will soon pivot away from sunglasses and is in contact with brands to create other products.

For other objects like wood, glass and the remaining plastic that can't be recycled, the group manages the waste in accordance with local legislations as it explores alternative recycling options, a group spokesperson said.

Turning ocean waste into products is one stream of income for the nonprofi t, which will be relying heavily on funding as it looks towards scaling up its fl eet of cleaning systems and taking aim at its sky-high goals.

“Honestly, we can go faster if the resources are available. It’s really just a question of money," he said.

The Ocean Cleanup says it receives funding from philanthropic, commercial and governmental donations and sponsorships.

Funding is one of many hurdles that lie ahead for The Ocean Cleanup and for Slat, who embarked on this journey after he went on a scuba diving trip when he was 16 and saw "more plastic bags than fi sh."

“Last week, seeing the plastic on the ship, seeing all these containers being offl oaded, I know it’s still a long journey ahead, but ... it was quite a relief," Slat said.

“It’s within the realm of possibility for the fi rst time since the invention of plastic that we can clean up the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch.” www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/10/29/ great-pacifi c-garbage-patch-ocean-cleanup-nets63000-pounds-trash/6138815001/

Google and New York Times Unite to Change How Skin Tones Are Seen in Digital Storytelling

By Natalie Venegas

WHEN IT COMES to representation in the media and documenting diverse stories, it’s clear the need for more representation is not only necessary, but has been a continuously expressed need by marginalized communities with the rapidly changing media and social landscape

In an effort to spark progress in telling those diverse stories Google recently announced the Pixel 6, a smartphone powered by a new photography initiative called Real Tone, which uses machine learning to photograph a wide range of skin tones more accurately. The brand is calling the device “the most inclusive smartphone yet.”

To further demonstrate what Real Tone can produce, Google collaborated with The New York Times’ advertising department and its creative studio, T Brand, to develop a creative launch campaign called “Picture Progress.”

The two-minute campaign video features three photographers as they discuss how they use the tool to tell authentic, diverse stories. “Picture Progress” uses short films to illustrate how color photo technology has evolved through the years as BIPOC creators describe their vision for the future of image equity.

“As a part of our ongoing commitment to product inclusion, we want to be sure our camera and imagery products work for everyone,” Daryl Butler, Google’s vp of marketing, devices and services, Google said in a statement.

“With Real Tone on Pixel 6, we’ve partnered with industry experts to ensure that users of all skin tones feel accurately and beautifully seen. We’re excited to be able to collaborate with The New York Times’ T Brand to showcase how Real Tone can be a tool for representative storytelling.”

Accurate Representation

Although Google e is not the fi rst t to implement t technology that better represents an expansive range of skin tones, T Brand is helping the brand explore the creative element of storytelling at a deeper level. For Vida Cornelious, vp creative of NYT advertising, the collaboration represents a future where our archives achieve peak accuracy.

“At T Brand, we are committed to telling accurate, authentic stories, celebrating all aspects of diversity,” Cornelious shared in a statement. “‘Picture Progress’ explores image equity as our pathway to equalizing our visual history. The creative started by asking, ‘How much more representative could our history look going forward if we are able to record it accurately? What more could we see in our past if we were conscious of how we were capturing it?’ The ‘Picture Progress’ campaign is a moment to see the diversity and beauty of the nuanced stories captured in our skin.”

“Taking a selfi e and being able to see your hair texture captured in detail, or being in a group photo with friends and seeing a spectrum of beautiful, human colors is a defi nite sign of progress,” a T Brand rep continued. “Capturing all the nuances of skin color and texture are important in how a human story is crafted and ultimately understood. Image equity will make the diff erence in how we celebrate ourselves.”

The campaign launched in October in a paid post on The New York Times online, in print and across the platform’s digital suite. www.adweek.com/creativity/google-and-newyork-times-unite-to-change-how-skin-tones-areseen-in-digital-storytelling/