We recently connected with Michael Ward Jr. and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

During my last semester of college, I was recruited by Oracle, which jump started my career journey in tech. In addition to my main role at Oracle, I also led its Black employee resource group, which helped recruit, retain and upskill Black Oracle employees. When I transferred from Oracle’s Boston office to its Austin office in 2016, I wanted to get involved with the local community to build personal relationships and support my efforts internally, so I joined Blacks in Tech (now Austin Urban Technology Movement), an informal group that was addressing an issue I had noticed in the tech industry and the issue I was addressing at Oracle – a lack of diversity. After a year of supporting the organization, our leadership team dissipated and left Austin in 2017, I became the chair 2018, and restructured the organization to continue carrying out its mission. I left Oracle, transitioned to ADP to learn more about employee development, spent some time in Austin’s Startup ecosystem as VP of Operations at Primal7, and kept the momentum of the movement going by bootsrapping the organization for two years before incorporating the business into a 501(c)3 in 2019 and securing our first round of funding in 2020. Three years later, we are a multimillion dollar company that bridges the gap between the Black and Hispanic communities and the technology industry through job placement, career development, and networking opportunities. We have also built our workforce development tech ecosystem to help people get into tech, move up across the industry, and become engaged techies.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Michael Ward Jr. is a social entrepreneur who focuses on STEAM, workforce development, and economic empowerment. Originally from Miami, FL, Michael began his career at Oracle in enterprise sales, focusing on cloud and on-premise technology. After Oracle, Michael spent some time at ADP and Primal7 where he gained a better understanding of human capital management and Austin’s startup ecosystem. Currently, Michael leads Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ) as President and CEO. He is also the Co-Founder of TwoWards Solutions, Co-Hosts Culture Crawl ATX podcast, and sits on the following boards throughout Central Texas: Greater Austin STEM Ecosystem, the University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering, and the Texas Science and Engineering Fair. Michael is a child of God, husband, father, community leader, and business owner positively impacting his community. Through AUTMHQ, Michael is radically changing lives by increasing wages for individuals and families, expanding the talent pool for the tech industry, and building a sustainable workforce development tech ecosystem to prepare our community for the jobs of today and tomorrow. AUTMHQ also represents the community that we are helping; we are Black-led and majority of our staff are either Black or Hispanic. Our focus on relationship building also makes us stand out. In order to build and maintain the tech ecosystem AUTMHQ has created, we’ve had to find a delicate balance between maximizing profit and impacting lives. So we hold the hands of our Autmites (people getting training through AUTMHQ’s programs) and help remove barriers that may be preventing them from entering into the tech industry and excelling once they get inside. We are in the business of developing whole people, deconstructing systems that exclude, and changing culture as we push towards a more diverse technology ecosystem.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn is making assumptions based off of previous information. Not everyone has the same experience, understanding, work ethic, or can digest information the same way. It’s easy to assume people have the same knowledge or skillset as you; however, I’ve found that assumptions can lead to miscommunication and failure to meet a goal. In order to avoid assumptions, you have to assess people’s knowledge of the company and their ability to not just do their job, but to do it well and in a spirit of excellence. You have to commit to training and developing staff as you give people bite-size chunks of information and observe what they do with that information. You have to measure’s people understanding, leverage technology, and processes in order to have a successful team or provide high-quality service.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We had a big contract for $250K. We delegated it to staff who ended up not delivering on the project, so we had to reduce our contract size in order to still deliver for the client; however, this reduction in contract resulted in a reduction in revenue. This dip in revenue required us to make hard decisions regarding some of our staff members’ employment status. With that said, I never want to let someone go, but we have a fudiciary responsibility to our funders and an ethical responsibility to our clients. In order for me to fire someone, it’s because I believe a person isn’t trying or is unable to perform and provide quality service. We all make mistakes and have off days, but if you are ultimately not delivering results and quality work, AUTMHQ is not a good fit for you as we are results driven organization. Our core vaules are communication, collaboration, consitency, and community, but we cannot do that when we don’t meet due dates, overcommunicate on projects, and work collaboratively to positively support our community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.autmhq.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autmhq
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/autmhq
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michwardjr/
• Twitter: @autmhq
• Youtube: @autmhq
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/autmhq/

Image Credits
We own all these photos.