A Bold Career Pivot
Esosa Ighodaro-Johnson was making strides in her banking career at just 23 years old. Yet, she felt unfulfilled and yearned for more impactful work. This realization led her to take a bold step – leaving finance to explore the burgeoning world of tech startups.
“I was bored to tears,” Johnson says humorously about her banking days. “I wanted to do more challenging and impactful work.” Inspired by a friend’s venture into app development, she became determined to forge her own path in technology.
Forging A New Path
Johnson didn’t envision herself as a tech employee; her ambitions were set on building her own company from scratch. With meticulous planning, she laid the groundwork – networking, acquiring resources, and assembling a team – all while working full-time.
Her financial background proved invaluable, enabling her to raise $1.4 million over three years for her first tech startup, CoSign, an image recognition platform for social commerce.
“It was a good run in terms of learning how to navigate the fundraising process and different fundraising attributes,” Johnson recalled of those formative years.
Fostering Community
Along her entrepreneurial journey, Johnson faced numerous challenges – funding hurdles, hiring woes, and a lack of support structures for Black women in tech. This spurred her to co-found Black Women Talk Tech (BWTT) in 2017 with Regina Gwynn.
What began as a 10-woman retreat blossomed into the Roadmap to Billions conference, now drawing over 1,500 attendees annually to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“We decided to create an agenda where you can build a community around building an entrepreneurial business because it is really lonely,” Johnson expressed.
A Growing Movement
BWTT has flourished into a 50,000-strong global community, providing invaluable resources – events, coworking, courses – to empower Black women tech founders at every stage.
As Johnson looks ahead, she envisions expanding BWTT’s reach and helping “support global entrepreneurs and startup founders that have incredible solutions.”
Her fervent belief? “Starting a business is so important. Don’t deprive yourself of not having different ways to earn income, especially as innovation increases.”
