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Black American entrepreneurism has long driven the US economy, with figures like Benjamin Banneker, George Washington Carver, Madam C.J. Walker, Robert Smith, and Oprah Winfrey leaving indelible marks on American society.
Despite past and present challenges, black-owned businesses continue to thrive, with more than one in four black families owning their own businesses and contributing $1.2 trillion in annual spending. These few words cannot account for the massive contributions made by the resilient spirit.
Challenges and Opportunities for Black-Owned Tech Businesses
In the tech industry, however, there is still a noticeable lack of African American representation in leadership positions and among influential venture firms.
Azumo, as a black-owned software development company, defies these odds, growing rapidly since its inception and providing nearshore software development services and IT staff augmentation to clients from various industries.
Despite all of the progress that has been made, it is critical to remember that many of the institutional choices made back then have had long-term, seemingly irreversible consequences. Yes, there has been real, meaningful progress. But the impact of private Real Estate policies like redlining and harmful public zoning policies that gashed communities with highways continue to reverberate even today and have had a material impact on wealth creation and generational wealth transfer for black Americans.
As a a software developer that fosters diversity by employing talented individuals from various backgrounds, we believe our firm has a unique approach. By rough count roughly one-third of our team is comprised of black male and female software engineers. And since our focus as a software development company is on providing top-notch services to our clients, we think we have bring an interesting edge to the market since these engineers are often overlooked or ignored by many companies.
Azumo's Mission and Core Competencies
As someone who has spent my entire career in tech, it is plain to see how few African American hold leadership positions across software, internet and technology companies. Worse, it is nearly impossible to pull together a list of Black Americans who serve as partners inside influential venture firms responsible for funding the next great start-ups.
Even with that lack of institutional support for Black-owned businesses, we thrive in the United States more than ever before. Today, more than 1 in 4 black families own their own businesses. As consumers, African Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually and represent nearly a third of all discretionary income in the United States.
That's why it's so important that black-owned businesses thrive. They help create more jobs, put people to work, and keep communities strong. This is especially critical as the nation still struggles to climb out of a devastating recession caused by the pandemic and small businesses everywhere face challenges like finding capital and securing loans.
Azumo was founded with a mission to help businesses of all sizes affordably build intelligent applications. We have developed solutions based on blockchain technology, conversational applications employing natural language processing, and artificial intelligence. Azumo's diverse client base includes well-known companies like Facebook, Zynga, Realogy, and Discovery Channel, as well as emerging black-owned and women-owned startups.
Azumo's Expertise in Web, Mobile App, and Data Solutions
Azumo is one of the few black-owned software development companies in the United States. We have dedicated large teams with expertise in Web, Mobile, Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Cloud.
The company's focus on web development, mobile app development, and data applications has allowed it to work with clients across various sectors, such as financial services, healthcare, digital media, and e-commerce development. Azumo's success lies not in the company's identity as a black-owned business, but in the exceptional solutions it provides to its clients.
Supporting the Growth of Black-Owned and Minority-Owned Startups
Azumo is dedicated to giving back and investing time in supporting other black-owned and minority-owned startups that face steep challenges in securing financing and achieving success. Initiatives like Facebook's (Meta) (now deprecated) efforts to assist minority-owned small businesses in obtaining capital are commendable and help level the playing field.
A Custom Software Development Company
As a black-owned software development company, we are grateful to have experienced significant growth, doubling our business nearly every year since inception. However, during this time, we have also faced challenges in funding our expansion, leading us to make some tough decisions. Yet, throughout our own journey, we have been able to successfully bootstrapped two homegrown software products and launch them.
I founded Azumo with a vision of helping companies of all sizes affordably build intelligent applications. At our core we are a custom software development company that creates web, mobile and data applications based on blockchain technologies, machine learning models, and conversational applications. We have used generative AI solutions for OpenAI's ChatGPT (and their competitors) and utilized natural language processing and other artificial intelligence techniques to build new solutions. But we also excel at the basics of mobile and web development, as well as web design.
Ultimately our clients choose to work with us not solely because of our identity as a black-owned business but because of the exceptional software development solutions and services we provide.
We Are a Top Rated Nearshore Software Development Company
At Azumo, we are focused on providing nearshore software development services and software staff augmentation to our customers. We prefer to build modern applications focused on web development, mobile app development, and data applications.
To date, we have worked with a large universe of diverse clients from Facebook and Twitter to several venture-backed start-ups and across many industries from financial services to health care to digital media and e-commerce development. We have also worked with a number of emerging black-owned and women-owned start-ups offering them support and advice as a way for us to give back and invest our time in companies who face heavy odds of success.
Our expertise in across computer science disciplines and team members trained in electrical engineering (think IoT) allows us to create cutting-edge solutions for clients across various sectors, such as financial services, healthcare, digital media, and e-commerce development.
Azumo is a National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) certified Minority Business Entity (or MBE). To learn more about Azumo and its achievements as a black-owned software development company, feel free to connect with us or explore our website for more information on our services and success stories.
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