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Up to Code: A Conversation with Be Nimble Foundation Co-Founder Jeff Williams

The Be Nimble Foundation is building the national blueprint for diversity and inclusion in tech with an eye toward generational wealth for people of color. It’s a powerful vision in an economy–and co-founders Kelli Jones and Jeff Williams are making it happen here in Indianapolis.

Jones joined us as a thought leader during the Creative Crossroads: Indiana Creative Economy Summit in October 2023. Williams lives in Dallas, and has been a bit harder for us to catch in person, so we took advantage of his All-Star 2024 travel plans to make this interview happen.

I’ll let Williams take the lead . . .

Jeff Williams: So, I’m in marketing, and I do consumer insights at Frito-Lay, which is headquartered in Dallas. For ten-plus years now, I’ve had this career, and I’m working toward being a senior director or a VP of Brand for corporate. That’s been like my personal thing, my journey since I figured out I wasn’t going to go pro in sports. (Laughter.)

Polina Osherov: Since you mentioned Dallas, I heard you talk about how Austin and Dallas are these two different ecosystems where Austin had a lot of tech-related things going on, and Dallas was sort of analogous to Indianapolis in terms of the tech scene. This was about seven years ago. How have you seen Dallas evolve since that time?

JW: Similar to Indy, there really wasn’t a designated focus on tech in Dallas the way it was in Austin. But the talent was there. The companies were there. Just like Indianapolis, Dallas was ripe for opportunity.

As it pertains to upskilling in the tech space, I think Indianapolis is further ahead. But Dallas is probably further ahead when you think about the economy, diversity, and culture. It’s been amazing over the past few years to see the budding social groups as well as the organizations and entities that are actually collaborative.

PO: So, I’m sure you get this question all the time, but how do you explain founding the Be Nimble Foundation here in Indy while you’re still out in Dallas?

JW: In 2016 I was out in LA for a work trip and reconnected with my cousin Kelli Jones over dinner at Baby Blues. We got to talking about Indianapolis and how much I missed it, how much opportunity there was. And that’s how it started. Kelli has Sixty8 Capital and I have Pepsi Frito-Lay, and together we founded Be Nimble Foundation.

I think there’s a purity in starting a nonprofit that you don’t rely on it for your livelihood. The decisions that you make, the money that you make, the way that you build it, when all of that isn’t tied to your livelihood, it’s a different sort of thing.

PO: Be Nimble Foundation is a “social enterprise taking a qualitative and quantitative approach to creating fully diverse and inclusive tech ecosystems.” It’s my understanding that a lot of the challenges stem from what’s available by way of traditional education. What does it take to build an inclusive and diverse talent pipeline?

JW: We know that there’s a curriculum problem. We need to be communicating opportunities earlier and faster, but we also know there are people already out of school who are looking for ways to change and advance their careers now. So with us, through our partnerships with Microsoft and Google, we’ve got access to certifications that can help someone upskill by learning more about digital analytics or to get that coding.

We’ve helped more than 500 people get upskilled and connected at least 200 to new jobs in tech.

PO: Impressive impact, to be sure! So help me brainstorm. How do we create something analogous to what you guys are doing within the creative economy?

JW: I think the principles are still the same, so it’s about figuring out how we wrap our arms around creatives to help support them on the business side of things. How do we get them upskilled in the things that can help them advance their business a little further?

I’ll use an example. In ’22, we partnered on an event called Pardi Way with 7House Creative as they were trying to amplify and highlight artists from Indianapolis in these various cities.

Leading up to that event, the artists that were going to be showing worked with Minerva Financial Arts, which is actually an organization created to provide artists with business acumen. So these artists were asked to think about their work from an economic perspective, a trademark perspective, et cetera. You need to be thinking about how to grow and scale your business.

All-Star Week is a great example of why you need to be thinking about this stuff as a creative. It’s cool that as an artist, you might get to participate, but what happens after All-Star?

There’s so much there because an All-Star opportunity could turn into something so much greater. And if opportunity strikes, and all of a sudden you’re in front of Target and they want your product, how you’re going to scale to meet their quantities?

PO: I love that you’re thinking about helping people scale to a national level. What sort of Indianapolis-based support are you getting to make that happen?

JW: We know that part of the work is changing the minds of funders and grantors. We’re blessed with the backing of the United Way, but the very first organization that gave us a big grant wasn’t from Indianapolis. It was Microsoft. While we’ve been fighting and trying to get that funding here locally, it was Microsoft that gave us our first grant. And then that second one was the United Way through the Social Innovation Fund.

PO: You mention changing minds. Do you get the sense that the broader community understands the work you’re doing through Be Nimble?

JW: It’s funny because we throw an annual Garden Pardi, and we’re known for that. We hosted the event at Newfields, and it opened up the door for participating vendors to actually build relationships with Newfields directly over time. We’ve seen this play out for chefs, photographers, musicians. So the Pardi event is on mission for us, and people love it. But it also leaves us fighting this stigma that it was just a party.

PO: Yeah, same. People think we’re just a fashion magazine. Which is not true on many levels. We’re not a fashion magazine to start, but also the magazine is just the tip of the iceberg.

JW: Right? It really does.

You heard the man. Go look at benimbleco.com and get your story straight. Take a look at the Upskilling and Accelerator Applications while you’re there!

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This story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our friends at Life in Indy.