EP13: Bridging the Divide in the Tech Community: A Conversation with Neelima Parasker

Seth Waters (Co-Host): Well, welcome to the Purposeful Prosperity Podcast. I'm Seth Waters and I'm here with Jack Smith. And you know Jack, Jack is a founder, entrepreneur, investor and world-changer. Jack, excited to be with you today.

Jack Smith (Host): Excited to be here too, Seth.

Seth Waters (Co-Host): Yeah. We have a great conversation with Neelima Parasker today. And I'm excited for this. She said some amazing things during this conversation we're about to see.

Jack Smith (Host): Absolutely. Neelima is a hot-tub shaman, and a big heart, and a giver soul. And it's a beautiful story that she shares.

Seth Waters (Co-Host): I love that. One of the things that she talked about during your conversation was connecting a problem to the solution and focusing on bridging the divide in the tech community to ensure creators represent everyone. Talk with us about that.

Jack Smith (Host): That was really, really prescient. And I think something that we should explore as a community is that we always as creators, it's reflective of who we are and just by nature and unintended biases and all the things. And all the well-meaning that you can do. But if you don't understand how another person is going to use the thing that you create, how can you create it usefully to them? And so she built that, A, they should look like everybody and B, that you should ask the questions of the people who are going to be using the technology that we're creating rather than just coming up with, “Oh, this is what they want.”

Seth Waters (Co-Host): Well, absolutely, Jack. With that being said, let's jump right into our interview. Here is our conversation with Neelima.

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Jack Smith (Host): Hi, everybody. Welcome to Purposeful Prosperity Podcast. I'm your host, Jack Smith, and I'm excited today to have my friend Neelima Parasker and my fellow hot-tub Shaman, Inc 5000 number 70 in IT and founder, president and CEO of SnapIT Solutions. Welcome.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Thank you, Jack.

Jack Smith (Host): Thank you so much, Neelima. I'm so excited to talk to you today. Well, tell me a little bit about your journey. What was it that made you co-found an IT company?

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Actually, I founded it. I'm the founder of Snap IT Solutions, and it started back in 2015 – the paperwork – but it is marinated before that. I was not looking to start a business, but I started volunteering and getting myself activated into the STEM industry, being a mentor, speaker and an advisor for any women or youth and young adults getting into the STEM fields. And that's when my journey started. And when I started getting into the community – I call it busting out of the Johnson County bubble that I was in for about 20 years – at that point, it's about 15 years. I realized that not every community, schools and organizations have the same education background or the workforce ability or careers that our kids or we were getting in the counties and areas that we have been living. When I started diving more into what's going on and what are the roadblocks, what is the hurdles that these kids in the communities that I was invited to speak and mentor, they're going through. And that's where I think I found my purpose in terms of like, I think I can do this. I can find a way to bridge the divide in technology for at least a few kids. So my initial thought process was help 10 students out of that community and bring them into a high-paid, high career tech industry. That's when I finally said, “Okay, I think it's time to start a new business.”

Jack Smith (Host): I love it. So your business is born out of your purpose. That's what purposeful prosperity is all about. So tell me what it feels like now today to have become that bridge for technology and the underserved. I think you've got some pretty cool accolades and a really great program there at the Department of Labor that you're developing, among some other things that are kind of neat for those communities.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yeah, absolutely. So when I look at the difference in supply versus demand, let's say that right, the IT tech industry, till by then I was 15 years into it. I was in IBM, you know, global executive managing hundreds of engineers at that point. And every time we had increase in business, we are going to the market. We don't find engineers here in the United States. So we go offshore, offshore, you know, finds talent, but it's not always an exact match or requirement. And there's delay. And then when I was volunteering my time in this community, I found that there are resources, there are abilities for, say, for example, workforce has workforce grants that are specifically targeted at that point. They used to call it Tech Higher Grant. It was introduced in 2019 or 2009, I believe. But by that time, the industry was experiencing, you know, the lack of resources within the United States. So when I started SnapIT, I found out there were ways that you can tap into these workforce grants that follow the student and enable for them to train without, you know, spending a lot of money from their pockets. And after the training is done, SnapIT would hire and pay them for four to six months more to bring them into what we call it as on the job experience so that they can build their skills on a resume or find ways to implement the trained skill onto smaller products. And we've created products with SnapIT and these students, trained apprentices would, you know, figure out a way to implement those skills on these products, which are non-critical at that point and not you know, the deadlines that are critical for the client.

Jack Smith (Host): They're not buying production things, there's software that they're being developed that isn't being used yet. So it doesn't have the same pressures of an operational support system.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Exactly. Initially, we started working with small businesses to come up with a product that would be more appropriate for the industry. And then later on, SnapIT started developing our own products so that these skilled resources can experiment or, you know, kind of learn those skills in real projects.

Jack Smith (Host): It's awesome apprenticeship. It's the biggest challenge for any newly certified technical person across all platforms and disciplines. We see it with our transitioning veterans to the folks in our communities that we support. You get certified. Great. Now I need two years of experience. Well, nobody will get me two years of experience until I got two years of experience. So where is that gap? And I love that you guys are really building that apprenticeship mindset. You know, the trades have this concept very clearly, right? You have to be good at the job before I can put you into the big game. And you need those non-critical opportunities to be able to try and fail and learn your lessons in a safe but challenging environment so that you can continue to hone your skills. So I absolutely love what you guys are doing out there so much. I think you were one of the first 12 ever women in tech trade missions. Can you tell me a little bit about that? That's that's pretty exciting.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): So last year, Department of Commerce was looking for doing the first ever women in tech trade mission trip to three different countries in Europe to expand their business operations or at least have an opportunity to check out markets and research and look at three different market areas. All in this trip, it was all targeted Europe to grow with. And what they did is they interviewed and took applications from many companies, not necessarily women-owned, but women-led also companies. So the executives are women in tech and all these companies are technology companies. So it is exciting, but also sad that this is the first time ever there was a women in tech trade mission.

Jack Smith (Host): That is unfortunate. 2022, that's way too late. Way too late.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Exactly. But we were also led by Undersecretary Marisa Lago. She traveled with us to three different countries. We were hosted by US ambassadors in their homes and they invited their key players within the marketplace. And we were also given an opportunity to have one-on-one business discussions with possible prospects or clients of ours. So that was I call a trip that money can’t buy.

Jack Smith (Host): Absolutely. Experience. That's what life is all about. Those pursuit of the experiences where we can appreciate joy. And that doesn't always lead to a contract.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): No, not really. And in fact, I initially hesitated to apply for this opportunity because I know that we are currently 100% concentrated on expanding nationally. We have grown from being only Kansas and Missouri to about 10 states at this point. And I want to maximize being in all of these states before I could think of international. So I was delaying my application, but I kept getting contacted by the Department of Commerce saying that, hey, we have demand of- outside for your skills. There are people who, when we talk about it, they are looking for your, you know, your kind of work. And it's not like you have to start next year or this year. You want to check out the market before you go in. But if you have any scope of expansion internationally, we strongly recommend you to look into this. So that was fantastic, you know, advice, because  I think it's been very instrumental in thinking, you know, how does an expansion work? And also, I met phenomenal women and other, you know, my colleagues on this trip were phenomenal to get to learn from and understand some of these companies were billion dollars and more accompanying and getting to know and learn from and see how they worked.

Jack Smith (Host): That's awesome. Well, tell me a little bit more about SnapIT Solutions. What are you as a company? What all the suite of services you offer?

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yeah, at the core, Jack, we provide technology solutions for big corporates who are looking for extended help in their tech, you know, workforce. So, for example, and we excel in software development, cloud infrastructure data. These are our corporate and broader skills. We get into IT-managed services for medium or small companies. But really, software resources and talent is where we excel in what we do. But the concept, the differentiator, as you already know, is this company is built on a model called SPRNT model, which I've created and put in a way in such a way that the process, when it follow, the resource within the community who is interested in getting to tech jobs, have an opportunity to enter the tech fields within nine to about a year, but about only three months is their time where they give themselves an opportunity to train the first basic skill and then we hand-hold them throughout the rest of the journey. They get paid and they get mentors and they get advisors and give them an opportunity to have that on-the-job experience.

So we've trained about 1800 students just in one city and peripheral in the past couple of years. And after COVID, we brought all our programming, all our services online. And right now we are 100% virtual live or virtual self-paced. That gives us ability to expand in multi-city, multi-state. And that's what we did. We have increased eight other states since last year to this year. And we've been getting students from those states, even though we're not marketing in that areas yet. So that says that people are talking about this service.

Jack Smith (Host): That's very cool. I really like the SPRNT methodology. That access to the folks who can't get to it. And we talked about this earlier, right? It's that bridge to apprenticeship.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yeah, but it's not just about giving them the opportunity. The industry is taking that opportunity as well. Right. It's a win-win-win situation - nobody's handing over. You know, they're earning it. They're learning the skill and earning that position. And the industry is getting so much more cheaper cost than paying an engineer to 300K. They have the potential to pay somebody who has passion to learn and grow and has energy and will not run away for the next high-paying job.

Jack Smith (Host): You're creating the marketplace. No, it's awesome. You're really facilitating that from both sides. So I thank you for that elaboration, because that is really important to understand that you're not only working with the folks for the skills, but also with the customers for high-quality work at affordable prices. So everybody wins. Nothing more purposeful or prosperous than that, right? Doing good while making money. That's what it's all about. I love it.

In fact, talk about doing good and making money. You say you want to be known for creating a system that grows people using technology, unlike the decades where we used people to grow tech. You want to use tech to grow people.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): That's right. The concept has been the technology industry for the past two decades, at least have- tech has been growing exponentially, and it is sucking in everything and anything you can throw at - money, people, resources, but really stop and reflect: how many of your technology products that you're using, you maximize use? For example, if you're taking in a software product, it has so many other capabilities that the software product has built-in. But only 30, about 30 percent of those capabilities a user is using. So that means that you're paying for 70 percent that you're not using. That's one thing. The second thing is the users that reflect the community are not the users that are developing the products. So what that happens is that differentiates and makes it even more, you know, the gap between the understanding the user and the creator is extending. So we need more of the workforce that reflects the community in creating products, especially technologies like AI and, you know, blockchain and, you know, machine learning and data. You need proper, regular people who are a mixture of our community be the producers of those products. If not, it's one or two centric products that's not going to help anybody.

Jack Smith (Host): I love that. Making sure that like the tech creators represent everyone, right? And that's so important because requirements matter, right? And if you don't understand how the people are going to use the tool that you create for them, you know, how can you know what you've done is answering the mail? And you really can't. They don't even know how to ask the question. And so it's that relationship and that relatability that goes, “Oh, I know because I am that. I know how I'm going to use that tool”. And so then you build in all those technologies. I really appreciate that a lot. And I think that's actually so this whole process has led you to co-found Lotus TMS, correct? So tell me a little bit more about that.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Great. Yes, Jack. I'm glad you brought the topic of Lotus product out. And early on, I would say about four years back during my tenure as, you know, growing SnapIT and, you know, we were creating smaller products so that the students can get through and experience their skills. I met a fellow colleague or a business owner, I would say, who is in the intermodal trucking industry. And during the networking, we found each other, got to know each other. And she kind of made it look like, you know, they've got a product, new product and market. It's difficult that their team is not catching up to the technology. And the technology, you know, they are not able to maximize what they are doing. And I kind of felt like, okay, this is the place where the technology is growing in using the people, good thing. It's not the other way around, right? We are not creating technology for user-friendly. The trucking company should not be like every, you know, order-taker or an order-entry person should not be so smart to understand everything about technology. The technology should be smarter to understand their users.

So when I went to their office and I said, “You know, let me look at the technology they’re using.” They were literally Citrixing into their system. It's not web-based, so they're not able to get real-time data about the trucks and things like that. That's not there. But also, it's like a black screen and a white letter. So they have to almost like DOS systems kind of a look. And I'm like, “Oh my God, this is complicated even for technical people to understand and navigate through.” So the user interface was not good. When I dug more into the application, it is for the entire transportation industry, not intermodal specific, which intermodal, I believe is 80% of the trucking industry. And a majority of that industry is small business round.

Jack Smith (Host): Wow.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): You can only imagine how critical that system is.

Jack Smith (Host): Absolutely.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yeah. So then we started saying that, I said, “Okay, Holly, you know, I know you think that the team can should be doing better.” We have to pay the technology people to train them more and figure things out, but they've been using it for two years now and they're still not putting their heads together. So finally we went to work and I said, “Okay, how about we partner on a product?” She said, “Oh no, my parents who, my dad, who took over this business from his dad, they tried developing a product with another, at least two companies and failed.” And I took a deep breath and I said, “Okay, I know it's not easy. I know it's not, you know, it cannot be done within a few months. It's gonna take a journey. So here's what I can do and here's what I'm expecting you guys can do. This will be minimum on your expense and maximum on our strength to bring in.” And we partnered in such a way that it didn't hit their bill too heavy. And at the same time, I was getting minimally paid so that I could produce this product.

One and a half year later, we launched this product and she was hesitating to put it in herself because she designed and we developed. Then I said, “Okay, honey, what's going on?” And she's like, “You know, the last time we put a new product in, the office was in crazy madness.” So I needed this energy to help them through it. And I said, “Trust me, this is not gonna take that kind of system overall change. You'll be fine. Let's work together. We are there as your tech arm.” We put it in, it was silent. And then she said, “Okay, it's gonna drop and something's gonna break. And I'm gonna,” so she stayed there for close to 18 hours, breathing slowly to figure out something gonna go bad. We found some things that can improve but nothing really fell on the floor. And the entire team came to her and said, “We can actually figure this out. We don't need to be trained. It's quite intuitive.” You know why that happened? Because we took them as the designers. We didn't assume that we knew how to operate like a trucking company. We asked them, “How is it easy for you?”  So that was the difference.

Jack Smith (Host): I love it. Staying curious, right? That's how we find out how to best serve. You have to ask. It just don't just arrive with a bucket of answers. Figure out how you can best be of service. I love that.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Thank you.

Jack Smith (Host): Well, thank you very much Neelima. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners before I let you go? I appreciate it.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Absolutely. I think what we are doing is we are growing talent. As you know, Jack, we want to partner with you and grow within veteran community, grow with, you know, people underrepresented, under-served population that comes like women in the tech and veterans, minority, LGBTQ, disabled communities that were traditionally ignored coming into the system. But what I can say is if the companies look at it and open up doors for non-phobia degree, but micro-currentials and skilled people, it's going to be a win-win for both sides. The corporates need to rethink on how we are hiring. And if they do, then they'll solve some problems in the tech industry, especially resource-centric. So if there is one message I want to put out there, I want corporates to open up their doors and rethink how they are hiring. Because there's only so many engineers in our college, our universities that are able to produce.

Jack Smith (Host): Absolutely, and maybe not in the most efficient way to do so, right? I mean, the micro-skills, I think we need to redefine what fit for service really looks like, right? What does skilled mean? And how much of that is so personalized with the job that you can accept and move forward and just deal with a month or two of kerfuffle because you get that accelerator and you don't have to wait four years for them to graduate to produce them. You can do that in three, six, nine, 12 months, depending on the skill and all of that. That's very cool. Well, if you inspired our audience to action today, what can they do to support you in your efforts or amplify your efforts in impacting the underserved communities in their own world?

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yeah, if you know of anybody who is looking to get a better career and feels like it's a dead-end job that they're in, we want you to talk to them and look at different ways of growing that. Tech industry needs diverse thinkers, experience people coming into industry so that we all benefit from the technology that we are all using and we'll have to use it anyway. So talk to somebody you know, tell them there are opportunities. It doesn't have to be four years. It doesn't have to be six years of journey because you know, the secret is you never stop learning in technology. You are always learning and growing. So there should be a start and hopefully we find that for you.

Jack Smith (Host): I love it. Well, how can they reach out to you if they would like to work with your program?

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Our website, that's the best way. And of course, contact@snapit.solutions is our email. We closely monitor that email all the time.

Jack Smith (Host): And that's the website too, correct?

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yes, that's right.

Jack Smith (Host): snapit.solutions?

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Yep.

Jack Smith (Host): Excellent. Well, Neelima, it's always a pleasure, my friend. Great to see you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for building that bridge to technology. I absolutely love it. The world is a melting pot and those who produce it should look like it.

Neelima Parasker (Guest): Thank you so much, Jack. And I appreciate your efforts to bring spotlight for amazing people around the nation, for sure.

Jack Smith (Host): Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Neelima. Have a great day.

Thank you guys for tuning in to Purposeful Prosperity. Tune in next week where we'll bring you another amazing entrepreneur doing world-changing things. Until then, please like, follow and share, and keep doing good in the world. Thanks for listening.

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