Ryan Williams

Former Goldman Sachs employees Porter Braswell and Ryan Williams created re­­cruiting site Jopwell to let companies more easily connect with minorities. The platform—which is being used by Facebook, Airbnb, and Pfizer, among others—is also home to digital magazine The Well, which helps advise and em­­power minority job seekers. Two years after its 2015 launch, Jopwell has grown into a leading tool for both businesses and candidates from underrepresented communities. “You can’t seek an opportunity if you don’t know it exists,” says Williams. “We found ourselves working on Wall Street largely be­­cause there was an es­­tab­lished pipeline [from certain universities to financial institutions]. We didn’t realize that we could work at Facebook or Google despite the fact that we are not engineers.” Now minority job seekers can create profiles on Jopwell and search open positions, smoothing the process for both candidates and companies. Next, Braswell and Williams hope to focus on helping community members thrive after they get hired. “A lot of our focus [for the future] is tackling that second step,” says Braswell. “Jopwell got you a job—now we’re going to help you climb the ladder. We want to build an entire workforce of leaders within corporate America.”