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Irma Olguin Jr. Highlight
If we really want to change things, we shouldn’t wait for accidents to happen. We can be more deliberate about who gets the opportunity to be in these positions.
About Irma
- I come from a family of farm laborers who immigrated to California to follow the farm and food industry.
- Because of my family’s background, I didn’t think that college was for me—however, a series of serendipitous moments led to me going away to college and majoring in computer science.
- While in college, I started building websites for clients, which was my first taste of entrepreneurship.
- After five years, I graduated college into a high-growth, high-demand career industry.
- I realized that technology was radically changing the world and I wanted to bring that back to my hometown, so I moved back to Fresno, California.
- After returning to Fresno, I created 59DaysOfCode, which was a competition that encouraged and highlighted the tech industry in California’s Central Valley.
- A year later, I co-founded Hashtag Fresno and then Edit LLC with the goal of solving data and efficiency problems in the agriculture industry.
- I co-founded Bitwise Industries to strengthen Fresno’s tech industry and use it as an economic driver to elevate the city in that space—I currently manage the company as the CEO.