Black Voices at Amplitude: Celebrating Juneteenth

Since 2021, Amplitude has observed Juneteenth as an official U.S. holiday.

Juneteenth is a day of profound significance. It marks the liberation of the last enslaved people in America. Until then, freedom was a distant dream, an idea that had eluded Black people for over 400 years.

Despite the long journey to freedom, Black Americans have persevered and thrived. We continue navigating non-diverse spaces and look to leverage jobs in high-tech fields to create generational wealth for our families and communities.

In this installment of our “Black Voices at Amplitude” series of blog posts, we celebrate Juneteenth by sharing the experiences of members of our employee resource group Black Leaders at Amplitude Creating Change (BLACC), including:

• Stacy Coghlan, Senior Director, Customer Success Strategy & Operations
• Cliff Merchant, Senior Director, Finance
• Daffeyo Tubman, Senior Director, Enterprise Program Management

As members of BLACC working in tech, our achievements embody our ancestors’ hopes and aspirations. But our journey doesn't end with our own success. We remain steadfast in our commitment to paying it forward, dedicated to sharing our experiences—the challenges and triumphs alike—to inspire others to embark on a career in tech.

Please share a bit about your background and journey to your current role at Amplitude!

Stacy

With over 20 years of experience in business-to-business software as a service and health-tech environments, I am passionate about creating scalable and repeatable processes that align with company strategy to deliver customer value. I have built and improved operational infrastructures for professional services, customer success, and deal desk, implementing multiple technologies and best practices to enable growth and efficiency. I began my career in management consulting before pivoting to tech. I’ve worked at five startups of varying maturity, including three unicorns and one IPO.

Cliff

I was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, an atypical southern town with an unexpected tech ecosystem. It was anchored by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the Army’s Redstone Arsenal military base, and the Cummings Research Park business district. In addition, three universities contributed to a diverse population of just under 200,000.

I majored in finance at Alabama A&M University, a historically Black college and university (HBCU), which was founded by William Hooper Council in 1875 on the very site in which he was sold as a slave in 1857.

After graduating, I applied to the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the goal of working in corporate finance. Generally, most MBA candidates have at least two years of professional experience. Mine consisted of fast food experience and a few internship assignments. As part of the application process, I requested a letter of recommendation from my accounting professor. I was momentarily discouraged by his curt response that I was making a mistake and would be unemployable upon graduation. This might be considered petty, but I did send him a copy of my first job offer!

Daffeyo

I have spent over 30 years in IT, primarily in financial companies, banking, investment, services, mortgages, and insurance. However, I had a few stints in the auto industry with Audi and commercial real estate. Throughout, I have always focused on the horizontal that is IT. I never believed that you need business knowledge to work in IT, which comes once you are in the company.

Landing the opportunity at Amplitude was very interesting. A former colleague of mine knew Chetna Mahajan, Amplitude’s chief data and information officer, and she referred me to her. It was one of only two times in my career that I got the position through my network. Being at Amplitude is very different for me. Working for a Bay Area company has shown me a very new side of IT from what I have experienced, and it is very interesting.

Can you share a moment in your career when you felt particularly proud or empowered as a Black tech professional?

Stacy

My proudest moment was at Dignity Health, where I partnered with INROADS to successfully create and implement Dignity Health’s first company-wide summer internship program for students of color and diverse backgrounds. I started the internship program at Dignity Health’s corporate HQ with college students from UC Berkeley, Saint Mary’s College, and Xavier University, successfully developing career paths for each of them in corporate development, nursing, and hospital administration in the inaugural year of the program, then expanded the program to Dignity Health’s hospitals in year two.

Cliff

At a prior employer, I expressed interest in an international assignment as part of an employee engagement survey (shout-out for the importance of employee engagement surveys!). Admittedly, I didn’t expect much, but it led to a one-year assignment in the Netherlands. It was an opportunity to bolster my accounting skill set by leading the accounting team for the EMEA headquarters. I didn’t speak the local languages in the countries we managed. However, I was still responsible for understanding such things as contracts, invoices, and payroll while adhering to local laws. The successful completion of that rotation is still one of my proudest professional achievements.

Often, we are the first or the only Black person on our teams. How have you coped with a lack of representation in your career?

Stacy

I’ve experienced this loneliness more often in my career than I would like to admit. As much as it pains me to say this, I’ve also had the experience of being the token or one of a small handful of Black people. What has helped me is to reach out and network with other Black people in the company, or, if none exist, seek other people of color within the company and ask for a dialogue about our shared experiences—regardless of their level in the organization. I’ve also sought out and networked with Black professionals through LinkedIn. I’ve found that we all have something to learn from each other and our experiences.

This can be difficult, especially for people early in their careers. A breakthrough for me was a book I found at a pivotal moment in my career: Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America by Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden, Ph.D. Shifting validated how I was experiencing the corporate world at the time as a Black woman in tech and helped me cope.

Cliff

Knowing who I am for myself has been critical to navigating the tech environment. I’m grateful to have worked with many managers and colleagues over the years who were highly supportive. They have far outnumbered those who were overtly hostile.

When I struggled to obtain relevant employment in my hometown, I began reading everything regarding interview preparation and navigating the corporate environment from self-professed experts. The unintended consequence was attempting to morph myself into someone I was not. If I had continued that mindset, I would have become entirely frustrated and miserable or left tech altogether. Fortunately, during one of my intern assignments, one of my colleagues was a recent MBA grad from Howard University. Her unofficial mentorship helped me to become more self-aware. I stopped my futile attempt to become this artificial “perfect candidate” and instead decided to be me. That might sound overly simplistic or possibly even cliché, but for those with similar experiences as mine, you understand the importance of that decision.

Daffeyo

I have never let it stand in my way. I have often been the only Black person in the room my entire life. Growing up with a parent who networked and had a career in international finance meant we lived and mingled with diplomatic corps worldwide. I went to private schools with diplomats and dignitaries’ children until my junior year of high school. As such, I am used to environments where I’m the only Black person and have never allowed it to bother me or create roadblocks for me. I focused on my career, moving up the ladder, and mentoring others.

What's one piece of advice you would give to someone starting their career in your field?

Stacy

Be curious and embody a growth mindset. You are responsible for your learning; not all learning comes from a book. Seek out professionals in your field from whom you can learn something. They’ve been around the block a few times and have valuable experiences that can help you navigate your career. Take advantage of free and reduced courses on LinkedIn and Udemy. Subscribe to newsletters and podcasts tackling subjects in your field of interest. Look for ways to get involved in cross-functional projects or initiatives where you can learn valuable knowledge and skills and observe leaders around you.

Cliff

If you have decided to pursue a career in corporate finance, choose to become your most loyal cheerleader. Due to the nature of the corporate finance role, it can become quite broad and sometimes perplexing. You may question or even doubt your abilities in some situations. During those periods, remember the expertise you will develop and the guidance you will provide are vital to the organization's success. The sacrifices necessary to excel in this field may only sometimes be appreciated or even noticed by your colleagues. Your positive contributions will become apparent if you evaluate your career progress and make the necessary adjustments.

Daffeyo

Specialize. With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the IT pendulum is moving back to the area of specialization and away from the generalist arena it has lived in for the past 20 to 25 years. Now, routine, operational activities (think network monitoring, provisioning servers, and access) are being automated and performed using AI. To be successful in IT now, you need to go back to the specializations: machine learning (ML), AI, data, etc.

Looking ahead, what are your hopes and aspirations for the future of Black professionals in the tech industry?

Stacy

My hopes and aspirations for the future of Black professionals in tech are for companies to cast the net wider and farther and get creative when seeking talent—at all levels and in all disciplines, especially in the boardroom and C-suite. Representation matters.

Cliff

I’m hopeful those in positions of influence and authority will intentionally seek opportunities to make a profound difference in someone’s career. If you are already doing this, my sincere thank you! Often, it’s the simple but consistent actions, such as a word of encouragement or becoming a mentor, that are most impactful.

Over my career, I have seen an increase in the number of Black tech professionals employed in various functions, including software development, sales, professional services, and finance. I suspect a common theme among Black tech professionals is zero desire for career paths to be made artificially simple. Instead, there’s the expectation that we will be fairly evaluated based on work contributions without regard to melanin levels.

Daffeyo

More Black people need to get into IT. IT is losing its diversity. We need more diversity in the industry, especially in the specialization fields like AI and ML.