When he was a computer science major at the University of San Francisco, Emmit Parubrub found himself wondering how many others were out there like him — a Native Hawaiian soon to be a full-time professional in the technology industry.
By the time the 23-year-old from Kahaluu became fully employed a software engineer at Guardant Health in the Bay Area, he was ready to find the answer.
"There's always that feeling of, 'maybe I don't belong in this industry because I don't really see a lot of people [like me].' [An] imposter syndrome type of feeling," Parubrub told Pacific Business News. A manager helped convince him to initiate a search.
"I started to feel like I have some responsibility — maybe there's other Hawaiians out there in tech that wish they also had this kind of community and this feeling of belonging," he said.
From there, it didn't take long. In April, Parubrub encountered a like-minded individual in Taylor Ho, a 31-year-old principal designer at Twitch, who like Parubrub grew up in Windward Oahu and was a transplant to California.
Ho, a University of Hawaii graduate, had given a speech in 2020 about what it means to be Native Hawaiian in tech, which spoke directly to Parubrub. He reached out on social media and the two realized through their correspondence that there was no online platform for their specific interest.
They pooled their knowledge to launch Hawaiians in Technology, a digital directory for Native Hawaiians in tech jobs or those aspiring to get one.
They also created a Hawaiians in Tech Discord channel for basic introductions. Requirements are fairly straightforward: people of Native Hawaiian ancestry, and people with tech jobs or tech aspirations.
"I will give credit where credit is due; there's a lot of websites similar to this out nowadays," Ho said. "This is a thing of the times — figuring out diverse groups that exist within these industries, that without spotlights, you wouldn't know that they're there. ... We wanted to bring this spotlight to our people too."
Acknowledging that, they list a handful of such sites on their website, including Brazilians Who Design, which their site is directly modeled after.
Ho was familiar with some other Native Hawaiians in tech as a starting point for a list. Through sharing on LinkedIn, they were able to grow their base. As of Friday, 68 people were listed on the site, with most in California, at 26, followed by Hawaii, 25, and 11 others from across the U.S..
Specializations for those registered in the directory range from software engineers and CEOs. to venture capitalists and accelerators.
Feedback has been encouraging, Parubrub and Ho said on a virtual call from California.
"This has been needed," Ho said. "[The question now is], what's next? Should we start a scholarship? Should we start a civic group? At its core — let's be real here — it's a very simple concept. It's an index of people ... and it has gained so much energy, just from that alone."
Parubrub feels validated through the experience, especially having made connections with people in a time of remote interaction during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Just seeing everyone already makes me feel like, 'wow, there's a lot more people who have interest and a background like that,'" he said.
