Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Unlock supplier diversity: Scaling diverse-owned businesses (IDE203)

Summary

Dotye Tosan, a senior account manager at AWS, introduces the session on increasing supply diversity.
Rayford Davis, CEO of ScaleUp and former AWS employee, discusses leveraging technology to drive commercial equity through supplier diversity.
Basil Udodo, head of technology at ScaleUp, shares his passion for software architecture and working with diverse small businesses.
The session focuses on the racial wealth gap in the U.S. and how entrepreneurship can help close this gap.
ScaleUp's mission is to help diverse-owned businesses scale by leveraging technology to connect them with customers, capital, and champions.
The talk covers the history of supplier diversity, the challenges diverse-owned businesses face in scaling, and the role of Amazon and AWS in supporting these efforts.
ScaleUp's market network is introduced, which connects diverse suppliers with enterprise customers, capital providers, and industry champions.
The technology behind ScaleUp's platform is detailed, including AWS Amplify, Amazon ECS, DynamoDB, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Neptune, Amazon Textract, Amazon Comprehend, and Amazon Bedrock.
Success stories and future plans for ScaleUp are shared, emphasizing the importance of partnerships and strategic networks.
Dotye Tosan concludes the session by highlighting Amazon's commitment to supply diversity and inclusion, its impact on procurement, innovation, and economic growth, and the importance of trying to solve hard problems.

The racial wealth gap is a significant issue in the U.S., and supplier diversity is seen as a means to address this through entrepreneurship and commerce.
ScaleUp is a technology-driven initiative that aims to help diverse-owned businesses scale by providing access to customers, capital, and champions.
AWS technologies play a crucial role in enabling ScaleUp's platform to function efficiently and at scale, demonstrating the power of cloud services in social entrepreneurship.
Amazon's support for ScaleUp, both as a customer and a strategic partner, indicates a broader corporate commitment to supplier diversity and economic equity.
The session underscores the importance of technology in addressing systemic social issues and the potential for innovative solutions to have a widespread impact.
The success of ScaleUp and similar initiatives could have a significant positive effect on the U.S. GDP by closing the wealth gap, benefiting not just the underrepresented groups but the economy as a whole.
Amazon's approach to supplier diversity includes driving impact, working with advocacy groups, and creating standardized procedures, which has led to substantial spending with diverse suppliers and the inclusion of diverse subcontractors in their network.
The call to action for the audience involves engaging with ScaleUp by connecting with procurement officers, providers of products and services for small businesses, and B2B executives who have scaled businesses beyond $100 million in revenue.