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The State We’re In program

Click the link to watch the full interview on NH PBS's The State We're In.

New Hampshire has a growing tech industry, but it tends to fly a little under the radar.

It provides jobs, tax revenue, and a host of other benefits. But what does it mean for the state? And how can you be a part of it?

The State We’re in host, Melanie Plenda speaks with Flo Nicolas, the founder and CEO of CheapCheep and the host of the local TV show "Get Tech Smart."

This content has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full interview on NH PBS's The State We’re In.

Melanie Plenda: What did you discover about tech that really interested you? How did you get there?

Flo Nicolas: Pretty much growing up and through high school, what I was exposed to was a career path: either you go become a medical doctor or you go to law school. I went the law school route because just seeing blood kind of made me a little queasy. I went to law school and graduated, passed the bar and went into practice, did some bankruptcy and did some real estate. Around this time, I'm starting a family and I need something flexible, I just wanted something different.

So I applied for a role with a big telecom company and I honestly got into tech by accident because when I got the role, I thought that what I was gonna be doing was negotiating and drafting real estate agreements for their retail stores. I ended up in corporate technology operations for a big telecom company, and that's when I got exposed to a lot of how the cell towers work. I was working with engineers, I was working with engineering consultants, so I was able to leverage my law degree, but I was also able to learn this other industry that I had never been exposed to. That's when I started using the opportunity to ask a lot of questions, really try to figure out how things work, how our network worked, how I contributed to making sure that our network worked. We did modifications to those cell towers and I was in charge of that, and leading projects on that.

That was the first introduction to the tech world. I spent over seven and a half years in corporate technology operations. After learning all that I can in telecom, I just wanted to do something a little bit different, and that's when I really started getting a little bit more heavily involved in other areas of technology, like legal technology for lawyers. That's when that exposed me to other things that were going on, like artificial intelligence and learning about blockchain and web three. I just decided that I wanna learn more. Why was I not exposed to this early on? There's this whole world that's going on that I had no clue about. This is why I'm here now today as a CEO of my company as well as the creator of Get Tech Smart, because I saw a deficiency.

I saw an area where one, a lot of people don't know a lot about technology. Two, a lot of people don't know that New Hampshire has a growing tech scene. Three, I'm noticing that there's some discrepancies in numbers for women in tech and minorities in tech. I wanted to be the new face to the tech scene in New Hampshire and present tech in a different manner. Tech can be complicated for people. I'm more about simplification and not complication, so I wanted to bring in guests to talk about tech, but I don't wanna bore the audience with technical language that they don't understand. I wanted to be a show where people can understand everything that's going on, be aware of resources that are available, if you wanna pivot into tech. That's why I'm happy to be here today to be talking about what's going on in New Hampshire when it comes to technology.

Melanie Plenda: How did you carve out a niche for yourself explaining the tech industry to others, and what was that like?

Flo Nicolas: It was trial and error because everybody kept saying, you gotta find a niche and I'm like, I don't want to. It was because there's so much that's going on, and what I really started doing was focusing on what are the hot topics in technology? When I do a search, what's popping up more frequently? Right now what I'm seeing is a lot of people are talking about artificial intelligence, and AI is everywhere - from medical software to lawyers are using AI to the aquaculture industry is using AI. The other topic that I saw that was hot was cybersecurity. Right now there is an increase in cybersecurity breaches. Everybody is just trying to figure out how as a country we can better protect our data with all these cybersecurity breaches that are going on.

It became easier once I really started understanding what the hot topics were. Now, once I fully understood the hot topics I was like, okay, I need to know these topics, right? So I spend a good chunk of my day researching, reading articles by experts. I'm actually taking a course from IBM, which is a cybersecurity course because I feel like for me to bring guests on my show, I have to be prepared, cause I'm asking them questions so they can help me educate others and that education starts with me. I invest my time and energy in making sure that I can articulate, I can have this back and forth conversation with these tech experts, and I'm well prepared. That's how I was able to figure out my niche, and also the feedback that I've been getting from people saying, I wanna learn more about AI, I wanna learn more about cybersecurity, or I wanna learn more about pivoting into tech. How did you do it? What are the resources? Are there programs that I can take? Hey, I don't have a lot of money, but I wanna learn, so what resources are out there for me? That's the other thing that I've been implementing into my Get Tech Smart program, is there are programs, there are resources out there that others can take on the same path that I have taken and pivot into technology and have the resources to be able to do so.

Melanie Plenda: Why is this industry so important for the state, and what does having a booming tech sector mean for the average citizen?

Flo Nicolas: I think if anything, we all went through the pandemic. Unless you are in space and you didn't go through the pandemic with us, we all went through the pandemic, and if anything, the pandemic really accelerated the need for technology. We had to work from home, companies had to shift and adjust and be flexible to having their workers be remote. In order for that to happen, the demand for technology accelerated. A lot of companies boomed, like Lego technology companies, I saw them just blow up and other software companies that were offering remote solutions just blew up. But the good news is, what I'm not seeing is a decrease in demand for technology. If anything, we've kind of got a bite out of that apple.

What I've noticed in my research is that when we say technology, we think Silicon Valley, we think Seattle or Texas, which is booming right now, like BAE just finished building a whole new operation in Texas. Then we also look at areas that are growing right now, like Atlanta, for example. I started thinking as I was creating my show, where is New Hampshire in this competition? The tech industry is predicted to only continue to grow, and it's a billion dollar industry. Why wouldn't we want to be part of a billion dollar industry? That means revenue for the state, that's money into our state and our economy, and we wanna be competitive. We wanna be part of this tech sector that's growing, that's booming, and that's increasing in terms of demands for newer and faster solutions for various companies. It is imperative that if we want to grow, especially in the tech sector, that we show up. We've gotta show up, we've gotta level up, and we've gotta let our presence be known of the tech companies that we have right here that have edgy, innovative, and ground breaking technology. We need the spotlight so that people can know that we are not just about the White Mountains and coming up for vacations, but we are seriously competitive when it comes to technology.

Melanie Plenda: In addition to sort of educating folks about that tech, I know one part of the reason you started your show was to highlight New Hampshire's potential role and where it's going and what it already has. Can we talk a little bit more about that in terms of your show? Can you tell us more about Get Tech Smart and how that came about?

Flo Nicolas: One of the things I started doing when I was doing a little research on what the tech scene is like in New Hampshire is I saw the New Hampshire Tech Alliance and I saw what they were doing, their mission was promoting New Hampshire Tech, but I never really heard of them. I'm like, okay, this is great, everybody's talking about this growing tech sector in Manchester, for example. But that's something that I didn't know about until I did the research. Like, I can't even believe how many tech companies - someone said, what do you have, probably about 70 tech companies in New Hampshire? There was an article by the New Hampshire Business Review that actually said, we have like 5,000 tech companies.

The person was like, What? Are you serious right now? But that's it, there is the problem. People don't know that. That's what I really wanted to do. One thing that I spent the last year since 2021 was building my social media brand, growing a following of people who are energetic and are like me who love the tech sector and everything that's going on. When I grew my following - which I now just on LinkedIn alone have over 11,000 followers - I said, How can I leverage this audience? I'm gonna create Get Tech Smart, but it's not just about you recording a video and that's it, and you just say, everybody go watch.

No, you've got to lure them to come watch the show. How am I doing that? I'm inviting tech companies, tech experts that are right here in New Hampshire, and I'm focusing on making sure that I showcase this technology that people would never imagine is being created here. For example, I had Jason Syverson on my show. He's a well respected, well known tech entrepreneur, cybersecurity expert philanthropist. Right now he's working on an app that he's doing artificial intelligence and sports analytics. This is stuff you would think gets created in Silicone Valley or in Seattle but no, we have technology that is getting created here that it is just beyond your imagination. I'm inviting these guests here to say, Let everyone know what is going on here in New Hampshire. The show is for the purpose of promoting technology in New Hampshire, showcasing technology in New Hampshire, and being part of the celebration that we have amazing tech entrepreneurs here and tech companies here that are just creating some of the most amazing technology that could literally be used globally around the world.

Melanie Plenda: You are also co-hosting an upcoming networking event about diversity, equity, and inclusion in New Hampshire's tech sector. Can you tell us about that, and what will that event entail?

Flo Nicolas: One of the things of just doing research and even being someone who last year was interviewing for roles in tech companies is just seeing the lack of diversity, just seeing the lack of women and minorities. I saw an article that was released by BBC where Tim Cook, CEO at Apple said that there is no excuse why there's not a lot of women in technology. He even admitted that in his own company there is not a lot of diversity. I'm an advocate for more women in tech, more women in STEM, and more minorities as well. Right now in New Hampshire, our numbers are very low. We're looking at probably about 1% of black or African Americans in tech. Latinos, Hispanics, we're probably looking around like 2%.

Women, although the numbers are saying like 26%, I'm not sure that number is very accurate. One of the things Tim Cook said is we could blame it on not enough women or minorities going into engineering or doing math or doing computer science. But at the end of the day, my story shows a lack of exposure. I wasn't exposed to technology. We need more women and more minorities in tech. The numbers don't lie. The data shows what happens when you have diverse talent. One of the things that I've seen a lot is an initiative in New Hampshire to double the tech workforce in terms of our underrepresented tech talent. My first question has always been how, when do we start?

So this DEI New Hampshire tech networking event is just that, it's the start. We can just talk about diversity. If we are serious about diversity then comes implementation, we've gotta collaborate together. This event, which is gonna be on November 3rd, we have Franklin Pierce University sponsoring the location, Manchester Campus, New Hampshire Tech Alliance is also a sponsor. I just recently teamed up with Black in Technology, a nonprofit organization that works on getting tech companies and black people who want to get into tech together. We also have Manchester Community College, who's also jumped on as a sponsor. We all gotta do it together. This is a networking event where I'm inviting people who are in the tech sector, people who are looking to get a job in the tech sector, and bringing together tech companies for a day where we celebrate and we promote diversity in technology.

This event is very important to me. I wanna also thank Phil Koski who's helping me put this together. He's a senior engineer at Raytheon. He believes in diversity but diversity is not just about attracting diverse talent, it's also about retention. We've gotta start creating a community of belonging because we can bring people here, but we also need to make sure that we keep them here. I hope to get a large showing of support for this event because this is how we jumpstart this initiative of the increase in minorities and women in technology right here in New Hampshire.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative as part of our race and equity project. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.