Sian Morson is an entrepreneur and author. In 2010, Sian founded Kollective Mobile to help other businesses and startups with mobile development and strategy. She currently oversees operations and leads all business development and strategic efforts. Sian is also the author of Learn Design of iOS Development and the forthcoming Learn Design of Android Development.
I’m not new to technology, but I definitely took a long way to get to where I am today. As a young girl in junior high school in the Bronx, I remember having a computer lab where Mr. Fuller, an African-American, taught us about computers and BASIC. I was fascinated with the way things worked back then, and I still am to this day. That fascination led me to ask my parents for a Commodore VIC 20 and later a Commodore 64 to expand my budding interest in technology. I didn’t think then, nor do I now, that there was anything wrong with being a young black girl programming software on the living room floor of her mother’s Bronx apartment a few years after arriving in the United States. I realize, however, just how rare that scenario is and how unlikely it would be today.
I don’t have a “struggle” story to tell. My story is not one of luck or being in the right place at the right time. It is one of hard work, determined perseverance, passion, and intuition.
In 1997, I met my friend James in San Francisco in a dive bar called Liquid. He was tall with long black hair shaved at the sides, rode a motorcycle, and wore a black leather jacket. He was impatient, smoked like a chimney, and drank too much. He was the first software engineer I’d ever met and the person who taught me HTML. He also had the coolest apartment I’d ever seen, with a room filled with computers. Over tequila shots and Camel Lights, he showed me my first online web page I’d ever seen, and within a few months, he gave me my first computer that connected to the Internet—it was a 386 with dial-up, had Netscape for a browser, and was running something called Visual Page by Symantec. Life would never be the same. We are still friends to this day.
My knowledge of HTML helped me get my first job at a startup called LookSmart in San Francisco, and after that, I went on to become a project manager at McCann Erickson and expanded my knowledge of technology by managing large-scale web builds for clients like MGM, Coca-Cola, and Philips. There was no one that looked like me for a very long time as I moved up the ranks. Not at CNET or at any of the other technology companies, and not even when I moved back into advertising. I learned to adjust. Black women at the agencies I worked at were in HR or some other administrative or supporting roles. There weren’t any obvious examples of outright bias that I can recall, and I moved up quickly. But there were no role models either. No one took me under their wing and showed me the ropes, and if they did, they looked more like James than like me. I carved my own path up the ladder of success, buoyed by the beliefs instilled in me by my family and by having a strong sense of self.
The iPhone
In June of 2007, the iPhone was announced, and again the tech landscape shifted. Back then, I was working at the number one independent health-care agency in the United States as director of Interactive. I’d just returned from London, where I’d earned my master’s degree in electronic arts from Middlesex University. I was restless and had already had a taste of the future and what mobile could do while I was in Europe. I knew that mobile was the future.
I shared my enthusiasm with my then-CEO, and within a year, I was heading up a new, mobile-specific division of the company and was looking to hire a team of iOS developers, account managers, project managers, engineers, and QA—all reporting to me. Turns out that the mobile thing had legs after all. The subsidiary, called EV2, was successful. Board members were happy, and we were bringing in more business than we could deliver. But like all entrepreneurs, I grew restless. The entrepreneurial spirit, for those of you who know it, never lets you rest. You’re constantly buzzing with new ideas, and the muse never lets you be. And so after growing the business, I decided to step out again. I could have stayed. I was very comfortable. But my grandmother, a strong, big-boned “island woman” who never went to college, instilled in me the power of believing in my intuition. I followed that intuition right out of my cushy C-level job and into my own agency, and I haven’t looked back since.
I used savings to bootstrap the mobile agency that would become Kollective Mobile. I had no idea how I would get clients, work, employees, or even make money. But I did know that I knew how to build a mobile business from the ground up. I’d done it before, and I’d do it again. I also knew that the traditional agency model had to change. Having cut my teeth at some of the top advertising agencies in the world, I knew how agencies pitched and won new business, how they staffed accounts, and most importantly how they managed projects. Most agencies are top-heavy with highly paid “strategists” and account managers. At the time, very little time or energy was spent on how the work got done. The traditional waterfall method was failing in the face of new technologies and methodologies. I wanted to try something smaller, leaner, and more agile.
Kollective Mobile
In October of 2010, I proudly opened Kollective Mobile for business. I was running the business from the living room of my small Oakland apartment. Having an agency background, I naturally tapped that resource for prospective clients. And I tapped some of the talented engineers and designers I’d met along the way to come and work with me.
It wasn’t that difficult—agencies, for the most part, missed the mobile boat. They didn’t see it coming. Many of the larger ones had invested lots of time and money convincing clients to build Flash banners and websites and paying “Flash technologists” to create them. Within a few years of the arrival of the iPhone, Flash started its inevitable decline, never to recover.
Kollective Mobile’s first clients were and still are a collection of agencies, entrepreneurs, and startups. We work with them to understand the ever-shifting mobile landscape and to craft a mobile strategy that works for them. I’m happy to say the agencies are now aware of how important mobile is.
As the CEO, I am personally involved in every project that we take on. I am usually responsible for the business development and all operations. But the project management bug just won’t leave me alone. I’ve made it a practice to personally manage every new project that comes into the company. It keeps me sharp and ensures our clients that they are getting the very best that we have to offer. I am still friends with James, the impatient curmudgeon who in 1997 introduced me to the web and gave me that computer. In fact, most of my staff looks more like James than me. At Kollective Mobile, I’m one of two women and the only person of color. I hope this changes soon with initiatives encouraging more women, girls, and people of color to code. But for now, I’m happy to be here.
Toward this end, I threw my own hat into the ring and opened Kollective South, a coworking space and community tech center in Atlanta, Georgia. I hope to be able to do my part in bridging the digital divide and bringing technology to underserved communities.
Being involved with mobile has taken me onto the stages at Modev, SXSW, and in front of hundreds of students at Ohio University. Last year, I was approached by Apress to write a book on iOS design. Learn Design for iOS Development hit Amazon at Christmas of last year and continues to sell well. This summer, I’m beginning Learn Design for Android as well.
When I look back, I feel a great sense of accomplishment, but I’d rather look ahead at all the great things to come.
Here we begin our journey of discovery within the existing realm of accomplishments by women in technology and innovation. By following their ideas and dreams, we can create a pathway for generations of women to come.