Seeing a Need
hile a business student at UNH, Geno Miller ’17 noticed a troubling trend: “A lot of companies seemed to be paying lip service to hiring engineers of color. Those organizations were making public pledges to be more diverse, yet that wasn’t happening,” Miller says. “I’d see people I knew and people who looked like myself applying for jobs that I knew were capable of doing the work, yet they were being turned down for reasons that were unclear to me.”
He started to wonder: what was the hold-up? A lack of interviewees, a lack of talent, or something else? Solving that disconnect became the basis of Shtudy, a Manchester, N.H.-based online company that works with black and Latinx people to help them secure those sought-after tech-sector jobs. Shtudy offers webinars, seminars and mentoring assistance, including resume building and developing interviewing skills that people need to master when they’re trying to break into the upper echelon job market.
Miller founded the company in 2018 with fellow alumnus Rayvoughn Millings ’17. They placed more than 50 people in high-paying tech jobs in 2020, Miller says.
“Our goal is to help 1 million people within the next several years,” he says. “Our company is also growing; we recently added several more development representatives, and plan to add several more reps following that.”
Shtudy generates revenue by companies that pay them for talent.
Growing up in Fort Washington, Maryland, a predominantly African American community just south of Washington, DC, Miller often saw people he went to school with turn to drugs or crime. Many of them mocked the idea of school, saying “Study, shtudy,” as if they believed education wouldn’t get them anywhere.
In high school, Miller studied hard and played hard, and his work ethic won him a football scholarship to UNH. Being a student on campus opened his eyes to a world of unlimited possibilities, and he committed himself to finding a way to open those possibilities to others.
“UNH offered me a full support system and people who were dedicated to watching me succeed,” he remembers. “I asked myself, ‘How can I bring all this opportunity to those who are just as talented, just as motivated as me, but may not have access to this environment?’ Those thoughts are what led to my passion and motivation to create Shtudy.”
Miller credits Ian Grant, executive director of the Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center (E-Center), and Jeff Sohl, director of the Center for Venture Research, with helping him make Shtudy a reality.
“Ian Grant was an advisor that supported Rayvoughn and me with advice on the ins and outs of business, such as how to make connections and approach investors and pitch our ideas, and how to create business models,” he says. “He really helped us grow the company.
“And Professor Sohl is an amazing character whose mentoring really resonated with me. He also helped put me in contact with investors. Plus, he was a big football fan,” says Miller, who played safety for the Wildcats.
Just as he had done with his academic and athletic careers, when it came to reaching his goal of being an entrepreneur, Miller gave it his full commitment.
“I was a full-time student and a member of a football team that went to the playoffs every year, so that meant if I wanted to create a business, I’d be spending lots of times by myself in the E-Center at midnight or 1 a.m. That was the best times to do my work. Thankfully, there was a lot of iced coffee there to get me through,” he says, then adds a laugh: “And some pizza now and then.”
After earning his business degree with a concentration on entrepreneurial studies, Miller spent a year in Silicon Valley researching the employment market, talking to human resources staff and diversity officers at high-tech companies, as well as job seekers. He secured $150,000 in seed money to launch Shtudy, including $40,000 from Camelback Ventures, a New Orleans investment capital firm that targets entrepreneurs of color and women.
Looking forward, he believes he has set in place an organization that will help level the playing field for minority job candidates who may feel like finding work at a major company was impossible.
“We teach people that being professional means being confident in who you are,” Miller says. “We tell candidates, ‘People can sense your confidence. Be yourself, write well, speak clearly and know what your values are at the end of the day.’ And by doing that, Shtudy changes lives and saves lives.