Meet Leonard Tatum

We were lucky to catch up with Leonard Tatum recently and have shared our conversation below.

Leonard, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
Being the only one in the room that looks like me comes with the territory. I feel that this is often the case for most Black Americans. Whether it is being the only Black representative in your honor classes, your graduation stage, or your workplace. That is an expected part of life.

For me, there are too many instances where I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders trying to represent Black excellence and break the bonds of negative stereotypes. It is sometimes jarring to think about this, but in my 20+ years of working in tech as a software engineer, I have never had someone who was Black working directly with me on my team/squad. The closest to that is recently at my current employer, Fox, where there is one other Black engineer working on adjacent technologies. I have never worked with someone who looked like me to teach or mentor. And in reverse, I never had someone who looked like me to learn from. I have never had a Black boss or even witnessed a Black Tech Lead, VP or CTO. There has never been a time where I sat at an interview table with someone who was Black. I have always been the only one.

This is in part why my startup, Tatum Games, is so important. I have been able to provide more opportunity to people of color, and recruit in non-traditional ways to give people chances who otherwise are overlooked. It is a different dynamic and level of comfortability when working in this type of diverse environment.

I cannot say that there is any secret to being effective or successful when you are the only one in the room that looks like you. I can only prepare you with the guarantees that you will be diminished, dismissed, and often misunderstood. You will have to apologize in situations that were not your fault and silently take blame. You will have to tolerate people speaking down to you. You will have to accept a lot of nonsense. You have to become a chameleon to navigate the waters of conflicting interests, conversation topics, jokes, and other general activities that simply aren’t important to you. And you must practice patience and forgiveness as things that you do care about and are interested in will remain internally bottled up or externally neglected because it is not part of company culture.

Endure. And continue to do what is necessary for you to reach your goals so that you can take care of your family and loved ones. In time, things will get better. It took over 20 years and more than a dozen tech companies for me to even see another Black software engineer. And in one of my greatest leaps of faith, I have been able to start an amazing tech startup that embodies true diversity.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Professionally, I am a software engineer who specializes in native Android mobile app development. I have worked in tech for over two decades. When it comes specifically to Android mobile app development I got in as early as Donut. In my lifetime, I have developed hundreds of professional apps, across more than a dozen companies that I have been employed at.

While I still maintain a 9-5 doing mobile app development, my passion is with my tech startup, Tatum Games. At Tatum Games, we are solving complex problems using big and deep tech.

Our flagship product, MIKROS Analytics, solves the issue of not having enough comparable industry data faced by small game studios. Our goal is to help small game studios succeed by making them more data driven.

MIKROS is powered by our patented technology that enables user tracking across all games. For the first time ever, game developers are provided users’ entire gaming history both inside and outside of their own product(s). This is all done securely and confidentially using encryption and anonymizing users’ personal identifiable information. Our artificial intelligence is co-developed by Google, one of our strategic partners.

Tatum Games’ thesis is simple. By offering improved user targeting, game developers who use MIKROS will in turn have improved user acquisition, and this improved user acquisition will inevitably lead to increased monetization and growth.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
As far as qualities go, persistence and commitment have taken me a long way. These attributes were necessary, because it took countless hours of independent study and practiced hours to hone my craft. Part of overcoming individuals who are committed to making you feel like you don’t belong or don’t know what you are doing is being omniscient at your craft. I am speaking hyperbole, of course. Nevertheless, you must know your stuff so that you have the confidence and knowledge to counter and defend your position.

I am not sure if regurgitating my entire journey is useful, because everyone’s path is different. If I can offer some useful pieces of advice, it would be to stand strong in your conviction and commitment to where you want to go in life. And execute. Life will give you a lot of chances, so don’t be so hard on yourself if things do not work out the way you intended. God’s timing is always perfect, even when you cannot see it.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
We are looking to partner with all Unity game developers. MIKROS Analytics is necessary for all game developers who take their projects seriously and want to elevate to the next level. MIKROS isn’t only advanced technology or an analytics service, it is an entire ecosystem that game developers can tap into. Developers using MIKROS find so much value coming from network effect, collaboration, direct access to investors and publishers and more.

Secondly, we are actively raising a 3MM Seed round. If you are a VC or investor interested in joining, reach out to me via email ([email protected]) before we close the round end of this year (2023).

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Lindsay Schlick of SchlickArt

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