From the CEO's Desk: Los Angeles Tech Companies Have United to Support Those Most in Need

Across the globe, COVID-19 has completely disrupted life as we know it. Here at Cornerstone, we quickly transitioned to a 100% work-from-home policy and enacted a number of initiatives to help our people stay safe, healthy and feel productive. We also put our technology to good use and launchedCornerstone Cares, a multi-language website offering free learning content on COVID-19, stress management, working from home best practices, and tips for teachers transitioning to online classrooms for the first time.

Finding a way to support our global community was an important step for us, but we also wanted to help those in our own backyard. For 20 years, Cornerstone has been headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Although we now have more than 20 offices worldwide, L.A. will always be our home. Giving back to the local community is something I’ve always been passionate about, which is why I helped foundLA-Tech.org, a non-profit dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for L.A.’s underserved communities. Along with other CEOs from L.A.’s leading home-grown technology companies, including Blackline, Zefr, HopSkipDrive, Factual, Comparably, ServiceTitan and Thrive Market, this organization unites the tech community with the common civic goal of giving back to the disadvantaged and creating a scalable impact in the communities that helped them grow and become successful.

As part of LA-Tech’s first major initiative, we have launched a campaign to help those in L.A who have been impacted by COVID-19. Because of the pandemic, many Angelenos don’t have access to basic resources like food and education. This campaign, called #StepUpForLA, hopes to provide relief to these community members in two ways:

To feed 1,000 food-insecure Angelenos for the next 30 days through a partnership withHomeboy Industries

To reconnect 1,000 local foster youth to their education by gifting them laptops through our partnership withiFoster and the LA Opportunity Youth Collaborative

These are incredibly important causes, so much so that we—along with Therese Tucker, the CEO of Blackline and my LA-Tech.org co-chair—have contributed $100,000 each to the campaign on behalf of our companies. Dozens of other companies and individuals have donated as well.

I encourage anyone interested in helping to check out LA-Tech.org’s #StepUpForLA website here: https://la-tech.org/covid-19-response. Now, more than ever, we urgently need to apply the power and compassion of the LA tech community to help our most vulnerable neighbors.

Thank you and stay safe,

Adam Miller

Pictured above: Volunteers working with Homeboy Industries and LATech.org to produce meals to feed the food insecure Angelenos.

Pictured above: Volunteers working with Homeboy Industries and LATech.org to produce meals to feed the food insecure Angelenos.