3159: How Smoothstack is Closing the IT Skills Gap

[00:00:04] Have you ever wondered how we can bridge the ever-widening IT skills gap and create real-world opportunities for underrepresented talent in the tech industry? Well, today my guest is the CEO and co-founder of a company called Smoothstack. And he has a very personal story that began as an immigrant on a tennis scholarship to becoming a leader in the tech talent revolution. His personal story is nothing short of inspiring on its own.

[00:00:34] But that led him to his current mission, rooted in diversity, mentorship and hands-on training. And as a result of all those experiences, Smoothstack is redefining how we prepare individuals for careers in technology. And I think John's story is testament to the power of mentorship and timely opportunities. And for me, it's clear that his vision at Smoothstack is about so much more than solving a skills gap.

[00:01:03] It's about building career pathways that change lives and transform communities. Now, as you know, I say every episode on this podcast, technology works best when it brings people together. And my guest today, I think he epitomizes that too. So I want to learn more about his innovative approaches, like the higher train deploy model and how that focuses on creating diverse and inclusive tech teams.

[00:01:29] But also how he's tackling some of the biggest challenges facing the industry today. But here we are in 2025. What does the future of tech talent look like? And how is Smoothstack planning to expand its reach to economically distressed areas and K-12 classrooms? Well, stay tuned because I'm going to be getting my guest on now to learn more about his vision for a more inclusive and impactful tech ecosystem.

[00:01:56] So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone a little about who you are and what you do? Absolutely. So John Acara, CEO at Smoothstack. We are a higher train deploy company. And what that means is we partner with large Fortune 500 federal agencies and we build and predict technology talent at scale for them.

[00:02:20] So talent that wasn't available in the market that we go out on the market to identify, hire and then put through customized training and develop a pipeline of talent. And I'm looking forward to digging a little bit deeper on that, finding out more about the technology and the solution. But before you do, one of the things I love doing on this podcast is finding out a little bit more about my guest's origin story. And when I did a little research on you before you came on the podcast, I saw that you had an immigrant background.

[00:02:50] It went from there to a tennis scholarship that led to a career in finance and technology. There's got to be a big story there. So can you bring that to life for me? What happened? Sure. I mean, again, life's been an adventure. My parents were missionaries. I grew up in India. As a 17 year old, I came to the States. I didn't know a single person. And I was, to put it lightly, very influenced by books I would read.

[00:03:18] I actually read a lot of biographies, biographies on American capitalists and industrialists. And for me as a 17 year old, I felt America was the land of opportunity and I was ready for an adventure. And I came to the US and, you know, fast forward, I ended up getting a college degree, played D1 tennis and been in finance and have been a serial entrepreneur. I love that. I'm curious.

[00:03:44] Can you remember that pivotal moment when you maybe realized the potential of the tech industry and the need for more diverse talent? Can you remember that moment? You know, I've always been a big believer in diversity. So I wouldn't say that I had a pivotal moment that, you know, opened my eyes to diversity. But I, early on, always saw that teams that were diverse were just much more impactful. And I've been a big champion for diversity in thought and expression.

[00:04:14] And to better understand the problem that you set out to solve, we'll get to the technology in a moment. But can you tell me more about the severity of the IT skills gap, what you've seen out there and some of the industries that have been most impacted by this? Because again, big part of the story, right? Sure. So if you look at it, I think it might be a value to take a step back, right? So think of technology. There's so many nascent technologies that are coming into the market on a daily basis.

[00:04:43] Companies are embracing and adopting these new technologies that are very rapid clip. And where the disconnect is, is, and if you look at just college grads as an example, is colleges try to be as abreast as possible to where technology is going. But a lot of this exposure that students get is really just theoretical. Because by the time the technology comes into rapid adoption, I mean, companies are already like using this at scale.

[00:05:10] So where we come into play is we are that last mile, which understands where the industry is going. We empower and train individuals in these specific skill sets that are highly nascent and highly in demand. And by doing so, we create a workforce that wasn't available in the market.

[00:05:29] And of course, fast forward to present day, one of your big goals right now at Smoothstack is to bridge this IT skills gap that we keep reading about and ultimately create career opportunities. But can you tell me a bit more about how you do that and maybe some of the technology behind that too? Yeah, so it kind of goes to what I was just saying earlier, right? So I'll give you a statistic from 2018 and I'll connect this. In 2018, 49,000 people graduated with a computer science degree in the US.

[00:05:58] And there were 287,000 jobs that were specifically listed for entry level talent. Based on that, you would think the level of unemployment or underemployment for that audience would be next to zero. Now, what's interesting is unemployment or underemployment was over 50% for that group. And if you were a minority or first in their family to go to college or in any way socially or economically disadvantaged, it was as high as 62%.

[00:06:26] So when you drill down onto it, you're like, how is that possible? There's so many jobs. But when you look at the jobs that are available, they were all looking for three years of industry experience. Now, I'm looking for entry level talent. But at the same time, I'm looking for three years of industry experience. I was someone who's coming out of college going to have that. That's the gap that we're filling.

[00:06:51] And how we fill it is we partner with employers, understand very specifically what their technology needs are. And on the flip side, we're custom training individuals on the basis of aptitude and baseline skills to develop those particular skill sets that those employers are looking for. And by doing that, it's almost like you're getting a custom tailored suit.

[00:07:17] It's very specific to your specific needs and your body composition as an example. And in this particular industry, it is incredibly crowded out there. So I'd love to learn a little bit more about what it is that makes you guys different, what makes you stand out, and ultimately how Smoothstack's Hire Train Deploy model that I've been reading about. How does this differ from traditional tech education training programs and hiring processes?

[00:07:45] Is that something you can expand on to? Yeah, absolutely. So when people think of training, people think of times when, like, you know, folks, you and I were probably in college in a classroom, a teacher's talking and the student's sitting there. Our training is completely different than that. What we're doing is we're assimilating a real world project environment. And by doing that, we're creating an agile work environment.

[00:08:13] We've got scrum masters, product owners, peer-to-peer code review happening where individuals are being immersed into a real life project with inherent skills that we've transferred to them. And in that protected environment, given the opportunity to really employ and deploy the skills that they've been taught. I think that's fundamentally the difference.

[00:08:41] And I think it's so important now. And I will also say that people of any age in the current employment landscape, everybody's having to adopt continuous learning and to advance their career and even reskill to go into different careers. As we see this happening around the world, what do you see the role of career services in playing in maybe connecting learners with employers during this transitional period? How do you see that role now?

[00:09:10] And how do you see it evolving? I think there's a key role that career services could be playing at universities, specifically in exposing individuals to the types of opportunities where the industry is going. And separately, making those introductions to folks in the industry that are looking to access that kind of talent. And then there's a great opportunity there.

[00:09:35] There's a lot of talent in our country that, given the right opportunity and the mentoring or the guidance, could excel in the potential that these folks could attain in their own lives, could quadruple.

[00:09:51] And I'm not sure if you get to hear stories like this, but I'm curious, do you get to hear any feedback or any inspiring stories maybe of learners who have successfully transitioned into tech careers through SmoothStack and just to bring to life, really, the kind of difference that you can make with your technology here? All the time. So if you think of our funnel, we've got over 7,000 applicants on a monthly basis applying to be part of SmoothStack, give or take.

[00:10:20] And a lot of these folks are folks that put a lot of effort to go out and get a college education or a computer science degree and are underemployed or unemployed in the industry because of that gap that we discussed earlier. Many of these folks have actually given up and have never thought that they truly would get the opportunity to be in the tech space. Whereas once they identify or hear about SmoothStack, a lot of people think it's too good to be true.

[00:10:49] And when they actually come into our pipeline and build those skill sets and then get deployed at some of these large Fortune 500 companies that we work with, as an example, it's life-changing for themselves and also for the communities where they come from. So I feel excited every day that I come into work just thinking about the lives that we change and the feedback that we get from folks constantly who come and tell us, hey, I never thought I'd be back in tech. I'd given up.

[00:11:18] I thought I was going to have to do something else. I actually had already made up my mind that this was not going to happen for me. And then you guys came into my life and my life has literally done a 180-degree change. And you mentioned that you've heard from people in the past that were close to giving up. And I think that highlights the importance of mentorship and having accountability partners. And we're entering that period of the year, you know, January 2025, a lot of people are going to have a lot of big plans.

[00:11:45] But three weeks into January, they may begin to take their foot off the gas and drift back to their old ways. So what do you think of the importance of things like mentorship? And how are you seeing it empowering learners? What are you seeing here around this? Because it's crucial, isn't it, to achieving goals? A hundred percent.

[00:12:09] I would, if I were to look back at my own personal life or my journey, many of the reasons for which why I'm actually here today is for the people that came into my life and opened the doors or gave me the guidance or the mentoring that helped shape my own worldviews or opinions. And I think there's not a single person out there that couldn't benefit from some good mentoring. And you mentioned how you had personal experience.

[00:12:36] So one of the things I do like to do on this podcast as well is give a little shout out or a thank you to some of those people that maybe have impacted us, maybe invested a little time in you, saw something in you that helped you ultimately shape your career and get you where you are. Because I think those people are probably blissfully unaware on the scale of the impact that they've had on you. But is there any particular person or people that you'd like to give a little shout out that might get to hear this out there?

[00:13:04] I probably have a really large list. I would just shout out names. But if I were to call out one person, I'd say very early on in my life in the States, Professor Max Kadir came into my life and he saw a lot of potential in me and was very encouraging for me, off me. And played a very key role in shaping some of the early steps that I took in my life here. I love that. A big shout out to Max.

[00:13:32] Hopefully they get to hear this message because I think very often they've invested that time in you but don't get to hear the results of that. And it's so important. So a quick shout out to Max. But for you, I mean, right now we're here at the beginning of 2025. What's next? Where do you go from here? What will your focus be in 2025 for Smoothstack? Anything you could share around that? Yeah. So constantly looking at how we can increase our footprint.

[00:13:59] I think one of the two opportunities that come to mind is one is think of the advent of remote work. It's some very unique opportunities that come with it. One being the ability for companies like us to aggregate work and steer to places that are socially or economically distressed. And by doing so, we're able to greatly impact not just the individuals that we're working with, but also the communities where they come from. So that's one.

[00:14:27] Another piece is really evangelizing the message and exposing people to opportunities in tech, especially in the K-12 space. A lot of times people tackle, like even from a diversity perspective, like having more women in tech. But if you look at the number of women as an example, let's think of like cybersecurity. Only about 18% of women compared to men actually pursue a degree in cybersecurity.

[00:14:52] But if we could get into the K-12 space and make fields like cyber or just even tech in general more appealing or showcase role models that individuals themselves can see themselves to be like in that space early on, it would direct and guide folks into fields in tech, which probably is not happening at the scale that we need today. And it is such an important message.

[00:15:18] There's a huge shortfall in cybersecurity workers across the board right now. I was reading recently there's a 0% unemployment rate for that particular industry. Getting the right qualifications, the right mentorship can also allow you to work anywhere that you want in the world. And for anybody listening, maybe we've created a few light bulb moments today and somebody listening anywhere in the world of any age. Maybe they want to find out a little bit more information about Smoothstack and how you might be able to help or just reach out and ask a question.

[00:15:48] Where would you like to point everyone listening? The best place from our perspective is going to our website, www.smoothstack.com. Awesome. Well, I will add links to everything. So if anybody listening is interested in anything from application development, cloud digital platforms, data engineering and AI or cybersecurity, like we mentioned there, I'd love to try and create somewhat of a movement here. And I'd love to hear back from anyone listening that has gone through Smoothstack and been successful.

[00:16:17] Please email me directly, techblogwriteroutrook.com. I'd love to shine a light on your personal story, but more than anything, just thank you for taking time over the holidays to sit down with me and share your story. Thanks again. And thank you for doing this. So as we wrap up our conversation with John today, I think it's clear that Smoothstack is more than just a training program.

[00:16:38] It is a lifeline for individuals seeking to break into the tech industry, especially those that have been underrepresented or overlooked. And I think that is so important, whether it be tailoring training to meet the needs of Fortune 500 companies or to creating opportunities for diverse teams to thrive. I think John and his team are driving meaningful change in the IT workforce. And that's got to be a great way to start 2025 on this podcast, hasn't it?

[00:17:08] But what resonated most today for me is John's belief in the transformative power of mentorship and hands-on experience. I think it's a reminder that real impact comes from opening doors, creating connections and fostering a culture of continuous learning. But you've heard far too much of my voice today. What do you think?

[00:17:31] Could innovative approaches like Smoothstack's higher-trained deploy model, could that be the answer to the IT skills gap? Or is there more work to be done to ensure everyone has a seat at the table? Yeah, this is a dialogue, not a monologue. I'd love to hear your perspective on everything we've covered today. So as always, email me, techblogwriteroutrook.com, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, wherever you'd like to hang out.

[00:17:58] Send me a quick DM or connect with me, just at Neil C. Hughes on any platform. Let's keep this one going. But that's it for today. So thank you as always. And I will speak with you all again tomorrow morning. I'll meet you in your podcast feed. See you then. Bye for now.