Social Impact Tech: Niv Penso of AccessiBe On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact
An Interview With Jilea Hemmings
The only people who can contribute to the spread of information are those who can access the web. And as we know, knowledge is power. We want to empower people with disabilities. We’re missing highly valuable knowledge, solutions, creations, ideas, and more from people with disabilities who cannot login, post, view, download, or share material online. For all we know, by providing people with disabilities with proper internet access, the next big startup could have been founded or a new species could have been discovered. Without enabling access to the web for everyone, society is undoubtedly being held back.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Niv Penso.
Niv Penso is the Chief Technology Officer at accessiBe, an AI-powered web accessibility hub with a full suite of solutions and services. Niv has over 8 years (8200 alumni) in hands-on software development and high-level experience in turning bleeding edge to cutting edge technologies. He has a keen eye for products details, from low level back-end to front-end oversight, thus he also provided technical engineering consultant services for different companies over various technical subjects (system-architecture, web, big data, OOP, automation, cloud solutions and more) Main fields of developments: C#, JAVA, C/C++, Python, Low Level Programming, OS internals (Windows, Linux, Android), Network Applications and Security, Developing for mobile phones and tablets. Besides his technology passion, he brings strong work ethic and teamwork skills.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
I started developing at the age of 10 and ever since I have been passionate about technology and development. After high school I served as a software engineer in the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit for almost five years. I love learning about all different kinds of technology, from low level to high level. After working at different companies in the high-tech industry, I founded my first startup at age 26 and have been dedicated to creating a place based on passion for growth, culture, and people.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
There are so many personal experiences throughout my career so it’s hard to think about a specific one. Perhaps one from the beginning of my career at those precious times at my previous company that we were still working from an apartment in Tel Aviv, winning clients, building our product, and looking to get our first investment.
As the financing round was moving forward and we were targeting the service and hospitality industries, a global international airline was intrigued by our solution and invited my team and I to a set of meetings. At the last encounter, after all expectations were set by all sides, I remember the excitement of entering the room and already thinking how far we can reach with this strategic investor.
As we sat in and finished ice breakers, the airline team made us an offer and my heart dropped. It wasn’t the number we had in mind or discussed, so we had to act quickly. I immediately got up and told them to return to us when the offer will be more serious. You always need to be certain of your worth and not let pressure or missed expectations stand in your way.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Thankfully, I was always surrounded by many mentors my whole life, but there is one that is special to me — his name is Gadi and he worked at the same place my dad worked back in 2000. I was young kid who just heard about this cool thing called JavaScript, and I was fascinated by it. I must say that acquiring knowledge back then was only from books, and there were not that many platforms like there are these days that a 10-year-old child can learn from. Over the summer, I joined my dad at his workplace, and it seemed that my dad had already talked to Gadi about my passion. Gadi introduced himself and invited me to his office for hot chocolate and for a free “pair-programming” session. I was so shocked that he would spend part of his day teaching me the basics of programming. It was so cool and gave me so much motivation. I’m not sure if he knows it, but he is a big part of who I am today.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Motivation is key for success! I really believe that, and this is my managerial approach as well. In my first days as a manager, I was under the impression that team members would follow me by the power of authority. I was deceived and found a much better approach that I feel is much better — motivation. It is not always easy and it requires more than just saying “do that.” But it results in a much better outcome and happier environments.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Transparency and communication — My dad worked as a CEO for different companies throughout his career. He was always open-minded and always treated everyone equally. Transparency and communication are his core values. I admire it and try to be like him every day.
- Interpersonal skills — Gal Baraket, my business partner, has a different personality than myself. Gal has unique personal skills that only a few have. His ability to listen and read people is something rare. From Gal, I learned about patience, looking at the big picture, listening to people in front of me, and how to convey a clear message. Our company Routier was acquired by accessiBe earlier this year and now we both work at accessiBe, I am CTO and Gal is CSO for our professional solutions department.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
Only 2% of the websites today are accessible to people with disabilities. But on the other hand, more than a billion people live with a disability. This just can’t be the reality of the world we are living in. This situation enlarges society gaps where everyone loses — people with disabilities who are being left behind and society in general by missing out on the great minds of people with disabilities and their ability to contribute. accessiBe was founded with the goal to provide robust technological solutions and services that can handle the large scale of inaccessible websites and make web accessibility accessible for everyone.
How do you think your technology can address this?
At accessiBe we believe that in order to make the web more inclusive and accessible, there must be developments in many different aspects simultaneously. These developments include awareness, education, automation, technology, and training for web accessibility. But the most important thing in order to get this inclusive snow bowl to roll is that we have to enable everyone, regardless of their budget, knowledge, and skills, to participate in the global inclusion efforts by providing them the right tools tailored to their specific business reality.
The moment society will become more knowledgeable about people with disabilities and web accessibility, the closer we are to bridging the web accessibility gap.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
As a developer myself, I’m very interested in hearing the personal experiences of others in my field. I met a blind coder named Adi and learned that he codes while the screen reader reads out loud to him what’s on the screen at a speed that is three times faster than our average typing speed. I was so impressed, and even more so because it’s only one person. Imagine what would happen and how much society can gain if more people like Adi would have access to more digital resources.
How do you think this might change the world?
The only people who can contribute to the spread of information are those who can access the web. And as we know, knowledge is power. We want to empower people with disabilities. We’re missing highly valuable knowledge, solutions, creations, ideas, and more from people with disabilities who cannot login, post, view, download, or share material online. For all we know, by providing people with disabilities with proper internet access, the next big startup could have been founded or a new species could have been discovered. Without enabling access to the web for everyone, society is undoubtedly being held back.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Under the hood, artificial intelligence is mathematics, amazing mathematics. We need to understand that those formulas and approaches are just other tools within our toolbox. The way to use these tools is our responsibility. There should be law and enforcement agencies to make sure we are not getting into any dark places, but this is another topic. As far as automatic accessibility solutions, I don’t see any drawbacks. We are taking the tools invented by intelligent people and using them to build a better and equal society.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)
- Creating cutting-edge technology/products requires amazing, dedicated people. Build a team of people that have the same goal as you.
- Define a goal and dedicate your time to reaching it.
- Look for people who are looking to excel in their field.
- Make sure the environment allows growth.
- Believe in yourself and in your cause, the rest will follow.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
The feeling you get when you’re creating a product that improves people’s lives is incomparable. In today’s world there are endless possibilities to work in companies that offer perks and incentives but having the privilege of working in a company that also changes people’s lives and to have the ability to impact the product is rewarding on a much deeper level. It might sound like a cliche but it’s true!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I mainly share on LinkedIn — I believe that this is the best way to stay updated. You can also check out https://www.accessibe.com for more information on what we do.
https://il.linkedin.com/in/nivpenso
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
Social Impact Tech: Niv Penso of AccessiBe On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.