Alexis Adewunmi

I really just think I am well-spoken, which has a lot to do with this specific position that I'm in. I'm very well spoken, I am a problem solver, and I know how to get a lot done with a little, which is very important as a startup - we don't often have all the resources we need to complete things, but we can find them along the way. I'm very good with people. I have a very diverse background, so I'm able to work with engineers from the aerospace field, computer scientists, project managers, and businessmen, and able to align them on one goal, which helps me a lot with gaining these contracts and carrying them out as well.

The best career advice I've received is just, if it's meant to happen, it will happen, and everything in your path will kind of align to help you towards that goal, if you have a passion. There will be plenty of ways to get towards that goal of pursuing that passion, and to never get it out of your mind. Even if you take a detour - like, I took a job at Amazon when I first graduated college, which was not my ideal position at such a corporation with its reputation - I kept my options open and kept looking out for careers in the aviation field, and I got that the second I left Amazon. If I hadn't kept my options open and kept my head in the right path for that, it might have never happened.

Not to be intimidated. As women, we work twice as hard to get half this far, so if we are here and we are present in this field, we have every right to be. Don't give in to the intimidation and the pressure that it may give you when you first enter. Just don't be intimidated, and if you're here, you have every right to be. No matter how people first think of you, you can always show them that you belong here with the right work.

The biggest challenges - I mean, I am an African-American woman, so oftentimes I am not regarded with the most respect in this field, or am not given the chance to even speak my part in a lot of rooms. So that can be challenging, but my family raised me to be very confident and to never back down, and I definitely think that's one of the ways I've overcome that, is having a stronger and more powerful voice than a lot of the men that I'm surrounded by to combat that.

Integrity is very important to me. I've come from a corporate background, so there's some disingenuous people sometimes scattered around there, so integrity matters. Hard work, for sure, especially in the startup space - the effort that each individual puts in in these startups oftentimes can make or break the startup. I value alignment with and working with diverse people from diverse backgrounds. I think that is a strong suit with me and my company. And just my willingness to continue learning, and never thinking that I know more than I need to. There's always more to learn, and I'm always going to put myself in a position to learn more and gain more information on any type of topic within my field.