Yelp is the exception that proves the rule. The online recommendations platform is one of the most diverse tech companies in Silicon Valley and it can be proud of the job it has done, according to an International Business Times article.

In 2014, Yelp released its first diversity report, which showed better numbers than other tech companies that have already released similar reports. Their employment was 47 percent female, seven percent Hispanic and four percent African-American. In 2015, Google is 30 percent female, three percent Hispanic and two percent black.

How Yelp is hacking the diversity gap?

Some ideas:

1. Yelp only has 3,000 employees.

Being much smaller than Facebook (10,000) or Apple (98,000) makes it easier to achieve higher diversity percentages.

2. Aggressive recruiting at universities with large minority populations

3. Partnering with organizations that can connect minority engineers with opportunities at Yelp.

4. Working with approachable and specific goals.

For Yelp's engineering team, the goal is to employ a percentage of female engineers that is equal to the amount of women who receive computer science degrees in college, which is 18.2 percent. For its sale team, the company is working toward having each of its local offices match the demographics of the cities in which they're based.

5. Focusing in retaining women engineers.

6. Partnering with organizations to mentor tech students.

Yelp works with organizations like Women Who Code and Hackbright Academy.

7. Making its company culture more welcoming and empowering for women and minorities.

The key here is empowering and training members to rise within the company and take on leadership roles through employee resource groups.