Lady Geek's Topic of The Day: Black In America

Tales of The Lady Geek

Hello, your friendly neighborhood Lady Geek here happily bringing you my third article, this one dealing with a rather serious topic; inequality within the technological world. When I was first approached to write for “The Black Urban Times”, it was with the knowledge that they wanted me to conduct an interview with Mr. Wayne Sutton, recently featured on “The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley” a “Black in America” special that aired on CNN, November 13, 2011.

As we’ve already established from my earlier postings, this Lady Geek has an intense love of all things technological. I also have an extensive sweet tooth for the documentary, research and certain areas of history as well as the usual accompanying stereotypes that naming oneself “Lady Geek” brings to mind. So I was both eager and interested to have an excuse to make time to watch a documentary about the Geeky Mecca that is Silicon Valley.   All I can say about what I saw and then researched is what a sad shock that in 2011, we as a people still have walls to break down.

NewMe Accelerator:

According to their website, NewMeaccelerator.com, “We are a residential technology start-up accelerator/incubator for businesses that are led by under-represented minorities in the technology industry. During our first cycle in the summer of 2011 we helped 10 minority-led businesses get a step further to success by offering them mentorship, a network of industry players, and in some cases funding….NewMe is here to help entrepreneurs of color achieve their goals…”

NewMe Accelerator is the first minority led startup accelerator in the Silicon Valley. That fact alone is mind blowing. After all the years that Silicon Valley has been in existence, after all the years that accelerators have existed in Silicon Valley, this is the first minority led startup accelerator in Silicon Valley.  

NewMe is a bi-yearly, twelve week long program that is fully immersive and close knit.  Only eight minority start-up Founders are admitted per cycle to co-live and co-work for the duration of the program.  Weekly, participants learn and get one-on-one mentorship from the industry’s elite.

So basically, if chosen your job is to pitch to the potential investors with an ace in the hole, the opportunity your grandma never had, learning from people who’ve already crossed that bridge. Here’s the kicker, last year only 1% of Silicon Valley startups were founded by blacks. This means that if you don’t take this opportunity seriously and blow your chance then you make it all the more difficult for the next group of minorities to go down this road, but no pressure.

The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley:

The show begins with an unexpected kick in the trousers for the founders, just after all the startup founders move into their ‘incubator’ they are literally thrown to the Dragon. On their first day they were met by a Dragon’s Den at Google headquarters. A Dragon’s Den is a panel of venture capitalist judges that listen to your initial pitch and give feedback to flaws and strengths of your business idea.

Overall, the majority of the aspiring entrepreneur’s felt they didn’t do well, but immediately went to work on improving their pitches and developing their dot com companies. Over the rest of the program, we saw these business people working on their pitches, their product, and their dreams.

During the course of the show, we watch the entrepreneurs grow and expand their networks, polish their business ideas and learn how to make Silicon Valley work for them.  Overall, they worked hard to compete and earn the investment capital to make their dot com dreams come true. After the final pitch, entitled, “Demo Day”, we could see how the access to the mentorship and the support of the NewMe Accelerator helped to change their view and empower them towards success.

Of course, Demo Day went over well for them, but the most important thing they learned was that they could do it again because they did it once and they did it well.

The Revelation:

I was shocked to see that while being in technology is colorless, while utilizing and learning about technology is colorless, breaking into the higher staked, technology entrepreneur field was not. In 2010 only one percent of all internet startups were founded by blacks. Yet we as a race consume a vast majority of the technological advances available today.  I was sad and disappointed at that discovery.

The interviews with the potential investors, sponsors, and with the mentors really intrigued me. These people all sited various things as to the lack of minorities in Silicon Valley, from lack of educational opportunities, to “We don’t know how to recruit those people.” Some were just recycling that old tag line, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, one of my favorites was a justification with no suggestion, “Silicon Valley is a White and Asian world that needs to change.”

The interviews brought into view the wall that a lot of us have had to come against in the course of our lives. This show was a mirror to the unspoken prejudice that still runs rampant through the United States. There was one interview that affected me the most and it was from Professor Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University, who’d come to the Silicon Valley in 1991, and was one of this group’s mentors. He told the founders during a mentoring session, “When I did raise Venture Capital my buddies here advised me was to get a white guy to be your front man. And I did that. I hired very impressive, six-foot-tall polished white guy, and let him do all the talking.”

While a later interview with one of the Founders, Mr. Hank Williams expanded upon the topic and assured us this was something that happened in the nineties, I know in a lot of this America, “having a white face is having the best face.”

The Take Away:

I saw people leaving their homes and families just for a chance of earning capitol to fund their start ups. We need to recognize that this is an ever evolving technological world that is always looking for the next best thing. We need to recognize this and move ourselves and our children into that great divide, educate ourselves and leap on this train.

I am saddened and shocked that in this day and age we are still, as a people, in a place where walls are designed to keep us out. I say knock them down! We need a presence in all areas of American life, especially in the technology field.  For many of us, it’s an unexplored country that isn’t at all unattainable. All it takes is education, perseverance and motivation. NewMe is a terrific beginning, now I say it’s time to expand on that and infiltrate Silicon Valley. Expand the openings for the next group.

As a people we are engineers, we are the foundation of this society, our money, our votes have more power and sway than we allow ourselves to believe. We are not confined to what everyone expects of us, only confined by our lack of imagination and access to the proper tools and mentors. “The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley”, has given us a glimpse into what is needed to be relevant in this new century, this technological century. It has shown us that Silicon Valley has the attitude of, “You are welcomed to try, but we don’t expect you to make it.”  We don’t have to take this, I say it’s time to prove them wrong and take ourselves to the next level of innovation.


Written by Maryann Paris