White, Asian, and Indian males are relatively well-represented in Silicon Valley, but blacks, Latinos, and women are not. However, the entrepreneurs at NewMe, the first start-up accelerator specifically targeting black tech entrepreneurs and founders, hope to remedy this imbalance.
After spending the whole summer helping these start-ups develop their designs and codes, the Mountain View, California-based accelerator held its Demo Day last Thursday, debuting each of its 10 start-ups to VCs and angel investors. Some of the most unique start-ups from NewMe’s first cohort include BeCouply, which helps couples socialize with other couples and share dates, and Cued, which recommends activities based on your interests and location.
“There aren’t minorities in tech, there just aren’t,” says Central.ly co-founder Chris Bennett. “One of the problems in the black tech community is that there isn’t yet a community.”
While women represent 23.8 percent of the tech workforce, which is still very small, African Americans only make up 1.5 percent. NewMe hopes to encourage more black entrepreneurs by giving them access to housing, resources, and mentorship from top Silicon Valley companies (Google included).
“We can show more diversity in what founders look like in the media so that a kid who reads CNN or the Huffington Post can see that it’s accessible,” says Angela Benton, one of the two co-founders of NewMe. “We need founders that are more successful, raising money and having exits, and it just can’t be one person. It needs to be several people.”
Benson is currently considering opening up the program to Latinos next in an effort to close the great diversity gap in Silicon Valley.
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