In a tech world where just 1% of startup founders are African American, it's easy for young minority entrepreneurs to feel discouraged trying to navigate Silicon Valley. But that sense of alienation is on its way out if the digital minds behind the accelerator NewMe have their way.
With its second group of budding startups one week into the three-month program, NewMe is poised to continue making progress in its mission of broadening and demystifying the path to startup success for African American, Hispanic and female founders.
"A lot of them can't go to their parents or immediate network and say, 'Hey, I want to start this app or this website, how do I get started?'" NewMe founder and CEO Angela Benton said in an interview.
When NewMe's first group of startups finished the program's inaugural session last summer, 60% were able to secure an average of $92,000 in investment money from outside funders, Benton said. The group's journey was also documented by Soledad O'Brien in the CNN documentary Black in America: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley.
NewMe's current class of seven founders is farther along with with their products going in than the first group was, Benton said. The group is working out of a co-working space in San Francisco and being put up communally in a house in the city. NewMe has also attracted a growing list of sponsors for the accelerator, including Google, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and the social discovery site Tagged.
A Network of Opportunity
NewMe participant Amanda McClure is co-founder of the startup Kairos, which aims to leverage augmented reality technology for the day-to-day interactions of the enterprise market. She said she was attracted to NewMe both for the issue it addresses and its moment of inception.
"Women aren't really encouraged to start a business," she told Mashable. "But I think now the team is ripe because people are getting a little more irritated with working for a big company and not being able to innovate."
Fellow accelerator participant Naithan Jones of the startup AgLocal said the key to making NewMe a tool for progress is companies like his and McClure's actually getting off the ground.
"It's not just a happy-to-be-here thing," said Jones, whose company intends to create an online marketplace for restaurants and consumers to buy locally-raised meats. "We need to create venture-backed, customer-backed companies that are successful. Then we can really impact this."
NewMe takes a small equity stake in its participating startups, but unlike many accelerators, does not itself provide them with investment capital. Benton said NewMe invests sweat equity in its startups and provides them with something more valuable than additional funding — a network of mentors and advisers.
"A founder of a new company needs that exportable network," Jones said.
If the experience of McClure, Jones and their cohort is anything like Curtiss Pope's NewMe experience, the twelve weeks will be time well spent. Pope's company, AisleFinder, essentially works as a Google Maps for supermarkets, directing shoppers to the items on their lists. Pope said NewMe opened a world of networking and feedback that would have previously taken much longer to access.
"I think having something of your own is what everyone wants," Pope said. "But to have the confidence and execution to make it happen is an important piece. A vehicle like NewMe, where you have that support, is huge."
Creating a New Cycle
Pope is now a member of the new crop's network of feedback and advice. He spent time at the group's house shortly after they arrived in San Francisco, giving honest reactions to their apps and business plans. But NewMe also strives to create a longer tail of influence than simply former participants advising current ones.
NewMe partner Wayne Sutton said he's seen a couple similar programs launch since NewMe began. And, while in the program, participants give talks and share their own experiences with younger minority students who may have tech or business dreams.
At a recent event at Tagged, NewMe's entrepreneurs enjoyed snacks and conversation with a group from a program for African American students at San Jose City College. The students go to school near the tech world's epicenter but are often a world removed, said program coordinator and professor of African American Studies Khalid White.
"To see people from NewMe who look like them and share some of the same interests merging their passion with their profession adds a real sense of relevance," White said. "It kind of put the students in the mind-set of, 'This is possible for us, we could also do these kinds of things.'"
With that kind of long-range impact, that 1% number won't last long.
Image courtesy of NewMe
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