Push for More Women and Minority Entrepreneurs
There are a growing number of efforts to help women and minorities become entrepreneurs and get funding for their start-ups in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.
San Francisco accelerator NewME, which focuses on women, African-American and Latino entrepreneurs, is expanding through meet-up groups in the U.S. and abroad. Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and some Silicon Valley investors are speaking out at conferences about the issue, sponsoring incubators that promote diversity and funding companies run by Latinos and African-Americans.
And DigitalunDivided, a New York-based effort with sponsorship from Silicon Valley investors and companies, is leading a push to have 100 companies that are founded or co-founded by black women raise funding or get acquired by 2015. The group plans to hold events in New York in October and in Oakland and other cities with sizable black communities next year.
“How do you get people who understand your community to be venture capitalists and angel investors? We have a pipeline, and we’re doing a lot with that,” says Kathryn Finney, an African-American entrepreneur who leads DigitalunDivided.
Read the rest of this article at The Wall Street Journal
(Photo Credit: WSJ)
Category: Diversity, Featured | Tags: African Americans, digita media, Diversity, minorties, Technology, Wall Street Journal, Women
