Female and minority entrepreneurs are few and far between in the technology industry, but lately there have been efforts to change that, Deborah Gage at the Wall Street Journal reports. We should be “super optimistic” about the future of minorities in technology, says SoftTech VC Partner Charles Hudson, who is African American. He compares the successful push to get more minorities into finance 20 years ago to what is happening today in tech.
For instance, San Francisco based accelerator NewME focuses on minority and female entrepreneurs, and has the backing of Google and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. NewME Founder Angela Benton, who was a speaker at this month’s Techonomy Detroit conference, started the blog Black Web 2.0 five years ago to make up for the lack of media covering minority entrepreneurs.
There is also Focus100, a conference and boot camp planned for this October in New York that that aims to get 100 companies founded by black women to raise funding or get acquired by 2015. Like NewME, it has the backing of Andreessen Horowitz, as well as the media network BlogHer.
Ethics + Responsibility
Will More Female and Minority Entrepreneurs Enter Tech?
Female and minority entrepreneurs are few and far between in the technology industry, but lately there have been efforts to change that, Deborah Gage at the Wall Street Journal reports.
