NewMe Accelerator Prepares for Cycle Two

To found a startup, how important is it to be in Silicon Valley?

Angela Benton and Wayne Sutton, co-founders of the NewME Accelerator, knew they needed to be in Silicon Valley and Mountain View, in particular, because of the chance to network and the access to early stage capital. But also because the area would benefit the founders of the startups in the accelerator—Blacks and other underrepresented minorities.

"It has become like a feeder of minorities into this ecosystem," Benton said. "We didn't plan it this way, but a couple of them are already relocating."

The NewME Accelerator, featured in CNN's fourth installement of Black in America series, is a residential program where eight people travelled to Mountain View from around the country to work on their products. They lived in a three bedroom, two bath house. Each entrepreneur came here with an early stage idea and with a project in either Beta or Alpha stage, according to Benton. "Everyone had at least a design," she said.

The NewMe Accelerator began with no funding, no investments and came together after only three months of planning for its first-ever nine-week cycle, which kicked off on June 16 and ended on Aug. 18 2011. No startup received initial funding and the founders had to get themselves to Mountain View.

But Benton–the founder and publisher of Black Web 2.0–had already started to make the necessary contacts in Silicon Valley that helped her secure some sponsorship from the likes of , Kapor Capital, Syncom and Blue Run Ventures. Through Black Web 2.0 and the predecesor to the accelerator New Media Entreprenuership Conference, she hosted an event in Palo Alto in November 2010 where she met the right people, including some of the Black employees at companies like Google and Apple.

"About 100 Black people came out and everyone was like 'you should do this every month,'" Benton said. "That really stuck with me."

This became the impetus for Benton and Sutton to create NewME, explained Benton, over coffee and an Italian soda at .

"We had to be in Silicon Valley for the networking, for the business development and to get capital," said Benton, who also founded Cued.com. "I think we underestimated how crazy everything is."

Once in Mountain View, it became easier for NewME startup founders to stop by other startups. They even had lunch with 500 Startup Accelerator founder Dave McClure.

Benton also remained in contact with Google Recruiter Ed Bailey, a founding members of Black Googlers and member of the . Google, became an importance resource for NewME and has now come on as their title sponsor for the next cycle, which begins February 2012.

"Accelerate with Google is dedicated to driving minority business growth, and to helping minority entrepreneurs make the most of online tools," said Chris Genteel, Business Development Manager at Google. "Partnerships like the one we have with the NewMe Accelerator help keep us plugged in to this important community of entrepreneurs."

"When Angela Benton shared her idea for the NewMe Accelerator program, we were glad to get involved," said Genteel. "The participating startups have had the unique opportunity of working with people from some of the leading companies in technology, and we were excited to connect them with some of the great talent and mentors we have at Google from areas like engineering, marketing, and Google Ventures."

But it wasn't just Google who took noticed. CNN learned about NewME from a Wall Street Journal article and caught the attention the producer of the Black in America series with host Soledad O'Brien.

All of a sudden, NewME had national attention and the news network began to film the entreprenuers for Black in America series.

"The big thing that differentiated this [from other startups] was because they were Black and we wanted to explore how [NewME] will change Silicon Valley," said O'Brien. "Our focus was really on founders. Somebody who was a founder or a creater, not about CEOs, and once we figured it out it became more narrow. It became about the ecosystem of that house in Silicon Valley."

By the end of filming, O'Brien herself appeared convinced on the mission of the NewME accelerator and its focus on Black and underrepresented minorities.

"They have to be here, they have to be able to bump into people who can give you ideas, who can help, who can invest," .

NewME has started to accept applications for its second cycle, which will begin in February of 2012, Benton explained. This go around, the accelerator hopes to have some Latino entreprenuers too.

"One of the outcomes of the accelerator is that it would become a feeder to this area," she said. "I'm optimistic."