Soledad O'Brien Presents "The Promised Land: Silicon Valley" Special

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BLERDS unite!!

The NewMe Accelerator first took eight African-American entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley to immerse them in the world of technology startups. But since CNN followed the tech incubator for “Black in America: The New Promised Land – Silicon Valley”, its founders have gone bigger, creating a NewMe Community online. It now has about 465 members in 65 cities.

On Thursday night, nearly 300 minority entrepreneurs met in 10 cities around the country, coming together for the first time and keeping NewMe’s momentum going.

“@newmecommunity put together a great event last night. #newmecommunity is going to be HUGE!!!” Joshua Samuel posted on Twitter after the event.

NewMe was the first technology startup accelerator for minority-owned businesses. Founders Angela Benton and Wayne Sutton said they felt compelled to expand the NewMe brand to other cities because of the large response from people who watched CNN’s documentary.

“NewMe is a brilliant idea! And I would totally love to be a part of the community…” Victor Harrison posted on the NewMe Facebook page November 21.

“We saw the energy, we saw the conversations and we got tons of e-mails asking how can we get involved,” Sutton said.

All jokes aside, Silicon Valley makes a LOT of money, there is no reason why minorities shouldn’t be able to carve out a piece of the pie.

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