Blacks in Silicon Valley

[aggiejazz]

A CNN documentary about black entrepreneurs and visionary tech geeks in Silicon Valley will air tonight at 8pm. I posted about the lack of black entrepreneurs in the tech world right after Steve Jobs death. Maybe this documentary will answer some of my questions.

www.cnn.com/2011/11/09/studentnews/black-in-america-silicon-valley-educator-parent-guide/index.html

[aggiejazz]

The documentary not only shows the lack of black entrepreneurs and black techies but no black financiers in Silicon Valley. If there were black start-up investors would they feel and act like the white financiers and not seek out of black techies who have a product worth investment?

As I said in the thread on Apple CEO, Jobs, you can have one of the best tech idea and prototype but you need financing to get the prototype advancing to a commercial product.

[aggiejazz]

For those who watch the documentary:

The leader of the entrepenuer startup group will lead another group next year. She wants to have more women - I say yeah and I hopefully black women. She also wants different racial groups that are under-represented - which I don't understand this idea since blacks are the most under-represented of the groups in Silicon Valley and skin color is a major factor in this under-representation.

[Bigboy]

Like one of the investers said, the whole community is either white or a Asian. Like the the guy from India told the black group, he had to hire a white guy to be his lead person and spokesman. He said this was suggested to him if he wanted to get his business going.

[aggiejazz]

Finding out how many minorities work in Silicon Valley is difficult also, according to an article below:

But data remain elusive. Mike Swift, a reporter with the San Jose Mercury News -- Silicon Valley's hometown newspaper -- began probing the topic in 2008 by requesting information from the federal government on the region's 15 largest local employers.

His inquiry sparked a two-year legal battle.

"I did not think it was going to take as long as it did," Swift told CNNMoney. He was surprised to be "stonewalled" by companies like Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), which calls transparency one of its core values.

Swift eventually received information on 10 of the companies he targeted, but five successfully blocked the request by convincing the Labor Department that releasing the data would infringe on their trade secrets.

money.cnn.com/2011/11/09/technology/diversity_silicon_valley/?iid=SF_T_Lead

[aggiejazz]

A Duke professor from India blamed the lack of black entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley on black people looking for handouts and blacks not supporting each other like his people from India, then he proceeds to tell them he could not get financing for his start-up company until an associate told him to get a white man he can use as a front man to pitch his company. The professor did just that and got financing. He told the black entrepreneurs in the group that they should seriously consider doing what he did....I guess the Duke professor debuked his own theory on why black entrepreneurs can't get a financial backing in Silicon Valley.

inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/category/black-in-america/

[myhbcuinterview]

Given the television network, it is not surprising alot of us arent featured. We definitely have the resources we just have to broaden our scope. i.e. Africa, South America, et cetera. ;D