Angela
Benton:
NewM e
B
eing a single mom didn’t
dissuade Angela Benton from
founding NewMe, a company
dedicated to accelerating
minority-owned tech startups.
NewMe provides both offline and
online guidance with short-term
residencies for small groups in San
Francisco, paired with continued
access to mentorship and online
resources. Benton wants NewMe
to expand the Silicon Valley box to
include entrepreneurs that don’t fit
the norm. “Those entrepreneurs fit
into a nice box of what is accepted
and established as a working
pattern to predict success in the
industry. So what if you don't
meet this criteria? We call these
entrepreneurs ‘out of the box’
entrepreneurs. They’re who we like
to work with.”
Sara Blakely:
Spanx
ara Blakely is the youngest, self-
S
made billionaire (that’s with a
B), and she started with $5,000
savings and a lot of gusto. Surely
you’ve heard of her company:
Spanx. It’s been beloved and
promoted by both Kim Kardashian
and the one-and-only Oprah
Winfrey. But Blakely learned that
failure was nothing to shy away
from at an early age:
“Each day, her father would ask
– ‘So, what did you fail at today.’
And if there were no failures, Dad
would be disappointed. Focusing
on failing big allowed Sara to
understand that failure is not an
outcome, but involves a lack of
trying—not stretching yourself far
enough out of your comfort zone
and attempting to be more than
you were the day before. Failing big
was a good thing.”
With her own success, Blakely is
determined to pass-it-forward. In
2013, she made a pledge to donate
half of her wealth throughout
her lifetime towards the goal of
empowering women.