What are lessons that Black women founders, specifically, can draw from the successes of an industry veteran?
Three-time founder Angela Benton, currently CEO of data brokerage Streamlytics, shared her thoughts on navigating the tech industry as a Black woman in a recent Inc. webinar. Benton spoke with the Honeypot founder and CEO Beatrice Dixon, and responded to questions from the audience. Here are some takeaways from their conversation.
Break out of the "Black business box"
Being included in only a special category is a common problem faced by minority and women founders. Benton says she doesn't stand for it. "I do not allow people to put me in boxes, and when people do put me in boxes, I correct them," Benton said.
For example, Benton highlighted a recent experience she had at Streamlytics, in which she was working to close a deal that she'd been working on for nearly a year. "We are just about to close the deal with them, but after all this time and effort, they want to categorize us in their Black founders kind of area," Benton said. In response, Benton said she opened with an expression of a desire to work together, but transitioned to being frank about her concerns: " 'I want to have this conversation with you guys, [I'm] super excited, but I don't want to be a part of that, because when I'm a part of that, you're negating all of the game-changing technology that we've developed.' "
Continue reading: https://www.inc.com/steven-i-weiss/streamlytics-angela-benton-data-transparency.html
Three-time founder Angela Benton, currently CEO of data brokerage Streamlytics, shared her thoughts on navigating the tech industry as a Black woman in a recent Inc. webinar. Benton spoke with the Honeypot founder and CEO Beatrice Dixon, and responded to questions from the audience. Here are some takeaways from their conversation.
Break out of the "Black business box"
Being included in only a special category is a common problem faced by minority and women founders. Benton says she doesn't stand for it. "I do not allow people to put me in boxes, and when people do put me in boxes, I correct them," Benton said.
For example, Benton highlighted a recent experience she had at Streamlytics, in which she was working to close a deal that she'd been working on for nearly a year. "We are just about to close the deal with them, but after all this time and effort, they want to categorize us in their Black founders kind of area," Benton said. In response, Benton said she opened with an expression of a desire to work together, but transitioned to being frank about her concerns: " 'I want to have this conversation with you guys, [I'm] super excited, but I don't want to be a part of that, because when I'm a part of that, you're negating all of the game-changing technology that we've developed.' "
Continue reading: https://www.inc.com/steven-i-weiss/streamlytics-angela-benton-data-transparency.html
