One principle Angela Benton knows well is that timing truly is everything. But before diving into her story, a little bit of background first.
A popular episode of Netflix surrealism series Black Mirror held (excuse the pun) a mirror up to the inhumane treatment we stand to face as AI continues to take hold over every aspect of our lives. In “Joan Is Awful,” Hollywood actress Salma Hayek is horrified at the discovery that her AI likeness is being used by a production company in whatever way it pleases, in perpetuity, unbeknownst to her. Viewers follow her as she tries and fails to pull rank over the executives, undergirding the terrifying complexities of free data-use agreements we’ve all signed in order to browse the internet in any way, shape, form or fashion.
Although fictional and a bit sensationalized, the series’ season opener gets something scarily right, companies are using our personal data in the US for nearly anything you can think of, and there’s almost nothing you can do about it. I bet you’re wondering how we got here.
Benton can tell you—she’s seen it coming for years.
She is currently the founder and CEO of data brokerage Streamlytics, but is best known for being a pioneer of diversity in Silicon Valley. During the dot com years she founded a string of successful ventures, including the blueprint for all of the business accelerators we see today, NewME, a program that galvanized equitable capital raising for minority tech founders.
See, her niche is trailblazing. And the latest world-tilting revelation she’s been waiting on everyone else to catch up on is data currency.
“It’s so funny because it’s such an interesting time we’re in now,” she tells ESSENCE. “I started Streamlytics in 2018 when a lot of people looked at me like I was crazy back then. Yeah, I need a glass of wine for this, because I can tell you a lot stories about that, but ironically, this is in reference to even many of our own people, our own investors that have Black-focused funds. People that I even kind of opened a door for through my previous work with NewMe. Now, people are finally seeing the value of what my company does because another, with the exact same concept, had others backing it from the beginning.”
She’s referring to a recent TIME cover story heralding Indian data cooperative Karya for its work in creating AI for the people, by the people. Essentially, like Streamlytics, it focuses on helping everyday consumers own and monetize their data.
“When Andrew Yang was running for the 2020 election, a lot of his campaign {platform} was about creating a universal basic income system and how it should be based on personal data that has already been generating on different platforms we use all the time,” Benton explained in a 2021 interview when the idea of Streamlytics was still being introduced to larger audiences. “Well, a lot of what Andrew preaches is theoretical, what we’re doing at Streamlytics is practice.”
The company has had technology in place for the past six years that values personal user data, and cuts a check for it.
“A lot of people kind of already know their data is valuable because there’s so much money being made off of it from a corporate level,” she says, going on to share that one Streamlytics user was paid $525 simply for signing up and allowing the platform to assess and monetize his info that was already out there.
So, it’s safe to say that the business of democratizing data ownership is a big one that’s poised to change the modern world as we know it. So, why hasn’t Benton garnered the recognition, and capital support she deserves for spearheading it?
“That’s the tough part to answer,” Benton says contemplatively. “That’s really the tough part. And a lot of what I want to share personally is if you are an innovator, if you’re an entrepreneur working on something that’s either highly creative or highly innovative, how do you set a foundation for yourself where you are nurtured? You know what I mean? That you’re nurturing yourself so that you can go out into the world.”
She shared that one of her biggest refuges is pouring into another one of her latest projects, Well Living Farms, a 10-acre permaculture family farm in Southwest Florida. She describes it as both an incubator and sanctuary for her forward-thinking concepts. It is a refuge she wishes on every innovator that’s grappling with the realities of thinking ahead of the current time, especially as a minority.
“I had a fantastic conversation with someone recently about this, and she had such a poignant thought that our community often creates from a place of trauma, whether it’s a business or a kind of creative effort or endeavor, something that you’re putting out into the world,” she explains. “And so I think it’s shifting helping innovators change the narrative around how we create, not creating from a place of trauma in terms of it’s not that you’re identifying a problem, but it’s more that you don’t have to do more with less. Not accepting the minimum—making sure there’s a holistic approach to how you are going to change the world in a sustainable way.”
As our attention continues to collectively turn to the AI uprising and eventual upheaval, Benton says she is seizing the opportunity to shift eyes onto what has always been there, her company.
“With the help of our initial funders, not minority funders, we’re in the process of relaunching Streamlytics,” she tells ESSENCE. “What is fascinating about this whole process is we were growing extremely fast and had the largest opt-in consented dataset of almost 10 billion data points. What we’re doing now is, especially with everything that’s happening in AI, is relaunching that with two new products. One of them is a personal AI product that allows people to almost have a personal chat GPT but trained on their own data. And then the second product is really taking a different approach to data and AI that many companies are taking right now in that they are selling data to AI companies at the enterprise level, which is what we were doing as well with Streamlitics. It’s an obvious case you can make more money because you can charge more to a larger company or corporation. But what we’re doing differently is on a new market that I feel like is going to bubble up, which is small businesses, innovators and creators who want to use AI in their business in a custom or a semi-custom way.”
Benton says the products will be available in coming months.
She also explains that Streamlytics will remove the barrier for these people when they use its product which allows people to purchase the data that they need so they can train and have custom AI for whatever they’re doing.
“I think this is powerful, particularly for communities of color, especially when you look at the rates of entrepreneurship and small business ownership and just where the world is going with AI. And people are ready for it. Now is the time.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.