Born in Chicago, IL, Benton spent most of her childhood just outside Washington DC in Northern Virginia. Having her first child at 16 and determined not to become a statistic, Benton graduated high school in just three years and went on to attend several colleges, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 2004 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications with a specialization in Digital Design. As a young, single mother, Benton armed with resilience and determination, steadily began making a name for herself in the world of design and technology, having worked in a number of capacities for the web giant IAC, among others. In 2007, Benton launched BlackWeb 2.0, which to this day fills a much-needed void by becoming a vital nexus for African-American professionals and aspirants interested in the digital space.
To date, Benton has received numerous accolades which include Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs, in addition to Fast Company’s Most Influential Women In Technology, Business Insiders’ 25 Most Influential African-Americans in Technology, Marie Claire’s 50 Women Who Rule, Ebony Magazine’s’ Power 150 and many more. At age 29, she was inducted into the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) Hall of Fame in 2010, and at that time its youngest inducted ever.
In addition, Benton has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets including CNN’s award winning documentary series Black in America: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Inc, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal where she was a featured essayist for the paper’s 125th Anniversary edition on The Future of Entrepreneurship.
Benton continues to passionately make strides redefining what successful entrepreneurs look like in the digital/technology arena.
