
Y Combinator Female Founders Conference LiveStream  - ggreer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDaqt9NzDUc
======
beambot
To all the people kvetching in the comments... this is the live stream for
"YC's Female Founders Conference" [1]. That's why "female" is in the post
title.

I'm an ardent supporter of the effort, and I hope (much like startup school)
that YC is able to make it into an annual event! Very inspiring! Also, my wife
is in attendance. I look forward to hearing her reactions later tonight. If
the live stream is any indicator, it looks like a really great event.

[1] [http://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-the-female-
founders-c...](http://blog.ycombinator.com/announcing-the-female-founders-
conference)

~~~
patrickyeon
When people start whining about events or programs like this, I like to send
them off to read "When I Moved Abroad"[1], a blog post by that was like
flipping a switch in my mind that suddenly made these things make so much more
sense.

[1] [https://blog.mozilla.org/it/2013/03/29/when-i-moved-
abroad/](https://blog.mozilla.org/it/2013/03/29/when-i-moved-abroad/)

~~~
parennoob
As someone who has lived for fairly long periods in a country that is not
mine, this is exactly the sort of thing I seek to avoid. I try to hang out
with the people from the region, _not_ people who I already can speak to in a
familiar language. I try to absorb the local cultural contrasts and not try to
shoehorn them into my own. ("Tell me again what the traditional Garistan
Christmas cake is? " \-- Maybe they don't celebrate Christmas? Could it just
be possible that they belong to another culture / religion?)

Always sticking with your own lot and never completely opening up to a new
culture (in my opinion) isolates you and makes you look standoffish.

------
namenotrequired
For those who wouldn't click cause it's "Female Founders" \- so far it's been
just as inspiring as Startup School (even for me as a man).

~~~
Crake
I usually don't bother with links to things that are phrased in such a way as
to suggest support of segregationist policies. I don't care about women in
tech. I care about _people_ in tech.

~~~
danilocampos
> I don't care about women in tech.

I've noticed.

When you collect a few more life experiences, perhaps get a decade of career
under your belt, you'll learn how toxic it is when monocultures form. You'll
learn about the blind spots. The exclusion. The lack of productive conflict
from varying ideas.

And perhaps at that point you'll learn why "caring about people in tech" means
caring that no people feel actively excluded from its prosperity.

Until then, your callousness makes you emphatically the sort of dime-a-dozen,
utterly common, entirely unoriginal personalities that make me want to walk
out of this industry and lock the door behind me forever.

Good luck on your journey.

~~~
GhotiFish
That's perhaps too harsh.

You hear from people who are physically handicapped that the thing they hate
most is the contrast in treatment. They want to be treated normally.

A different person in a different perspective gets treated differently because
they are viewed as different. A common complaint. Is he being empathetic or
indifferent? I dunno, but it's hard not to say to yourself "Women are being
treated differently, that is what is keeping them out, so I will endeavour not
to treat them differently."

Is that misguided?

~~~
danilocampos
You're sure busy on this thread for someone who claims not to have opinions or
skin in the game.

> Is that misguided?

Completely.

Being a woman isn't having a handicap. Being brown isn't having a handicap. At
least it isn't to my mind. Is it to yours?

When you go and talk to people who are women or brown or some intersection of
these, one thing that's clear is that they feel much more comfortable when
interacting with other folks whose lives and paths look like theirs. Their
life stories are different from those most commonly represented, so increasing
representation means finding people who can speak from a common perspective.

And that's before I even get into the patterns of harassment and aggression
that are reported to me consistently from every. single. female colleague I
know. That's before getting into the challenges female founders face in
presenting their companies to a VC industry that's overwhelmingly male and
therefore under-equipped to evaluate a huge swath of verticals and
opportunities.

None of this is abstract. All it requires is knowing people who aren't young,
white males.

~~~
oh_sigh
> Being a woman isn't having a handicap. Being brown isn't having a handicap.
> At least it isn't to my mind. Is it to yours?

Is being handicapped a handicap? I can't walk. Am I handicapped when it comes
to creating code, or starting an tech company? I'm not in my mind. Am I in
yours?

> When you go and talk to people who are women or brown or some intersection
> of these, one thing that's clear is that they feel much more comfortable
> when interacting with other folks whose lives and paths look like theirs.

Good job of lumping billions of unique personalities into a single viewpoint.
I'm sure some women and brown people feel that way. I'm also sure some women
and brown people feel the exact opposite, and some women and brown people have
an opinion that is neither of the two stated.

> And that's before I even get into the patterns of harassment and aggression
> that are reported to me consistently from every. single. female colleague I
> know.

Really? _Every_ single female colleague you know _consistently_ reports
_patterns_ of harassment and aggression? Did you ever consider that maybe your
workplace is broken, and not society? Why isn't your workplace getting rid of
the harrassors and aggressors, or taking _any_ action at all to fix its
obvious brokenness?

> All it requires is knowing people who aren't young, white males.

I'm not young, and I'm not a white male. But that's also irrelevant.

~~~
Crake
You disagreed with him, there's no way you could be anything BUT a young white
male! Stop appropriating your own oppression!

(I also hated the disability metaphor.)

~~~
oh_sigh
Actually, I am a young white male who is not disabled.I was just making those
facts up to sound more convincing.

------
jblow
Note the extreme lack of women commenting in this thread, as well as the lack
of discussion of any of the substance of the livestream.

This thread is 100% nerdy dudes feeling offended by this event, plus other
dudes attempting to counter this.

Is not this thread itself indicative of a giant problem?

~~~
nhangen
ad hominem + sweeping generality FTW

Seriously though, I am not a proponent of gender restricted events, but I have
not commented on this particular thread because I wanted to watch the content
first, and it's not really the place for such discussions.

That said, others may feel differently, having not participated in prior
conversations on this topic, and thus, the label you've applied to opponents
is unnecessary and unfair.

~~~
Crake
I like how being a man is considered an insult these days. Woman who disagrees
with feminism? Damn men!

------
facepalm
"Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain
music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights." (Quote
YouTube)

~~~
namenotrequired
This link works for me from the Netherlands:
[http://www.livestream.com/femalefounders](http://www.livestream.com/femalefounders)

~~~
facepalm
Thanks, it works.

------
pg
The event starts at about 37:20.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
Direct link to that point in time:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDaqt9NzDUc&feature=share&t=3...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDaqt9NzDUc&feature=share&t=37m20s)

------
female_founder
Looks like a great event. Somewhat ironically, I'm a female founder and had an
invite to do go, but couldn't go due to childcare.

~~~
sunir
I don't think that's a gendered issue. It's hard to be a founder and raise
kids at the same time. Kids are a startup--a human startup. Good luck!

------
brandonhsiao
Never mind that this is called "Female Founders." I'm male and found this
helpful.

~~~
gcb0
highlight how silly it is to be sexist, doesn't it?

~~~
wetafur
The goal is to attract female participation, not to deter male participation.

------
frankdenbow
Has been a great set of speakers so far. I connect most with Elli's
experiences fighting through all the "No"'s founders receive to get to the
point of fully believing what you are doing is going to work if executed as
you understand it.

------
Rajiv_N
Diane Greene is amazing! I think I can listen to her speak all day long

------
erichocean
My wife applied and I was surprised by the unseriousness of the application
process.

If you've gone through the online YC application process, imagine you dumbed
that down for a 10 year old who only had 10 minutes to complete it and only
had to answer one question, along the lines of "Why is America the best
country on Earth?"[0]

Here's the rejection email my wife got for those that are curious:

 _Thank you for applying to the Female Founders Conference. Unfortunately we
couldn 't accept you this year. There was such a large number of applications
that we had to turn away hundreds of people we would otherwise have accepted.

We will be streaming the event live on our website, and are looking into
options for even larger venues in the future. We really hope you will apply
again.

Best,

Y Combinator Team

[http://femalefoundersconference.org](http://femalefoundersconference.org) _

[0] Bonus points for anyone who gets that reference. :)

~~~
natasham25
It was a very similar application to the Startup School application.

~~~
erichocean
Okay, good to know.

In all seriousness, if that's the application, both the Startup School and the
Female Founders Conference should just do a randomized allocation.

------
spirefly
I was surprised it was only open to female attendees. Having the female role
models is both important to females AND males since they need to support the
inclusion of females. (And not spank the behinds of founders in VC
meetings!!!)

~~~
wpietri
Both experiences are useful.

I attended AdaCamp last year and it was fascinating. In previous AdaCamps
they'd tried mixed-gender stuff. At mine, though, they did an "allies" track
for guys (and any women who wanted to pop in).

It felt a little weird being excluded from the main track, but honestly, it
made sense to me from the moment I arrived. Suddenly, for the first time at a
conference, I was part of a small, visible minority. It was uncomfortable.
Everybody was perfectly nice, but I was acutely aware that I did not look like
everybody else.

That made it easy for me to imagine how empowering an experience it could be
to for the women at AdaCamp to experience a women-only environment at the
conference. It reminded me of the time I rode in Critical Mass: suddenly,
because bikes vastly outnumbered cars, I felt free and safe in a way I had
never experienced biking in the city.

So now I'm entirely in favor of things like this. To me, it's all part of
tidying up the legacy of millennia of oppression of women. In 50 years, I hope
it's not necessary. But for now, I say it's great.

------
carbocation
Is this over already? I'm in the US and just getting "Please stand by."

~~~
namenotrequired
It's not over yet, have you tried the livestream link?
[http://www.livestream.com/femalefounders](http://www.livestream.com/femalefounders)

EDIT Now it _is_ over.

------
mbesto
pg, please thank Jessica for putting this event on. My girlfriend is on her
way to starting her first company after years successfully being one of the
few women in the private equity sector as well as her graduate program at
Stanford. I've only just watched the keynote from Jessica and this is exactly
the message that not only she, but I, need to hear about starting a company
(tech and/or financial for that matter). Hearing these stories builds
confidence and it's what both of us need.

------
staticelf
I dislike the fact that females get a lot more attention because of their
gender. If you want true equality you've to start treating everybody as equals
and giving extra space for some just doesn't cut it.

I see this all the time in my country (I don't know if this is the case here)
but females get a lot more attention in basically all areas of society and I
don't think much good can come from that.

Well, I guess I'm just trying to write as a man in the extremely feministic
country of Sweden I kind of feel left out and viewed as "not as important" as
the counter gender. Since I am quite young and the feministic views here just
has grown stronger with the years, this feeling has grown on me since I
started elementary school.

Now in my twenties, I don't think it's that weird I think feminism is possibly
one of the worst phenomenas in my country and the world in general.

~~~
dandrews
staticelf, most of us here want that "true equality" that you refer to. But
the unassailable fact of the matter is that _we don 't have it_ today.

Look around you: assuming you're in IT, unless you work in a truly remarkable
place men considerably outnumber women. We (and I mean the egalitarian "we")
have to do something about that.

I'd welcome your suggestion. But "start treating everybody as equals" is a
goal, and not very prescriptive. How do we get from point A to point B?

(I upvoted you because your discourse is reasoned and polite.)

~~~
onmydesk
"men considerably outnumber women. We (and I mean the egalitarian "we") have
to do something about that."

Why? What is that evidence of? You assume sexism presumably. Men and women are
different and have predispositions to excel in different areas.

You know what would be really weird? A 50/50 split. Why is that the definition
of correct?

Why are so few people rational about this?

~~~
dandrews
Careful with that. You saw what happened to Larry Summers, right?

Seriously, I take your point about the differences between men and women. I
saw the news tidbit a few weeks ago about the study on toddlers and the toys
they prefer. I'm willing to treat those studies objectively.

Yet in the case I cited, _fewer than three percent_ of attendees at a
technical conference were women. "Predispositions to excel" or not, that's a
statistic too big to ignore, and there's something else going on.

~~~
onmydesk
Without looking into it the percentage that suggests no prejudice is unknown,
so we don't actually know if 3% is where it 'should' be for that to be true,
or the much assumed 50%.

It has no basis in fact is my point really. And I'm uncomfortable in applying
sexism as a solution to perceived sexism.

Im confused why everyone isn't uncomfortable with that.

~~~
elohesra
If I had to put my cynic hat on (oh who am I kidding? I never took it off) I'd
say it's because the people who're 'comfortable' with any form of
discrimination tend to benefit from it.

The men _currently in_ tech who support pro-female discrimination aren't going
to be affected by it: they're already in tech, and they already had a chance
to enter it before their asinine discriminatory policies came into effect.
They benefit from feeling they've achieved some good (irrespective of whether
they actually have). The same is true of powerful people who aren't dependent
on an equal playing field, such as politicians, the wealthy, and current
business leaders. Such people won't be affected by proposing a piss-poor
solution, so if they can feel like a champ for doing so, then they'll do so.

A less cynical view is that such people are simply bad at logic; that they
don't understand that you form theories from evidence, rather than using
evidence to support theories. The trouble with all gender politics is that
it's too emotional an issue. All parties feel threatened, and all parties feel
that they're the ones being shafted. In an atmosphere so hostile to reason,
I'm just grateful that no-one has jumped to gulags and gas chambers as a
solution. Oh wait...
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Cutting_Up_Men](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Cutting_Up_Men)

------
jlukanta
I wonder if anyone kept a note of the speeches?

------
Osaka
Q the electric club music for the break!

Really good talk though.

------
msoad
*White Female Founders

~~~
danielha
This is even not close to true nor is it witty. You should stop making jokes
on the internet.

------
enlightenedfool
When is the next Male Founders Conference? or is it already done?

~~~
melindajb
that's the one they have every year that's nearly 100% male.

------
drdeadringer
Granted I haven't met very many male SWE members... in fact none...

... but I'm amazed and saddened that this headline has gotten this far due to
popular demand. "Please dear lord see how I and my company aren't sexist by
watching this live-stream of our going over specifically-female founders".

~~~
ispivey
This is probably a new HN record in mistakenly ascribing bad intentions, which
is pretty impressive.

Perhaps people are interested in watching some awesome founders speak.

~~~
drdeadringer
> people are interested in watching some awesome founders speak

Agreed.

------
thesimpsons1022
Does anyone have any proof that there are less women founders proportionally
than men? How do we know it just doesn't boil down to the fact there are less
females in the industry as a whole? And are women actively being discriminated
against or do they just have other priorities than founding startups?

~~~
lukasm
Maybe just women are smarter and they know that median outcome of startup is a
failure?

~~~
thesimpsons1022
or they are more risk averse because they want to save to start families.

------
onmydesk
When is the blue eyed founders conference? The left handed? Its an interesting
watch for sure but what the hell. Pandering to a fashionable discrimination.
When we all get over this as a society we'll be shaking our heads at it.

~~~
danielha
Replace "female" with "European founders." Would it still make sense? Is it ok
to hold a conference for a demographic with common challenges and
opportunities -- rooted in the fact they're from Europe?

You're sad.

~~~
facepalm
I suppose it would make sense to educate founders from Europe about legal
issues, cultural differences that make trip up in the US and stuff like that.

The female founders conference doesn't seem to be about "how to better get
along with men", though.

