
Feeling excluded from traditional incubators, entrepreneurs create their own - interweb
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/small-business/startups/article-feeling-excluded-from-traditional-incubators-entrepreneurs-create/
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IronWolve
I do admire people wanting to do startups with a work life balance, Want to
solve world issues, but not sleep/eat/live at an incubator.

That is probably the real take away, the gung-ho startup collectives are way
more energetic than someone trying to fix process management flow in
government.

But using a racists angle in the article, that whites exclude people of color,
is rather annoying. I've worked tech for over 30 years, in groups where I was
the only white guy, racism and sexism is out there, but not even to the point
these people say it is. Political bigotry is the real issue now. Lets leave
that stuff at home, and just make businesses where everyone profits. Crazy I
know.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
I'm (somewhat) sorry to pick on you for this, but this is something I've
always found annoying/fascinating. I'm a fiction writer and a technical
writer, and in both cases, I'm routinely advised that it's good to turn
subject matter experts -- SMEs -- not only for things that I know I don't
know, but for things that I think I know but might not have a complete
understanding of. If we want to know what it's really like to be a fighter
pilot, we should talk to fighter pilots, or at the very least read first-hand
reports from them. We generally accept that this is true for nearly all fields
of interest, not exclusively professions: if you want to learn about
concentration camps or life in a cult, for instance, talk to or read first-
hand reports from those who have.

Yet, somehow, when it's suggested that the SMEs on what it's like to be a
woman software engineer would be women software engineers, or to be a woman
founder in tech would be women founders in tech, suddenly "hey, I'm a man
who's been in tech for a long time and _I 've_ never seen it" is good enough.

To me, it seems intuitively obvious that they may have insight into the
challenges they face that you and I don't, and when we hear multiple women
founders in tech talk about the sexism they faced that you and I _by
definition would not,_ we should consider the possibility that they know what
they're talking about.

Crazy, I know.

~~~
troupe
The article specifically said that she wasn't comfortable because people
didn't look like her. The person you are replying to said they were in the
same position where they looked around and no one looked like them.

~~~
ScottBurson
It says that she didn't feel welcome and included. It's true that having more
Muslim women in the room might have helped her feel that way, but it's also
true that if the men had made her feel more welcome, her being different might
not have mattered so much. Indeed, even if there were more Muslim women, if
the men were still abrasive to them, the two groups would simply have drifted
apart ... which seems to be what has happened.

In the GP's case, even though he was the only white male in the room,
evidently the others didn't make him feel unwelcome. That's nice, but it
doesn't prove that such things never happen. I find the place I work to be
very inclusive too, as far as I can tell being a white male, but I don't doubt
that some places are worse, and a few are much worse.

~~~
troupe
If people were being abrasive to her then it would have been worth mentioning
in the article. Instead she said that she felt like some people were being
aggressive if they didn't seem interested in helping her.

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rdlecler1
Data point: White male here. 4/7 of our portfolio companies have a female
founder, 6/7 have a founder of color. We invested in great enteeprneurs in
competitive rounds. We have no mandate for diversity, we’re just looking to
invest in the best entrepreneurs.

~~~
jacquesm
That's one very nice applicant pool!

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allthenews
>The incubators and conferences she attended were typically full of men; often
white, mainly young. It wasn’t often she saw another visible Muslim woman such
as herself.

>“I didn’t feel welcome and included. I never saw anyone who looked different,
”

>I had to deal with a lot of microaggressions, from being ignored to …
realizing [some people were] not willing to help.”

This is probably the quickest way to turn perceived racism into real racism.
Make a huge deal about how different you are from everyone else, and blame
every sleight on the white men for simply being over represented in a
voluntary gathering.

Ironically, the apparent solution to incidental exclusion is purposeful
exclusion. This is growing increasingly ridiculous.

On a related note, how far backwards are we to bend to accommodate for others?
I once shook hands with a Muslim woman, before she noted that she was not
allowed to shake hands with men. Why stop there? Why not segregate women and
have them wear facial coverings to be inclusive of Muslim men[0]? Business has
its own culture, without which it would function less efficiently, and the
people writing articles like these don't seem to care, prizing diversity over
actual function or merit.

[0]I don't mean to target Islam specifically, this is a general problem of
cultural clash that only white people in the US are apparently supposed to be
shamed for.

~~~
telesilla
>“I had to deal with a lot of microaggressions, from being ignored to …
realizing [some people were] not willing to help.”

As a woman, I've certainly experienced this but I would also posit, don't most
men? Tech circles: we're not known to be the most gregarious, un-myopic bunch.

The remainder of the article makes more sense: social outreach and less
restrictions on acceptance in programs, being almost like an incubator for
businesses not ready to join incubators.

I had to bite the bullet as a founder myself and accept that I don't look or
sound the same as others around me at the funding/marketing/sale table: I've
learned to use that to my advantage however. Over time, I've found those I do
business with respect me for my fairness, consistency, and interest in them as
people (which may have come from my socialisation as a woman): asking business
associates how they and their family are goes a long way to building long-term
relationships.

~~~
troupe
> I would also posit, don't most men

As a man I can confirm that there are people who I'd like to have help me who
aren't willing to help me.

~~~
qu4z-2
Yes, that's pretty much life. It'd be great if we could provide all the
support anyone could need, but we haven't really found a way to do that yet.

More cynically/controversially, I wonder where she got the impression that
it's normal for people to help her with things just because it would be
advantageous to her. I think it's possibly the case that people are more
willing to help women than men in general life[0], and if that is less so the
case in tech, then it could feel like deliberate exclusion. "When you're
accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.", as the saying goes.
On the other hand, it very much could be the case that people are treating her
worse than others. There's not one "tech", and while I've had a great
experience, I'm mostly familiar with the "small dev shop" scene in a small,
laid-back, non-US country so I really shouldn't generalise.

That said, I'm glad people are going and solving the problems they're facing.
Good on them, and I wish them luck!

[0]: Whether that's due to attraction, sexist views regarding their
competence, gender roles, or something else entirely I wouldn't venture to
guess.

