

Ask HN: Survey on diversity in founder teams and its influence on success - mkuhn

Dear Hacker News,<p>for my Masters Thesis I am currently analyzing if diversity in founder teams is influencing a startup's success.<p>Now I need data to confirm my Hypotheses and am therefore conducting a survey. If you  are the founder [1] of an internet startup [2] I would like to ask you to help me by filling out my survey. If you have founded more than one venture you are welcome to fill out the survey more than once.<p>http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/founderdiversity<p>Thanks for the time you take to help.<p>Marcus<p>[1] A founder / co-founder is defined as someone "who has an interest, both financial and otherwise, in and commitment to the venture's future and success; whose work is interdependent in the pursuit of common goals and venture success; who are accountable to the entrepreneurial team and for the venture; who are considered to be at the executive level with executive responsibility in the early phases of the venture, including founding and pre-start up; and who are seen as a social entity by themselves and by others."<p>[2] Internet startups are defined as "new businesses which offer a product or service that is mainly distributed through online channels such as a website."
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jacquesm
> 5\. Which races can be found in your founding-team?

I only had humans on my team, I never bothered to check what races they were,
so I won't be able to complete your survey.

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mkuhn
I understand the sentiment but it is a substantial part of diversity
literature and therefore I decided to include it.

Generally it is not about a difference in race making someone better or worse
but if this difference in ethnicity leads to social categorization which
inhibits a team to work together efficiently and effectively.

If you are interested you can send me an email but I don't want to state what
previous research has found here and possibly influence the survey.

