

Barriers to Entry for Women and People of Color - mlichtenstern
http://timesnewromanempire.blogspot.com/

======
orionblastar
I would like to see the statistics of the people who applied for VC funding
versus those who got it.

Women and minorities just don't apply for VC funding as far as I know. I have
many friends who are people of color and women and don't want to learn how to
program or IT or anything a VC would want to invest in.

I don't want all VC funding and IT jobs to go to white males, but it seems
only white males are the ones who apply for IT jobs and VC funding.

It seems if a woman or minority is not qualified for an IT job they give them
blog duty instead. Then write social justice warrior white privilege articles
like this one for ratings and mouse clicks.

~~~
mlichtenstern
Number one, I am the author of aforementioned blog. I'm aware that my writing
may come across less warm and fuzzy than I am in person, however, I don't
consider it to be "white privilege articles" and I especially don't do it for
ratings and mouse clicks, although if I didn't hope for the latter, I'd merely
journal. Why shouldn't people click? It's an important topic - at least to
some. That said, I easily get more clicks to my entertainment blog, and if
anything, I write knowing that it can have a detrimental effect on how those
endorsing the status quo - who may not be so A16Z-esque towards iconoclasm -
perceive me.

There are a number of unpublished posts on that blog on various topics that
are cathartic for me to write about. I have published several around tech and
diversity because, as a woman of color who has academic credentials in ethnic
studies, and who is navigating the tech / SV ecosystem (and documenting the
journey), I have a perspective that is underrepresented in Silicon Valley and
needs to be voiced. While I don't claim entitlement to much, I emphatically
proclaim entitlement to my story and opinions (and thus won't be "shushed").

“There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” —
@MayaAngelou, from: [http://therouse.com/the-power-of-your-
story/](http://therouse.com/the-power-of-your-story/)

Science Shows Something Surprising About People Who Love to Write
[http://mic.com/articles/98348/science-shows-writers-have-
a-s...](http://mic.com/articles/98348/science-shows-writers-have-a-serious-
advantage-over-the-rest-of-us)

Now, as to your more salient points:

1). "I would like to see the statistics of the people who applied for VC
funding versus those who got it."

As would I.

2) "Women and minorities just don't apply for VC funding as far as I know"

Let's not make assumptions. However, YC states that about 1% of applicants are
Black - likely far less Black women.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8374198](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8374198)

As Marc Andreesen points out in his recent Bloomberg / Dreamforce talk (at
38:30), there is both a pipeline and an access problem. Women and minorities
will not be able to apply if they don't have access - e.g. the "referral from
a funded company CEO" preference that many VCs openly require. If women and
people of color disproportionately unlikely to have a "good ol' boy network,"
they don't have access. And there are more complex factors at play (that have
been documented) even when women and underrepresented individuals do have
"players" in their network. These are related to implicit bias - such as a
higher rate of unreturned emails from those capable of making intros - or the
fact that both male and female VC are less likely to fund a woman over a man -
even if pitching the same idea:

Harvard Business School Study:
[http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/Brooks%20Huan...](http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/Brooks%20Huang%20Kearney%20Murray_59b551a9-8218-4b84-be15-eaff58009767.pdf)

Marc Andreessen on Apple Pay, Bitcoin, and Airbnb
[http://www.bloomberg.com/video/marc-andreessen-s-fireside-
ch...](http://www.bloomberg.com/video/marc-andreessen-s-fireside-chat-at-
dreamforce-2014-YXNamz6vR1yutRnFvhmmYA.html)

And tell me, if founders are told to focus on product (and not attend
conferences)

and whereas underrepresented individuals outside of their existing network may
not meet them otherwise...

and whereas, even if they succeed in meeting them, fail to secure an
opportunity to "bond" or earn a referral...

How many underrepresented individuals are likely to gain access to VCs in
order to pitch? Everything about the paradigm currently endorsed is structured
to further disadvantage the disadvantage (see below).

3) "I have many friends who are people of color and women and don't want to
learn how to program or IT or anything a VC would want to invest in."

Are they looking for funding? Can they create an MVP without learning to code
and demonstrate demand? There are many open source alternatives to coding. Why
should they have to learn to code any more than an MBA (or if they can find a
technical co-founder - even if outside of SV)? Part of the problem (which I
poke at in annotations of SA's "How To Start a Startup" link on Genius.com) is
the acceptance of what VC's deem fundable.

[http://tech.genius.com/Sam-altman-lecture-2-ideas-
products-t...](http://tech.genius.com/Sam-altman-lecture-2-ideas-products-
teams-and-execution-part-ii-annotated)

Look, I follow several VCs (Brad Feld, Hunter Walk, Fred Wilson, Marc
Andreesen, et al) and I like a lot of what they have to say. Their posts are
informative, entertaining, provocative... One thing that can be gathered from
the best of them is that they know they are not almighty and all-knowing...in
fact, the Kauffman Foundation released a rather scathing critique of the track
record of VCs (to which there were noteworthy rebuffs - namely by Hunter
Walk).

[http://www.kauffman.org/~/media/kauffman_org/research%20repo...](http://www.kauffman.org/~/media/kauffman_org/research%20reports%20and%20covers/2012/05/we%20have%20met%20the%20enemy%20and%20he%20is%20us\(1\).pdf)

Perhaps it is faulty to stifle innovation by imposing criteria that are more
cultural or convenient that statistically sound (as the statistics are vague
and so limited, it is impossible to identify and isolate the variables).

4) "It seems if a woman or minority is not qualified for an IT job they give
them blog duty instead."

Who is "they" and what do you mean by "blog duty"?

It seems to me that many in IT lack qualification in the humanities sufficient
to understand the cultural and historical dynamics at play in the
#DebugDiversity tech discussion. However, if one were to read my blog and
referenced resources, they might find themselves farther along.

I also agree with Steve Blank that there may be a fear of more diversity
because diverse candidates may "kick ass" (from 25:50, and especially at
32:08, below) / have a greater pulse on the wider consumer universe and the
problems of the underserved. There may also be an unspoken fear that
widespread outsourcing / offshoring will devalue tech labor stateside - the
price we pay for not keeping up on education.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM9i05_woOg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM9i05_woOg)

And as to your implication that women / people of color are not interested in
IT, anecdotally, IT was never an option for me beyond learning DOS and Word
Perfect in the one computer science class offered in High School. I didn't
grow up with a computer in the home like many hackers. However, when I did
finally get access to a home computer, I began building websites and learning
to code when it became relevant to me (due to a series of events starting with
a Ghanian friend gifting me with Robert Kiyosaki's "The Cashflow Quadrant" in
2000).

I'm sure they are many other people of color who don't have interest because
they don't have access, exposure, examples, or opportunities around them -
which is what organizations like #HackTheHood aim to address.

#CODE2040, on the other hand, as well as organization like MESA:
[http://mesa.ucop.edu/](http://mesa.ucop.edu/) NSBE:
[http://www.nsbe.org/home.aspx](http://www.nsbe.org/home.aspx), & Grace Hopper
[http://gracehopper.org/](http://gracehopper.org/), demonstrate the rich
talent that exists among underrepresented groups - although cuts to
affirmative action and their presence outside of Silicon Valley (given the
adage against distributed teams), surely inhibits their integration into the
tech / VC ecosystem. All issues I'm very interesting in addressing, solving -
and yes, writing about. By the way, a recent article points to similar claims
made about women in the orchestra:

[http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-
leadership/2013/oct/14/b...](http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-
leadership/2013/oct/14/blind-auditions-orchestras-gender-bias)

And as an aside in response to your "White privilege" remark: I was raised in
a White family, having a White mother, and I am very conscious of not only
White privilege, but the privilege I had being raised in said White family -
something as simple as my family owning real estate and receiving a trust fund
that helped pay for my first year of graduate school.

I am also conscious of the disparities - not because I derive some pleasure in
seeking them out, but because from the time I was child, school children in my
predominantly White community - well versed in the most vulgar racial slurs -
berated my complexion and features - incredulous that I could be brown and
have a white mother... It is a topic that some choose to take the
uncomfortable task of addressing, but which was imposed upon me.

So, while I have no desire to make assumptions about what you might mean by
"social justice warrior" (I think it is a rather noble title, all-in-all), I
would hope that you likewise would refrain from making assumptions about what
is likely a vast pool of women and people of color outside of your immediate
social circle, and rather, continue to call for more statistics so that we can
collectively identify and solve the lack of equitable access to opportunity in
and beyond tech.

5) "I don't want all VC funding and IT jobs to go to white males"

I find that encouraging. Thank you for sharing...and engaging in the topic -
even if we may not agree on every point. That is how progress is made.

~~~
mlichtenstern
Correction: Mark Suster was the VC who notably responded to the Kauffman
critique: [http://www.slideshare.net/msuster/final-2014-pre-money-
deck](http://www.slideshare.net/msuster/final-2014-pre-money-deck)

