

Ask HN: Why don't the current startups looks like Google's 1999 video? - realp

I was watching Google's Friday meeting video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68QWfHOYhY&#38;feature=player_embedded<p>Just wondering why do the current startups don't look like in the above video where everyone - young, old, men, women, babies, dogs etc all working together? The current startups all look the same with all men in their early 20s. Sometimes maybe there is one woman doing office work.<p>What have changed now than 10 years ago? Why don't we see more diverse people at startups these days?
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ARobotics
Random hypothesis: Risk.

In 1999 dot coms were making everyone rich and would continue to do so
forever. Everyone was getting funded, going public, growing. It didn't appear
working at a tech startup was a risky endeavor likely to leave you unemployed
in a month.

Today, startups are viewed as very risky. They might go bankrupt, your stock
options might be worthless, you might end up with several years of your life
gone with little to show for it.

What group of people is going to have the risk profile best suited for that
environment - young, single men sounds like a reasonable answer.

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tluyben2
Yes, and why no dogs. We used to have dogs in the office, it was fun.

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realp
Link to video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68QWfHOYhY&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68QWfHOYhY&feature=player_embedded)

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keiferski
My guess: because too many of today's startups are more concerned with the
profitable exit than they are with building a diverse, long-lasting
organization.

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phyllotaxis
One vision is marketing. One is not. You decide which is which. I'm not being
sarcastic at all- I wonder if marketing is targeting the low-hanging fruit if
college-age kids because they're intuitively easy to imagine being "cutting
edge".

Maybe- but I will say they certainly don't have the marketplace of ideas
cornered, and a LOT of incredible talent is being left on the table. It will
change.

