

Why female entrepreneurs should apply to YC - jlees
http://www.women2.org/why-female-entrepreneurs-should-apply-to-y-combinator/

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jfb
I think this is an excellent essay. I would add: different people have
different problems; the best ideas for companies come from people fed up with
working around their problems; so the world _needs_ a wide variety of
entrepreneurs to move the ball forward.

I enjoyed my YC experience, but it was 100% male, IIRC. YC was for me a social
exercise, and as in most social exercises, the more perspectives you can
canvas the better; and YC participants started by women would bring new
perspectives.

I would also encourage older people to give it a shot, too, but that's a topic
for a different post.

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kellco
I'm a female founder and I applied to YC, not technical though. I did find a
tech cofounder, and if need be, I can add another third tech cofounder as
well. One of my strengths is keeping the programmers motivated and focused.
Wish me luck. :-)

~~~
Hitchhiker
All the best :-)

" rain and hot chocolate " == excellent

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Hitchhiker
This low rate may also have to do with biases extant in engineering / sciences
etc. Couple that with YC's preference for hard-core tech founders ( a
perfectly reasonable delimiter ), these results are not surprising.

You can see similar composition in YC leadership where Jessica is the only
female partner ( <http://ycombinator.com/people.html> ) and from my limited
understanding, she brings in a much needed balance to their approach.

A system that produces great results should perhaps focus on

".. but by the content of their character " - Martin Luther King, Jr.

This I think, pg emphasizes via <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UacbJ72dluU>

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jlees
I agree that the smaller proportion of women in science means that there are
naturally fewer women hacker founders, but 4% is lower than the percentages of
women in science commonly quoted (anywhere from 10 to 38%). My feeling is that
this is the subset of women hackers who also have some entrepreneurial drive
-- not all male CS students become entrepreneurs -- but it's pretty low, and
some of the other barriers mentioned in the article may be keeping it down.

~~~
Hitchhiker
Agreed. A few years ago, when I first asked around regarding my plans for
branching out on my own.. the first line I got was " you must be a sucker for
pain ".

As it turns out , the line has been proven on the dot.

So a better refinement of the question would be , why aren't there more female
founders ?

I look at all the blockbuster companies, can't think of one woman who's gone
for the scale of a Gates , Jobs etc. The few female execs that have come to
the arena at that scale were non-founders.

Furthermore, the women in my life are having far more empathy, compassion and
care. If there is some way to have more of that without losing track of
overall merit, get it done is all I can say.

Here's a really interesting project with a female founder from my line of work
:

<http://qubes-os.org>

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anthropeeps
Like Kellco I'm a female co-founder with no tech experience. Growing up I was
encouraged to be creative and expressive. It wasn't until college that I was
drawn in to the sciences and ultimately entered a male dominated field (as an
adjunct professor in a lab oriented discipline). It works for me because I'm a
people person but I love the creative impact of the scientific method, its
structure, and how it opens the mind. When I began teaching myself to code and
program for our company, I realized it isn't much different and I'm quickly
growing to love the process. It's still a science after all. I think the
hacker stereotype of the nerdy guy with no social skills needs to go the way
of the dodo. :)

~~~
Hitchhiker
" as an adjunct professor in a lab oriented discipline " == much respect

" It works for me because I'm a people person " == that is around 99% of the
start-up game. 1% is randomness or grace depending one one's perspective.

And most nerds who scaled up companies and became public faces as founders
acquired serious social skills.. so nod again.

All the best !

p.s. I really hope that both Kellco and you get in. That would be awesome.

~~~
anthropeeps
Thanks, Hitchhiker!

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rottendoubt
My thoughts:

1) As jlees mentioned below, you need to look at the "subset of women hackers
who also have some entrepreneurial drive" when looking at something like YC.
The 4% doesn't really surprise me at all.

2) My observation is that women tend to be on a timeline about 5 years
"faster" than men because of their biological clock. As in, they'll start
thinking seriously of marriage and kids late 20's, early 30's whereas men will
deal with this issue more like early to mid 30's. So their window for doing a
startup is smaller.

3) This is a bit of a generalization, but the dynamics are really different
when you have all-guy co-founders versus mixed versus all-female co-founders.
With mixed sometimes personal relationships develop which can make things
messy. And when you have a couple of alpha-females together, sometimes that
can also lead to problems (for example, see the all-female startup in the
TechStars Reality show). [These are just my own observations. Please don't
flame me for this!]

~~~
anthropeeps
1)I'm not necessarily negating you, rottendoubt, but I'd be curious to know
what the women who have applied to YC and those who have been accepted think
of marriage and kids. There may be no correlation at all. I personally think a
large part of the discrepancy is our culture and can easily be changed,
especially in the minds of the kids who are currently growing up.

2) As for dynamics...yeah, I'll agree with you on that. Women can be catty.
That doesn't mean we are catty, but we can be. Where does that leave us
though? It actually appears that we have to prove ourselves above and beyond.
"I won't be catty, I won't go after my co-founder and hopefully he won't come
after me, and I'm sorry I'm not a dude so I can't create an all male cohort."
Doesn't mean it will stop me but it does make it more difficult.

3) Call me biased because I'm an educator, but I think a big obstacle is our
science education in this country. Or lack thereof. Tech information is geared
towards males, not females and it is a poor show at that. If more females
became involved at a younger age, I think YC would have a hard time keeping
the women out. :)

~~~
rottendoubt
I was just having dinner with a female friend that was an EECS major
(electrical engineering computer science) from UC Berkeley and she brought up
another point. She said whenever she took classes and needed a partner, she'd
always have guys come up to try to help her and that usually they were among
the smartest guys in the class.

As far as the marriage/kids issue goes ... I think I read that the average age
of the people at YCombinator is 26; and as far as my own observation goes,
that's right around the time that my female friends started seriously thinking
about the marriage/kids issue. I think the discrepancy is really driven by the
biological clock. Men can have kids well into their 50's, but it's pretty
dangerous for women to have kids past 40.

~~~
jlees
Well, anecdotes are anecdotes. I know plenty of women the same age as me (I'm
29) who also don't want kids any time soon, though more and more of us are
getting married. I really don't know of any of the women I went to college
with at undergrad or postgrad level having kids as young as 26, and only one
that I can think of that has kids at 30.

Maybe I'm too much of an outlier, but to me, achieving my dreams is more
important than having a kid, which has never been something I particularly
prioritised in life. I have at least 5 more years before I really have to
worry anyway. Plus, we're having babies long after 40 now.

~~~
rottendoubt
Oh, I agree. I'm the same way (I'm 37). It's just that differences in biology
force women to consider the issue earlier than men. I'm guessing that societal
pressure also plays a part as well -- ie. parents may push a woman at 30 to
get married/have kids much harder than a man at 30.

~~~
anthropeeps
I don't think it is so different for men and women in today's day and age. IVF
and surrogacy have changed the game quite a bit. I'm 32 and don't plan on
having kids for a few more years, but I also know I have options that didn't
exist for my parents. Because of these options, I feel I've had the freedom to
explore my education and career and I know so many women in their 30's who
either don't want children or plan on waiting. This whole "women can have it
all thing" is partially true in the sense that it comes in increments, but
rarely all at once.

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rottendoubt
Not sure if you all have seen this. One of the co-founders of YC, Jessica
Livingston, wrote a great blog post on this exact subject:
www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2011/01/what-stops-female-founders.html

~~~
anthropeeps
Thanks for posting this. I hadn't seen it, some interesting points!

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suivix
Not the same thing, but reminds me of this video presentation:

<http://igniteshow.com/videos/im-barbie-girl-cs-world>

