
Startup America needs to look more like America - ggordan
http://blog.priforce.me/startup-america-needs-to-look-more-like-ameri
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stretchwithme
As if founders have to be selected or hired by others. Founding means hiring
yourself. Founders have to be ready for a protracted struggle against the
status quo, not special adoption by it.

I had to laugh when the Founder Institute's admission of Lecole Cole was
mentioned as taking some kind of educated chance. Lecole had a proven track
record before that experience and didn't need any special treatment. But he
absolutely took advantage of every legitimate opportunity that came his way.

"Disruption is fine as long as it's caused by white, male, Ivy-league hipsters
in skinny jeans." - as if people sit down and examine new things in light of
who made them. Customers want value. If a feature will save them $5 a month,
they'll trade with martians if they have to.

Those that don't like disruption are the established market players. I'm
pretty sure they don't decide to yield their markets because the disruptor
looks like them.

One only needs to meet people that have made it to the US that have struggled
to achieve elsewhere to get the sense of how much opportunity there actually
is here. And those who sit on their hands waiting for the light to turn green
are going to have a long wait.

~~~
neutronicus
> Customers want value. If a feature will save them $5 a month, they'll trade
> with martians if they have to.

You're out of your mind if you think that white men who golf don't have a leg
up for all things B2B.

~~~
stretchwithme
you're out of your mind if you think they won't cross the street if they can
make a million more.

~~~
michaelchisari
Things aren't that simple, we're not just dealing with people selling a
proven, viable product, we're dealing with how venture capital is acquired and
funding secured, especially for ideas which are risky or unproven, which
"disruptive" technologies inherently are.

There's the concept of social capital, and how social networks and cultural
bias affect that for founders.

It's true that a non-privileged founder who builds the ultimate money-saving,
world-changing technology will have a harder time being ignored, but we should
never be so willing to handwave such obvious homogeny amongst the elite.

~~~
stretchwithme
Even the dumb, biased people with money have to compete with smart investors
that leave no stone, black or white, unturned in their search for opportunity.

Hegemony is simply not there. There is competition in venture capital and
against venture capital.

It only takes a minority of investors to make an investment. And most of them
are quite used to dissenting and thinking for themselves.

~~~
trustfundbaby
> Even the dumb, biased people with money have to compete with smart investors
> that leave no stone, black or white, unturned in their search for
> opportunity

You might be surprised at how untrue that turns out to be. Investors are
focused on winning ... and to do that they'll usually go with what fits the
prototype of a winner ... much the same way NFL teams pick quarterbacks (right
height, right throwing motion, etc)

People aren't just going to throw thousands of dollars after minorities just
because there might be a Google there somewhere ... they're going to go where
the hits are coming ... MIT, San Francisco, Harvard ... places that many
minorities are not.

~~~
xiaoma
> MIT, San Francisco, Harvard ... places that many minorities are not.

Have you _been_ to San Francisco? It's one of the most diverse places on the
planet. And it's not only in terms of race but also language, culture,
religion and sexual practices.

~~~
trustfundbaby
> San Francisco Yes I have ... didn't see that many black folks when I was
> there.

~~~
xiaoma
Diversity doesn't narrowly equate to the number of black people you encounter
during visits.

According to Wikipedia, San Fransisco is 7.3% black, 31.3% asian, 14.0%
hispanic and a total of 35.6% of the residents are from outside the US. It
also has the highest ratio of gay/lesbian individuals of anywhere in the US at
15.4%.

That is a LOT of minorities and a lot of diversity no matter how you slice it
and downmodding me won't change the fact.

------
pnathan
I'm not even sure what most of the important people in tech look like, outside
of the big-names that get their pictures put on websites.

I like it that way in many aspects, because it provides a clear disassociation
with physical externalities and allows a clarity on their ideas, unclouded by
whatever biases I have. It's one reason I prefer all-text chat to avatar
chats.

~~~
trotsky
_I'm not even sure what most of the important people in tech look like_

I'm pretty sure you can make an educated guess.

Not knowing isn't some sort of trump card to a systemic problem. No more than
ignoring your book keeping is a solution to bankruptcy.

------
careersters
There are a disproportionate number of women and minorities in leading or
supporting roles within venture investment sized start-ups. Historically,
companies owned by women and minorities have received less than 5% of total
venture capital investments over the past 40 years and minorities have only
accounted for 3.7% of entrepreneurs in venture scale start-ups.

------
stretchwithme
Its simply not true that children won't believe they can do something if they
don't see someone who looks like them doing it.

If it were the case, there'd be all sorts of adopted kids completely incapable
of doing things.

It is true that if people do not see a certain behavior or do not see that it
is successful, they are less likely to adopt the behavior themselves. But even
then, children create and experiment with behaviors all the time. Unless, of
course, they are actively discouraged from doing so.

We don't simply repeat what we see. We are capable of assessing the way people
act around us and judging whether or not behavior works.

But if children are surrounded by people not practicing successful behaviors
and also are actively discouraged from experimenting, its a lot less likely
they will be successful at whatever they choose to do.

------
mikx
I would like to see a survey on how many people actually WANT to be founders
based on race/sex compared to the percentage of the population that ARE. This
article assumes that every profession needs to match the distribution of the
overall population

