

What is wrong with SV networks? YC demographics - jdcarluccio
https://medium.com/@JDcarlu/what-is-wrong-with-sv-networks-a2f203431ea6

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corysama
The author is responding to a very short article, but I'm not certain that
he/she carefully read it.

> Michael Seibel: 11.8% of the founders who applied were women and around 3%
> percent of the founders were either Black or Hispanic. Of the founders we
> funded in our most recent batch, 11.1% of the founders are women [...] 3.7%
> of the founders are Hispanic, and 4% of the founders are Black.

> JDCarlu: Knowing that only 3% of YC batch is latino makes it feel like
> something is wrong. The issue is to understand why is this happening? How
> many latinos teams apply to YC? How many makes it through?

> Michael Seibel: The good news is that there is no disadvantage to applying
> to YC as a female or minority founder. The bad news, of course, is that
> applicant percentages are low relative to the entire population.

> JDCarlu: Is there a problem with YC filter or are latinos not interested in
> tech?

So, the questions become: Why is the applicant percentage of latinos so low
relative to the population? And then, if that is something you would like to
see change, what is the most practical means to effectively change it?

~~~
JDcarlu
The critic is not to YC (which are actually the only ones that recognize the
problem) but on the system. We (include myself) have to play by this rules but
we shouldn't have to. We could effectively try to incorporate more Latinos and
blacks into the selection by encouraging or helping them to apply. If we keep
going on the same path it will certainly not change.

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raincom
Even though I agree with the author in terms of moral hypocrisy, what is the
better alternative for the existing system?

Of course, we can suggest many alternatives. But the implementation requires
the buy in from the people who have loads of money. Then, this boils down to
the personal preference of capitalist or the moneyed interests.

Isn't it (one's personal preference, that is) the same as people of the same
kind club together. Like alumni clubs of elite schools; paypal alumni; friends
of the big money and power. How can one destroy such networks? Even some
hypothetical system destroys such networks, such a hypothetical system ends up
setting up another network: think of the polit bureau of the Chinese community
party. These politburo members own various industries in China.

~~~
JDcarlu
I think the key is not to destroy but to open. I like what #500 (Dave McClure)
is doing by investing all around the world bringing SV mentoring and
investments to other cultures. The new startups once in #500 have 2000
founders they can network with (many, if not most of them, from Silicon
Valley). This same solution can be applied on our own Bay Area by just taking
the same approach but with Latinos and African Americans.

