

Ask HN: Any Black Founders/Co-Founders? - curtisspope

Please Stand Up
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chriswesallen
haha...thats great, Here as well;

I've never felt like race was a big issue in my local startup community. There
are plenty of black, brown, olive, tan, yellow, and peach individuals
sprinkled throughout in most events I attend here in Houston.

Sometimes it would be nice to connect with them just we share that kind of
commonality, but I always felt that creating a "black startup" meeting group
would be extremely cheesy and too inclusive.

I don't care what color they are as long as they come up with good ideas and
do what they say they will do.

That being said...markets are markets and if you have some cultural or ethnic
insight into an opportunity for a business or a way to help your specific
community; you should count yourself lucky for being born whatever you are and
try to capitalize on it.

Theres no reason the team you build has to be racially ?inclusive/exclusive?,
and actually the aforementioned diversity actually helps strengthen teams in
my opinion by providing those different cultural or ethnic perspectives.

~~~
yummyfajitas
_...the aforementioned diversity actually helps strengthen teams in my opinion
by providing those different cultural or ethnic perspectives._

I don't really agree with this. My company (currently 3 people) was ethnically
homogeneous before I came onboard. Diversity of thought did not increase much
when I was hired, even though I am ethnically different. (I studied
computational science in college instead of computer science, talk about
diversity). We may hire a 4'th person - a business guy who would bring a LOT
of new ideas and skills to us. Ethnically he is the same as everyone else
here.

Diversity of ethnicity != diversity of thought. It's a fallacy to equate the
two.

~~~
chriswesallen
LOL....good response...but I disagree with your disagreement.

We as humans generate ideas that often feel spontaneous, but are actually the
result of a lifetime of experience mixed with innate problem solving ability
and our present state. __theres a ton of research on creativity i can send you
__

I know your life experiences are different than mine, without having a hint as
to your race. Race comes into the picture because having a different race
often means you have different cultural aspects thats formed you as the person
you are today.

Sure a group of programmers are going to come up with different solutions to a
problem vs a group of designers.

Diversity of ethnicity just ensures that prior to chosen profession, each
individual grew up with a cultural background that does influence the ideas
they come up with

~~~
mcritz
Diversity of people and opinions are why cities are preferable to rural areas.
It’s also why inclusive cultures like America, Switzerland, Canada, Australia,
Hong Kong and Argentina are more innovative than monocultures like Mainland
China, India, and certain European countries.

~~~
djacobs
Really?

1\. Chinese people do not have diverse opinions?

2\. Every civilization that has people with differing opinions has been
innovative?

~~~
mcritz
1\. Compared to Americans, no. 2\. I never made that claim.

~~~
djacobs
Stripped down, your above comment says "Diverse cultures are more innovative
than monocultures."

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sedachv
Hank Williams (<http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/>) founded ClickRadio
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickradio>) in 1999, and is now doing
<http://kloudshare.com/>

I did some contracting for Kloudshare. Hank is a pretty impressive guy.

~~~
sedachv
I forgot to mention something else that I thought was really cool: in the late
80s Hank wrote an organizer application called Daymaker for the Mac, which won
a bunch of awards, and which he turned into a pretty successful business for a
number of years. So he's been doing this for a long time.

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f1gm3nt
Investors only see the color green. Are there any Green Founders/Co-Founders?

~~~
trustfundbaby
I am.

Don't believe me?

Check out my user name.

------
kellishaver
I'm not, but I know a handful who are.

Actually, of the founders I know personally, it's pretty much an even split.

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amccloud
I'm standing. Now what?

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ashitvora
Does it even matter whether you are Black, White, Brown or Pink, Red, Yellow,
Green or whatever as far as the person is smart, dedicated and hardworking.

~~~
tptacek
Yes. Demographics are interesting. Don't project drama onto an innocent
question.

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lmai
<http://www.proclivitysystems.com/> The founder is

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_pius
Here.

~~~
mahmud
Ditto.

~~~
metysj
Same

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wh-uws
My co-founder and I are.

<http://upscalews.com>

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knuckle_cake
My co-founder is black.

~~~
wh-uws
please let this be a reference to the Young Jeezy song...
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9sABRosdNg>

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tiffani
Here!

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OoTheNigerian
I wrote about it a while ago

<http://oonwoye.com/2010/04/05/black-founders/>

~~~
maxklein
The real question you should have researched more is why there is a high-rate
of black people not showing their faces on twitter icons or "hiding" as you
describe it. Do some interviews, I believe that will be a more interesting
topic.

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kobs
Potentially.

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Shaft
Another question: What programming language you ever programmed in was
invented by a black guy ?

~~~
curtisspope
lol. interesting

