
Hundreds of Startups Tell Investors: Diversify, or Keep Your Money - thisisit
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/technology/founders-for-change-tech-diversity.html
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maxsilver
Startups may want to rethink what they are asking for here.

They are demanding investors discriminate in their employment practices based
on race/color/gender, which is both unethical and _explicitly illegal_ by US
employment law -
[https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm](https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm)

Note that discrimination in employment is illegal _even if you are
discriminating against white people_ \- "Title VII prohibits race/color
discrimination against all persons, including Caucasians." \-
[https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-
race.cfm](https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-race.cfm)

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whb07
This is such a weird way to virtue signal. What’s worse is that they believe
they are in a position of power to be able to insinuate such things.

How about they actually become outright superstars and then provide a road map
for others like themselves? Get to the level of national notoriety and success
before you start telling others how awesome you are in a startup that is
likely to fail.

Do you think the kids in Liberty City, Chicago, NYC know what a VC, startup,
or much less those people from the article are?

No they don’t know. Want to see a good spokesperson for hard working Hispanics
? Checkout A-Rod who’s always talking about his mom working hard and himself
trying and failing and trying again. Kids can see him on Shark Tank tell his
story and success. Not some virtue signaling nobody living in whacky world SV.

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mankash666
Oh fuck off. Money has no race - and I say this as a minority. Further, if
you're really in a position to turn down investment based on diversity of the
investors (which is a made up reason), you've already probably made it.

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lopmotr
I wonder when/if Asians (incl. Indians) will start to be recognized as being
in a disproportionate majority or too-large minority in tech companies. Then,
will diversity activists be demanding that companies hire fewer Asians and
more white people? Somehow they've been ignored in most of these stories. I
suppose because they don't fit the popular believe of white racism?

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fatjokes
Um... They already are. That's why the term "underrepresented" got prefixed to
minority.

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zomg
founders for change is yet another example of today's "do as i say, not as i
do" attitude. look at the list of companies these founders are from... i'm
sure nearly all are funded by "old white guys" (a term so loosely and
arrogantly used today).

if a startup is dumb enough to pass on a round of funding because there isn't
"diversity" within the investment group, they aren't worth investing in
anyway.

have people forgotten that VC's are in the money making business? come on
folks, get real.

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T2_t2
I worry more about this blending of life, work and passion into one miasma
that is supposed to be consistent and all-encompassing, all the time.

Used to be, we had a work life, a private life, friends and activities that
more or less never interacted. Now it seems people want all the above, all the
time, every minute of every day. Google runs the workplace like they are mum
and dad, and everyone wants work to solve all their life's meaning, rather
than providing a living so we can find meaning elsewhere. This blending of all
facets of our lives is partly why privacy is so skew-if (as we broadcast all
the time), and why it is so hard for people of differing views to seemingly
get along.

In my darker moments, I think a lot of the progressive stuff is a conspiracy
by business to make everyone want to work 12 hour days - this idea is not
helped by books like Lean In, or the way many modern workplaces invent ways to
keep you at work longer and longer. In my less dark moments, I think good
ideals have been co-opted or money making purposes, which is kind of how life
seems to work.

All this leads to ideas like this, where people not only can't separate
different elements in life from their life, but demand that all elements of
their life conform to their pre-set ideals. I'm not sure who wins long-run
between the VCs and the startups in a situation like this, but the long run
affects of this blending of life into one thing, well I'm just not sure the
animal that is a human being really benefits from it at all.

I really wish we could re-seperate out the spheres of our life, and not expect
work to provide all our meaning, or provide all of the solutions. I wish
instead that we could have a work life and a, for want of a better term, life-
life, and (rarely?) the twain shall meet.

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zombieprocesses
I worked for a NYC startup that was eventually bought out. Nobody cared about
the VC and their hiring practices. We were busy working 24/7 to get the
business profitable and we wanted investment to grow the business, hire more
people, move to a bigger office, etc.

Is there this much money slushing around that startups are now mocking
investors?

There are nearly 20,000 startups. Does that mean 19000+ startups told
investors to "not diversify and give us your money"? Every day, the media
disappoints me.

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gohbgl
A bunch of racists who feel morally superior.

