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Why is the color of his skin so important to keep noting throughout the essay? When you boil it down, VC's only care about one color: green. I highly doubt ski

Why is the color of his skin so important to keep noting throughout the essay? When you boil it down, VC's only care about one color: green. I highly doubt skin color is the reason you aren't getting call backs or having VC's roll out the red carpet.

fapjacks 11y ago
Because it's important to the narrative about opportunity.
stuxnet79 11y ago
It is important because black founders are rare and highly unusual in the tech startup scene. Why is him taking note of this such an issue? & if you ask me he actually barely mentioned race. In the initial parts of the essay he highlighted his poor upbringing, and it wasn't until the middle that I realized what his race was. If it were me writing the article, race would have easily taken up 75% because years ago I realized the futility of catering to you "it's a color blind utopia" types.
- ssmoot 11y ago
  > if you ask me he actually barely mentioned race "Black" appears 17 times, and the article leads with a large picture of his wrist (maybe that's not present on mobile). I felt the article was a bit oddly focused on race as well considering the business just doesn't seem like a great way to make money. Especially if the VCs are flat out telling you they're more interested in B2B portfolios. Your ad-hom seems out of line. The story opened strong since I've lived in Austin, Cedar Park, Belton, Troy, went to church and the mall in Temple (where my mom worked at Scott & White Hospital). It ticked some nostalgia boxes for me. But the main complaint about funding and risk... I'm just not all that convinced. But again, I'm not a VC so best of luck to him either way.
  - uiri 11y ago
    I don't disagree that he mentions race quite a bit in the article but the first reference to him being black in the text is when he says that he was "named the Emerging Business Leader of the Year by the Greater Austin Black Chamber two years back." This is after he talks about growing up poor and his experiences in college. The picture of his wrist could easily be someone who is of a different race/ethnicity, e.g. South Asian.
    - stuxnet79 11y ago
      > The picture of his wrist could easily be someone who is of a different race/ethnicity, e.g. South Asian. I thought he was a bearded white guy initially because it is difficult to make fine facial details from the tiny avatar representing him on Medium.
  - untog 11y ago
    > the article leads with a large picture of his wrist TIL that the simple act of uploading a photo of yourself is making a statement about race.
    - jacalata 11y ago
      "Aggressively being non-white in public". The dude probably showed up black to all his VC meetings too - playing the race card!
      - ssmoot 11y ago
        You're trying pretty hard to put words into my mouth I never used. I'm not an investor, and I probably wouldn't be investing in this niche if I was. Which is why by the end of the article what the VCs were saying resonated with me, and race in that context didn't.
    - ssmoot 11y ago
      That's a BS comment. Of course it isn't. It did counter the "I didn't realize he was black until halfway through" however. I think most reasonable readers assumed he was black pretty early on.
      - untog 11y ago
        > It did counter the "I didn't realize he was black until halfway through" however. I don't know about that. I saw a picture of a tattooed wrist. I'm not claiming that I'm Mr. Color-Blind Progressive 2016, but that photo didn't lodge a note in my mind that said "the author is black". I saw a photo of a wrist and didn't think twice about it. That was kind of my original point, the implication that a black person posting a photo of themselves is signaling "I am black" in a way that a white person is never seen to be signaling "I am white".
        ssmoot 11y ago
        I think your original point was way off base. "Signalling" certainly sounds a lot more loaded than seems reasonable. I'm not even sure what exactly you're trying to say with that, but it certainly doesn't seem very charitable. I took the photo to signal the dude really digs Austin (not my fave city; but whatever). I assumed he was black because he took a picture of his arm, with the tattoo that he talked about having. I dunno. I live in a predominately black area and it's just not that unusual for me I guess. If you live in SV maybe it's worth talking about. In the less affluent parts of Dallas it just isn't. Talking about his father being an unfortunate statistic just reinforced it. I guess that didn't click the same for most. I'm just not sure what it has to do with what the VCs were telling him about his business in the rest of the article. There were two articles for me I guess. A short story up front I found pretty compelling. And a frustrated (for lack of a better word) diatribe about financing I found tedious, unfocused, and not all that compelling for the latter half-ish. But if it was a white or asian dude that posted a picture of his wrist with an Austin tattoo, then yeah, I would have been surprised to read later on that the tattoo he described having, and put up a picture of, didn't actually belong to him. Not sure if that falls under "signaling" or not.
untog 11y ago
> When you boil it down, VC's only care about one color: green. Do they? Do you have personal experience to suggest that VCs in Austin are color-blind when it comes to race? What I see is a person's personal account of living in the Austin startup scene. They consider their race to have been a factor in that experience. Who are any of us to turn around and say "actually, you're wrong, your race doesn't matter at all"?
- angersock 11y ago
  Do you have personal experience to suggest that VCs in Austin are color-blind when it comes to race? Do you have personal experience to suggest that they aren't? The personal account here seems to conflate the possible race factor and the definite business factors that go into a pass. It's up to us, the readers, to decide whether or not we agree with the author's analysis.
  - trustfundbaby 11y ago
    > The personal account here seems to conflate the possible race factor and the definite business factors that go into a pass. I'm curious how can you actually determine that if you haven't actually ever been passed on for being black? > It's up to us, the readers, to decide whether or not we agree with the author's analysis. Actually its not. I've never menstruated in my life, but if a woman tells me about her experience of menstruation (as long as it matches the data), I really can't dispute it since because I have zero context to determine anything past cold hard fact. And the fact is that the numbers are pretty stark when it comes to black founders being funded by Venture capitalists ... And no. I'm not going to provide you the data. Educate yourself a little on the topic ;)

fapjacks 11y ago

Because it's important to the narrative about opportunity.

stuxnet79 11y ago

It is important because black founders are rare and highly unusual in the tech startup scene. Why is him taking note of this such an issue? & if you ask me he actually barely mentioned race. In the initial parts of the essay he highlighted his poor upbringing, and it wasn't until the middle that I realized what his race was. If it were me writing the article, race would have easily taken up 75% because years ago I realized the futility of catering to you "it's a color blind utopia" types.

ssmoot 11y ago
> if you ask me he actually barely mentioned race "Black" appears 17 times, and the article leads with a large picture of his wrist (maybe that's not present on mobile). I felt the article was a bit oddly focused on race as well considering the business just doesn't seem like a great way to make money. Especially if the VCs are flat out telling you they're more interested in B2B portfolios. Your ad-hom seems out of line. The story opened strong since I've lived in Austin, Cedar Park, Belton, Troy, went to church and the mall in Temple (where my mom worked at Scott & White Hospital). It ticked some nostalgia boxes for me. But the main complaint about funding and risk... I'm just not all that convinced. But again, I'm not a VC so best of luck to him either way.
- uiri 11y ago
  I don't disagree that he mentions race quite a bit in the article but the first reference to him being black in the text is when he says that he was "named the Emerging Business Leader of the Year by the Greater Austin Black Chamber two years back." This is after he talks about growing up poor and his experiences in college. The picture of his wrist could easily be someone who is of a different race/ethnicity, e.g. South Asian.
  - stuxnet79 11y ago
    > The picture of his wrist could easily be someone who is of a different race/ethnicity, e.g. South Asian. I thought he was a bearded white guy initially because it is difficult to make fine facial details from the tiny avatar representing him on Medium.
- untog 11y ago
  > the article leads with a large picture of his wrist TIL that the simple act of uploading a photo of yourself is making a statement about race.
  - jacalata 11y ago
    "Aggressively being non-white in public". The dude probably showed up black to all his VC meetings too - playing the race card!
    - ssmoot 11y ago
      You're trying pretty hard to put words into my mouth I never used. I'm not an investor, and I probably wouldn't be investing in this niche if I was. Which is why by the end of the article what the VCs were saying resonated with me, and race in that context didn't.
  - ssmoot 11y ago
    That's a BS comment. Of course it isn't. It did counter the "I didn't realize he was black until halfway through" however. I think most reasonable readers assumed he was black pretty early on.
    - untog 11y ago
      > It did counter the "I didn't realize he was black until halfway through" however. I don't know about that. I saw a picture of a tattooed wrist. I'm not claiming that I'm Mr. Color-Blind Progressive 2016, but that photo didn't lodge a note in my mind that said "the author is black". I saw a photo of a wrist and didn't think twice about it. That was kind of my original point, the implication that a black person posting a photo of themselves is signaling "I am black" in a way that a white person is never seen to be signaling "I am white".
      - ssmoot 11y ago
        I think your original point was way off base. "Signalling" certainly sounds a lot more loaded than seems reasonable. I'm not even sure what exactly you're trying to say with that, but it certainly doesn't seem very charitable. I took the photo to signal the dude really digs Austin (not my fave city; but whatever). I assumed he was black because he took a picture of his arm, with the tattoo that he talked about having. I dunno. I live in a predominately black area and it's just not that unusual for me I guess. If you live in SV maybe it's worth talking about. In the less affluent parts of Dallas it just isn't. Talking about his father being an unfortunate statistic just reinforced it. I guess that didn't click the same for most. I'm just not sure what it has to do with what the VCs were telling him about his business in the rest of the article. There were two articles for me I guess. A short story up front I found pretty compelling. And a frustrated (for lack of a better word) diatribe about financing I found tedious, unfocused, and not all that compelling for the latter half-ish. But if it was a white or asian dude that posted a picture of his wrist with an Austin tattoo, then yeah, I would have been surprised to read later on that the tattoo he described having, and put up a picture of, didn't actually belong to him. Not sure if that falls under "signaling" or not.

untog 11y ago

> When you boil it down, VC's only care about one color: green. Do they? Do you have personal experience to suggest that VCs in Austin are color-blind when it comes to race? What I see is a person's personal account of living in the Austin startup scene. They consider their race to have been a factor in that experience. Who are any of us to turn around and say "actually, you're wrong, your race doesn't matter at all"?

angersock 11y ago
Do you have personal experience to suggest that VCs in Austin are color-blind when it comes to race? Do you have personal experience to suggest that they aren't? The personal account here seems to conflate the possible race factor and the definite business factors that go into a pass. It's up to us, the readers, to decide whether or not we agree with the author's analysis.
- trustfundbaby 11y ago
  > The personal account here seems to conflate the possible race factor and the definite business factors that go into a pass. I'm curious how can you actually determine that if you haven't actually ever been passed on for being black? > It's up to us, the readers, to decide whether or not we agree with the author's analysis. Actually its not. I've never menstruated in my life, but if a woman tells me about her experience of menstruation (as long as it matches the data), I really can't dispute it since because I have zero context to determine anything past cold hard fact. And the fact is that the numbers are pretty stark when it comes to black founders being funded by Venture capitalists ... And no. I'm not going to provide you the data. Educate yourself a little on the topic ;)