3 ms·

Paul invited me to apply for YC but I declined because I didn't want to move for 3 months. (I'm a girl.) I don't know if that is still in effect, but it is ridi

Paul invited me to apply for YC but I declined because I didn't want to move for 3 months. (I'm a girl.) I don't know if that is still in effect, but it is ridiculous, and more men than women will go to ridiculous lengths. Compare that percentage to a course I just finished teaching, 12 weeks on bootstrapping - how to make your first profitable product, on the side. I had triple the percentage of female students - 4 women out of 50 participants. They were all 30 or older. I am reaching women that no seed fund will reach, and they are going to be successful. I expect that percentage to grow.

pbiggar 16y ago
> I don't know if that is still in effect, but it is ridiculous, and more men than women will go to ridiculous lengths. It isn't ridiculous, it's the whole basis of the program. I did the program last winter, convinced that I could do it just as well from home. I'm now convinced of the opposite: doing a successful startup (excepting side-project type startups, which are valid but different) requires being in the valley. It may be ridiculous in the sense that it is a hardship, and if you think men will go through this hardship more than women, then I think we know why the numbers are so skewed.
- ahoyhere 16y ago
  This will get me downvoted in flames but... ... yes, it's a hardship. It's a hardship that is, in a sense, one way to ingrain into you certain beliefs, by taking away your familiar surroundings and making you part of the lifestyle / surrounded by people doing the same thing. Just like the military. And religious orders. And cults. The idea that I proposed to pg at startup school could have been a real business, that earned real money. I didn't have to be in the valley. I looked at my life and realized that it would be asinine to pick up and move on the argument of somebody who if I moved, I could succeed. And, lo and behold, look at where lots of successful web-based businesses come from: Georgia, Brooklyn, Chicago... Yes, if you want to climb the suicidal face of the mountain, if you want to grow big and get bought, maybe you need connections more than great ideas, great understanding of people, or great chops. But then again, maybe you don't. And yet again, if you want to create a business that charges real money, it doesn't matter where you are - and anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
- rdouble 16y ago
  When I lived in the bay area, it seemed more like a vacation than a hardship.

pbiggar 16y ago

> I don't know if that is still in effect, but it is ridiculous, and more men than women will go to ridiculous lengths. It isn't ridiculous, it's the whole basis of the program. I did the program last winter, convinced that I could do it just as well from home. I'm now convinced of the opposite: doing a successful startup (excepting side-project type startups, which are valid but different) requires being in the valley. It may be ridiculous in the sense that it is a hardship, and if you think men will go through this hardship more than women, then I think we know why the numbers are so skewed.

ahoyhere 16y ago
This will get me downvoted in flames but... ... yes, it's a hardship. It's a hardship that is, in a sense, one way to ingrain into you certain beliefs, by taking away your familiar surroundings and making you part of the lifestyle / surrounded by people doing the same thing. Just like the military. And religious orders. And cults. The idea that I proposed to pg at startup school could have been a real business, that earned real money. I didn't have to be in the valley. I looked at my life and realized that it would be asinine to pick up and move on the argument of somebody who if I moved, I could succeed. And, lo and behold, look at where lots of successful web-based businesses come from: Georgia, Brooklyn, Chicago... Yes, if you want to climb the suicidal face of the mountain, if you want to grow big and get bought, maybe you need connections more than great ideas, great understanding of people, or great chops. But then again, maybe you don't. And yet again, if you want to create a business that charges real money, it doesn't matter where you are - and anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
rdouble 16y ago
When I lived in the bay area, it seemed more like a vacation than a hardship.