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>It's a tricky problem to really make sense of though just because investors are so diverse. Are they? I think it could be argued that investors are one of the
by moorhosj 8y ago
>It's a tricky problem to really make sense of though just because investors are so diverse.
Are they? I think it could be argued that investors are one of the least diverse groups.
Analysis of 1,500 investors:
==70% are white
==40% of venture investors have attended Stanford or Harvard
==One percent of venture capitalists are Latinx and only three percent are black.
-https://blog.usejournal.com/where-did-you-go-to-school-bde54d846188 https://blog.usejournal.com/where-did-you-go-to-school-bde54...
- glibgil 8y agoDon't forget ==82% are male
- stretchwithme 8y agoAnd, apparently, women are in a position to change that if they want to. https://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-women-control-the-money-in-america-2012-2?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-women-control-th...
- Alex3917 8y agoI guarantee if you follow the links they cite as 'sources', they will just cite other infographics or news articles.
- AnthonyMouse 8y agoIt's not that, they're just not explaining the reasons. For example, women control a majority of assets in large part because they statistically live longer than men. This makes them a higher percentage of the population in general, but a much higher percentage of the population of retirees with retirement savings. And they do most consumer spending because they're typically the ones who do the shopping for the family, even if on average half or more of the money is from the husband. The numbers are largely accurate. Though it's not clear how many 80 year old widows are inclined to invest their nest egg in a startup.
- wpietri 8y agoI'm not sure why this is getting downvoted; it's entirely relevant. Sexual harassment is abuse of power. Power is disproportionately in the hands of certain historically favored groups, so a) people in those groups will be able to get away with more, and b) people growing up in those groups will be used to getting away with more.
- thereare5lights 8y agoIt's getting downvoted because people don't like it when other people point out that the groups they belong to contain abusive people. It's typical tribal behavior.
- wang_li 8y agoI doubt many VC angels are reading and voting on HN.
- Fomite 8y agoMany people include aspirational targets (wildly successful tech folks who went on to be VCs/angels) in their mental notion of "tribe". See also the quote about the American poor viewing themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires, and voting to support the interest of actual millionaires.
- yorwba 8y agoOr maybe it's getting downvoted because it's trying to counter an argument about diversity of past life experiences with an argument about diversity of class membership, which is quite reductionist. Class membership can be useful as a proxy for e.g. power structures, but if you're already looking at investors, the most important factor influencing power structures is that they have a lot of money. Maybe there are differences in the ways white and black people with lots of money abuse their power, but that'd surprise me.
- moorhosj 8y agoNobody made an argument about class membership. I simply presented some demographic data of VC investors. Meanwhile, you completely ignore the data about investors being heavily skewed towards two specific universities. Isn’t that a past life experience? Isn’t VC investor a “class” in itself?
- yourbandsucks 8y agoDid you really need to bring race into the topic? The word 'diversity' has an actual meaning, you know. The comment you're replying to was very clear in that they were talking about career and background diversity -- as in, VCs have their money for diverse reasons. There were like 5 bullet points about it, making it crystal clear what kind of diversity was being discussed.
- stephengillie 8y agoOne person's diverse group is another's monoculture.
- brenschluss 8y agoThe only people who don’t like race bring “brought into” a topic are white. For the rest of us, race is already here.
- moorhosj 8y agoI also brought educational background into the argument (40% from Harvard or Stanford). Why didn’t you comment on that data point and instead focus on the race data? It’s understandable that you want to focus on the diversity of outcomes, just know that others might be interested in the inputs that led to those outcomes.
- nilkn 8y agoFor what it's worth, something like 75% of the US is phenotypically white (including white Americans with Hispanic or Latin heritage), so perhaps that one metric is tracking more favorably than you're giving it credit for.
- praneshp 8y agoThe way I see it, your metrics and your parent's metrics for diversity are different. I guess your point is that the 70% white investors think as a block and can be generalized?
- moorhosj 8y ago==I guess your point is that the 70% white investors think as a block and can be generalized?== I’m not sure how you arrived at that assumption. The point is that this is the data (as pulled by one person), you have chosen to take the giant leap that somehow those people “think as a block and can be generalized.” Why no mention of the other data points and focus solely on this one?
- justaguyhere 8y ago70% are white Assuming these are American numbers, wouldn't you expect it? Wikipedia says 60% of Americans are White, and the number is higher if you include Hispanic people - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Americans So it would make sense for white people to be the majority in any group, isn't it? Maybe there are exceptions, like certain sports. Just to be clear, I am not white. I am only wondering about the numbers, not about any group's behavior.