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I think this article unwittingly speaks to a different "black tax": this person is going to assume that racism is the reason his company didn't get funded. On

I think this article unwittingly speaks to a different "black tax": this person is going to assume that racism is the reason his company didn't get funded. One good reason for suggesting a friends and family round is networks are a valuable ingredient of success. So a good filter for an investor faced with uncertainty is to see if you have a network and can convince someone in it to bet on you. Your network has more information about you than the VC does, so your network's judgement of you is a useful signal. Instead of taking the advice literally and trying to figure out how to build a network to signal quality to investors, he is going to assume it's just racism in which case there is no reason to do anything because nothing can be done. That is a real shame.

sand_castles 6y ago
Are you black ?
andrewmd5 6y ago
Author here. I think you missed the point of the essay; my startup at the time didn’t get funded because the idea wasn’t a good fit for venture capital. We still ended up up making close to half a million in revenue, pivoted, and have raised over $5M to date while grossing close to $10M last year in revenue. Having experienced actual racism I can infer when someone is making a comment from a place of privilege vs. being malicious. The entire point of that section was to frame things.
- caffeine 6y ago
  Your article seemed to be about economic inequality, but was attributed as racial inequality (most of the other comments here identified this too). That misattribution is why I thought it might be an example of the "other racism tax" (which needs a better name.) I'm glad you went on to find success. Onwards and upwards.
bellyfullofbac 6y ago
You're the one summarizing the author's experience with "He thinks that investor [and maybe Paul Graham too] is racist". I just read this piece as the author pointing out how someone had this blind spot, I can't even tell if he concluded that that investor was racist. Of course the woke brigade might show up and throw a judgement that any white person's blind spot, like not knowing that a Black man would most likely not be able to do a "friends and family round", is racism, but IMO that's super idiotic too. And assuming Black people are poor is also... troublesome.

sand_castles 6y ago

Are you black ?

andrewmd5 6y ago

Author here. I think you missed the point of the essay; my startup at the time didn’t get funded because the idea wasn’t a good fit for venture capital. We still ended up up making close to half a million in revenue, pivoted, and have raised over $5M to date while grossing close to $10M last year in revenue. Having experienced actual racism I can infer when someone is making a comment from a place of privilege vs. being malicious. The entire point of that section was to frame things.

caffeine 6y ago
Your article seemed to be about economic inequality, but was attributed as racial inequality (most of the other comments here identified this too). That misattribution is why I thought it might be an example of the "other racism tax" (which needs a better name.) I'm glad you went on to find success. Onwards and upwards.

bellyfullofbac 6y ago

You're the one summarizing the author's experience with "He thinks that investor [and maybe Paul Graham too] is racist". I just read this piece as the author pointing out how someone had this blind spot, I can't even tell if he concluded that that investor was racist. Of course the woke brigade might show up and throw a judgement that any white person's blind spot, like not knowing that a Black man would most likely not be able to do a "friends and family round", is racism, but IMO that's super idiotic too. And assuming Black people are poor is also... troublesome.