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tl;dr Wayne Sutton confuses lack of interest in conducting srs bzns as racial prejudice/racism when it probably has more to do with age and quality of idea. Als

tl;dr Wayne Sutton confuses lack of interest in conducting srs bzns as racial prejudice/racism when it probably has more to do with age and quality of idea. Also what exactly do said children bring to the table? If the young man there had a prototype already in the works built by himself, that would be something. Honestly, I never understood the idea of pitching startups at events like these to garner funding or co-founders, with no actual code/product/etc no matter the age, skill, or race of the individual. Always seemed a little quixotic and irrationally exuberant. pg and co seem to not mind however, as they seem to have gotten pitches (and accepted them) for non-existent startups. Wasn't Reddit at 0 when it was pitched and accepted into original YC? Then again, there's a quote of pg somewhere saying nearly everyone has a product/some code at least now when pitching to YC.

vineel 15y ago
> Wayne Sutton confuses lack of interest in conducting srs bzns as racial prejudice/racism I don't think he's implying that at all. At the end, Sutton just notes that there were few minorities. He never explicitly makes the connection that the kids were actively discriminated against because of their race.
- kabushikigaisha 15y ago
  There are few minorities at pretty much every startup event, if you discount east Asians that is.
  - makmanalp 15y ago
    That's not very surprising since they are "minorities", implying that there aren't as many of them.
    - dools 15y ago
      Minority in the sociological sense doesn't necessarily refer to numbers, but voting majority. ie. blacks in South Africa during apartheid outnumbered whites but were a sociological minority.
      - ars 15y ago
        That's really stretching the meaning of the word.
- waynesutton 15y ago
  Correct! That's not the point I was making.
  - kabushikigaisha 15y ago
    Apologies, I inferred that since this piece was written on blackweb20.com , you were saying the reason the two youngsters weren't getting attention was due to their racial background instead of age.
    - walexander 15y ago
      I think the headline does lead you to that conclusion, even if not explicitly stated or even the author's intention: "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be a minority in tech during Startup Weekend" Being on blackweb20.com, I would assume "minority" is referring to race here. Wayne, you may want to update the title here if you want to avoid some confusion. (Wayne: By the way, I'm in RTP and just noticed your trioutnc site from your profile - looks like a nice tool so far, i'll be trying it).
    - waynesutton 15y ago
      No worries and thanks. Yes TriOutNC.com and we're working on launch a few new TriOut apps.
  - dools 15y ago
    Then why is the headline "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be a minority in tech during Startup Weekend"? Is minority here referring to being outliers in the age distribution or "a sociological group that does not make up a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society"[1]? If it's the former then you should say "in the minority" or something. If it's the latter, and you're not making this an issue of racial discrimination then you need to change the headline to something like "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be rejected during Startup Weekend". [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group

vineel 15y ago

> Wayne Sutton confuses lack of interest in conducting srs bzns as racial prejudice/racism I don't think he's implying that at all. At the end, Sutton just notes that there were few minorities. He never explicitly makes the connection that the kids were actively discriminated against because of their race.

kabushikigaisha 15y ago
There are few minorities at pretty much every startup event, if you discount east Asians that is.
- makmanalp 15y ago
  That's not very surprising since they are "minorities", implying that there aren't as many of them.
  - dools 15y ago
    Minority in the sociological sense doesn't necessarily refer to numbers, but voting majority. ie. blacks in South Africa during apartheid outnumbered whites but were a sociological minority.
    - ars 15y ago
      That's really stretching the meaning of the word.
waynesutton 15y ago
Correct! That's not the point I was making.
- kabushikigaisha 15y ago
  Apologies, I inferred that since this piece was written on blackweb20.com , you were saying the reason the two youngsters weren't getting attention was due to their racial background instead of age.
  - walexander 15y ago
    I think the headline does lead you to that conclusion, even if not explicitly stated or even the author's intention: "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be a minority in tech during Startup Weekend" Being on blackweb20.com, I would assume "minority" is referring to race here. Wayne, you may want to update the title here if you want to avoid some confusion. (Wayne: By the way, I'm in RTP and just noticed your trioutnc site from your profile - looks like a nice tool so far, i'll be trying it).
  - waynesutton 15y ago
    No worries and thanks. Yes TriOutNC.com and we're working on launch a few new TriOut apps.
- dools 15y ago
  Then why is the headline "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be a minority in tech during Startup Weekend"? Is minority here referring to being outliers in the age distribution or "a sociological group that does not make up a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society"[1]? If it's the former then you should say "in the minority" or something. If it's the latter, and you're not making this an issue of racial discrimination then you need to change the headline to something like "Two 11-year-old entrepreneurs learned the hard way what it’s like to be rejected during Startup Weekend". [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_group