This is solid advice. VCs are just as susceptible to the same biases as everyone else. Learning to navigate that minefield is unfortunately part of the massive

This is solid advice. VCs are just as susceptible to the same biases as everyone else. Learning to navigate that minefield is unfortunately part of the massive extra effort it takes to start a SV company as a woman. My minority wife has raised millions in the past couple of years for her company. The struggle is real. It's hard for underrepresented cohorts to trust VCs, because it can be hard to tell if their motivation is genuine. Are they just interested in you as a way to improve their diversity metrics? Do they actually believe in your company and will they be able to provide valuable guidance and feedback? The investors who are looking for diversity points have tended to be net-negative contributors to her company. The social dynamics are much more complicated for her than they are for me. She and other women and minorities who deal with SV culture are badasses for having the grit to deal with it. I also want to say that I don't really blame SV for this culture either. This isn't unique to SV, it's just human nature. Any founders coming from socio-economic backgrounds that are different from those of their investors will face this problem. The best thing that VCs can do to combat this isn't necessarily to invest more money in women and minorities. That's easy, and without changing the dynamic it's sometimes not even helpful. IMO, you can make more of an impact by looking around--work on diversifying the socio-economic backgrounds of your GPs and LPs.