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Here Are The Women of Y Combinator And They Are Awesome
- gnok 15y agoWhat stood out to me immediately, is that 3 of the 4 sets of founders are first generation immigrants.
- dmix 15y agoIt's Americas secret weapon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0Y9j_CGgM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0Y9j_CGgM
- sliverstorm 15y ago*Secret weapon we are trying desperately to get rid of
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- DontGiveAShit 15y agoNikki Durkin - would bang Olga Vidisheva - would bang Elli Sharef - can wait outside Kathryn Minshew, Alex Cavoulacos and Melissa McCreery - would have 3some with the 2 on the right.
- zitterbewegung 15y agoAren't they forgetting Jessica Livingston? This should be titled "The Women in the ycombinator batch"
- ktothemc 15y ago"The Women in the Y Combinator Batch" is a less readable, viral headline. I think it's sort of obvious from the first paragraph or two that I'm not talking about partners, just the most recent class.
- jl 15y agoI think it is clear that she's writing about female founders in this batch and not YC partners. She neglected to include the co-founders of Plangrid (Tracy Young) and Medmonk (Somaira Punjwani). They, too, have fascinating backgrounds. (Since presentations were only 2.5 minutes, it was easy to miss some if you had to leave the room.)
- vaksel 15y agoI find it interesting that none of them are technical founders. Were there no women who coded in this batch?
- defrost 15y agoI carefully read the article several times and notice there is no mention of these womens ability to make coffee or sandwiches either. I'd have to infer that at least some of them can both cook and code, and further that neither fact was significant in of itself in being able to found an internet based business. Obviously it can save money if you can make your own sandwiches, which many may choose to do.
- vaksel 15y agoone is important...the other is not
- hackinthebochs 15y agoImportant by whose metric?
- defrost 15y agoNever underestimate the business value of being able to make a good sandwich, appreciate a good meal, and to make people comfortable. As the comment I replied to remarked about the tech ability of the founders I'd have to say that I'm willing to bet that the young Australian woman that started a trading site with her younger brother very probably has a good grip on the mechanics of web site building and operation. Further she appears to have had the good sense to outsource for the tech when scaling up for the American market. I've been involved in a number of businesses that have gone from small to international, nearly half with women founders and nearly half with tech founders (with some overlap). In almost all cases the telling important factors weren't gender or tech ability but that elusive EQ ... the ability of the founders to rally a team and have them hold the faith while deals were formed and products deployed.
- alphakappa 15y agoDisclaimer: I am a guy. I apologize if this comes off as a strange sentiment, but I find stories like this pretty condescending. It's almost like reading a story about some achievement by a kid with special needs and I need to stand up and cheer for these women. These women are amazing for whatever they have done, regardless of gender.
- ktothemc 15y agoYeah, I understand. That's why I normally hate writing about women in technology. However, I think a lot of would-be founders or applicants to YC are probably put off by its more male-oriented image. So if nothing else, this dispels that stereotype and may encourage more women to consider applying for it -- which in my mind is a universally good thing.
- waterlesscloud 15y agoReally, how is it different from "Minnesotans in YCombinator" or "Indians in YCombinator"? It's someone choosing to highlight and celebrate a subgroup in a particular feature article. I don't see anything condescending about it at all.
- AznHisoka 15y agoit's condescending because as a guy, and someone who has worked very very hard, sometimes you ask yourself: but what about me? I deserve some kudos as well.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ktothemc 15y agoShe was not in the latest batch.
- victork2 15y agoAh I love these moments when I know that I am writing a risky post and I will very likely be downvoted, but here it comes! How is this fair? Doesn't it qualify as "sexism"? You know the thing that was heavily debated on HN in the last weeks when some people were treated based on their gender? "I mean these people are put forward because they are %s, and if they were not %s they would not even qualify to a full page article. Based on that story %s seem to have an easier time because of their gender" % ( "women", "women", "women"). Sorry for the Pythonic syntax but if you saw "men" instead of "women" you'd have totally different stories and the big S word: sexism. Plus, the ideas might be good for business but it's very very "girly". If I were a girl I would certainly feel kind of weird that out of the 4 ideas 1 is directed towards women, 2 are directly relevant to "standard" feminine tastes: clothing. Also the journalist is a woman... I want to see women promising us Big Data analysis or the new portal around cars, not some stuff that reinforce stereotypes! I am sorry but I will say that sexism is gone when EVERY trace of it will have disappeared, and there won't be any "X women that succeed and they are awesome" but the title will be "Z ideas that will help you buy clothes" with guys and girls in the same article.
- euroclydon 15y agoI didn't even know that there were that many women in YC. It's only been in the past month that I've stumbled onto women founders commenting on HN. I'm thrilled to find this article. I believe that women are underserved by software because the field has been dominated by men, too often making software targeted at other men. It's great that the ideas are girly. They know what they want better than we do. If more women are going into YC now than before, than I'll bet PG and the gang can hardly wipe the grins off their faces thinking about all the money they're going to make.
- marquis 15y agoWomen technical founders are here. We just don't broadcast it, you generally make the assumption when reading a comment that it is from a guy unless specified otherwise. Try reading the next comment post assuming each comment is from a woman and see if that changes how you read it. Probably not?
- OpenAmazing 15y ago"Vidisheva isn’t just a pretty face..." What's up with that?
- waterlesscloud 15y agoOrdinarily, I'd agree with that criticism. But the preceding paragraphs talk about her modeling experience (which is valid because it's a fashion-related startup). So to me it seems fair to play off that.
- sliverstorm 15y agoYeah, that just sounds like journalistic flair to me. You could easily see the same from the other direction, "Mr. Schwarzenegger isn't just a bundle of muscles..."
- narag 15y agoMaybe the writer felt the need to say she has a pretty face, but didn't know how to say it directly.
- jcampbell1 15y agoThe fact that these businesses are run by women is only tangentially relevant. Shoptiques is a particularly interesting business. It creates value where none really existed before. Boutiques can't establish a real web presence, and mid market girls don't have access to NY/LA/London boutiques. This is an online business that creates value from thin air. Execution is the key, and the execs seem to be totally on track. 99 dresses is a potential home run but like all marketplace businesses it is tough. My favorite thing is that they are so low class. I love the idea that chicks are swapping dresses from F21. It is just so real and honest. I want them to be a major success just to spite the people behind renttherunway. The daily muse looks like a newspaper to me, so I don't get the business. Hireart seems like a gimmick. Women or no women, I'll be an ass and say what I think.
- daemon13 15y ago> Women or no women, I'll be an ass and say what I think. Excellent point. I think the key to true equality is to disregard the differences (gender, race, religion, citizenship, etc) and just look at simple things, such as performance, execution, success, value creation.
- citizenkeys 15y agoFunding female founders arises from the same basic logic of funding minority founders: it's just good business. For every demographic that you consciously or unconsciously ignore as an investor or business owner, you're depriving yourself of all the potential business that demographic attracts.
- mhartl 15y agoBlah blah gender blah blah sexism, etc., etc. We may have reached the Seymour Skinner point here at HN: "I don't have any opinions anymore. All I know is that no one is better than anyone else and everyone is the best at everything." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_Just_Want_to_Have_Sums http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_Just_Want_to_Have_Sums)
- barry-cotter 15y agoHirealert is interesting independently of the founding team but once they get any real traction they've got a target a mile wide on them for implicit discrimination lawsuits in the USA for any videos that make it possible to distinguish ethnicity. This effects voice explanations as well. Also this We really try to work with data to understand which questions work the best. You can think about it like designing the SATs for different jobs is for all practical purposes illegal in the USA due to Griggs v. Duke Power Company[0] and the misbegotten offspring of legal reasoning uncontaminated by any knowledge of statistics that is the 80% rule[1]. But who knows they might survive and thrive and hiring is a ridiculously huge market. Good luck to them. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griggs_v._Duke_Power_Company [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_impact#The_80.25_rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_impact#The_80.25_rule
- rdl 15y agoHow did the author overlook the female construction engineer of PlanGrid (one of my favorite YC startups this batch), or the domain expert (pharmacist) at MedMonk (which is one of the more likely to save lives of the YC batch)?
- ekalvi 15y agoSexism exists in technology and especially the startup world. I've seen it over-and-over again in my experience. My wife and I co-founded a successful web company together. We have pretty much the exact same background: Engineering grads from same program at the same school, same age within 10 days of each other, we both worked in SV as software engineers before launching our startup. We even both played competitive soccer. However, over the years it is has been a common occurrence that with an introduction to a new tech/startup person, there's an assumption that I'm the technical person. I get spoken to in that way, and my wife is assumed to be non-(or less)-technical than I am. In one such a meeting, we were asked who is the CEO (from a veteran entrepreneur), she responded that she was, and the guy chuckled. We asked him why what was so funny about that? He mumbled and tripped over his words without explanation. When we work together, thoughts of gender don't even come to mind. We're too damn busy trying to build something that someone gives a sh about.