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Ask HN: How many YC companies have African American founders?
I am curious of how many YC companies have been founded by African Americans, I am trying to encourage some teens in my neighborhood to learn about programming and startups. I want to show them examples of companies that were started by African americans, which companies can I use as an example?
- byoung2 13y agoNot sure if this has changed since 2011, but according to this article: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/11/technology/diversity_accelerators/ http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/11/technology/diversity_acceler... Another Y Combinator representative told CNNMoney: "We've never collected any stats about people's race or ethnicity. It's not a big factor when we're judging applications." Maybe the founders (if any) can identify themselves
- ytdtty 13y agoHow many are founded by Native Americans?
- RomanPushkin 13y agoYou mean by indians?
- moocowduckquack 13y agoSorry to break it to you, but Columbus was a bit wrong about that. You see there's this thing called the Pacific...
- gtremper 13y agoI'm pretty sure there are Indian YC founders, just not Native American ones.
- ricardobeat 13y agoThankfully other languages have evolved separate words (e.g. índio vs indiano) so witty remarks from both sides can be avoided.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jayp 13y agoMichael Seibel founded two YC companies: Justin.tv and Socialcam
- OafTobark 13y agoMy understanding was SocialCam and Twitch.TV were both built under Justin.TV. Only later was Twitch.TV spun out. Not sure SocialCam was ever a separate company. Anyone with better knowledge can chime in
- zbruhnke 13y agoSocial Cam was spun out as a separate company and participated in the same batch of YC as me (W12) They also sold it to Autodesk for about $60MM if I recall correctly only a month or two after the batch. Michael was a super nice guy and should be considered a great example here. I always appreciated him bringing beer to the dinners personally though I remember the group office hours with him and his great insights into problems or struggles we were having just as fondly.
- eof 13y agoThat seems like an odd strategy to me; like "no really, you can do it look these other black people did it"--as i would expect the merits/benefits of programming itself to be the main motivating factors. Perhaps I am underestimating the amount of self-imposed race-based limiting factors; which makes me sad and surprised. On the one hand I want to say, "please focus on the fact that they can do anything they want; and this is a great thing to do"--and on the other, if showing them African American's doing it will be significant toward getting some of them into programming; then by all means. I have no idea about yc; but you might find this answer on quora useful: http://www.quora.com/Who-are-some-notable-African-American-founders-entrepreneurs-and-executives-in-Silicon-Valley http://www.quora.com/Who-are-some-notable-African-American-f...
- SoundExecution 13y agoBeing able to "see yourself" in a certain position, or discovering that a particular avenue for success is "culturally acceptable" is definitive in breaking the mold and helping young minorities expand their horizons. In short, race matters when considering positive role models, Penguin's efforts should be applauded.
- Edmond 13y agoYes you are definitely "underestimating the amount of self-imposed race-based limiting factors;"...It is true for many kids not just African Americans, seeing people you can identify with even if just superficially can influence how you view certain careers/professions.
- SwellJoe 13y agoFor a white kid in America, race doesn't matter, in this, or almost any other context. For a black kid, seeing black people in leadership roles does matter. It's a reality that for many poor black kids in America, the only obvious path out of poverty is sports or drugs, neither of which are very good options...especially for nerdy black kids living in poverty. That's not to say entrepreneurship is an obvious path out of poverty for anyone (white or black), but being technically savvy is extremely good for your value in the employment market, no matter what you choose to do. Anyway, I believe you are underestimating the amount of self-imposed race-based limiting factors. I think we're all probably also underestimating the external society-imposed limiting factors on people of color in America, as well (because most of the people on HN are white, grew up in a middle class household, and male).
- tptacek 13y agoI gave a talk at an informal event for YC cos a month or so ago, and the audience was both large and diverse. There were definitely African Americans in attendance. Youth seems like the more troublesome homogeneity here. For whatever that's worth.
- joshlev 13y agoNot to be incisive, but I think startup founders are extremely poor role models. Of those I've met, most have been very narcissistic and self-serving (successful ones and failures alike). Plus, I'd wager that those who aspire to be 'startup founders' are putting the cart before the horse. If black highly intelligent role models are who you're after - Neil Tyson exhibits all of qualities that a kid of any race/creed/religion should aspire to have. source: I'm a jew and I love Neil.
- dnautics 13y agothat's funny, because i'm a scientist and I don't like him at all; to me he seems to use science as a source of authority and power, which is antithetical to the entire philosophy of science.
- skannamalai 13y agoI'm also a scientist and I find Neil deGrasse Tyson extremely grating. I find something about his snarky/condescending tone to be poor qualities for his role as "science communicator."
- Edmond 13y agoHmmm I have always thought him to be an effective science communicator, I don't see how he's used science as a source of authority and power. He's also quite accessible, I have randomly ran into him in NYC on a couple of occasions and was always cordial.
- pessimizer 13y agoWhy would you use a cosmologist to inspire black teens to become involved with technology and startups? Are smart black people fungible?
- anaccountonhn 13y agoRead the comment before responding. Neil is being held as a "black highly intelligent role model". What is your source of confusion.
- zosegal 13y agoGarrett Johnson co-founded SendHub.
- davidsmith8900 13y ago- I think NewMe Accelerator will be a better option. Here is their link ~> http://www.newmeaccelerator.com/ http://www.newmeaccelerator.com/ . It is like the YC for African American people. There's alot that you'll find.
- davidsmith8900 13y ago- Here is a link to the startups ~> http://www.newmeaccelerator.com/startups/ http://www.newmeaccelerator.com/startups/
- penguinlinux 13y agoThanks for this link. This is a great resource.
- davidsmith8900 13y agoPenguinlinux. I would love to help you out more. You should even talk to Angela Benton who runs the program. She is a very nice woman.
- conjecTech 13y agoPaul Judge is also a very prominent and successful entrepreneur in Atlanta. He's had a number of security related businesses. He's currently working as chairman of Pindrop Security and probably doing other things of top of that. Link:http://www.pindropsecurity.com/about-pindrop-security/ http://www.pindropsecurity.com/about-pindrop-security/
- Edmond 13y agoYou could also compile a list of black "geeks" (yours truely) online and perhaps set them up for mentoring...
- ricardobeat 13y agoWhy should race (or gender) matter? As a south-american, the term african-american irks me. It reeks of political correctness, not respect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism_treadmill#Evolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism_treadmill#Evolution EDIT: eh, what did I get myself into... over here we're just plain white/black/latin/asian/etc, despite some media usage of the term 'afro-descendant'. I do support affirmative action policies in general, it's just my personal opinion that teaching kids to be self-conscious about race in this context is not necessarily positive.
- SwellJoe 13y agoBecause race still effects the world we live in. To insist on a "color blind" view of society, our industry, etc. is to deny the real experience of people of color within it, who have found discrimination and prejudice. We can and should say to racists that try to prove some sort of race-based superiority that genetically "race" is a silly fiction, and has no basis in reality. But, we can't deny that black folks in America have a very different experience than white folks. Doing so is counter-productive to the conversation that needs to happen.
- javert 13y ago> To insist on a "color blind" view of society, our industry, etc. is to deny the real experience of people of color within it, who have found discrimination and prejudice. I inisit on color blindness in all kinds of social, business, and political relationships, but I do not deny that blacks have a much tougher time, other things being equal. Race-based discrimination, whether supposedly for or against blacks, does not actually provide value for blacks in general in the long run, and neither does it provide value for non-blacks. As a side note, other things are not equal. For instance, coming from an abusive family in America is probably much more of a disadvantage than being black. We need to stop fetishizing race in particular.
- SwellJoe 13y ago"We need to stop fetishizing race in particular." Who is "festishizing race"? And, what does that phrase mean in this context? Do you believe I'm fetishizing race? Or OP? Or some other comment in this thread? I'm merely saying that to insist that race not be part of the conversation is a passive approach to maintaining the status quo. Or, to quote Elie Wiesel: "We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim."
- moocowduckquack 13y agoNot a YC company, but Lonnie Johnson is an excellent example. Inventor of the supersoaker and now developing thin-film lithium air batteries and working with MIT on solid state thermoelectric engines. http://www.johnsonems.com/ http://www.johnsonems.com/ http://www.excellatron.com/ http://www.excellatron.com/ http://www.johnsonrd.com/ie/lj/ljprofile.html http://www.johnsonrd.com/ie/lj/ljprofile.html http://www.parc.com/event/713/high-efficiency-solid-state-engine.html http://www.parc.com/event/713/high-efficiency-solid-state-en...
- conjecTech 13y agoLonnie is one hell of a guy. He should be a role model for everyone.
- moocowduckquack 13y agoThey should build giant benevolent statues of him wherever children gather with the intention of soaking each other for fun.
- penguinlinux 13y agoAnother great resource., thanks for these links. very excite to have a great conversation with these young people.
- tomc1985 13y agoWhy does an African-American kid need to a successful African-American man as his role model?? Why can't he simply look up to a successful man? Racial segmentation is so stupid
- pshin45 13y agoFor those wondering why this is important, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat > "If negative stereotypes are present regarding a specific group, group members are likely to become anxious about their performance, which may hinder their ability to perform at their maximum level. For example, stereotype threat can lower the intellectual performance of African-Americans taking the SAT reasoning test used for college entrance in the United States, due to the stereotype that African-Americans are less intelligent than other groups. Importantly, the individual does not need to subscribe to the stereotype for it to be activated. Moreover, the specific mechanism through which anxiety (induced by the activation of the stereotype) decreases performance is by depleting working memory (especially the phonological aspects of the working memory system).
- ricardobeat 13y agoDoesn't that support the other view, that race shouldn't be brought into play?
- jacalata 13y agoOnly if you can make a plausible argument that there are no existing stereotypes.
- ricardobeat 13y agoThe theory is that people perform worse when a negative stereotype they identify with is presented to them. Saying "oh, but unfortunately there are no successful black entrepreneurs" in an entrepreneurship class to black kids seems to be exactly that.
- jacalata 13y ago...thats why the op is asking for examples of actual black entrepreneurs, so that what will actually happen is, when presenting a list of entrepreneurs as examples, at least some of them are black, and the kids are not explicitly or implicitly told that there are no black entrepreneurs. You seem to be arguing that presenting a list of white examples would not prompt stereotypes in itself, and I think you really need to show that instead of simply assume it.
- pg 13y agoIt's hard to say for sure because we don't ask people what race they identify as, and we don't know offhand which people are citizens and which aren't. But Michael Seibel seems a good bet if you want an example to encourage kids.
- acjohnson55 13y agoRespectfully, I think you ask should at least ask, as an optional question. Even on your application, it might be nice to know who's applying and how people of different ethnicities/racial identities perform in the process. The fact that you have provided just one example of a black YC founder, out of who knows how many, speaks to the fact, for whatever reason, black folks are not getting in the door. Even if this is simply the result of a whole bunch of things that happened before the application, it seems like something your organization should be able to speak intelligently about, as the clear leaders in the space. That's my opinion at least.
- argumentum 13y agoThere were at least 3 african-americans in my batch (which was large so I'm probably missing some). But I am not sure whether they'd want to be identified as anything else other than as hackers/founders. Feels weird to even try and count in my head, as I see my batchmates as simply batchmates. I don't think explicitly adding ethnicity to the YC app would be good for anyone .. for one, these are (mostly) teams of 2 or more. Accepting or not accepting a team/idea/application doesn't reflect judgement of the individuals within the team, regardless of their background(s). Since there is only 1 application per team, it may also introduce unnecessary and awkward questions between the founders even prior to YC's evaluation.
- acjohnson55 13y agoThat's good to know that there have been more black folks than just the one lone guy PG mentioned. I was worried for a minute. Every black person is an individual obviously, but I think it's safe to say that most of us don't have the luxury of thinking of ourselves as "just another person", as much as we may like to. You tend to notice when you're the only black person in a mostly non-black room (just as the average white person would probably feel out of place in a mostly black event). That's been my experience in the vast majority of my life, and even though many of the most important people in my life are not black, the feeling of being the lone black representative in these situations is never really far away. All this to say that "colorblindness" sounds great in theory, but in reality, it's a privilege that not everyone has. I think you're right that there are practical issues of when and how to collect voluntary ethnic information...but seriously, how awkward is that discussion between founders really, compared to things like equity split and job titles? It could just as well be left to the individual team members to identify or not. But my overall point is that even if YC decides it shouldn't actively do anything about its minority imbalance (if it, in fact, exists), it would be nice to do some from an informed position, rather than a blind assumption that meritocracy is working as hoped.
- mikeyouse 13y agoTristan Walker is a very successful African American deep in the startup scene. He was director of BD for FourSquare and was EIR at Andreessen Horowitz for a spell. He just announced his newest venture, Bevel, a health and beauty 'brand' for people of color. I don't know him personally, but his public persona seems very welcoming if you wanted to reach out depending on what you're trying to achieve. [1] - http://www.crunchbase.com/person/tristan-walker http://www.crunchbase.com/person/tristan-walker [2] - http://allthingsd.com/20131218/tristan-walkers-next-act-building-a-proctor-gamble-for-people-of-color/ http://allthingsd.com/20131218/tristan-walkers-next-act-buil...
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ovoxo 13y agoI'm black and I've worked with black youth to get them involved with tech and here's what I've found: Black youth don't necessarily need to find other black idols to look up to. They - much like any other youth - need to feel like they have access to the same tools that everyone else does to succeed. Tools = access, technology, opportunity, mentors, funds, etc... Typically, these youths assume that others that look like them had access to the same tools that they have/had hence why they "need" to see successful people that look like them. As a result, if you truly want help them succeed in the long run, rather than simply show/tell them about successful black people (who may/may not have had a similar upbringing), help them gain access to those same tools.