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I got shipped to California to date tech guys
- alttag 12y agoI'll admit, I wasn't initially sure this was relevant to HN, but this is a participant (customer?) perspective of a YCombinator startup.
- trhway 12y agoit is also seems to be in line with the core business idea of the other startups frequenting HN - Uber, AirBNB, etc... - identifying and putting to use/brokering access to underutilized resources. Though it is really an open question whether the underutilized resource like male techies of SV can be efficiently made into business inventory desirable by the potential customers. The article doesn't sound optimistic here.
- jack-r-abbit 12y ago> underutilized resource like male techies of SV To me it felt more like the underutilized resource was the hot women in NYC. But that would be too degrading to the women. So they couldn't possibly take that angle.
- aaronbrethorst 12y agoI honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.
- jdp23 12y ago"Any publicity is good publicity."
- ufmace 12y agoOn a weirdness scale of 1 to 10, I think it sounds like this idea is hitting a solid 6 or so. Possibly some extra points for the glorified prostitution model of "Pay a ton to fly NYC girls, selected for their desire to spend 5 days out of town meeting rich men, to SF to meet super-rich tech founders"
- protomyth 12y agoSadly, this is just the next link in a long line of similar attempts every time there is a boom where the guys per girl ratio gets above 1. Read some articles about the oil boom in North Dakota, although they don't fly them in from NYC.
- sliverstorm 12y agoRatios close to 1 are tolerated, the real problem is when that ratio approaches numbers like 2:1 (~66% male). It's hard to have a happy town when a third of your population will wind up alone.
- protomyth 12y agoI seem to remember as countries get near 2:1 you get wars.
- stinkytaco 12y agoI hate to be that guy but if this is even close to satire it's a pity because sex trafficking is a serious issue (including in North Dakota and I'm sure in California as well).
- arasmussen 12y agoGood thing this isn't sex trafficking in any shape or form whatsoever!
- protomyth 12y agoYeah, this isn't but there have been problems with actual sex trafficking.
- protomyth 12y agoLook, whoever doesn't believe there is actual sex trafficking going on should look into the issue. Both North Dakota and South Dakota law makers are making quite a bit of noise to bring attention to this issue. This story doesn't qualify as sex trafficking by the definition, but actual sex trafficking is occurring.
- sciguy77 12y ago"'We’re doing shots! This will be great B-roll!' I scream into Lisa’s boob." Reading this article made me very uncomfortable.
- Jun8 12y agoOK, keeping an open mind, this sounds like a good idea for a startup: (i) try to solve an important problem that has bugged people for millennia and (ii) do so by exploiting inefficiencies of the system (different gender ratios in different geographical locations). The basic idea is nothing new, of course (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-order_bride http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-order_bride). Still, makes you think, why didn't it work out? My simple explanation is that the organizers went for the dumb Big Bang Theory thing: brainacs paired with dashing beauties. I would hypothesize that if you were to select random 20 young women from NYC and paired them up with random men from SF (random within reason, of course) you would have had much less problems.
- trhway 12y ago>(i) try to solve an important problem that has bugged people for millennia 1. it has bugged almost everybody else for uncountable millennia before people :) So if it were a problem, the evolution would have already solved it. Which brings us to the next point : 2. it isn't a problem really, it is the solution that evolution came up with to make sure that blobs of organic matter move their a&&es, tails, tentacles, ...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- trhway 12y agowhile i don't agree in part or in whole with your statements, it may very well happen that the way human race has been doing it is not viable in the long term and thus we'll be succeeded by the other species who would do it differently.
- jfoutz 12y agoThose species that are assembled by humans need to hurry up and start assembling themselves. Or, they don't, depending on how you feel about our survival chances.
- a3voices 12y agoIs this a precursor to the first prostitution ring startup?
- jack-r-abbit 12y agoI'm not rich or single so I am really not the target market here. But something about this feels really gross. I can't figure out how this was allowed. I've lost all sense of what is and isn't acceptable these days. It seems to change daily. It feels like not too long ago a couple guys lost their job for making a joke about dongles and forking. I fail to see how that was worse than this.
- Dewie 12y agoMaybe this is a dynamic that tends to emerge anyway, the only difference in this case being that it is direct and not subtle?
- argumentum 12y ago> I can't figure out how this was allowed Why wouldn't this "be allowed"? More importantly, what is the entity that would or would not be doing the "allowing"?
- sciguy77 12y agoI think he means "tolerated by the public/any reasonable readership." Several articles come to mind (particularly an op ed about gender roles from Fox News some two years ago) in which readers become outraged by something they've read. This is usually followed by a flurry of other articles in which the offensive piece in question is condemned. I think he means "how are people not more disturbed by this piece." Though perhaps OP can weigh in and explain it better.
- jack-r-abbit 12y agoYes. I didn't mean "allowed" as in some governing body handed down a decision to allow it. I've seen huge uproar over (what I see as) pretty minor things compared to this. Yet this seems to have rolled on happy without that. I don't like to use the F-word (feminist) but how are they managing to not explode in anger over this. I truly don't get it.
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- irremediable 12y agoUgh, this sounds so cringeworthy. Something about the commodification of those women, even if it was done willingly.
- Dewie 12y agoI think it's kind of cringeworthy on the behalf of both sexes.
- lnanek2 12y agoIt sounded fun, honestly. Props to her for getting her own medicine too. That's the one thing I always cringe at - when an SF date off craigslist, often an out of town person passing through like a stewardess, wants a hookup like that. I don't keep any on me, so it's always a pain in the ass catering to that need.
- brokentone 12y agoNeither the idea nor this article seem to be helping to encourage girls in technology.
- brokentone 12y agoReally no one thinks "I got shipped to California to date tech guys" affects women's view of the male dominated tech industry in a negative way? Weird.
- torbit 12y agoI don't believe that was point of the article based on the first paragraph "An online start-up (tech) was crowdfunding a shipment of single women from New York to San Francisco".
- Dewie 12y agoGirls/women in technology is a totally separate issue. If the issue is with the women that flew to SF, then I think that there are a lot of different kinds of people and archetypes - these people's existence shouldn't discourage other people with different inclinations and/or ambitions. There isn't, or shouldn't be "one role model to rule them all". If the issue is with the men that they met, then I guess women in technology shouldn't date them if those kinds of men put them off? Romance and work is separate, at least if you want it to be.
- smsm42 12y agoIs that a requirement for every article? I'm sure a lot of articles don't help to encourage girls in technology, even those that include mentions of women and technology. It just wasn't the point.
- FiloSottile 12y ago> She goes to Dolores Park to seek weed from strangers, while I return to the hotel and initiate a texting phone tree. Twenty minutes later, as a white guy with dreadlocks is dumping vegan brownies onto the bed [...] I'm not judging morally, even if stating that it's a good way "to evaluate men" makes me uncomfortable. Still, is it legal to write down this in the US? EDIT: rephrase
- mpyne 12y agoIt's not illegal to write that you use weed. But it could be used as evidence against you if the prosecutor were to get charges filed against you that you used weed. Surely the prosecutors will be filing these charges any minute now, since the USA is now officially a police state.
- jacquesm 12y agoSome investors are getting quite desperate to get 'ring-side-seats' (pun intended) to the YC classes: "I meet an angel investor who admits he gave to the Crowdtilt to butter up CEO Lauren Kay so she’d accept his money. “With these Y Combinator companies, sometimes so many people want to invest that they end up turning down money,” he explained. He’d given money to the Dating Ring to secure the chance to give even more money to the Dating Ring. He wouldn’t tell me how much he invested, but did mention a desire to buy an airplane." And how about this: "Today’s daytime activity is a picnic in the park. I find Lisa and tell her it’s time to do as the San Franciscans have done since before the dawn of personal computing: get high. She goes to Dolores Park to seek weed from strangers, while I return to the hotel and initiate a texting phone tree. Twenty minutes later, as a white guy with dreadlocks is dumping vegan brownies onto the bed, there is a knock on the door and the Nightline film crew is standing there with a camera and a giant light. “Just a minute!” I shout through a crack in the door. When the dealer exits, I wonder if Nightline thinks I boned him."
- antonapa 12y agoMailorder brides concept made hip. This moral grey zone is very blackish.
- bobbles 12y agoWhy would they break opening links in new tabs? Whyyyyyyyy?
- parennoob 12y agoThis program is going to fail, for the reason outlined in a couple of sentences, that are possibly the most important sentences in this entire article. "...which is a blessing, since gossiping about dates is more fun than actually going on them." "We’re doing shots! This will be great B-roll!" I scream... Arranged matches are fine and have been working out fairly well for hundreds of years. But when one of the parties is more interested in making some sort of production out of the experience than in finding an actual relationship, the program is going to fall flat. They would do much better getting female participants on a volunteer basis, preferably not from a large metropolis, who are more interested in finding a relationship than in making a "B-roll".
- xarball 12y ago>> who are more interested in finding a relationship than in making a "B-roll". ^^ THIS. There must be some pretty lonely guys out there. I can only hope the more genuine ones learned their lesson after it ended. Best example: The poor fellow who left early to work for Yahoo at 8:00 am. He may have only understood the ethics that he had bought into after it ended. Women who try and make anything off this crap are selfish to the point of degrading those around them. They're really horrible people to be around, let alone to sleep with -- because they're too self-absorbed with the money and free ride to factor in the precedent they're setting for the kind of interaction that's socially acceptable around potential mates. DO WE REALLY want a society where people who work hard, are forced to compete financially to have an attractive mate fly in, do B-rolls, get high, and to demonstrate what a cold and mechanical interaction they actually want? Women: How would you like it if this was the kind of world you had to live in to find affection from a man? Pay $1,000 to have him come in and show you that your money, work, and desire for affection is just as worthless as anyone else's. Because THAT is what your actions convey. I think I'm with my grandparents on this one: These women need to learn to treat others exactly how they expect to be treated. Otherwise nobody can be their friend, foe, or lover. Because when we start pretending that relationships and affection can be bought -- we won't be buying real affection.
- tlrobinson 12y agoI guess "I volunteered to travel to California to date tech guys" isn't quite as catchy.
- habosa 12y agoI'm moving to SF in August, but reading articles like this makes me want to stay put. I know YC is just an incubator in the end, but I really wish they'd advise their companies against sleazy stunts like this. I feel like all of these ridiculous startups are forgetting: just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD.
- Istof 12y ago"...just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD." but if you can do something and you want to do it, why not?
- justizin 12y agoPLEASE GOD MAKE SOMEWHERE ELSE COOL!
- cylinder 12y agoIs there a term for self-loathing your own generation? It's exhausting me.
- whalesalad 12y agoWhy is this a sleazy stunt? What about this story is sleazy? A bunch of girls flew to SF to go out, socialize, and have a good time. Sounds like everyone involved had fun.
- cgusto 12y agoThere are tons of bat shit crazy ideas everywhere. Despite all the sensationalized stories, SF is a great area, filled with great people (for the most part). But you will be paying nearly $2k/mo to rent a bedroom; that much is true :-p
- blendergasket 12y agoThis is not without precedent: February 3 [1849]: The Raleigh Register runs an advertisement for women to go to the Gold Rush and get a rich husband, titled "A Chance FOR A LADY." Other efforts to encourage women to go to California include Mrs. Eliza Farnham of New York's attempt to organize a ship of intelligent women over the age of 25 to sail to San Francisco to meet miners. Editors in the east praised her efforts, but the plan failed. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/timeline/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/timeline/ There was one that succeeded that I read about but I don't remember the details and don't have the time to look it up. It was either in The Barbary Coast or Rebecca Solnit's book about Muybridge.
- jquery 12y agoSF is nothing like this. The article is poorly written--little more than we-did-this-then-we-did-that. The author is painfully lacking in self-awareness or humility. The only insight to be gained from the article is about the author, a caricature of severe narcissism played out through speed dating the few men in San Francisco bored and desperate enough to participate. I think this paints a worse picture of New York than it does of San Francisco.
- jacquesm 12y agoNo, it just paints a picture of that individual, or those individuals that partook in this particular venture. It says absolutely nothing about New York or San Francisco or any appreciable fraction of their residents.
- smsm42 12y agoI think you are way to harsh on the author. Nobody expects "War and Peace" from a personal experience report. It's like a blog, it is supposed to be self-centered and we-did-this-then-we-did-that - that's the whole point. You could have guessed it's not a deep analysis of comparative dating scenes and societal mores of SF vs. NY just by looking at the title. For once, the title quite adequately represents content, a rarity in our days of linkbait.
- sergiotapia 12y agoI see nothing wrong with this. It's cringe-worthy, but not wrong morally, or legally. More power to the women who wanted to give it a shot.
- throwaway_0529 12y agoAnd YC wonders why it has an image problem among female founders. Sam, what is this.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- larrys 12y agoI see nothing wrong with this at all. In fact I have suggested to men that they will have an easier time dating and finding love in NYC and to women that they will have an easier time dating and finding love in SF or the Bay Area. Because of the ratios of men to women and vice versa. What's wrong with that exactly? When I was dating myself years ago I had a trivially easy time getting really good looking women (that I would never meet locally) by driving a bit to NYC. I remember thinking "I need to move here even if this relationship (the women that I met doing this) breaks up". The name for this is a "target rich environment". It's as much about supply and demand as it is about other issues.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- was_hellbanned 12y agoI have no problem with the ethics of any part of this, but this sounds like a great way to grab a bunch of self-selecting people with significant combinations of personality defects, poor interpersonal skills, and overly-high estimation of their own worth. No personal judgment of them here, I recognize such defects in myself, I'm just saying why the whole thing feels 'wrong'.
- x1798DE 12y agoThis is exactly my thought. It's the same thing with meeting someone on The Bachelor or something. I don't care if you want to date 25 people and winnow them down in a rose ceremony, or if you want to televise your rushed courtship, but I'm very nearly 100% sure that I would never want to date anyone willing to participate in that particular spectacle. Same thing here - I don't care if you want to marry someone for their money or their body if that's what you're into. I'm pretty damn sure I want no part in it.
- cracell 12y agoSeems like encouraging more females to go into tech jobs and making training for them more available like RailsBridge's workshops would be a far better use of money and time. If you want to simply stay on the dating side of things you could make a site designed for remote dates through web cam chats, cooperative games (anything from web based mini-games to co-op on Call of Duty depending on the interests of the players), IMing and texting. You don't need to be in the same physical place to get to know someone, thinking you do seems very backwards for a startup. What's the plan here if two people do click? The service isn't going to pay for them to fly over for every date. It's the same situation as meeting someone online except that the initial date is face to face.
- groby_b 12y agoI'm sure you didn't mean it that way - but I'd like to point out that "dating" and "working in tech" has nothing to do with each other. Just because a woman works in an industry doesn't mean she has any interest in dating there.
- smsm42 12y agoBetter for what? I'm not sure how training women to work in tech and helping people from remote to date each other is related. Unless "women in tech" are viewed as a commodity that "we need more of" and these are considered as alternative ways for getting more of that commodity - which would be kind of disgusting point of view to me. But if we ignore such point of view, I do not see any relation between the two and why they should be viewed as alternative ways of spending money instead of complimentary ways. >>> You don't need to be in the same physical place to get to know someone, thinking you do seems very backwards for a startup. Depends on your definition of "know", I guess. Ultimately, there are things between men and women that don't work well over chats ;)
- Dewie 12y agoWhy are there so many bachelorettes in NYC? EDIT: I don't know what people have against an honest (though perhaps naive?) question.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tpeng 12y agoInterestingly, this only appears to be true in Manhattan. In New York City, single men aged 20-34 outnumber single women. And according to this site, single men aged 20-34 outnumber single women 20-34 in almost every city in the US: http://jonathansoma.com/singles/ http://jonathansoma.com/singles/ I have several hypotheses for Manhattan, but my best guess is that a major contributing factor is that the average age of marriage (and proportion of never-marrieds) is higher in Manhattan than outside. http://nypost.com/2010/01/05/all-the-single-people-in-manhattan/ http://nypost.com/2010/01/05/all-the-single-people-in-manhat...
- istorical 12y agoTo those who think this is a little sleazy, can I ask, would it be less offensive if the men were flown out to NYC? Or perhaps if the men and women split the cost of travel (whether the men flew to the women or the women to the men)? Or if both group split the cost of travel and flew to a midway point? I'm trying to understand what makes this particular dating service more icky than Grouper, OKCupid, Tinder, or any other dating app or website. Seems to me like they are just hacking gender ratio imbalances to solve a social problem.
- blizkreeg 12y agoI'd love to see their YC application. I'm curious (in a genuine way) to understand what got them into YC.
- dueprocess 12y agoIf dating had to be like this, I'd become a monk in Tibet.