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I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... - Over 35 - Female - African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our

I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... - Over 35 - Female - African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our industry is moving forward in the terms of race, age and sex.

austenallred 12y ago
I don't recall YC asking for race or gender on the application, so I doubt that's possible unless self-reported.
- paul9290 12y ago
  You have to submit a team video.
- aloma85 12y ago
  If you are not a White or Asian male, don't even bother. Someone needs to start a fund for African Americans and women.
curiousDog 12y ago
Why? Do you think any of those were grounds for rejection?
- paul9290 12y ago
  Sexism and racism is currently a hot topic and it looks like YC has made effort to change this. Not sure about ageism .. if your over 40 should you even bother?
  - rdlecler1 12y ago
    Paul -- see my comment above. I thought we would be rejected for sure.
- wpietri 12y ago
  Those are all things demonstrated to bias hiring, so it's a reasonable question. Note also that hiring biases don't require anything so unsubtle as making something like that grounds for rejection.
rdlecler1 12y ago
We were accepted for an interview (Not accepted to the class yet). I'm 41 and my co-founder (who doesn't looks quite as young as I am) is 47. To be honest, I fully expected a rejection for this very reason so I'm pleasantly surprised which is actually pretty consistent with the YC brand. To make a fair assessment you also need to look at the distribution of applicants. If 15% of applicants are female, then your null hypothesis is that 15% of founders will be female.
- aliakhtar 12y ago
  Congrats. What's your start up about?
  - rdlecler1 12y ago
    We're an investment marketplace for agriculture and agtech. On the face of it, this sounds totally dull in the world of SnapChat and Secret. Our job is to make sure that your grandchildren have food to eat by 2050 when we we need to feed 10 billion people. I started the company because I was working for a company in west africa before this. We failed to marshal enough capital to grow our business beyond the pilot stage and because of that 1,500 subsistence level farmers lost their only source of income.
    - aliakhtar 12y ago
      Great idea. You're the 3rd company in the food / agricultural space that got in for interviews this batch. Two others posted here, one which makes analytics for fish farms, and another for cattle farmers.
      - rdlecler1 12y ago
        Where did see that? I search and didn't see them post? I'd like to reach out to them.
        aliakhtar 12y ago
syedkarim 12y ago
I am 37. Solo founder. No revenue, but working product. Invited for interview.

austenallred 12y ago

I don't recall YC asking for race or gender on the application, so I doubt that's possible unless self-reported.

paul9290 12y ago
You have to submit a team video.
aloma85 12y ago
If you are not a White or Asian male, don't even bother. Someone needs to start a fund for African Americans and women.

curiousDog 12y ago

Why? Do you think any of those were grounds for rejection?

paul9290 12y ago
Sexism and racism is currently a hot topic and it looks like YC has made effort to change this. Not sure about ageism .. if your over 40 should you even bother?
- rdlecler1 12y ago
  Paul -- see my comment above. I thought we would be rejected for sure.
wpietri 12y ago
Those are all things demonstrated to bias hiring, so it's a reasonable question. Note also that hiring biases don't require anything so unsubtle as making something like that grounds for rejection.

rdlecler1 12y ago

We were accepted for an interview (Not accepted to the class yet). I'm 41 and my co-founder (who doesn't looks quite as young as I am) is 47. To be honest, I fully expected a rejection for this very reason so I'm pleasantly surprised which is actually pretty consistent with the YC brand. To make a fair assessment you also need to look at the distribution of applicants. If 15% of applicants are female, then your null hypothesis is that 15% of founders will be female.

aliakhtar 12y ago
Congrats. What's your start up about?
- rdlecler1 12y ago
  We're an investment marketplace for agriculture and agtech. On the face of it, this sounds totally dull in the world of SnapChat and Secret. Our job is to make sure that your grandchildren have food to eat by 2050 when we we need to feed 10 billion people. I started the company because I was working for a company in west africa before this. We failed to marshal enough capital to grow our business beyond the pilot stage and because of that 1,500 subsistence level farmers lost their only source of income.
  - aliakhtar 12y ago
    Great idea. You're the 3rd company in the food / agricultural space that got in for interviews this batch. Two others posted here, one which makes analytics for fish farms, and another for cattle farmers.
    - rdlecler1 12y ago
      Where did see that? I search and didn't see them post? I'd like to reach out to them.
      - aliakhtar 12y ago

syedkarim 12y ago

I am 37. Solo founder. No revenue, but working product. Invited for interview.