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> Complete and utter bull. Maybe in Sam's world, sure! White? 20-something? No-kids? Harvard/Stanford? B2C? Let’s chat! > Early-40's/Late-30's? Not-white? Marri

by garry 12y ago

> Complete and utter bull. Maybe in Sam's world, sure! White? 20-something? No-kids? Harvard/Stanford? B2C? Let’s chat! > Early-40's/Late-30's? Not-white? Married w/ kids? Not-Harvard/Stanford? B2B? Nope. (Don't bother to apply to YC either). YC does not discriminate in this way. We fund lots of people working on B2B and enterprise ideas, who are married with kids, who are in their 30's, 40's and yes older too. This claim is just plain false.

throwmeaway21 12y ago
While that may be true to a certain extent I'd be willing to bet a sizable amount of money that the majority of founders that YC funds are in fact white, male, hailing from a wealthy family, graduated from a prestigious college, and are under 30 years old. And while you or other YC partners may defend that fact with the fallacy that it's just a numbers game, as in those are the majority of applicants, I can't help but remind you that age discrimination and class warfare is rampant in the valley.
aagha 12y ago
That's interesting, and good to hear. Would YC be open to sharing anonymized data on the sitribution of YC-ers (at time of entry) by age, married (binary), # of kids and race?
geebee 12y ago
What do you think of this bit? In "Why not to start a startup" http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html "9. Family to support" "This one is real. I wouldn't advise anyone with a family to start a startup. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that I don't want to take responsibility for advising it. I'm willing to take responsibility for telling 22 year olds to start startups. So what if they fail? They'll learn a lot, and that job at Microsoft will still be waiting for them if they need it. But I'm not prepared to cross moms." Can you see how a statement like this might make people with kids more reluctant to apply to YC?

by garry 12y ago

throwmeaway21 12y ago

While that may be true to a certain extent I'd be willing to bet a sizable amount of money that the majority of founders that YC funds are in fact white, male, hailing from a wealthy family, graduated from a prestigious college, and are under 30 years old. And while you or other YC partners may defend that fact with the fallacy that it's just a numbers game, as in those are the majority of applicants, I can't help but remind you that age discrimination and class warfare is rampant in the valley.

aagha 12y ago

That's interesting, and good to hear. Would YC be open to sharing anonymized data on the sitribution of YC-ers (at time of entry) by age, married (binary), # of kids and race?

geebee 12y ago

What do you think of this bit? In "Why not to start a startup" http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html http://paulgraham.com/notnot.html "9. Family to support" "This one is real. I wouldn't advise anyone with a family to start a startup. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that I don't want to take responsibility for advising it. I'm willing to take responsibility for telling 22 year olds to start startups. So what if they fail? They'll learn a lot, and that job at Microsoft will still be waiting for them if they need it. But I'm not prepared to cross moms." Can you see how a statement like this might make people with kids more reluctant to apply to YC?