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Comment by akshatrathi | Hacker News Reader

I wrote this article, and I'm happy to field any questions

No question. Just cool that you are here responding to them. Really interesting article. Also read the CFS feature. Also very interesting. Should note the link to the Carbon Cement feature goes to the CFS feature instead.

Corrected the cement feature link. Thanks!

Is there a way you would recommend that a bay area clean energy startup reach out to the fund?

I'm curious about why you included this sentence: 'The startups announced by BEV so far are all North American, and most of their leadership is also largely white and male'

I mean, isn't it enough for BEV to help fund a small sample of companies tackling some of the most challenging problems on earth? Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints. Aren't investments like these best directed at the companies with most promise, with the investors blind as to gender and race, with equality problems tackled elsewhere (e.g. in employment regulation etc.)?

It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males. Carmichael Roberts agreed with me. His words were that my question felt "piercing" because he was not at liberty to tell me about some of the companies outside the US with diverse leadership, but he said he will soon say more. Rodi Guidero agreed and said to look at the BEV team. It's very diverse: http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/

We've tried being gender and race blind. But it's not helped us much, because systemic biases can't simply be overcome that way. There are good ideas in all corners, but if you want to elevate those that don't come from privileged backgrounds you have to work harder.

'It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males'

That's a straw man argument because I did not assert that (and obviously wouldn't because it would be a stupid thing to think).

Maybe he thought your question was piercing because it implied you suspected he was racist or sexist or not concerned with gender and race bias.

Fwiw I'm from one of the excluded categories. I think they should just focus on tackling carbon reduction as they see best fit. If they achieve their mission it'll benefit every man, woman and child on earth. It's unreasonable to expect them to be omniscient. They are a small fund with a small sample of investments. Skew doesn't necessarily mean they have gender or race bias.

Elevating isn't their goal. Reducing carbon is. If we don't do that, there may be no races left to worry about equalising.

I think you can do both. If anybody has the resources to do that, BEV does.

It would certainly be laudable if they could. The article was fascinating, thanks for answering questions!

That's a terrible idea. They should be focused on finding winners regardless of diversity.

"It's ludicrous to think good ideas only come from North America and white males."

Sure, not what gp said, but agreed.

"but if you want to elevate those that don't come from privileged backgrounds"

Just some unsolicited feedback, the original race/gender quote from the article and this statement leads me to interpret that you either value equality of outcome (EG: all of these startups should have proportional distributions of gender and race in all positions) over technological advancements, or that you suspect the organization is biased to some detrimental degree.

This feedback isn't meant to insinuate that you actually believe either, just that it was my interpretation from the seemingly out of context nod to race/genders of the startup founders.

For example, if you'd have included a quote along the lines of "The startups announced by BEV so far are all above 6' tall". The statement would seem to insinuate that there's either something wrong with being 6' tall (analogous to something wrong with being white/male), or that the organization seems to unfairly favor tall people.

There is nothing wrong with being a white male nor with being 6 foot tall. But maybe there is something wrong when white males are overrepresented (in my opinion there is).

Also, there is no historical bias towards 6-foot people. But there was, and is, a lot of bias towards white males. For me it's fair enough to call that out.

> but if you want to elevate those that don't come from privileged backgrounds you have to work harder.

I'm not white yet from a very privileged background. I find the way you so casually equate ethnic origin and social background to be quite shocking frankly.

Since when have we tried to be gender or race blind? Martin Luther King preached that, but policy has never been toward gender and race blindness. Gender and race blindness is an untried concept. It would be nice to try.

We've tried in some ways. What do you think no-discrimination policy is at work is about?

> Probability of success in such an endeavour is already vanishingly small without adding further constraints.

Wouldn't only choosing North American startups (along with having a largely white and male leadership ) be a constraint in itself? Either way, the next part states it will be more international when the companies go public over time.

Now, that's not to say they've specifically gone out and chose startups with a white male leadership but I've seen places try to explain this away by saying they "chose the best person for the job" which sounds awfully familiar to "companies with most promise".

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