Done with YC: Age Discrimination
I am now 58. I consider myself a highly accomplished multidisciplinary engineer as well as a capable business operator.
To lend a bit of context, I have hardware orbiting the planet right now. I also helped design hardware going to the moon in the next few years. I self-funded, grew and ran a startup that almost had an exit in the tens of millions of dollars before the 2009 economic implosion took us out. After that I wrote apps for the iPhone, I designed hardware for the motion picture industry, I manufactured custom technical furniture, built data centers and even entered the aerospace industry to help one of the most well-known companies in the segment get people to the International Space Station.
Throughout this I became very interested in the VC world. I have always self funded, mostly out of a desire to just get going. YC seemed to be above the fray, above some of the nonsense I experienced (I participated in at least one incubator program that ended on an ugly note).
I signed-up for and graduated from Startup School. We applied for YC and were not accepted. I continued with Startup School for a second term. Applied again. Nothing. We likely applied about three times, if not four. I honestly don't remember. This included pivots. I wasn't trying to do the same thing and expect different results. The only thing that remained constant was me, a solo 50-something founder.
I, of course, realize YC has to choose from among tens of thousands of applications. I am not here to suggest I was wronged. I am not entitled to anything and YC owes me nothing at all.
I think age discrimination is an ugly unresolved reality in the world of technology. As I have gone in and out of entrepreneurship I had periods of time during which I said to myself "just get a job for a few years".
When I was younger this was easy. I could get a job within days or a couple of weeks. As I got older it became very obviously harder, even through I became a better engineer, with vastly more knowledge and experience spanning a range of disciplines and fields of study.
My conclusion was reached after looking at YC age data, reading through related threads and, in general terms, watching my own path in and out of various technology sectors over the last decade or so.
My feeling is that the YC process includes several elements that, when combined, might result in unintentional discrimination against older founders:
- Asking for your age rather than "Are you 18 or older?" - Asking for a personal video where you see the applicant - An established bias against solo founders - Younger people evaluating the applications - A physical relocation requirement
I am not suggesting YC evaluators are explicitly biased. There is such a thing as unconscious bias. We know and understand this in the racial domain.
Completing the survey made me think about whether YC was worth the effort for me. My conclusion was that, while I can deal with rejection just fine (sales will teach you this reality), I am not interested in a scenario where my age becomes a disadvantage --even if not explicitly so. It feels like YC, as a 58 year old solo founder, is an exercise in futility or, perhaps more kindly, an not an optimal path.
Once again, please take this as constructive criticism and, perhaps, as a reason for introspection rather than an attack on YC. I think YC is a fantastic resource and one that has allowed many who would otherwise not have the opportunity, to create and launch some of the most amazing companies in the world. YC is, in many ways, a gift to the world of technology. I just don't think it is for older founders, and, in particular, solo older founders.