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Comment by amirmc | Hacker News Reader

What gives you this impression? From what I can tell (from the outside) YC is a pretty diverse crowd and I believe PG once said that academic background doesn't much matter. Grit (aka resilience, determination, relentlessness, etc) is more important.

In fact, there's nothing in the application form that even asks about education (there used to be but maybe it moved to the additional founder info - i.e it doesn't seem important at all).

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I think this impression is pervasive (at least amongst my friends). It would be great to highlight founders who have gotten into YC who don't "fit the mold" so to speak. Most, if not all, of the "check out my winning YC application" posts have multiple Ivy League/Stanford founders, advantageous childhoods, etc. Add to that the same posts have "multiple people who are YC alums read, edited, and/or vetted our application" and you can see how that impression can spread.

I think one of the critical skills for a startup founder is to ignore the general impression and find out yourself what the actual reality is.

Another critical skill is the ability, when somebody else is confused by their general preconceptions, to point out why your special case is different and why they should abandon their general theories for the specific opportunity in front of them.

YC might very well do the highlighting you mention - it's to their advantage to draw as diverse an applicant pool as possible. However, in some ways this misses the point. It doesn't disqualify you if you didn't get into Stanford, Google, the Ivy League, etc. It does disqualify you if you think this is important enough to disqualify you.

A critical skill for a startup incubator is reaching all the people who could succeed and make them a ton of money.

That includes openly and directly addressing mis-impressions the talent pool may have of who the incubator is looking for.

That's true, and that's why I said YC may very well want to highlight such founders from disadvantaged backgrounds, if only for their own benefit.

However, I'm assuming that the YC partners are not going to be taking advice from me just because I post on Hacker News. People thinking of applying to YC might (hell, I might). They can control their actions, they can't control YC's actions. Why not focus on what you can control? That's another critical startup skill.

"It would be great to highlight founders who have gotten into YC who don't "fit the mold" so to speak. "

My personal feeling (per my other comment below) is that weeding out people that are easily scared off (or need super special encouragement) might be a good thing and not a bad thing.

Not having a halo doesn't mean "don't bother to even try" or "non starter". It just means work harder and figure out an angle that makes you unique and sell yourself. It can actually be an advantage rather than someone who thinks they can just phone it in.

For the record this was the attitude that got me into an Ivy League business school with no family connections, no family money and what had to be the lowest SAT scores in the class as well as my high school telling me not to even bother applying that "I wasn't the right material for that school".

I am not just talking about education. Trust me, look up the founders, its the same type. If I walked into a YC dinner I would probably stand out, not for lack of education, but something would not be mixed up right.

If you're ruling yourself out before you've even begun, then I find it difficult to have any sympathy. If the 'type' you're referring to is 'young, white male' then there are many aspects of life where you might be in the minority (I say that as someone who fails to tick two of those boxes).

YC could do more to highlight its existing diversity but I'm not simply going to take your word for it (you still haven't explained what you mean).

Lack of confidence would certainly make someone stick out like a sore thumb =)

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