Updates to Y Combinator Diversity Stats? | Hacker News Reader

Updates to Y Combinator Diversity Stats?

5 pointsmlichtenstern3 comments

A Kapor Center for Social Justice post from about a year ago stated that Y Combinator has had no Black female founder alumni (neither did Techstars, an org with a founder whom I greatly admire). I'm wondering if this has changed? I saw this really insightful article by Sam, but I didn't come across any diversity stats elsewhere - and none on ethnic diversity.

http://tech.co/y-combinator-sam-altman-sexism-2014-07

I also saw this somewhat scathing critique citing the same challenge: http://valleywag.gawker.com/everything-thats-wrong-with-y-combinators-sexism-in-tec-1610990450

I must admit, I think the emphasis on "Tech Founders" and "Technical Co-Founders" in the age of massive offshoring, outsourcing, and open source technology is part of the pipeline problem. I'm a woman of African descent who started coding in college but found it was a slow and tedious option compared to other solutions for building out business solutions on the web.

While I still dabble when necessary and have successfully built out my own products, I find it exclusive in terms of network and cultural associations (especially when funders proclaim to want cozy relationships between founders) to place the "coder-builder" burden on competent entrepreneurs who should be resourceful enough to work around limits to their own technical skill sets (even techies - generalists and specialists alike have them) - especially with funding and the ability to hire / offshore a team. So long as IP and rights are address from the start, why further limit innovation?

I appreciate any answers regarding ethnic diversity in YC and thoughts on the diversity in tech topic. Ethnic studies was one of my minors at Cal and I think one of the biggest problems is a lack of solution-oriented dialogue. I found it so encouraging and refreshing during TechCrunch to see moderators willing to be uncomfortable and discuss it. Although they skirted around the topic a bit, I saw it as a sign of progress.

There have been a few Black women founders who have gone through YC at this point.

We just started asking for gender in the W15 application, and we've never asked for race, so we have very imperfect data on how many Black founders apply to YC. From a random sample of the last batch's applications we determined that less than 1% of the applications came from Black founders.

We need to do a better job communicating the fact that YC has funded all types of founders and companies -- and we want to fund more people from a wide range of backgrounds. We will miss out on many promising companies if we don't make that clear.

We've funded a number of single founders and even single non-technical founders. We've seen that running a startup is harder for solo founders and teams without a technical founder -- but it's not impossible. If you're willing to work hard and are resourceful, we would love for you to apply.

This fall, a couple of our partners will be speaking at historically black colleges, and in our most recent RFS (http://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/#diversity) we included a call for non-profits and startups that are working on making tech a more inclusive place for all people. If you have ideas on ways we could better reach Black women founders, feel free to reach me -- kat at ycombinator.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I've listened to hours of YC-related videos on YouTube and it is not clear that this is the case. It is good to hear, and I am happy to spread the word as I know many women and entrepreneurs of color feel discouraged because they are not "from central casting" or don't "pattern match." I've watched trends change and believe disrupted patterns, like the glitch in the movie, "Wreck it Ralph," are full of potential.

The strategy of speaking at Historically Black Colleges (HSBUs) is encouraging. I'm happy to reach out with other ideas and have blogged about suggestions:

http://timesnewromanempire.blogspot.com/2014/07/debugging-di...

http://timesnewromanempire.blogspot.com/2014/08/smoke-and-mi...

In the latter, I reference attending events for:

MESA http://mesa.ucop.edu/

NSBE http://www.nsbe.org/home.aspx

& Grace Hopper http://gracehopper.org/

May I suggest that in pioneering in diversity, the term "race" be retired as there is only one human race. Most thought leaders in ethnic & cultural studies concur. The terms "ethnic" and "culture" are more accurate and less divisive.

I happen to be mixed. When situations call for classification of sorts, I prefer "multi-ethnic," "multi-cultural," "Black" "Black-American" or "of African descent" (my daughter - whose father is African, is "African-American"). Terms like "bi-racial" and "mulatto" make me cringe. I know "race" is commonly used, so my suggestion is not to place blame, but to work towards a better framework for discussing diversity and reducing racial rhetoric.

You will, indeed, find me among the pool of applicants. Thank you, again, for addressing the question, and positing solutions. I am also interested to hear more about solo founders. Hard things don't intimidate me at all.

May I ask who is/are the single non-tech founder(s)? Thanks.

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