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YC Summer 2017 Stats

blog.ycombinator.com

91–100 of 124 posts

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#91
What would be interesting is to look at the distribution of YC's capital over the companies it owns shares of. Is it mostly concentrated in the very big ones? Or is the number of less-than-100m companies large enough that they make up a decent part of YC's total assets.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll email you sometime and I appreciate the response. Just to set my example, how many staff at YC are black or Hispanic in the list below? I find it odd considering the amount of population of these groups in the USA alone. Not many startups cater to this demographic, if they aren't being accepted. http://www.ycombinator.com/people/

You may have a point. The decision of who to fund may rely in part on seeking people similar to oneself and if the demographics of the applicant pool are not reflected in the staff of YC it may skew the outcome against minorities.

Why does the concept of free association stop, and the and the chilling effect of we can't be seen together without a representatives from every phenotype begin?

When do we start to demand that Latino rap groups (eg. Cypress Hill) hire to meet diversity quotas?

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#93
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thing I've been curious about is how many of the founders had student loans when they started the company. I'd bet that student loans hold a lot of people back. I just paid mine off last year.

Student loans and health factors (specifically complications around health insurance or existing healthcare costs). Health considerations can be a massive issue when trying to do a start-up. At 30-40 years old (with the average age around 30, I imagine there are plenty of candidates between 30-40), some small percentage of people are likely to be running into their first health problems or concerns. Financially speak…

In the US, you can get COBRA coverage to continue on your employer's group plan for 18 months. You have to pay the full premium, but at least it takes away the risk about getting coverage.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Student loans and health factors (specifically complications around health insurance or existing healthcare costs). Health considerations can be a massive issue when trying to do a start-up. At 30-40 years old (with the average age around 30, I imagine there are plenty of candidates between 30-40), some small percentage of people are likely to be running into their first health problems or concerns. Financially speak…

If YC could give 1 year of healthcare I bet the would get a lot more companies applying.

I'm pretty sure YC doesn't have any trouble getting companies to apply. Perhaps their biggest problem is just dealing with the shear volume of applications they already get.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#95
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* We ask for gender on our applications, but we haven't asked for race/ethnicity, which is why we don't have the answer to your first question. * We see that it does for female founders. * Total number of submissions * Gender is reported in the applications. We asked founders in the batch to self-report for race/ethnicity.

Why ask for gender but not race/ethnicity?

This is an excellent question. If I were running the applications I might have done the same (ask gender but not race/ethnicity), because gender just feels more generally okay to ask. But if the purpose of asking is for nothing more than stats recording, then why not ask ethnicity as well?

I think it lies in that people fear being biased against for reporting their ethnicity, either via affirmative action (white/asian) or racism (everyone else).

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Underrepresented might not mean underpresented in YC, but underpresented in the industry. In which case there is more to consider than just the applicant set.

Which industry?

It seems to me that question has a trivial answer - and so I wonder, are you trying to obliquely say something? And if so, what?

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#99
post #3
post #2

It would be great if the underrepresentation stats also included class distinctions, or at least economic backgrounds.

Another thing I've been curious about is how many of the founders had student loans when they started the company. I'd bet that student loans hold a lot of people back. I just paid mine off last year.

It's an interesting proxy for childhood socioeconomic status (which I'd also love to see some data on)

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#100
post #88

I can bet, if YC had the stats for race/ethnicity amount who applied, we would be shocked of the amount of blacks or Latinos who were never accepted. Especially from the early days. Count me and a few other Hispanics who never have been accepted. The only time its cared about is after the fact and just for show purposes like this. On a side Note: Yc doesn't understand people like me will never have the resume they ar…

I always get the impression that they make a particular effort to understand groups outside their typical applicants and look for opportunities in other countries and cultures. Surely there's every chance that your application isn't strong enough?

By no means am I saying I should of been accepted. I'm actually saying the opposite, I don't fit the mold and probably lack many things, but I rather look at it as a whole. The truth is the staff at YC lack blacks or Hispanics. And just recently started accepting Hispanics and black founders out of a current trend/topic for tech companies to accept diversity. If it wasn't brought up, would YC have made it a point to accept more blacks or Hispanics/woman now?

I think YC is great, but they don't get the fact that founders can have a horrible application or even look horrible on paper.

Being an entrepreneur is not a cookie cut process, nor is business or anything else.

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