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YC Summer 2017 Stats

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Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#111

Post by ringaroundthetx »

keerthiko wrote: post #95
sachinag wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/asia…

> 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).

Hm, two flaws about that dichotomy:

1) Many people that aren't white or asian also feel that affirmative action is a bias against their actual ability to contribute to society. For example, not everyone would see getting into YC as a monumental achievement, but even if they did the idea that it would be belittled because of a perception that their skin tone filled a quote is the same being biased against.

2) Many people call this racism as well. In this context, it would primarily be a reference to an institutionalized circumstance.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#112

Post by csomar »

jacquesm wrote: post #77
csomar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm not sure why anyone would down vote that. Own a stake in YC?

Maybe because $85B is a lot of dough regardless of whether or not there are larger entities?

That's not my point. My point is YC is getting top attention and has a big (the biggest?) name in Early stage funding. That doesn't seem to translate to being a leader in picking winners though.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#113

Post by jacquesm »

csomar wrote: post #112
jacquesm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe because $85B is a lot of dough regardless of whether or not there are larger entities?

That's not my point. My point is YC is getting top attention and has a big (the biggest?) name in Early stage funding. That doesn't seem to translate to being a leader in picking winners though.

It doesn't have to! All they need to do is do well enough that they can continue to attract new talent and be founder friendly, and do this for the largest talent pool.

And this is what seems to be the case, there is no other program that has launched as many start-ups as YC has done and there is no other program that has done this for as many founders as YC has done. The network effects of that are tremendous.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#115

Post by nukdf »

Cyph0n wrote: post #23

Interesting! I would love to see more detailed stats on the universities of accepted YC applicants. * What proportion are from international universities (i.e., not the US)? * What percentage of founders graduated from top 10 universities? Top 100? * How many founders are PhD holders? How about MS? MBA?

That's a piece of data that I'd really like to see also =]

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#116

Post by jaypaulynice »

socrates1998 wrote: post #14

What is the overall rate of return for all the companies? I would like to see how much money was invested total into the companies and how much they all valued in total today.

http://seed-db.com/accelerators/view?acceleratorid=1011 As much info you can get for now...it says 15B invested Airbnb alone has almost a third of that.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#117

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

jacquesm wrote: post #103
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

It stops when you're large enough that statistically speaking you should have people of all walks of life in your portfolio. If you then don't that's proof that there is some kind of bias at work.

How do we determine whether the bias is caused by the employer or whether by the applicants?

Anyway, I'll agree that we need to have this conversation, and we need to work out some way of applying some rules that seem somewhat fair, and that the issues should be dealt with on all fronts.

We, in Australia anyway, already have varying rules / laws / regulations that apply to a workplace depending on the number of employees and / or revenue. So it would seem to make sense that diversity quotas would be applied in a similar fashion. I mean if we, as a society, believe that's necessary, which does appear to be the direction we're headed.

I guess I tend to recoil from the idea because I work in heavy steel fabrication and construction. The job roles in this industry tend to be very traditional with regard to gender. Women work the administrative side, men do all the dangerous / dirty / heavy / hot / long hours work. And as far as I can tell everyone is okay with that.

Until I see diversity quotas applied in the job roles that kill and injure men at work it's a little hard for me to take serious this ... squabbling ... in tech industry.

What might be best is, since this doesn't really involve me, as in: I don't work in the hotbed-tech-industry-in-a-large-city, I might just stay out of the conversation.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#118

Post by toephu2 »

rmena123 wrote: post #67
Grustaf wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you suggesting that YC rejects applicants because they are black or hispanic? Why would they do that? You seem to also say that they want to brag about accepting these ethnicities, so why then they discriminate _against_ them?

It's not that they reject them for being black or Hispanic, but look at the numbers, not just recent classes. It's a hot topic for companies to do the right thing now, its then they start to care. I don't think its done on purpose or with a hatred, but its an issue, look around.

See my comment above or I will paste again here:

What evidence is there that proves an equal percentage of every race and gender leads to a more profitable company (or has a higher chance of a successful exit)?* *Because I assume that by listing "UNDERREPRESENTED FOUNDERS" YC wishes there were 50% female founders and 50% male founders? And what about the racial makeup of founders? Is the ideal world for YC a racial make up of 20% white, 20% black, 20% asian, 20% middle eastern, and 20% other?

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#119

Post by toephu2 »

rmena123 wrote: post #69
mwseibel wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you truly believe this than I am sorry. If you are interested - feel free to email me: michael@ycombinator.com

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/

Why not accept people based on their skill and merits and not the color of their skin? Why should YC choose someone simple because he is black? Only 16% of the U.S. population is black, the amount of black people YC has accepted is not completely off, plus there is no reason it should exactly match the population make up of the U.S. anyway.

Re: YC Summer 2017 Stats

#120

Post by prawn »

rmena123 wrote: post #106
prawn wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"And just recently started accepting Hispanics and black founders out of a current trend/topic for tech companies to accept diversity." This is either very poorly worded or unfairly incorrect. When have they not accepted black or Hispanic founders?! They might have attracted mostly white/Asian applicants, but they have never precluded any group. "...they don't get the fact that founders can have a horrible applicatio…

Did you see any black or Hispanic founders in YC for the first years? Not to repeat myself, but look at the YC staff today. How many? http://www.ycombinator.com/people/

There's at least one black guy in that list and he's been there for a few years. He was also involved in one of their early and well-known investments.

You've implied that they only started accepting black/Hispanic people like they've been banned or something?!

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