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I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

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Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#41

Post by patio11 »

vinhboy wrote: post #22
wccrawford wrote: post #3

Why even bring the 'female' bit into it? It means nothing, unless you think it's a handicap... And then it is, but only because you think it is. As for finding a co-founder... You expect to do that without giving up equity? What would be in it for them? I'm not surprised you haven't found anyone.

Why are people on HN so anal about how people identify themselves? If I introduce myself as "single beer-loving founder", why is that even an issue? If I view myself and wishes to identify myself in a certain way why can't we just accept that? Besides, this is a personal blog, can't people say what they want on their own blog? The worst part is now there is a whole section of this thread dedicated to this pointless c…

I think people have the perception at the Female part is being invoked to excuse the Non-Developer part.

Without specific reference to this post, have we ever read:

I'm a male developer, and I want to do a startup. I can handle all the coding - I'm such an underappreciated genius - but I need some of that stuff. You know, that marketing stuff. With the pretty words and stuff. I would do it myself, but it's just all I have all sorts of manly responsibilities. I mean, hello, wife and kids? Like I'd ever have time for marketing stuff. It can't be too hard, though.

I went to a networking party to find a marketing stuff person. All twenty something girls, pff, it figures. Well, they probably have time for learning that marketing stuff since they don't have anything more important to do. I talked to a couple of them, but it just didn't click. Besides, give away half my company to a marketer? Are you crazy?! It's just some words strung together in a particular order.

I hired a marketing stuff firm. I was always more cut out for asking for stuff than for doing stuff. It takes so long and their stuff doesn't look like the stuff I would write if I could write stuff! And every time their incompetence requires a redo, they charge more money!

It's no wonder there aren't more men doing stuff. I feel so unwelcome.

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#42

Post by grovulent »

Mz wrote: post #17
grovulent wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'"being a mom of twins and a wife. I doubt any man doing a startup can say something similar.' A bit hard given that men by definition can't be mothers and wives... Seriously though - there is certainly a sense where adding the 'female' into the description of the reality actually does get extra information across. The fact is that life balance is often more important to women and they do still tend to get lumped wit…

A bit hard given that men by definition can't be mothers and wives... They can still be parents and spouses, even if a different (gender-specific) term is used. However, men rarely do the full-time father thing and, from what I have seen around me, even when they are unemployed and financially dependent on their wife, they don't typically take over the housework and cooking to the point of doing it 40 to 60 hours per…

Sorry - the first part of my comment was me being silly...

Yeah - I'm a 34 year old male. I figure I have about ten years or so left before I have this unconquerable urge to shamelessly hit on 20 year olds and generally make a complete embarrassment out of myself - unless I can establish a family to ground me.

But yep - I think women really hit their stride once they satisfy the family urge and should not feel so pressured to achieve in their 20s and 30s... I think they often make a mistake in thinking that they have to cram in career and family before they get old an infertile... and actually hurt themselves and their families by trying. If they had more faith that they can make awesome contributions once the kids have matured somewhat I think they overall could have much fuller lives.

Interestingly - and I hope this doesn't sound off - but I actually struggle to relate to many young women. I honestly believe the breeding instinct is just rapacious and overwhelming (and it kinda has to be - cause there is a time limit on it). And really is just horrid to deal with if you're a young inexperienced male. Older women, on the other hand, are just awesome to talk to.

It's just strange that god (or evolution or whatever) would have it that just as the women are coming, the men are going. Pun very much intended. Makes me think about that Benjamin Button story. So much truer to real life that you think on a first read/viewing...

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#43

Post by benmccann »

vinhboy wrote: post #22
wccrawford wrote: post #3

Why even bring the 'female' bit into it? It means nothing, unless you think it's a handicap... And then it is, but only because you think it is. As for finding a co-founder... You expect to do that without giving up equity? What would be in it for them? I'm not surprised you haven't found anyone.

Why are people on HN so anal about how people identify themselves? If I introduce myself as "single beer-loving founder", why is that even an issue? If I view myself and wishes to identify myself in a certain way why can't we just accept that? Besides, this is a personal blog, can't people say what they want on their own blog? The worst part is now there is a whole section of this thread dedicated to this pointless c…

It's a fine way to identify one's self. But it's not a terribly relevant title. The article has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she is female.

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#44

Post by sn »

static47 wrote: post #15
il wrote: post #8

I would strongly urge you to reconsider your approach and get a technical cofounder. I've seen countless startups founded by nontechnical people outsourcing everything stumble because crucial technical and architecture decisions were made poorly in the beginning. Outsourcing development seems almost orthogonal to the principles of building a startup-iterating fast, making do with limited resources, etc. I've done con…

I 1000% agree with you (this is the author of the article btw). I am constantly in search of a techincal co-founder and I will give equity to the right person, but that takes time. I feel outsourcing can get me to a place to keep the project going until I find the right person. In no way do I see outsourcing as the end all solution :) I have the upmost respect for developers and truly hope that I can find the right f…

Have you checked out women 2.0?

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#45

Post by BerislavLopac »

patio11 wrote: post #41
vinhboy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people on HN so anal about how people identify themselves? If I introduce myself as "single beer-loving founder", why is that even an issue? If I view myself and wishes to identify myself in a certain way why can't we just accept that? Besides, this is a personal blog, can't people say what they want on their own blog? The worst part is now there is a whole section of this thread dedicated to this pointless c…

I think people have the perception at the Female part is being invoked to excuse the Non-Developer part. Without specific reference to this post, have we ever read: I'm a male developer, and I want to do a startup. I can handle all the coding - I'm such an underappreciated genius - but I need some of that stuff. You know, that marketing stuff. With the pretty words and stuff. I would do it myself, but it's just all I…

Have you been following me around? ;)

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#46

Post by Mz »

untamedmedley wrote: post #29
Mz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bit hard given that men by definition can't be mothers and wives... They can still be parents and spouses, even if a different (gender-specific) term is used. However, men rarely do the full-time father thing and, from what I have seen around me, even when they are unemployed and financially dependent on their wife, they don't typically take over the housework and cooking to the point of doing it 40 to 60 hours per…

Raising children can be tough, but 60 hours of housework per week? In my house there's maybe 1-2 hours of cooking for dinner everyday and maybe 5 hours of cleanup on Saturday morning (this includes cleaning bathrooms, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, etc.). Laundry takes 10 minutes to separate, then the machines pretty much do the rest of the job. Laundry gets done once a week for a family of four here for another 2-3 h…

Raising children can be tough, but 60 hours of housework per week?

That statistic comes from the book "More Work for Mother" which is the history of "labor saving" devices and their impact on housework (short version: labor saving devices have generally led to increased expectations for quality, not actual reduction in hours spent on housework). IIRC, 60 hours per week has been a stable figure for roughly 300 years so it probably hasn't changed much since I read the book.

I don't doubt that there are exceptions. I've certainly rearranged my life to eliminate as much housework as possible.

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#47

Post by Nox »

wccrawford wrote: post #3

Why even bring the 'female' bit into it? It means nothing, unless you think it's a handicap... And then it is, but only because you think it is. As for finding a co-founder... You expect to do that without giving up equity? What would be in it for them? I'm not surprised you haven't found anyone.

Speaking as somebody with a Masters in digital anthropology and almost 5 years non-technical experience with startups, who is also a comp sci student now to round out my qualifications, gender does sometimes matter when it really shouldn't.

That said, I don't think focusing on it as a definitive characteristic is helpful at all. I bought codegoddess.com thinking I could make some awesome online hub for female coders, and then realized a chromosomal marker isn't a very good distinguishing feature.

Re: I am a Female Sole Founder with no Dev Experience… Yeah, it’s a Tough Road

#48

Post by Nox »

araneae wrote: post #30
vinhboy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are people on HN so anal about how people identify themselves? If I introduce myself as "single beer-loving founder", why is that even an issue? If I view myself and wishes to identify myself in a certain way why can't we just accept that? Besides, this is a personal blog, can't people say what they want on their own blog? The worst part is now there is a whole section of this thread dedicated to this pointless c…

Because it's always female. Never beer-loving, or Asian, or bipolar. The whole industry is caught up in this obsession over the lack of women in tech, and I'm so incredibly sick of it.

I'm a girl, back in school to study comp sci, and I actually agree with you.

If I get hired, I want to know it's because my tech-fu is the best. I don't ever want it to be because I hit the right combo of nice rack and not totally incompetent.

I think there's a fundamental problem which is resulting in a lack of women in tech, but the useful discussion isn't about women in tech, it's about how we incorporate tech and business into the education system. By the time we're hiring or finding a partner, gender should be a non-issue. The fact that less women than men are going into the most interesting, lucrative and potentially challenging facet of society is an interesting conundrum though.

For what it's worth, I'm a beer-loving, bipolar, ADHD human with ladyparts and mathematically pleasing proportions. :P

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