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SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

reuters.com

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Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#81

Post by baddox »

nostromo wrote: post #72
baddox wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Racism in its broadest, widely-accepted usage, refers to the treatment of people based on the belief that one race is superior to another. This program, as far as I can tell, makes no claims about any race being superior to another race.

Here’s a thought experiment: A black man and an Asian man rob a bank together. They are caught, charged, and found guilty of the same crime. The black man is set free because his race is over-represented at the local jail, but the Asian man serves 8 years in prison. Because nobody is saying someone is superior to another person here, the above example is not racist and totally fine, in your definition of racism. Even…

That thought experiment does not reflect any realities of the real world that we are discussing, so I don’t find it particularly interesting. The analogous situation would be if judges systematically sentence Black men to twice the jail time for that crime as Asian men, and someone proposed correcting that disparity by cutting the Black man’s sentence in half (so that it would match the Asian man’s sentence). I would support that.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#82

Post by jsinai »

Thorentis wrote: post #2

Limiting initiatives like this based on skin color, implies that the reason for them needing help is their skin color. What about white people that come from low-socioeconomic backgrounds? Broken families? Didn't finish high-school? Abused as a child/teenager? Single parent family? Aren't these the real reasons why people are disadvantaged? People of all colors come from these backgrounds. I'm sick of the hypocrisy o…

If you look at tech and most startups, an overwhelming amount of founders come from a similar background: white, male. I don’t have the data on this but you could for example make inferences from the YC summer and winter showcases.

I would expect that what this helps to do is encourage participation from ethnic minorities in the US.

And to your point on white people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Sure it is good to lift all people up in society, but they certainly don’t have to face racial discrimination in the workplace or admissions pipeline. Failing to acknowledge that race is a factor in many people’s lives experiences is a failure to acknowledge systemic racism. This is an attempt to recognize that and correct that. And as other commentators have said, this by no means implies that other initiatives have to be mutually exclusive l.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#83

Post by IanCal »

malandrew wrote: post #54
fiblye wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These past few months have been endless blunders and bad news for SoftBank. They’re definitely not putting $100 million into a goodwill and equality fund. They’re putting 100 million into PR and advertising with the benefit of getting some returns. But companies do this because they know it works, so I guess I can’t say it’s a dumb financial move.

> with the benefit of getting some returns. I've never understood this argument in the context of investing. If there was an opportunity to get outsized returns by investing in the people this targets, then investors would already be going after these opportunities, motivated by the returns alone. They wouldn't even need the social signaling aspect of announcing a fund like this. If anything, they'd probably keep suc…

Assuming everyone acts rationally and without bias.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#84

Post by Impossible »

Class is a problem, but the class issue isn't "poor Black kids from broken homes" (to quote some comments here) vs upper middle class FAANG employees and MIT grads. Being poor and uneducated is a barrier to being an employee in tech, but it's not the only barrier to getting funding. Anyone that can leetcode can get a job in tech. Raising requires a strong network, involves quite a lot of signaling and bias and gut feeling.

You have to be rich for class to be a major advantage when starting a startup, middle class isn't enough unless you're willing to expose yourself to a lot of personal risk. For various reasons middle class Black people with the skills to start a startup are more risk averse than white counterparts. For other reasons those same Black people get less funding than counterparts of other races.

I say this as a Black engineer from a middle class background that has been a founder, worked at FAANG and personally knows many Black founders that tried to bootstrap and failed to raise, even with strong pitches and profitable products. It's possible that these companies are fundamentally worse than all white founded companies that raise, but I rarely see Black people given a chance to fail. Class is not the only issue and it's not the main barrier for most Black people.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#85

Post by onion2k »

Thorentis wrote: post #2

Limiting initiatives like this based on skin color, implies that the reason for them needing help is their skin color. What about white people that come from low-socioeconomic backgrounds? Broken families? Didn't finish high-school? Abused as a child/teenager? Single parent family? Aren't these the real reasons why people are disadvantaged? People of all colors come from these backgrounds. I'm sick of the hypocrisy o…

Aren't these the real reasons why people are disadvantaged?

Not when it comes to raising VC money, no. Typically people who manage to raise a round come from good backgrounds, middle-class families and have a high level of education. There are exceptions but that's a good general heuristic for a founder who has successfully raised money. If you're from a broken home, didn't finish school, or you were abused as a child you're much less likely to be raising money from a VC fund for a litany of reasons that all need to be addressed by society as a whole.

However, even though practically all the people who pitch to VCs are well-educated, relatively wealthy, middle-class people regardless of what color they are, it's still the case that more than 3/4 of deals go to white men[1]. It's extremely hard to raise, and even harder if you're in a minority group. VCs are systemically averse of doing deals outside of their comfort zone.

For Softbank to ring fence the equivalent of 0.1% of their Vision Fund as "this money is only for minorities" that's fine. To be honest it's not really enough.

I don't look at this news as a VC company going 'positive discrimination' but more as a VC company realising that it has a problem turning down deals that could make them money, eg minority-led startups, and doing something to fix that.

[1] https://news.crunchbase.com/news/untapped-opportunity-minori...

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#86

Post by sudhirj »

Thorentis wrote: post #2

Limiting initiatives like this based on skin color, implies that the reason for them needing help is their skin color. What about white people that come from low-socioeconomic backgrounds? Broken families? Didn't finish high-school? Abused as a child/teenager? Single parent family? Aren't these the real reasons why people are disadvantaged? People of all colors come from these backgrounds. I'm sick of the hypocrisy o…

This is slight variation on the theme of the Black Lives Matter vs All Lives Matter argument, and it's been addressed adequately on social media.

The fund isn't pointing out that "Only Black Founders Matter", it's saying that that group of people require attention at this point in time, and we're going to focus on them now and correct the systemic problems that have given them a disadvantage until this point in time.

We'll get to everyone else next. The principle of using the water wagon to save the house that's currently burning applies. The people starting this fund have decided that focusing on this group is a good start, other groups will come later after the problem is clear enough.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#87

Post by fiblye »

malandrew wrote: post #54
fiblye wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These past few months have been endless blunders and bad news for SoftBank. They’re definitely not putting $100 million into a goodwill and equality fund. They’re putting 100 million into PR and advertising with the benefit of getting some returns. But companies do this because they know it works, so I guess I can’t say it’s a dumb financial move.

> with the benefit of getting some returns. I've never understood this argument in the context of investing. If there was an opportunity to get outsized returns by investing in the people this targets, then investors would already be going after these opportunities, motivated by the returns alone. They wouldn't even need the social signaling aspect of announcing a fund like this. If anything, they'd probably keep suc…

If maximum returns meant picking people based on race, they’d do it. If it doesn’t, they’ll announce that they’re picking people based on race as a good-will move. They’re probably not burning money with this decision, but they’d probably make more if they picked based on some other metric. The PR is the important thing here, which is why they’re making a point of announcing it to the world.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#88

Post by DeonPenny »

Thorentis wrote: post #12
somedude123 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Limiting initiatives like this based on skin color, implies that the reason for them needing help is their skin color. Systematic racism is very much real in the United States, putting minorities at a disadvantage exactly because of the color of their skin - socioeconomic background and upbringing aside. Affirmative action, and presumably this effort by SoftBank, is intended to address that.

As far as I can see, this doesn't exist in the tech world (any more). Most Fortune 500 companies go out of their way to hire minorities, even if they are less qualified. Colleges do the same. Minorities are not disadvantaged purely for their skin color in the tech world. They are disadvantaged because of their worse financial/education situation. And my point is that these traits that effect people in tech are not li…

Tech companies absolutely do not try hard enough to hire disadvantaged people color enough to offset the issue that comes with getting past interview processes staff with people with inherent prejudices.

Regardless if they get in the pipeline an issue a disadvantaged minority will have will be getting railroaded by say, an engineer who doesn't like said minority regardless of his competence level.

I think that your making assumption based on a lifestyle you don't live. You in the response a being flippant in saying well its not that bad. The fact is I doubt you have any idea. The fact is no is plenty of evidence that say with the same financial/education level a minority is disadvantaged and even with a greater financial/education level they are more disadvantaged.

I think your living in a reality of how you think the world should be instead of the one that exists.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#89

Post by renewiltord »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #79
blackoil wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A person snatched stick of a blind man and threw it, another helped him cross the street. Both treated him differently because he was blind. Only one of them was asshole.

Try this argument the next time someone calls you racist for assuming all Asians are good at Math. Maybe the blind guy did not want to be patronizingly helped with crossing the road. Maybe he would have asked for help if needed it and could have done without a sighted knight. If these arguments sound perverse just swap out some other 'issue' and they will start sounding familiar.

You don't have to apply for funding.

Re: SoftBank launches $100m minorities startup fund

#90

Post by renewiltord »

I like it. Very clever. If there are founders out there who are capable but underserved sorely because they're not in the right social circles then this is a good attempt at capitalizing on that.

I love watching the market in action. Wonder if it will pay off.

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