I really don't think YC cares about ethnicity. I also don't quite get the point of this post.
Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
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Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#12Good Question. It would be interesting to hear about the experiences minority programmers have had in the startup scene (in our out of YC).
As a British Asian (that means Indian-subcontinent Asian for you Americans :) - I'd say race is a total non-issue in the startup community in the UK.
(Off the top of my head of the YC companies I believe Heyzap, Auctomatic, SnapTalent, and Rapportive all had British-Asian co-founders)
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#13How many apply? The population norm is irrelevant.
That said, how to correct this? E.g. Stanford University has no quota and doesn't yield on admission standards, but does a good job actively recruiting qualified minority students. Does YC recruit at all?
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#14It would help to know how many black founders apply in the first place.
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#15Good Question. It would be interesting to hear about the experiences minority programmers have had in the startup scene (in our out of YC).
Once upon a time I was working with a minority programmer. I wrote the majority of all code and he wrote minority of all code. I do remember that his variable names where odd and didn't bond well with mine, hence major problems.
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#16I really don't think YC cares about ethnicity. I also don't quite get the point of this post.
I don't think anybody is accusing YC of racism or any other discrimination. The causal relationships are higher order ones than that, but no less important for it.
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#17As a black person why do you think this is?
Not many black programming role models. Sad to say but many black youth still see sports and entertainment and the only way to achieve a high level of success in America. My primary goal in life is to try to change that perception by becoming a successful programmer.
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#18I really don't think YC cares about ethnicity. I also don't quite get the point of this post.
It sounds like a reasonable question to me. He's just wondering.
Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#19As a black person why do you think this is?
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Re: Has YC ever funded a company with a Black founder?
#20I really don't think YC cares about ethnicity. I also don't quite get the point of this post.
I don't see the question or the discussion so far as meeting the standard for "An interesting new phenomena." It looks like something that would be better served over on Quora than on HN. It's a reasonable question, but just as many subjects--explicitly including politics--are of interest to HN's readerships but still not HN-worthy, it doesn't appear to meet the standards in the FAQ for the front page.
Discussions of minority participation in technology and entrepreneurship goes on ad nauseaum elsewhere. If it is to come up here out of the blue, we ought to have some interesting angle to YCombinator funding. For example, if we know that YCombinator funds double the proportion of the rest of the industry, that would be interesting and new.
If we have no evidence of anything interesting or new, the question hardly seems like Hacker News. If it's a simple question, an email to Paul Graham would probably obtain a simple answer.