An unrelated nitpick (this is HN after all): The white-on-black text really bothered me. I am seeing ghosting a few minutes after reading the piece (which I read in its entirety because it was pretty good).
Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
11–20 of 58 posts
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#12> It wasn’t just that she referred to herself as a nontechnical cofounder it’s that she repeatedly diminished herself and her own qualifications at a conference supposedly organized to stop other women from doing the same thing. Has no one ever pointed out to Jessica that at the end of the day YC is an investment company and that she was the only YC cofounder with actual investment experience? That, if anything, she was the ONLY ONE of that group even remotely qualified to be there? Not a tagalong in her boyfriend’s company who has to constantly apologize for her presence.
Interesting that was the OP's response. I simply took it as her being humble, not diminutive - so for me, her message was clearly delivered - take pride in whatever it is you do and do it well, regardless of role or sex. Interestingly, after hearing her keynote I thought she was the "technical" co-founder (she had investment experience in a investment based company) and pg was the non-technical co-founder (he was the hustler and gained the attention of the developers they would fund and match them up with investors).
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#13I posted my thoughts on the conference in another related thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7334744
But since it's relevant, I'll post them again here. TL;DR: I thought the conference was awesome and look forward to watching it streamed again next year. Here's my original comment:
This was a great conference. I didn't attend (I'm male), but I watched the livestream and learned a lot from the speakers.
I especially liked the conference because I learned about the female perspective. My wife isn't a startup founder, but has a similarly stressful job (flies F/A-18's in stressful, life-threatening situations), with similar hours (14hrs/day and often weekends), in a similar environment (male-dominated Marine Corps). I often wonder how she'll manage her work when we have kids...everything from pregnancy to making time for the kids when she's busy. It's easier for me since I work at home now, but she'll deal with the same challenges that some of the founders mentioned. And knowing her, she'll feel incredibly guilty for not being around.
Anyway, I enjoyed the conference, learned a lot, and look forward to it next year.
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#14An overall well-balanced article, but I find it hard to believe that Jessica meant anything more regarding non-technical founders than someone having to carry their weight by taking care of the majority of non-technical tasks in a startup whose product is likely wholly technical. I've heard male non-technical founders recount memories of making coffee for coders to keep them happy. If anything, she gave a more accurate depiction of the role than someone who calls themselves the business or product guy.
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#15It's expected that every word anybody said during that conference will be scrutinized beyond what's appropriate, simply because it's such a touchy subject. That's probably the reason why the video of the conference was already taken offline today while I was watching it (edit: it's not, see below). Generally I think it would be more productive if judgements weren't done on a hair trigger, because that's what makes th…
That's probably the reason why the video of the conference was already taken offline today while I was watching it. No, we took the video offline because one of the speakers hadn't realized the talks were being filmed. It will be back once we edit that one out.
Understandable, but also unfortunate. I saw the whole original talk and thought it was amazing. It's rare to get that kind of honesty, especially from a unique point of view. Unfortunately, our community has a way of punishing honesty like that, which is part of the reason we have so many unnecessary failures.
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#16SEXIST
EVIL
DISCRIMINATORY
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#17> when you’re the nontechnical cofounder, your job is everything that’s nontechnical’ including grocery shopping and errand running. I don’t know why this comment struck me as odd
As a non-technical cofounder, this is the truth. I'm not sure what expectations at large are, but I can corroborate this story and believe it should be most 'non-technical' cofounders expectation of reality.
Take out trash, buy office furniture, go on sales calls, arrange the company insurance plan, order dinner on late nights, line up investor meetings, talk to users... I could literally go on forever - those are off the top of my head from last week.
Technical cofounders (and employees) should be maximizing their impact by doing technical aspects - other founders should be selling, marketing, building the business, and sometimes have to order food, clean up the office, or go see the company lawyers/ accountants/ & run errands.
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#18If you're interested in following the results of this conference and/or discovering more female founders, technical or not, I made a large Twitter list [1] to keep up to date.
Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's probably the reason why the video of the conference was already taken offline today while I was watching it. No, we took the video offline because one of the speakers hadn't realized the talks were being filmed. It will be back once we edit that one out.
Understandable, but also unfortunate. I saw the whole original talk and thought it was amazing. It's rare to get that kind of honesty, especially from a unique point of view. Unfortunately, our community has a way of punishing honesty like that, which is part of the reason we have so many unnecessary failures.
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Re: Thoughts on YC's Female Founders Conference
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's probably the reason why the video of the conference was already taken offline today while I was watching it. No, we took the video offline because one of the speakers hadn't realized the talks were being filmed. It will be back once we edit that one out.
Understandable, but also unfortunate. I saw the whole original talk and thought it was amazing. It's rare to get that kind of honesty, especially from a unique point of view. Unfortunately, our community has a way of punishing honesty like that, which is part of the reason we have so many unnecessary failures.
[deleted]