Y Combinator to recruit more black entrepreneurs

I think the privileged label is overused these days (esp online), but the way I see it is that I've (apparently) got it slightly easier than a black person.

Doesn't mean I didn't work hard to achieve what I have, and my parents were fairly poor, but I didn't have other people looking at me and dismissing me because of my skin colour.

Some people are more "privileged" than me, some less.

It's a scale of difficulty, and people love to label and classify.

First, Altruism aside, this will likely be a win for ycombinator. There are always opportunities to be had in targeting subgroups which others neglect.

And the problem with bias is that much of it is subconscious. Unless an organisation makes a conscious effort, it will likely discriminate.

This means there's an opportunity for YC to get easier access to the cream of the crop, merely by specifically recruiting. And articles like this are helpful too, as they'll signal to would be black entrepreneurs that they should not shy away from YC.

Second, this could be very important for future african-american entrepreneurs. Reference examples are so, so important. I (white male) did not become a programmer, despite a love for math and computers. I literally didn't have a single programmer in my extended family or circle of close friends. I played around with computers, but I had no idea what a programming language was until age 25.

(If this sounds incurious, think about what massive blind spots you yourself had until recently)

If YC can fund an african-american entrepreneur who succeeds massively, then this will inspire thousands of others.

The same arguments apply to recruiting women, and inspiring women. I applaud this move, and YC's earlier initiative to recruit women.

It is widely established that the more similar someone is to you, the more likely you are to "connect" and establish rapport and understanding with that person. Like you alluded to, this is at least part of the reason why "white, well-educated, experienced young men have relatively easy access to VC capital". VC partners are predominantly well-educated caucasian folks, along with a significant minority of South Asian, East Asian, and Middle Eastern partners. The partners, even the ones trying to fight their biases, will have a natural inclination to connect and understand entrepreneurs that are similar to themselves. I am absolutely guilty of such psychological forces myself, as much as I hate to admit it.

Additionally, we have to look at sales. The people you are going to be selling to, whether it be fortune 500 CIOs or SF startup founders, again are predominantly caucasian. Like with the VC situation, all things being equal, you are more likely to "connect" with your point of contact if you have a lot in common with them. If you are starting a B2B SaaS company, Sales is even more critical than the money you raise from VCs. VCs will be much more inclined to actively fight their biases in order to find the best investments, since so much is on the line for them. I don't think you can say the same thing, or at least not nearly to the same extent, for many of the people you would be selling to. Statistically, it is thus advantageous to be caucasian.

Just being smarter and more capable may not be enough when your customers' psychology is hard-wired to be against you, even if they are not conscious of it. Perhaps this is less of an issue if you are building something that does not involve a face to face sales process on a frequent basis. But the existence of such forces cannot and should not be forgotten or overlooked.