Thought she handled the, "well, this is news to me! i don't know anything about the recent IPOs!" response pretty well.
She's also very smart (Harvard grad) and has an impressive resume. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Chang_(journalist)
Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
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Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#12In the later part of the interview she asks some questions about the recent discussions regarding minorities in the startup community. I thought his response was insightful: "Well, I think the problem is upstream from us. I don't think it's that, like, huge numbers of women and minorities want to start startups and that we're filtering them out because they're not white or men or something like that. I think that the…
Some other incubators fund more women and minorities than YC, so this seems like it's only part of the story. A couple questions this leaves in my mind: - what are they doing to broaden the applicant pool? - have they considered that something about the process or their reputation might lead to women and minorities steering away from YC?
Thats very much a governmental approach to solving the problem. Patch the surface but never deal with the underlying problem.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#13The entire time the reporter talks about "How would you, Paul, solve the minority issue" and he just keeps saying "It's not our problem to solve" but she doesn't hear him until the last 30 seconds!
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some other incubators fund more women and minorities than YC, so this seems like it's only part of the story. A couple questions this leaves in my mind: - what are they doing to broaden the applicant pool? - have they considered that something about the process or their reputation might lead to women and minorities steering away from YC?
Probably the biggest things we've done to broaden the applicant pool are Hacker News, Startup School, and all the essays I've written about startups. I don't think there's anything about our process or reputation that directly discourages people of any gender or race. But we do prefer founders who are hackers, which presumably thus causes fewer members of groups that are underrepresented among hackers to apply to YC.
It's nothing about your process. As you said on the interview, the women:men ratio is the same in the people accepted, and the people applying.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#15I love Emily Chang's facial expression :)))))
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#16In the later part of the interview she asks some questions about the recent discussions regarding minorities in the startup community. I thought his response was insightful: "Well, I think the problem is upstream from us. I don't think it's that, like, huge numbers of women and minorities want to start startups and that we're filtering them out because they're not white or men or something like that. I think that the…
Some other incubators fund more women and minorities than YC, so this seems like it's only part of the story. A couple questions this leaves in my mind: - what are they doing to broaden the applicant pool? - have they considered that something about the process or their reputation might lead to women and minorities steering away from YC?
what are they doing to broaden the applicant pool?
And why you want them to do so? I personally want that YC or any other program select applicants based on their skills and abilities and not any other criteria.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#17A bit OT but would be nice to have a [video] tag for these autostarting videos.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#18Why is the "not enough women and minorities" question even on the radar? Did I miss something?
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#19I love Emily Chang's facial expression :)))))
Listened to the audio while browsing web, the condescending tone of overvalued tech for privileged white people was all I could hear from her.
Paul, on the other hand, is a class act as always.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#20Thought she handled the, "well, this is news to me! i don't know anything about the recent IPOs!" response pretty well.
She's also very smart (Harvard grad) and has an impressive resume. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Chang_(journalist)
So she is of Chinese ascent. How weird, I couldn't tell. And her strong American accent, so strange. Sorry.