Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
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Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
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Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#2Thought she handled the, "well, this is news to me! i don't know anything about the recent IPOs!" response pretty well.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#3In 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 applicant pool, the applicant pool has the same problem that people see in our output, right? The same problem is in our input that people see in our output. The problem is further upstream. The problem is that the pool of startup founders is the people who are messing about with computers at age 13. If you want to fix the problem, that's what you have to change."
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#4In 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…
It took him some time to come up with the right response and you could feel he was "computing" the right answer in his head. When he finally found it, it just felt a very natural conclusion. Paul defused the race bomb question with great calm and clear thinking.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#5In 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…
It took him some time to come up with the right response and you could feel he was "computing" the right answer in his head. When he finally found it, it just felt a very natural conclusion. Paul defused the race bomb question with great calm and clear thinking.
After the incident involving Arrington, it'd be surprised if PG had not thought about the issue in that context and had reached some conclusion at that point --even if that conclusion was simply an affirmation of his experience and what amounts to his anecdotal evidence in the applicant pool.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#6In 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…
It took him some time to come up with the right response and you could feel he was "computing" the right answer in his head. When he finally found it, it just felt a very natural conclusion. Paul defused the race bomb question with great calm and clear thinking.
That's how he responds to all q's. He is so smart and so well thought out that you can literally see him thinking through the question to be able to give a clear thoughtful response. Whenever I see him doing an interview I always think he is operating on an another level.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#7In 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?
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#8[deleted]
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#9"it's gotten cheaper and cheaper and cheaper to start a startup"
"maybe it's just not the right time yet for a vacation on the moon"
There is a terrible amount of segment bias here. It is orders of magnitude cheaper than it used to be to start a software or virtual service startup. Other varieties of tech startups (chip fabs, space launches, flying cars, etc.) aren't nearly as cheap yet and represent far greater risk. It's a big world. Lots of markets. Lots of possibilities.
Re: Y Combinator's Graham Discusses Start-Up Industry
#10In 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?
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.