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Companies with a female founder: 25 (21.93%) Companies with a Black founder: 9 (7.89%) Companies with a Hispanic founder: 6 (5.26%) They should release t

by cllns 12y ago

Companies with a female founder: 25 (21.93%) Companies with a Black founder: 9 (7.89%) Companies with a Hispanic founder: 6 (5.26%) They should release the stats of the number of people overall, not the number of companies with at least one member who fits into one of those groups. For example, say X% of the people are female, etc.

katm 12y ago
We've historically reported companies versus individuals, so we wanted to stay consistent. But that's fair -- we'll put it in those terms next time we release stats.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- xasos 12y ago
  Do you have historical data? It seems as if the number of minority founders is growing (which is awesome!)
- staunch 12y ago
  Sam Altman wrote 8 months ago: > As a side note, even though it will break backwards compatibility, we are considering changing how we look at this to the percentage of all founders that are women instead of the percentage of companies with a female founder. http://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups http://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups After being told by dozens of people how obviously misleading this statistic is. It was beneath YC to ever release such a phony stat, but it's downright unethical to continue propagating it.
  - wj 12y ago
    I'm sure you didn't mean it but your post comes across as entitled. YC has no obligation to share stats and just because you disagree with the methodology doesn't make them unethical.
    - unclesaamm 12y ago
      Likewise, just because you disagree with the parent poster's interpretation doesn't make them "entitled". Just as YC has no obligation to share stats, the parent has no obligation to not have an ethical opinion about that, or to share it.
    - staunch 12y ago
      I'm just sharing my opinion. I don't mean it to be a grand condemnation or a big deal. I hardly feel entitled. When otherwise good organizations misbehave I feel free to point it out. I don't complain about getting downvoted when people disagree. The fact is that this stat is provably misleading. People are understanding, and reporting it as, "25% of YC founders are female" when the reality is very different. YC knows about this and yet continues to use it. I think it's an understandable and small lapse in ethics predictably justified by some weak rationalization.
foobarqux 12y ago
That wouldn't serve their purposes.

by cllns 12y ago

katm 12y ago

We've historically reported companies versus individuals, so we wanted to stay consistent. But that's fair -- we'll put it in those terms next time we release stats.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
xasos 12y ago
Do you have historical data? It seems as if the number of minority founders is growing (which is awesome!)
staunch 12y ago
Sam Altman wrote 8 months ago: > As a side note, even though it will break backwards compatibility, we are considering changing how we look at this to the percentage of all founders that are women instead of the percentage of companies with a female founder. http://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups http://blog.ycombinator.com/diversity-and-startups After being told by dozens of people how obviously misleading this statistic is. It was beneath YC to ever release such a phony stat, but it's downright unethical to continue propagating it.
- wj 12y ago
  I'm sure you didn't mean it but your post comes across as entitled. YC has no obligation to share stats and just because you disagree with the methodology doesn't make them unethical.
  - unclesaamm 12y ago
    Likewise, just because you disagree with the parent poster's interpretation doesn't make them "entitled". Just as YC has no obligation to share stats, the parent has no obligation to not have an ethical opinion about that, or to share it.
  - staunch 12y ago
    I'm just sharing my opinion. I don't mean it to be a grand condemnation or a big deal. I hardly feel entitled. When otherwise good organizations misbehave I feel free to point it out. I don't complain about getting downvoted when people disagree. The fact is that this stat is provably misleading. People are understanding, and reporting it as, "25% of YC founders are female" when the reality is very different. YC knows about this and yet continues to use it. I think it's an understandable and small lapse in ethics predictably justified by some weak rationalization.

foobarqux 12y ago

That wouldn't serve their purposes.