As a female/startup co-founder, I find it rather unfortunate that Christine chose to close with:
Let's work constructively to get more bright young women to apply.
Why young? Are women over 30 over-represented among start-up founders? Does she feel that we are ticking time bombs waiting to run off to have babies? Is she simply uncomfortable mentoring someone slightly older? What is it?
I don't question the intentions. But I do question the quality of a mentoring group where the mentors themselves carry outdated self-defeating stereotypes. Reminds me of an otherwise intelligent Indian friend of mine who is completely hung up about having darker skin.
My sense is that most of the YC applicants are not just male but under 30. Is this incorrect?
I am one of the mentors in the group and participated in TechStars at the grand old age of 38 and have two young children, and I can say that our group would be happy to work with applicants of any age. I don't believe that Christine's comment is meant to indicate our support of women within a particular age range (or whether they have or plan to have children) -- it's a reference to what we believe the median age of YC applicants are.
Your comment does make me wonder, however: what is that number? Does anyone know?
Lisa is correct - the comment was pragmatic, not didactic. I don't know the actual median age of the YC applicant pool, but in my own anecdotal and unscientific experience (e.g., who have I met in person at events, or heard a pitch from) the median YC participant is around 23, and has yet to develop the familiarity with pitching that comes from years in the industry. Also, if program awareness comes from social networking or from university outreach, I'd expect a dominant concentration of 20-somethings in the pool.
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As a female/startup co-founder, I find it rather unfortunate that Christine chose to close with:
Let's work constructively to get more bright young women to apply.
Why young? Are women over 30 over-represented among start-up founders? Does she feel that we are ticking time bombs waiting to run off to have babies? Is she simply uncomfortable mentoring someone slightly older? What is it?
I don't question the intentions. But I do question the quality of a mentoring group where the mentors themselves carry outdated self-defeating stereotypes. Reminds me of an otherwise intelligent Indian friend of mine who is completely hung up about having darker skin.
My sense is that most of the YC applicants are not just male but under 30. Is this incorrect?
I am one of the mentors in the group and participated in TechStars at the grand old age of 38 and have two young children, and I can say that our group would be happy to work with applicants of any age. I don't believe that Christine's comment is meant to indicate our support of women within a particular age range (or whether they have or plan to have children) -- it's a reference to what we believe the median age of YC applicants are.
Your comment does make me wonder, however: what is that number? Does anyone know?
Lisa is correct - the comment was pragmatic, not didactic. I don't know the actual median age of the YC applicant pool, but in my own anecdotal and unscientific experience (e.g., who have I met in person at events, or heard a pitch from) the median YC participant is around 23, and has yet to develop the familiarity with pitching that comes from years in the industry. Also, if program awareness comes from social networking or from university outreach, I'd expect a dominant concentration of 20-somethings in the pool.