Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by LastManStanding on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @03:16PM
(#4838707)
This should have happened long ago, and from what I have heard, Y-Combinator would be the best place to start.
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Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by debacle on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @03:27PM
(#4838769)
You're making serious accusations against an individual and a company based solely on things you have read about on the Internet or heard anecdotally.
Wake up. Discrimination is not cut and dry, law is not cut and dry, and reality is not cut and dry.
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by LastManStanding on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @05:31PM
(#4839590)
I am not making any accusations against anyone - it is obvious that Paul Graham has an age bias - he says so all over the place, but there is no law against having a bias. Age discrimination is almost impossible to prove, but if it is being used in the decisions of who gets into Y-Combinator someone should look into it.
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by jiggy2011 on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @06:25PM
(#4839922)
where has he said he has an age bias?
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by LastManStanding on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @06:41PM
(#4840003)
He does.
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by jiggy2011 on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @07:16PM
(#4840145)
Has he said so in an essay? On a HN post? To YC founders in person?
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by LastManStanding on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @08:03PM
(#4840341)
See comment above. There was another interview or blog post where he talked about his preference for young people more extensively, but I can't find it. Do you happen to know how many people over 50 have been accepted into Y-Combinator?
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by jiggy2011 on Tuesday November 27, 2012 @08:40PM
(#4840502)
I wonder how many people over 50 would apply? IIRC the seed capital they provide is probably small enough that a 50 year old would likely have that in their savings and possibly enough contacts/credit rating to get other funding directly.
The closest I could find was this: http://www.paulgraham.com/mit.html
But all he really says there is that younger founders have an advantage that they can live on less money.
Re:Silicon Valley's dirty secret - age bias
by herdrick on Wednesday November 28, 2012 @12:06AM
(#4841121)
You're thinking of someone else. Paul has corrected people here several times when they say something like, "I'd like to apply to YC but I'm X years old.". Usually his reply is approximately "We've funded several people ten years older than you.". I think the oldest YC funded founder is 50 something. So far.