throwaway435232

Ah, your response is good but very wide and 'systemic', i.e. what society as a whole can do over decades. But in the meantime, VC's are free to make their investment decisions, so I was wondering what you thought they should do differently to make a difference, today. Should it be quotas or minimum investments for people from alternative backgrounds? Or, what can VC's do to help level the playing field? If they receive smaller amounts of dealflow from alternative backgrounds, it's hard for them to apply their usual methods of investing... i.e. they might not even get access to opportunities from those backgrounds. what, then, could be done?

given that my main point is that this level of discourse is totally inappropriate for hackernews, there is no reason I would engage in this. it's like feeding a troll. if there were something substantial to discuss, that would be a different story.

(I don't think you should be downvoted for your question).

If he had phrased it the way you just did (in your middle paragraph) it would have been fine. He didn't, he just posted something inflammatory. so your middle paragraph is a lot better, it took thought rather than just writing down a literal truth. (it is also something nobody would disagree with, including me, and you certainly wouldn't have been downvoted for it.) If you had been the one to write the comment, I'd have also appreciated your suggestions as to what can be done about it systemically. your paragraph is quite productive, and an important point.

as a matter of fact, what do you suggest we do? (I mean concrete steps.) should funds try to set quotas for minorities, for example? (this is a genuine question, and I'm asking you littletimmy.)

(same user, I lost the pwd). I wouldn't touch Michael's negative comments, nor do I want to prop up criticism with a username. he needs to just stop posting gratuitously negative thing about startups (most of what moves him to comment), which are not constructive, and it's up to the rest of us to downvote gratuitously negative things until he learns that this is not the forum for them, unless he starts phrasing them constructively. the other respondent already tried to make this about me ("Until you're a successful founder from a bad family background and no history of founding startups, no ivy league education"...) so I am glad that I didn't get into this under a normal account. this does not seem like a productive thread.