[sonofaplum]

The nature of VC being what it is, it's extremely difficult to prove racism at the level of proof that most HN readers seem to need. 99.99% of all startup ideas are bad, 99.99% of all apps are terrible, so how can we know if she was rejected for being black, or for just being another supplicant denied by the VC gods?

The email thing is the strongest evidence she provides, but obviously, a doubting mind can find other reasons that her husbands email would get responses but hers wouldn't.

We do know, however, that African Americans are greatly under represented in tech, in startups and in VC. There are many interlocking reasons for this, and its not unreasonable to expect that racism, whether conscious or unconscious, is one of them. (Why should tech, uniquely in American society, be immune from racism?). Because there are so many interlocking reasons, it's easy for each individual link in the chain of tech to deflect blame to the other links (business can blame the pipeline, colleges can blame the high schools, high schools can blame the financial structures etc etc etc).

So, is it reasonable to expect individual VCs to make a stand against racism instead of doing what comes naturally to them? (trying desperately to make money). Not really!

However, I do think it's reasonable to expect, that VC's who make big pronouncements about what their firm is going to do to combat racism should be expected to follow through with it! And guess what, given all the interlocking problems that prevent black people from founding companies, VC's probably aren't going to be able to follow through on that mission by relying on business as usual of warm intros only, five minute pitch reviews, blow off emails.

Just level with us. We are all adults. Just say, I'm not actually that interested in explicitly helping black founders, I just want to keep trying to make money the way I've been doing it. Conversely, if you do give juicy quotes to the press, then be prepared to walk the walk.

[perseusmandate]

I'm in VC and there are many reasons why I and my peers are not interested in yet another software product selling to gyms. They are extremely fragmented, hard to access, low ACV customers who are already well served by products like MindBody. I've seen a ton of marketplaces for personal trainers as well.

The reality is that the chance a VC responds to a cold outbound email is already near 0. I get these in my LinkedIn inbox almost all the time and they are very rarely good because the founders with great companies are not going out of their way to cold email people. I doubt that most of the VCs she's talking about spent enough time to even realize it was a WoC.

[graeme]

I had one of the responses questioning the story (I wrote it would be more persuasive with the pitch deck or an explanation for why the app was in VC territory)

But I completely agree with you about the hypocrisy of asking for emails from black founders and then ignoring them.

And also agree that requiring a warm intro as the only way to reach a VC is a real barrier. It may be a good test (“Can you hustle enough to reach me”), but is objectively harder if you’re not in a certain set.

[jbay808]

The author's point about VC firms providing no contact information disproportionately impacting minority founders who don't have network connections is also a good one, and fixable.

[danenania]

Whether or not they publish contact details, someone without a 'pedigree' or serious traction is far more likely to end up in meetings with VCs by applying to well-known accelerators like YC than by reaching out directly to VCs. This is the primary way that founders without a network get plugged in.

There can obviously be bias issues at the accelerator level too, so I'm not saying it's a solution, but you can be sure that someone will at least take a look at your application.

[adrr]

There are accelerators that focus on under represented groups, Morgan Stanley has one. Like you said, once you’re in accelerator you can quickly build out your network .