[emmett]

It may “seem” like that to you, but YC publishes actual stats…

https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-summer-2021-batch-stats/

* 50% are based outside the US * 70% are not B2B/Enterprise * 43% of the batch is white (less than half)

So…your impression is simply incorrect. YC doesn’t fund the companies you think it does.

[anotherfounder]

Just to add to appsec112's point, while I did frame my original point as a 'perception', I'm willing to take a bet that if you put together US companies stats, I would be more right than wrong.

And while we are at 'actual stats' conversation, can we do the following -

- for the sake of this conversation, not divvy up enterprise/saas from devtools and enterprise-y fintech and enterprise-y health?

- publish stats on stanford/mit claim?

- publish stats on previous employer? ex-FAANG vs ex-YC portfolio vs none of those.

I appreciate YC publishing stats but the industry's work is not done when just high-level stats are published without scrutiny.

[apsec112]

This doesn't address the claims, and honestly feels evasive. The original comment specified:

"(and that might be true for lot of the intl founders YC funds). But for most in the US"

ie., they agree things might be different for international YC startups, but they are talking specifically about US startups. That half of the startups are international doesn't matter for claims about the sub-population of US startups. Likewise, any particular type of startup could be well-represented among all YC companies but not US companies.

[jpglegal]

One problem with these stats is that they're counting the 15% of founders who are Latino as non-white. However, in countries like Brasil and especially Mexico, a large portion of the people who are able to get tech startups up and running are white people, not indigenous, mestizo, or black people. Mexico in particular has a huge problem with the elites almost all being white. Y Combinator is likely padding its diversity numbers by recruiting rich European and Mediterranean elites from Latin America. I'm not saying they definitely are, but it's very likely.

I do think it'd be more accurate to say "white or Asian" rather than just "white" when describing the bulk of Y Combinator participants. Asian people, though discriminated against in many ways in US office settings, are still firmly a part of Silicon Valley culture at all levels.

[xwolfi]

The perception tells more about the poster than YC for sure, but how will you address this ? I'll be honest, I had the exact same impression and I'm French, living in Hong Kong. For everyone, YC is a sort of Californian techno bubble, and now that I see stats, I wonder why I thought that way.

Maybe move away from California/US completely, change your own capital providers, make documentaries about how you're the top African venture capitalists and are headquartered in Kenya ? Maybe we conflate who you fund with who funds you ? Do you have the same breakdown for representatives of capital providers ?