[square1]

Shouldn't a desirable attribute from a founder be that they seek out whatever is necessary for survival?

To me, regardless of gender, YC would only want those that were proactive and dedicated to join a YC batch. It seems pointless to encourage specific demographics that would not apply, to do so.

[rdl]

YC is clearly not necessary for survival, especially for someone who has already had an exit (and thus has some capital and contacts), or someone who is 50 and has run a 30 person lab, with some savings and other personal contacts. YC can probably help in both of those cases, but the company is capable of being successful without it.

I'd sure rather have an Elon Musk or a Mara Aspinall in YC than a randomly-selected person who already believes YC is the best (or only) way to do a startup.

There are two parts to this -- making YC as useful as possible to the best founders, and making sure the best founders know that and apply.

[malanj]

It seems pointless to encourage specific demographics that would not apply, to do so.

I think you're missing the point that there could be reasons that females (or any demographic other than white American males) do not apply to YC that are not correlated with building great companies.

For example it is plausible that woman feel alienated by the tech startup scene and avoid applying to accelerators. White males born might not have that feeling. So effectively their "bar" is lower.

If YC is trying to address that it seems like a smart business move on their part. They are reducing irrationality in the system.

[amputect]

"whatever is necessary for survival" might include not wasting a ton of time applying to a startup incubator with a demonstrated track-record of not funding women or minorities or southpaws or whatever. Doing -anything- to change that perception could tip the effort/reward analysis in favor of more of $MINORITY applying.