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I don't disagree with your premise about fluid intelligence, especially since the hands-down, no-question, smartest person I know is my college roommate, who happens to be black. But I do think that you are leaning quite far towards the idealized perception of Startup results being largely meritocratic. I would like to offer a counterargument. It is widely established that the more similar someone is to you, the more likely you are to "connect" and establish rapport and understanding with that person. Like you alluded to, this is at least part of the reason why "white, well-educated, experienced young men have relatively easy access to VC capital". VC partners are predominantly well-educated caucasian folks, along with a significant minority of South Asian, East Asian, and Middle Eastern partners. The partners, even the ones trying to fight their biases, will have a natural inclination to connect and understand entrepreneurs that are similar to themselves. I am absolutely guilty of such psychological forces myself, as much as I hate to admit it. Additionally, we have to look at sales. The people you are going to be selling to, whether it be fortune 500 CIOs or SF startup founders, again are predominantly caucasian. Like with the VC situation, all things being equal, you are more likely to "connect" with your point of contact if you have a lot in common with them. If you are starting a B2B SaaS company, Sales is even more critical than the money you raise from VCs. VCs will be much more inclined to actively fight their biases in order to find the best investments, since so much is on the line for them. I don't think you can say the same thing, or at least not nearly to the same extent, for many of the people you would be selling to. Statistically, it is thus advantageous to be caucasian. Just being smarter and more capable may not be enough when your customers' psychology is hard-wired to be against you, even if they are not conscious of it. Perhaps this is less of an issue if you are building something that does not involve a face to face sales process on a frequent basis. But the existence of such forces cannot and should not be forgotten or overlooked. |