[1dundundun]

For a long time, the popular belief in SV was that a lack of diversity actually helps an early stage startup.

We've probably all heard the story about how Paypal rejected a candidate that aced his engineering tests because he said he "likes to play hoops" in his free time. They decided that a guy who likes to play basketball would not be a good culture fit.

So, if that was the thought process that the Paypal Mafia left the nest with, it's not hard to see how we ended up in the situation we're in regarding diversity.

Side note: Like others, I also wonder how age gets left out of this diversity debate. That's pretty interesting...