> "Silicon Valley works because there is such a high density of people working on start-ups and they are inclined to help each other"
Bull shit. With all due respect to Sam--who no doubt knows what he's doing and saying and has become very successful--he is undoubtedly living in a bubble of his own. While I've found people generally open to the idea of chatting over a coffee, I've run across very few people that go out of their way to help. In fact, I more often find people who will either offer to help, and don't, or are so self-absorbed that they can't stop talking about how great/impressive they or their startup is without bothering to ask about you or what you're doing. I've even asked for a meeting with and gotten the following response: "I'm very busy. Let me know how you think you can help me and I'll think about it."
I've been trying to tell myself that it's just my luck: That it's not socio-economic or pedigree based (race or school) or that some people here don't have basic people skills and don't know how to carry on a conversation. That maybe it's just the luck of the draw that I run into more people that I'd classify as "ass holes" than not, but I'm coming--very late--to a sad reality: it is about socio-economic status--even more than that, it is about pedigree (yes, both race and the school you went to). It is about manners--most people don't have them. AND, it's about gender as well! I'm not a woman, but I'm willing to bet that if I was a woman, things would be a shit ton harder for me than they already are. I'm not a 20-something white male that went to Stanford and it's impossible for me to imagine how hard things would be if I had a vagina [0].
These are things we don't want to talk about. Thank god a conversation about gender is taking place, but there's another conversation about elitism and race that hasn't even started yet.
> "One of the biggest misconceptions about us is that you need to have pre-existing connections to get value from the network."
Complete and utter bull. Maybe in Sam's world, sure! White? 20-something? No-kids? Harvard/Stanford? B2C? Let’s chat!
Early-40's/Late-30's? Not-white? Married w/ kids? Not-Harvard/Stanford? B2B? Nope. (Don't bother to apply to YC either).
The reason Silicon Valley works is because there's a new-boys network that helps out those that check most of the right boxes.
But here’s the good news: There are other networks. Networks of people in their 40’s. Networks of people that are from a specific ethnic group. Networks of people that went to the same (non-Harvard/Stanford) business school as you that are willing to help out. Are most of these networks as big and powerful as the circles Sam roles in? Absolutely not. But are they out there? Yes. One of the marvels of Silicon Valley is that because there are so many people out here, there’s a semi-decent chance you might find someone in one of these networks that will meet you for a coffee, offer to help, and try to make something happen for you. Is it likely? No, but possible, yes? And that—the possibility of something working out despite the odds—is what entrepreneurship is about.
[0] - What It's Like Raising Money As A Woman In Silicon Valley (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/08/07/what-it...)
I'm sorry you're having a bad time, but you sound like you're caught up in a few delusions.
When someone gets coffee with a stranger they are "going out of their way to help". What more are you asking for in these conversations? Agreed, nobody's going to fund some random biz guy with no track record and "an idea" (my guess from your post, sorry if I'm wrong). Reading that as racism/elitism is counterproductive and most likely inaccurate.
Build something people want (get users) and the investor types you sound like you're pursuing will want to talk to you. Sure, a good resume can get you in the door, but the best resume isn't a list of stodgy institutions, it's a list of successful projects.
EDIT: FWIW, I agree that the deck is completely stacked against the poor. It is much easier to build something when you can borrow $20k from a rich uncle to live on for a while. It's much easier to talk to investor types if you're familiar with their world. But what I'm getting at above is that those things stop mattering the minute you've built a product people are using.
some random biz guy with no track record and "an idea"?
Now that's delusional. Clearly you wish that to be the case. It is not. SV is all about the gate-keepers, and they are all about profiling, which they call "signaling". If you don't fit into that mold, you are not going to receive a warm welcome; I don't care how good you are.
Read Peter Thiel's Stanford class CS183 notes. Peter explicitly says this, "It's like getting a degree at Berkeley. Okay. It's not Stanford. You can [have] a complicated story about how you had to do it because your parents had a big mortgage or something. But it's a hard negative signal to get past."
If you are a white male, in your early 20's and went to Stanford, go for it. If you're not, don't even try to play the game; it's rigged to use you, not help you.
> Complete and utter bull. Maybe in Sam's world, sure! White? 20-something? No-kids? Harvard/Stanford? B2C? Let’s chat!
> Early-40's/Late-30's? Not-white? Married w/ kids? Not-Harvard/Stanford? B2B? Nope. (Don't bother to apply to YC either).
YC does not discriminate in this way. We fund lots of people working on B2B and enterprise ideas, who are married with kids, who are in their 30's, 40's and yes older too. This claim is just plain false.
While that may be true to a certain extent I'd be willing to bet a sizable amount of money that the majority of founders that YC funds are in fact white, male, hailing from a wealthy family, graduated from a prestigious college, and are under 30 years old.
And while you or other YC partners may defend that fact with the fallacy that it's just a numbers game, as in those are the majority of applicants, I can't help but remind you that age discrimination and class warfare is rampant in the valley.
"This one is real. I wouldn't advise anyone with a family to start a startup. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that I don't want to take responsibility for advising it. I'm willing to take responsibility for telling 22 year olds to start startups. So what if they fail? They'll learn a lot, and that job at Microsoft will still be waiting for them if they need it. But I'm not prepared to cross moms."
Can you see how a statement like this might make people with kids more reluctant to apply to YC?
I'm curious what kind of help you're looking for. I actually find it a bit odd when I hear over and over that others "offering help" is a strength of SV. Mostly because you really need to do two things, 1) make a product that addresses a need 2) and work to get people using it. You can get opinions on 1 or 2, but I can't imagine not getting them crushing your business. You can seek investment and if you're doing 1 or 2 well people will want to introduce you to investors. And if you're not doing 1 or 2 well you need to figure out how to do something valuable.
I'm not saying SV isn't biased, it is flawed like anywhere else, but I think this whole "startups helping other startups" thing is a bit fluffy in the first place.
> "Silicon Valley works because there is such a high density of people working on start-ups and they are inclined to help each other"
Bull shit. With all due respect to Sam--who no doubt knows what he's doing and saying and has become very successful--he is undoubtedly living in a bubble of his own. While I've found people generally open to the idea of chatting over a coffee, I've run across very few people that go out of their way to help. In fact, I more often find people who will either offer to help, and don't, or are so self-absorbed that they can't stop talking about how great/impressive they or their startup is without bothering to ask about you or what you're doing. I've even asked for a meeting with and gotten the following response: "I'm very busy. Let me know how you think you can help me and I'll think about it."
I've been trying to tell myself that it's just my luck: That it's not socio-economic or pedigree based (race or school) or that some people here don't have basic people skills and don't know how to carry on a conversation. That maybe it's just the luck of the draw that I run into more people that I'd classify as "ass holes" than not, but I'm coming--very late--to a sad reality: it is about socio-economic status--even more than that, it is about pedigree (yes, both race and the school you went to). It is about manners--most people don't have them. AND, it's about gender as well! I'm not a woman, but I'm willing to bet that if I was a woman, things would be a shit ton harder for me than they already are. I'm not a 20-something white male that went to Stanford and it's impossible for me to imagine how hard things would be if I had a vagina [0].
These are things we don't want to talk about. Thank god a conversation about gender is taking place, but there's another conversation about elitism and race that hasn't even started yet.
> "One of the biggest misconceptions about us is that you need to have pre-existing connections to get value from the network."
Complete and utter bull. Maybe in Sam's world, sure! White? 20-something? No-kids? Harvard/Stanford? B2C? Let’s chat!
Early-40's/Late-30's? Not-white? Married w/ kids? Not-Harvard/Stanford? B2B? Nope. (Don't bother to apply to YC either).
The reason Silicon Valley works is because there's a new-boys network that helps out those that check most of the right boxes. But here’s the good news: There are other networks. Networks of people in their 40’s. Networks of people that are from a specific ethnic group. Networks of people that went to the same (non-Harvard/Stanford) business school as you that are willing to help out. Are most of these networks as big and powerful as the circles Sam roles in? Absolutely not. But are they out there? Yes. One of the marvels of Silicon Valley is that because there are so many people out here, there’s a semi-decent chance you might find someone in one of these networks that will meet you for a coffee, offer to help, and try to make something happen for you. Is it likely? No, but possible, yes? And that—the possibility of something working out despite the odds—is what entrepreneurship is about. [0] - What It's Like Raising Money As A Woman In Silicon Valley (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/08/07/what-it...)