Is Ycombinator really struggling for diversity?
I just read an article on Techcrunch titled: “Y Combinator’s quest for diversity”
In which I hoped to see better numbers on diversity, specifically regarding to Latinx founders than this:
If you wonder why numbers are so low, I'll say YC standards are really high. You can’t compare equally the progress of a startup coming from US or Europe with a startup from Latin America or Africa.
Why?
Reason #1: Lack of internet: Even thou is growing every year, is very hard to get users to buy stuff online, first because is something new and they are scared to be scammed also most people have a slow connection or is not very stable due to the high price and taxes you need to pay to get one. In my case at least, paying a “really good service”I loose connection minimum 3 times a day for a while and I don’t leave in a low income community.
Reason #2: Electricity Blackouts: Yep, even thou we are in 2017 we still experience them and weather doesn’t have anything to do with it. This is something we see in several countries in Latin America. The worse thing is that you don’t know when is going to come back again (a period between 3–8 ours, lucky day is 1 hour). All batteries die; your laptop, phone, etc. This one really frustrates you and affects your productivity a lot (I’m not even taking into account the mosquitoes when there is not even a fan turned on).
Now you may wonder, what about electric powered plants? Well, they are very expensive to get and they use a lot of gas too… so not everyone have one and the ones who have one, don’t turn it on for long (except big companies who can obviously afford it).
Reason #3: Access to capital: Just in my country 60% of population is poor, meaning you need to work in order to survive. Let me get clear on this one, a college graduate with experience earns in average per month US$900-US$1,000, the minimum salary is US$214 and to leave comfortably ALONE (just food for you), meaning in a good neighborhood,paying internet, etc you need US$700 per month and assuming you are healthy and will never get sick. So as you can see, there is no much room for savings.
If you want to be an “entrepreneur” you must work full time and then at night work in your startup like I did, using the little money you have left for your startup.
Since no one basically saves money, you don’t have “family or friends” from whom you can borrow money. Loans in the other hand, are very very hard to get unless you own a car or house you can put up for mortgage (which I don’t). Also, since the ecosystem is very small there are not many “Angels” who can invest money in your startup, but I’ll get back to this one later. The only thing you can count on, is getting a credit card. However, the limit for credit is very low, in my case having an average salary, my limit is US$320 per month.
Reason#4: The entrepreneurial ecosystem still is very small: When talking to most people, they don’t know what a startup is or what being an entrepreneur means. This causes a lack of confidence when doing business with companies because they think you are kind of not very serious. Also as I said before, there are very very very few Angels or VC’s you can go to and pitch for investment. If you are lucky to find one they ask 50% of your company in turn of US$10k-20k in a good deal. Acceleration programs (which are mostly non-existent) don’t offer money and in some of them you even you have to pay to get into one.
But for me, the hardest part is the lack of mentors who actually know what they are talking about, because almost none have started their own company before so they can’t really share real experience about this.
These are the 4 main reasons, why in my opinion, we can’t compare the progress in a Latin American Startup with one based in US or Europe and why I also believe YC standards are very high. Is important to note I’m not even giving details about delinquency, the corruption we face due to the governments we have, and the lack of a good health public system; in which if you get sick and you don’t have money you are screwed :).
As a Latina founder and living in Dominican Republic I think that the process should be different when evaluating startups from Latin America and developing countries in Africa, Asia, etc. If not, things really won’t change much. With this, I dont' mean a softer evaluating process for us I just want a more realistic one, adjusted to our current situation. Only then I’ll say YC is really struggling for diversity.
So far in Dominican Republic, in all the time YC has, only ONE startup has made it to the acceleration program and the founders are Dominicans raised in US with a startup created in USA.
The reason behind this is not a lack of applications. I have several friends (7 startups which I know) who have tried more than once and never made it. In my case I have already applied 4 times and still haven’t made it, even thou I already have sometime working on my startup full time, with a decent amount of traction.
PS: For the ones thinking “then go to USA” I want to say that going there to fundraise money is not easy as it seems because a)you need money to travel b) you need an US visa (for this you need a valid reason other than “I have an idea that might change the world and I want to fundraise for that”, plus money in order to get one).
By: Katherine Motyka
CEO and Founder of Jompeame.com
