The two main differences are that the older guys tend to be better presenters, and more tied down geographically.

Lots of talk about 'healthy white males' and 'guys' on news.yc tonight. I understand women are in the minority, but we do exist. Correction: I just re-checked the other post I was referring to and they said "healthy young male" not "healthy white male". My apologies for the misquote.

Sorry, ma'am. I happen to healthy and male, but with above average melanin. Trust me, we are aware and very glad you exist.

Thanks. Just to be clear: this isn't about my 'feelings.' It's actually about having a successful startup: one major reason people fund startups is because they think the founders have the right characteristics that will make them succeed. They're looking for a certain type of person, not just an idea. Through its posts and comments, this community shares a mental model of what type of person makes a successful founder. Having that image be of a particular gender negatively impacts those of us who happen to be women or who have women in their startup team.

This example from Founders at Work struck me: Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, related an anecdote where she and her partner, who was also her husband, met with a VC firm. Caterina didn't fit the VC's mental model of a founder. After the meeting the VC told her husband 'not to bring his wife to VC meetings.'

I guess that's true in most industries - women had to work much harder than men just to get their foot in the door, but eventually perceptions change - when there are enough women there to change the (mostly unconscious, I think) perception. I think that there's a good chance for a change here. I know very few female hackers, but they tend to be really good - I guess it takes being way above average to be able to penetrate a group that's predominantly the other gender/race/views/whatever. However, if you do have the ability, and the tenacity to survive in such hostile environment, you probably have a better-than-average chance of success.

>After the meeting the VC told her husband 'not to bring his wife to VC meetings.'

Another data point clustering around vc ineptitude. Why are the fools always employed as gatekeepers?

If they weren't fools, they'd be on the other side of the gate...

or employing gatekeepers...

YC wants female founders. You should apply.

Ha! It was me who wrote the "white males" comment.

I write the way I code. Start with as big a generalization as possible and fix my edge cases at runtime...

Alas that a female news.ycer is an edge case. Even when they punch holes in my unified theory of all male startups, they are infinitely more pleasant than bus errors.