Why Diversity Is Bad For Startups

I think this piece acts as a <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> of some of its premises. When your chain of reasoning leads you to the conclusion that "women are likely to bring diversity to a male founding team, and that’s not what founding teams need" it should be obvious that something has gone wrong, just as you would conclude after a mathematical chain of reasoning yields the conclusion "X is both even and odd."<p>In other words, this is an example of the pernicious spread of a purely financial-utility-maximizing perspective on decision making within the startup culture which deliberately ignores the necessity of making sure that all of our actions stay within desirable moral parameters. The observation that a smaller percentage of women than men in the current cultural context feel motivated to create and work in startups should not be a justification for ignoring the issue; it is a justification for interrogating our sociocultural organization, and a motivation for directing energy and resources towards making startups a positive force for changing prevailing cultural patterns. Entrepreneurship is about <i>creating value</i> and the reductionist idea that only financial value matters must always be fought vigorously.

I believe her broader point, but I don't really connect the dots from "diversity in a founding team is bad" to "women shouldn't start companies with men."<p>Ignore the gender issue for now. Having homogeneous founding team is valuable because it reduces time-wasting arguments. That's really what it boils down to -- I don't think it has anything to do with men vs. women.<p>A startup could just as easily be founded by two women with shared backgrounds and values, e.g., RentTheRunway, BirchBox, One Kings Lane, etc.<p>Gilt's founding team included both men and women. Sugar, Inc's founding team included four men and two women.<p>Homogeneity in values, diversity in skills is what's valuable for a founding team.

Idealised, romanticaised version of what start-ups are.<p>Perhaps someone should burst a bubble and point out how many startups out there are very well defined, funded, with solid business cases, research and deliverables.<p>Worthless article.

I think that is probably the worst article on start-ups I have ever read.

Sorry to join the haters, but this Penelope Trunk doesn't know the first thing about startups - this article was complete junk. I'm going to form another startup with the goal of going back in time to get my two minutes of wasted reading time back. I'll offer the service to others. We'll make millions.

the 1950 called, they want their article back.