Ask HN: Why don't the current startups looks like Google's 1999 video?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2747629

by realp • 15 years ago

6 5 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I was watching Google's Friday meeting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68QWfHOYhY&feature=player_embedded

Just wondering why do the current startups don't look like in the above video where everyone - young, old, men, women, babies, dogs etc all working together? The current startups all look the same with all men in their early 20s. Sometimes maybe there is one woman doing office work.

What have changed now than 10 years ago? Why don't we see more diverse people at startups these days?

realp• 15 years ago

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68QWfHOYhY&feature=playe...

tluyben2• 15 years ago

Yes, and why no dogs. We used to have dogs in the office, it was fun.

keiferski• 15 years ago

My guess: because too many of today's startups are more concerned with the profitable exit than they are with building a diverse, long-lasting organization.

ARobotics• 15 years ago

Random hypothesis: Risk.

In 1999 dot coms were making everyone rich and would continue to do so forever. Everyone was getting funded, going public, growing. It didn't appear working at a tech startup was a risky endeavor likely to leave you unemployed in a month.

Today, startups are viewed as very risky. They might go bankrupt, your stock options might be worthless, you might end up with several years of your life gone with little to show for it.

What group of people is going to have the risk profile best suited for that environment - young, single men sounds like a reasonable answer.

phyllotaxis• 15 years ago

One vision is marketing. One is not. You decide which is which. I'm not being sarcastic at all- I wonder if marketing is targeting the low-hanging fruit if college-age kids because they're intuitively easy to imagine being "cutting edge".

Maybe- but I will say they certainly don't have the marketplace of ideas cornered, and a LOT of incredible talent is being left on the table. It will change.

Ask HN: Why don't the current startups looks like Google's 1999 video?

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