antipattern

Honestly, I have not though much about diversity in Silicon Valley until recently. I guess I did not get out as much, just doing my thing at a startup.

Recently, however, I am talking to a lot of companies and startups. And I am starting to make diversity observations.

I hope this won't get me into trouble.

For example, at one startup I visited, I was totally struck how tall everyone was. I was like an ant among giraffes. I said something to that effect, and everyone just laughed, and we moved on to other things. But I spoke up and it was no problem.

Once an investor friend asked me talk to a company he just bankrolled. They were all still working from a corner conference room at some random VC firm in Palo Alto. There were like 10 engineers sitting around the conference table, hacking away on their Macbooks.

All Indian. All male. The investor is Indian too. I think they all came from Google one time or another.

Now I've been a friend of this investor for a long time, and probably could have asked if they only hire Indian engineers, or things just happened to work out this way. Maybe he knows female Indian engineers to mix things up a bit?

I decided not to ask and moved on with the meeting.

More recently, another Indian friend of mine, asks to speak to his team of engineers and product managers. It is a very well-known and successful company, and they have lots of employees, tens of thousands, I believe.

Anyways, we first have lunch, and my friend tells me he would like to bring a different DNA into his team of a few dozen people. In particular, he is looking for some more innovation and thinking about new products and revenue streams.

After lunch I start talking to his team. I probably had half a dozen folks to get to know, and actually really had a fun time talking to everyone one at a time.

As you probably suspect, they are all Indian again. I am the only white guy.

The diversity DNA.

I have more examples, but they are just more of the same.

I now see startup after startup like this. Everyone white. Everyone from China/Asia. Again everyone Indian. Whole management team Indian. No women in management. Everyone from Europe.

Its just weird.