Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Techstars Opens Up Diversity Numbers

Boulder-based startup accelerator Techstars, as part of an effort to help boster the technology industry's diversity, has published the breakdown of the diversity of its founders, showing that the accelerator's founders are--perhaps unsurprisingly--overwhelmingly Caucasian. Techstars said that 79.03% of its founders--or, 1,225 of the founders in its program--are Caucasian, followed by Asian at 8.19 percent (127 founders), Indian at 6.13% (95 founders), and Middle Eastern, at 2.71% (42 founders). Hispanic founders were only 2.52% (39), and Black founders, only 1.35% (21). The accelerator said it is opening up the numbers as part of an overall effort to increase the diversity of its founders. Techstars--like many other companies in the technology industry--has been looking at how to combat complaints that the industry is becoming overwhelming white and male. Techstars also reported its male and female breakdown, showing that 88.19 percent of its founders are male, and the remaining 11.81 percent are female.