Stop with the whining!

It is a double edged sword as when the comments come back it gives the OP a chance to drink from the man the F**k up, cup. In some ways, it is better to do it here as a sound board. When they read the comments they can learn from it and adjust.

I have personally failed multiple times in small and large ways (most people do, good to get it out the way early). Ultimately, the buck stops with me. But when you are caught in the eye of the storm your thinking is different from post analysis stage.

It is all part of the learning process. When you start out you want to kill the competition, get the press, have the best product, exit at the best founder rate etc... Then, after a while, you realise you are burning lots of energy ( jealously) and get to work on what you can control and ignore what you cannot.

You figure out the world does not owe you a living, investors can decline your offering, all customers will not love your product.

Most importantly, the buck stops with you and only you. When shit goes down, it is your responsibility.

OMFG- your post was stupid on so many levels. Let's start with "It’s true, sometimes women get underfunded" How about we start with the fact that men get 96% of funding (you can fact check that) AND move on to the research that men who pitch the exact same fucking company- same deck, same skills but change their gender and they get 40% more money.

Now let's address the fact that it seems to bother you that women are actually using this forum to complain about really serious problems like being sexually abused in an incubator.

You are dumb as shit if you think that these are issues that women or pretty much anyone who isn't a white man that dropped out of Stanford should just suck up and deal with. These are serious, career ending, glass ceiling enduring, jack crow level fucking problems.

Don't drink the motherfucking Kool Aid of the start up world. it is not a meritocracy and your ignorant assessment is part of the reason that nothing changes- it is because douchnozzels like you blame the victims who complain rather than facing the problems.

If there are systematic or structural inequities, prejudices, or injustices, they should be changed. Whether in the startup community or in any community.

Shining a light on these inequities and agitating for a fairer and more equitable community is not whining. Without individuals highlighting the problem, there would be no change.

OP acknowledges that these inequities exist. By name-calling and advocating for silence, OP advocates for the status quo, and thus implicitly approves of the existing inequitable system. What is your justification, OP?

No one should have to "prove [they] are 10 times better" in order to have an equal opportunity. Least of all in a community that should strive to be a meritocracy, that should seek to reward the best in technology, innovation, and leadership.

The startup community is great, but it has problems. We need to fix these problems. Silence and OP's regressive attitude are not the path to a vibrant community.

OP:

Please take the time to learn what systemic means: it refers to something that is spread <strong>throughout</strong> a system (in this case market/society). With fundraising, it means in all cases (eg even when 10X better as you suggest), women are still underfunded, to the tune of getting only less than 5% of all VC funding, <em>and</em> there are lots of studies out there confirming this. The issue of bias against women goes also beyond startupland; eg in fields like academia, women less grants and less tenure opportunities.

In any case, downplaying widespread issues is harmful and is <em>not</em> the way to solve them. The more awareness and discussions about solutions, the better.

Fuck you. I come here to vent and to share my fears. I don't come here to lie and pump my head with false sense of confidence.