#12 “Small companies and founders lack the oversight and media spotlight of big companies, allowing their personal biases to work unimpeded.”

“Being involved in the hiring process at a South African startup firm, I noticed a consistent trend: Black engineers applying to software positions continually got rejected after meeting with the founders, often due to a ‘bad culture fit’, despite being qualified and competent for the relevant position. When a Black engineer was eventually hired, retention was poor and he left the company after only a few months. Contrast this to a young white man who walked into our office to ask for a job out of the blue, getting hired more-or-less on the spot despite my resistance after his technical interview: he turned out to be both unprofessional and unqualified, and difficult to work with, and eventually had to be let go as he was actively harming the team morale and productivity.

I know that this kind of ‘culture fit’ bias permeates the startup scene as a whole, because I've witnessed it and heard of it second-hand. Small companies and founders lack the oversight and media spotlight of big companies, allowing their personal biases to work unimpeded.”