Mar 21, 2018 · 49m · y-combinator
Funding Is an Outcome of Building a Good Business - Porter Braswell of Jopwell · Y Combinator
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In this Y Combinator interview, Jopwell co-founder Porter Braswell shares his journey from Wall Street trader to tech entrepreneur, detailing how he built a successful diversity recruitment platform. He debunks corporate diversity myths while offering practical lessons on validating market demand, scaling startup leadership, and raising venture capital.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The partners as informed peer 3.2 Guest teaching 4.5 Guest disagreement 1.4 The partners pushing back 1.2
speaking balance: gold is the partners, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 27:37 Porter calls the tech pipeline excuse laughable
Porter forcefully dismisses the common defense that diversity issues stem from lack of technical graduates, pointing out that corporate non-technical roles remain equally homogeneous.
Hardest push from the partners ▶ 23:23 Craig challenges specific versus exclusive positioningCraig directly challenges Porter's premise that companies should target specific minority groups by asking how to do so without alienating or excluding other groups.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 27:45 Porter exposes the fallacy of the hiring pipeline defensePorter systematically educates the host by demonstrating that even if technical pipelines were scarce, the lack of diversity across sales, HR, and finance proves systemic corporate inertia.
The partners hold their own ▶ 43:36 Craig breaks down venture capital incentives and LP dynamicsCraig demonstrates strong domain knowledge by explaining how VC marketing narratives serve the investors' LP interests rather than the real operating needs of founders.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The partners as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The partners pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overview of Jopwell and the Diversity Gap | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Craig provides standard open-ended interview prompts to set up Jopwell's origin story. Porter establishes authority by challenging corporate excuses about talent pipelines and outlining his path from Wall Street to tech. | |
| Transitioning from Wall Street to Non-Technical Founder | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Craig asks exploratory questions about being a non-technical founder and testing hypotheses. Porter shares personal reflections on his family background, personal mortality, and conviction. | |
| Validating Demand with Pitch Decks and LOIs | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Craig inquires about early customer demand and hiring technical talent. Porter candidly describes raising seed capital on LOIs and hiring from his immediate personal network. | |
| Techstars Rejection and Y Combinator Acceptance | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Craig asks why underrepresented candidates need a dedicated platform rather than standard channels like LinkedIn. Porter explains the mechanics of corporate referral networks and systemic exclusion. | |
| Candidate Community Demographics and Target Audience | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Craig relays listener questions regarding geographic distribution and target seniority bands. Porter gives straightforward factual breakdowns of their core demographic focus. | |
| Reframing the Corporate Diversity Narrative | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | Porter rejects vague uses of the word 'diversity' as noise, insisting companies name specific groups. Craig pushes back to ask how companies can be specific without being exclusionary, prompting Porter to ground diversity in business ROI. | |
| Actionable Guidance for Companies Seeking Diversity | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | Craig asks whether diversity issues trace back to early childhood CS enrollment. Porter dismantles the pipeline excuse by showing that low representation persists equally in non-technical business functions. | |
| Strategic Advice for Founders of Hiring Platforms | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Craig asks for tactical advice for founders building recruitment marketplaces. Porter explains product personalization and the necessity of focusing on genuine mission impact over raw monetization. | |
| Overcoming Bias and Navigating VC Fundraising | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | Craig asks about the experience of fundraising as a Black founder. Porter recounts flipping a hostile VC pitch by asserting his domain expertise and shifting the power dynamic. | |
| Funding Is an Outcome of Building a Good Business | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Porter details how building a solid business eliminates fundraising friction. Craig adds substantial industry perspective, analyzing how VC content marketing pressures founders into unnecessary dilution. | |
| CEO Leadership and Managing Team Culture at Scale | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Craig prompts Porter on leadership mistakes and management shifts. Porter shares the difficulty of transitioning from friend to executive when scaling past 15 employees. |
Statements from this episode (22)
Braswell: 44M underrepresented minority professionals and students exist in workforce
“And there are forty four million black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American students and professionals in the workforce that, that that exists as well.”
Braswell: 2014 Tech Diversity Reports Sparked a National Conversation
“And at that time, the summer of 2014, right before I left, all the tech companies came out with the stats of the lack of diversity, which is something we all knew. Right. But it was the first time it became really a national conversation.”
Braswell: We structured Jopwell as a for-profit to scale via tech
“So we set out from the start to build it as a for-profit entity and not a nonprofit, which there are many amazing nonprofits that, that focus on diversity recruitment. But we just took their approach to leverage technology, do it at scale and solve a problem.”
Braswell: I quit Goldman Sachs before validating my startup idea
“But in terms of, you know, testing this out, I never really tested it out because I lived through it. I was so convicted with it and I like intimately understood what the pain points were. So You know, ignorance is bliss to some degree. And so I had this visio…”
Braswell: We pre-sold Jopwell to employers before building software
“And I made this deck along with Ryan, my co-founder, and we just showed it to companies and said, this is what we're going to build, and if we build this, will you be a customer? And so we got really fortunate that when we made these phone calls, people answer…”
Braswell: Hiring from early friend networks causes startup diversity debt
“But as you hire your friends and for friends, friends, and that's how companies scale. So when we think about like the difficulties of how companies kind of get to where they are, where there's a lack of diversity, we experienced it from a very extreme other s…”
Braswell: Techstars NYC rejected us because "recruiting is not a challenge"
“We then actually applied to New York Techstars. And did not get in. And this was in December. Made it to the final round. They basically said, I don't understand diversity. Recruiting is not a big challenge. And you guys don't have anything. Like, I don't know…”
Braswell: Low baseline diversity means underrepresented applicants lack internal job champions
“If you look at the numbers in tech, for instance, right? If two percent of your workforce is black and three percent are Latino or Hispanic, odds are you don't know anybody that works there. And odds are you're not going to have that champion that kind of says…”
Braswell: Direct Job Applications Disappear Into a Black Box Without Referrals
“When users on Jopwo are saying, you know, why don't I just apply? You can, and you should but you're going to go into a black box unless you know somebody.”
Braswell: Jopwell's sweet spot is talent with under 12 years of experience
“What we do really well in is call it people within their 20 or 30 somethings within their age range. And so really that entry level to mid-level talent is where we thrive the most. We do have people that we would consider executives on the platform, but it's l…”
Braswell: Vague "diversity" jargon prevents companies from solving specific hiring challenges
“When I hear the word diversity and I hear people describe diversity challenges I think that One, when I hear that, I don't really hear much because that diversity is kind of, it could be anything. You can make an argument that anybody is diverse and that reall…”
Braswell: Publicly admitting diversity gaps unlocks new talent pipelines
“I think raising your hand and just saying publicly, like we need assistance with a particular challenge is the way that you kind of get out your own way and you start to unlock other pipelines of talent.”
Braswell: Data disproves tech's "pipeline problem" for minority engineers
“And when companies say, oh, you know, there's not even like the pipeline of black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American engineers. One, that's not true. And the data does not suggest that at all.”
Braswell: Low diversity in non-technical tech roles disproves the pipeline excuse
“If your company is two percent black or three percent, you know, Hispanic or Latino, you can't say that you can't find enough people who are people of color in non-technical roles, sales, consulting, finance, HR, you name it. And so if your organization is sti…”
Braswell: Jopwell only pitches companies that already value diversity
“We don't choose companies to work with that don't believe in the value of diversity. So the only sell we make is why you should use Jopwell. So we never get into the conversations around why diversity is important to your organization because they understand i…”
Braswell: Hiring startups must solve specific pain points beyond claiming quality
“If you're trying to build a hiring platform you have to be known for something. You have to have a particular You know, focus. You can't just have claim to have quality talent. You have to have, you have to be providing a real solution to a real problem that c…”
Braswell: Jopwell personalizes platform communication tone by candidate seniority
“So what we've now done with our platform is that based on certain tags and triggers and whatnot. We speak to you in a different tone. So people When they interact with Jopwell, they're, they have different personas at Jopwell that they're interacting with. Not…”
Braswell: Educating a VC partner shifts fundraising leverage to the founder
“And once a senior partner at a firm feels like he's being taught in a very respectful way, The leverage changes.”
Braswell: Jopwell Raised $3.5M on Demo Day with Real Traction
“And by the time we applied to YC, we had built a business that was getting traction, and 10 weeks later, we raised three and a half million dollars on Demo Day.”
Braswell: Managing culture becomes the CEO's primary job at 15 employees
“Focusing on the culture. It's the number one thing that like, you know, when you're four people, it don't really have to focus on it. It just, it's just, you know, it is what it is. And when you're 10 people, you really don't have to focus on it. At some point…”
Braswell: I require meeting agendas and block my calendar time
“Like you have to give me an agenda of what the meeting's going to be on. I have particular blocks of time. You can, we can have meetings and I just have to be really protective over my time.”
Braswell: I hold daily 45-minute coffee chats with different employees
“Now I have a coffee session where every morning I get coffee with a different employee for about 45 minutes cause I go get coffee anyway. So I might as well go with somebody and just sit down and just have a conversation. And it's in those one-on-one settings …”