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24 Women Allege Sexual Harassment By Investors, and Another VC Gets Demoted (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Friday technology investor Dave McClure tweeted a link to a statement from the new CEO of the start-up incubator he co-founded which announces his demotion after engaging in "inappropriate interactions with women in the tech community." The new CEO of 500 Startups says "I sincerely apologize for the choices he made and the pain and stress they've caused people. But apologies aren't enough without meaningful actions and change. Because of this, we made the decision a few months ago to change the leadership structure at 500." Meanwhile, McClure will attend counseling "to work on changing his perspectives and preventing his previous unacceptable behavior... As much as we want to be part of the solution, we clearly have also been part of the problem."

The same day more than two dozen female entrepreneurs told the New York Times about incidents of sexual harassment in the start-up industry, "often providing corroborating messages and emails." Several women told the Times they were warned that saying anything might lead to ostracism. Chris Sacca -- whose firm invested in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Twilio, and Kickstarter -- told the Times he was grateful for the courage of the female entrepreneur who told the Times how he'd propositioned her, and Sacca also wrote in a post on Medium, "I've learned that it's often the less obvious, yet pervasive and questionable, everyday behaviors of men in our industry that collectively make it inhospitable for women... It's the unrelenting, day-to-day culture of dismissiveness that creates a continually bleak environment for women and other underrepresented groups." The article also notes that Justin Caldbeck -- accused by six different founders of making unwanted advances -- worked at three different VC firms over the last seven years. The Times also cites a 2014 admission by investor Pavel Curda that he sent two women text messages asking for sex after a networking event, adding "The new accounts underscore how sexual harassment in the tech start-up ecosystem goes beyond one firm and is pervasive and ingrained."

12 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yet you pigs will deny there's a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    You really don't know much about the cultures of the countries that H1B workers come from do you?

  2. Profit is a tax on productivity by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember, a "VC" is someone who wants to get rich off of someone else's work and creativity. Parasites. They produce nothing but exploitation. It should not surprise that they seek to exploit everyone they meet.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. Re: Yet you pigs will deny there's a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Shut the fuck up you slag and get back in the kitchen...

  4. How to avoid sexual harassment accusations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Be rich 2. Be good looking

    1. Re:How to avoid sexual harassment accusations by KiloByte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      3. Don't sexually harass anyone.

      That's a condition neither required nor necessary to get accused, and have your life ruined by that.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    2. Re:How to avoid sexual harassment accusations by digitig · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It doesn't guarantee not getting accused. but it sure as hell helps.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  5. Re:Culture of dismissiveness? by Zemran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To not believe that the problem is a serious as the media makes it out to be is not dismissive, it is an informed opinion and a valid one. Yes, there are complaints but in factories across the country workers are abused without the opportunity or ability to complain as effectively. Having worked in the sector for decades I see the problem as being grossly exaggerated by SJWs and professional complainants. That is not to say that people who do abuse other should be allowed to. You are welcome to disagree with me but the label "culture of dismissiveness" is as stupid as "Islamophobia" or "homophobia" which are both used to refer to people who are not afraid although terroristophobia might be more accurate.

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  6. Re:Culture of dismissiveness? by Kohath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The culture of dismissiveness relates to people saying sexual harassment isn't rampant or doesn't happen as much in the tech industry as people say.t.

    Because that's the nature of news and storytelling. A story of one event gets repeated 1000 times. It's still one event, not 1000. It's news because it's rare, not because it happens to everyone 50 times a day.

    Despite article after article, complaint after complaint, despite all the documented evidence, people, yourself included, either make excuses for why it happens or dismiss the accounts outright.

    Myself included in fucking what?. I neither made excuses for [sexual harassment] nor dismissed any accounts of [sexual harassment] outright or otherwise.

    Maybe people dismiss you and others like you because you casually make false accusations.

  7. Re:Yet you pigs will deny there's a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    They couldn't even handle the ONE thing a woman has to do to be beautiful - manage their weight. Calories in vs. calories burned is so fucking simple to understand but they couldn't even do that.

    Vis a vis the guys. I'd hazard that 50% of the guys in my office are overweight. Some even morbidly obese.

    Calories in vs. calories out. Simple to understand. Obviously pretty hard to do for guys as much as the gals..

    Now go crawl back under your bridge, troll.

    I observe that losing weight is easy (though not instant) once the fatty stops making excuses and decides they're going to do something about it. As long as it's "McDonald's fault" or "random chance" nothing ever changes.

  8. Re: Yet you pigs will deny there's a problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Asking for sex isn't harassment, there's no way to know if an advance is unwanted until it's made.
    It's when a rejected attempt is repeated or when the request happens in a formal business setting that it's a problem.

    If it was Ryan Gosling investing the money and sending the texts, they'd be all over his dick.

  9. Re: Yet you pigs will deny there's a problem by quax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let me help you. Here's my million dollar tip:

    Ask for a date first before you ask for sex.

    You can thank me later.

  10. Re:Yet you pigs will deny there's a problem by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The skepticism you refer to exists mainly because feminists have created a credibility problem for women in these matters.