Workplace harassment is a social evil that plagues our path to progress. And, correct me if I’m wrong, it is mostly women who have to put up with sexist double standards and inappropriate advances for the sake of their careers. Not that it is ideal but then neither is reality. If you’re finding it hard to believe, let me remind you of Arunabh Kumar, TVF CEO, and his subsequent resignation.
It is difficult for women out there, even more in the field of technology. An arena where women are not taken seriously in spite of tech tycoons like Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook) and Meg Whitman (HP). And it isn’t only me. The New York Times recently published a piece titled, ‘Women in Tech Speak Frankly on Culture of Harassment‘ that speaks volumes about the same. That and the ordeal of several women who were harassed at their workplace.
Amongst many, there is 31-year-old Sarah Kunst who went on to explain how her potential job offer at 500 Startups, a startup incubator in San Francisco, turned out to be a nightmare.
According to her claims, during the recruiting process, Dave McClure, a founder of 500 Startups and an investor, sent her a Facebook message that read,
“I was getting confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you.”
Sarah who now runs a fitness start-up even claimed that when she informed the organisation, they stunted short every line of conversation with her. While this shows the grim side of the corporate world, it has also shown a light that many didn’t expect.
After it surfaced, Dave McClure who had earlier, denied the allegations, has come out confessing in a Medium blog post titled, ‘I’m a creep. I’m Sorry.‘ He did so as he resigned from his post as CEO.
While I’d like to believe that I’m not a bad or evil person, regardless it’s clear that some of my past actions have hurt or offended several women.
And I probably deserve to be called a creep. So, what did I do? I made advances towards multiple women in work-related situations, where it was clearly inappropriate. I put people in compromising and inappropriate situations, and I selfishly took advantage of those situations where I should have known better. My behaviour was inexcusable and wrong.
With respect to the NYT article above and Sarah Kunst specifically, I’d like to sincerely apologise for making inappropriate advances towards her several years ago over drinks, late one night in a small group, where she mentioned she was interested in a job at 500. While I did not offer her a job at the time, a few days/weeks later I did refer her to my co-founder Christine Tsai to begin a formal interview process with 500, where Christine and others on the team met with her. Ultimately, 500 decided not to offer Sarah a job. Again my apologies to Sarah for my inappropriate behaviour in a setting I thought was social, but in hindsight was clearly not. It was my fault and I take full responsibility. She was correct in calling me out.
For these and other incidents where I have been at fault, I would like to apologise for being a clueless, selfish, unapologetic and defensive ass.
As a result of the above intervention, I agreed to hand over day-to-day management of 500 to Christine, and she is now leading 500 in the new role of CEO. My role has been limited to focus on fiduciary obligations to our investors as a general partner of our funds. Along with the above, I also started regular counselling sessions about a month ago to address my shitty behaviour and poor judgement. I don’t expect anyone to believe I will change, but I’m working on it.
You can read the entire blog post here.
He even took to Twitter to let the world know about his immediate resignation.
in best interest of @500Startups & at request co-founder @christine_tsai, i am resigning effective immediately. pls support christine/500 ❤️
— Dave McClure (@davemcclure) July 3, 2017
This is just one, out of innumerable complaints, that saw the light of the day. What about the others? Only time will tell.