Women in Tech Speak Frankly on Culture of Harassment
Their stories came out slowly, even hesitantly, at first. Then in a rush.
One
female entrepreneur recounted how she had been propositioned by a
Silicon Valley venture capitalist while seeking a job with him, which
she did not land after rebuffing him. Another showed the increasingly
suggestive messages she had received from a start-up investor. And one
chief executive described how she had faced numerous sexist comments
from an investor while raising money for her online community website.
What
happened afterward was often just as disturbing, the women told The New
York Times. Many times, the investors’ firms and colleagues ignored or
played down what had happened when the situations were brought to their
attention. Saying anything, the women were warned, might lead to
ostracism.
Now
some of these female entrepreneurs have decided to take that risk. More
than two dozen women in the technology start-up industry spoke to The
Times in recent days about being sexually harassed. Ten of them named
the investors involved, often providing corroborating messages and
emails, and pointed to high-profile venture capitalists such as Chris
Sacca of Lowercase Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups.
The disclosures came after the tech news site The Information reported
that female entrepreneurs had been preyed upon by a venture capitalist,
Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital. The new accounts underscore how
sexual harassment in the tech start-up ecosystem goes beyond one firm
and is pervasive and ingrained. Now their speaking out suggests a
cultural shift in Silicon Valley, where such predatory behavior had
often been murmured about but rarely exposed.
Continue reading the main story
The tech industry has long suffered a gender imbalance, with companies such as Google
and Facebook acknowledging how few women were in their ranks. Some
female engineers have started to speak out on the issue, including a
former Uber engineer who detailed a pattern of sexual harassment
at the company, setting off internal investigations that spurred the
resignation in June of Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick.
Most
recently, the revelations about Mr. Caldbeck of Binary Capital have
triggered an outcry. The investor has been accused of sexually harassing
entrepreneurs while he worked at three different venture firms in the
past seven years, often in meetings in which the women were presenting
their companies to him.
Several
of Silicon Valley’s top venture capitalists and technologists,
including Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn, condemned Mr. Caldbeck’s
behavior last week and called for investors to sign a “decency pledge.” Binary has since collapsed, with Mr. Caldbeck leaving the firm and investors pulling money out of its funds.
The
chain of events has emboldened more women to talk publicly about the
treatment they said they had endured from tech investors.
“Female
entrepreneurs are a critical part of the fabric of Silicon Valley,”
said Katrina Lake, founder and chief executive of the online clothing start-up Stitch Fix,
who was one of the women targeted by Mr. Caldbeck. “It’s important to
expose the type of behavior that’s been reported in the last few weeks,
so the community can recognize and address these problems.”
The
women’s experiences help explain why the venture capital and start-up
ecosystem — which underpins the tech industry and has spawned companies
such as Google, Facebook and Amazon — has been so lopsided in terms of
gender.
Most
venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are men, with female
entrepreneurs receiving $1.5 billion in funding last year versus $58.2
billion for men, according to the data firm PitchBook. Many of the
investors hold outsize power, since entrepreneurs need their money to
turn ideas and innovations into a business. And because the venture
industry operates with few disclosure requirements, people have kept
silent about investors who cross the lines with entrepreneurs.
Some
venture capitalists’ abuse of power has come to light in recent years.
In 2015, Ellen Pao took her former employer, the prestigious venture
firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, to trial for allegations of
gender discrimination, leveling accusations of professional retaliation
after spurned sexual advances. Ms. Pao lost the case, but it sparked a debate about whether women in tech should publicly call out unequal treatment.
“Having
had several women come out earlier, including Ellen Pao and me, most
likely paved the way and primed the industry that these things indeed
happen,” said Gesche Haas, an entrepreneur who said she was propositioned for sex by an investor, Pavel Curda, in 2014. Mr. Curda has since apologized.
Some of the entrepreneurs who spoke with The Times said they were often touched without permission by investors or advisers.
At
a mostly male tech gathering in Las Vegas in 2009, Susan Wu, an
entrepreneur and investor, said that Mr. Sacca, an investor and former
Google executive, touched her face without her consent in a way that
made her uncomfortable. Ms. Wu said she was also propositioned by Mr.
Caldbeck while fund-raising in 2010 and worked hard to avoid him later
when they crossed paths.
“There is such a massive imbalance of power that women in the industry often end up in distressing situations,” Ms. Wu said.
After being contacted by The Times, Mr. Sacca wrote in a blog post
on Thursday: “I now understand I personally contributed to the problem.
I am sorry.” In a statement to The Times, he added that he was
“grateful to Susan and the other brave women sharing their stories. I’m
confident the result of their courage will be long-overdue, lasting
change.”
After
the publication of this article, Mr. Sacca contacted The Times again to
amend his original statement, adding: “I dispute Susan’s account from
2009.”
Many
of the women also said they believed they had limited ability to push
back against inappropriate behavior, often because they needed funding, a
job or other help.
In
2014, Sarah Kunst, 31, an entrepreneur, said she discussed a potential
job at 500 Startups, a start-up incubator in San Francisco. During the
recruiting process, Mr. McClure, a founder of 500 Startups and an
investor, sent her a Facebook message that read in part, “I was getting
confused figuring out whether to hire you or hit on you.”
Ms.
Kunst, who now runs a fitness start-up, said she declined Mr. McClure’s
advance. When she later discussed the message with one of Mr. McClure’s
colleagues, she said 500 Startups ended its conversations with her.
500
Startups said Mr. McClure, who did not respond to a request for
comment, was no longer in charge of day-to-day operations after an
internal investigation.
“After
being made aware of instances of Dave having inappropriate behavior
with women in the tech community, we have been making changes
internally,” 500 Startups said. “He recognizes he has made mistakes and
has been going through counseling to work on addressing changes in his
previous unacceptable behavior.”
Rachel Renock, the chief executive of Wethos,
described a similar situation in which she faced sexist comments while
seeking financing for her online community site. While she and her
female partners were fund-raising in March, one investor told them that
they should marry for money, that he liked it when women fought back
because he would always win, and that they needed more attractive photos
of themselves in their presentation.
They
put up with the comments, Ms. Renock said, because they “couldn’t
imagine a world in which that $500,000 wasn’t on the table anymore.” Ms.
Renock declined to name the investor. Wethos raised the $500,000 from
someone else and is still fund-raising.
Wendy
Dent, 43, whose company Cinemmerse makes an app for smart watches, said
she was sent increasingly flirtatious messages by a start-up adviser,
Marc Canter, as she was trying to start her company in 2014. Mr. Canter,
who had founded a software company in the 1980s that became known as
Macromedia, initially agreed to help her find a co-founder. But over
time, his messages became sexual in nature.
In
one message, reviewed by The Times, he wrote that she was a “sorceress
casting a spell.” In another, he commented on how she looked in a blue
dress and added, “Know what I’m thinking? Why am I sending you this — in
private?”
Mr.
Canter, in an interview, said that Ms. Dent “came on strong to me,
asking for help” and that she had used her sexuality publicly. He said
he disliked her ideas so he behaved the way he did to make her go away.
Some entrepreneurs were asked to not speak about the behavior they experienced.
At
a start-up competition in 2014 in San Francisco, Lisa Curtis, an
entrepreneur, pitched her food start-up, Kuli Kuli, and was told her
idea had won the most plaudits from the audience, opening the door to
possible investment. As she stepped off the stage, an investor named
Jose De Dios, said, “Of course you won. You’re a total babe.”
Ms.
Curtis later posted on Facebook about the exchange and got a call from a
different investor. He said “that if I didn’t take down the post, no
one in Silicon Valley would give me money again,” she said. Ms. Curtis
deleted the post.
In a statement, Mr. De Dios said he “unequivocally did not make a defamatory remark.”
Often,
change happens only when there is a public revelation, some of the
women said. In the case of Mr. Caldbeck and Binary, the investor and the
firm have apologized,
as has Mr. Caldbeck’s previous employer, the venture capital firm
Lightspeed Venture Partners, which had received complaints about him.
“We regret we did not take stronger action,” Lightspeed said on Twitter on Tuesday. “It is clear now that we should have done more.”
Lindsay
Meyer, an entrepreneur in San Francisco, said Mr. Caldbeck put $25,000
of his own money into her fitness start-up in 2015. That gave Mr.
Caldbeck reason to constantly text her; in those messages, reviewed by
The Times, he asked if she was attracted to him and why she would rather
be with her boyfriend than him. At times, he groped and kissed her, she
said.
“I
felt like I had to tolerate it because this is the cost of being a
nonwhite female founder,” said Ms. Meyer, who is Asian-American.
But
even after she reached out to a mentor, who alerted one of Binary’s
investors, Legacy Venture, to Mr. Caldbeck’s actions, little changed.
Legacy went on to invest in Binary’s new fund. Binary and Mr. Caldbeck
declined to comment.
“We
failed to follow up on information about Mr. Caldbeck’s personal
behavior,” Legacy said in a statement. “We regret this oversight and are
determined to do better.”
Comments
Post a Comment