Dave McClure, founder of prominent Bay Area venture capitalist firm 500 Startups, announced his resignation from his firm in the wake of multiple sexual harassment claims. McClure's resignation only continues a recent, disturbing trend in Silicon Valley workplace culture.
McClure announced his resignation through a blog post published on July 1, titled, "I'm a creep. I'm sorry," according to the BBC. In the post, he apologized to entrepreneur Sarah Kunst, who had claimed he sent her inappropriate messages on Facebook after they had discussed a potential job offer.
"With respect to the NYT article above and Sarah Kunst specifically, I’d like to sincerely apologize 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 [Startups]," McClure wrote in the post.
McClure admitted to making numerous other inappropriate advances towards other women, too. "I made advances towards multiple women in work-related situations, where it was clearly inappropriate," he wrote. "I put people in compromising and inappropriate situations, and I selfishly took advantage of those situations where I should have known better. My behavior was inexcusable and wrong."
Following McClure's resignation, tech entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh issued a lengthy response in her own blog post, in which she detailed an experience with McClure at her apartment. After a meeting with other investors at her home in 2014 she wrote that McClure had cornered her after everyone else had left and asked to sleep with her, BBC reported.
"On the way out, he pushed himself onto me to the point where I was backed into a corner, made contact to kiss me, and said something along the lines of 'Just one night, please just this one time,'" she wrote.
Sexism and sexual harassment appears to be systemic in the tech industry, which has made headlines repeatedly for workplace issues involving mistreatment of women or outright sexual harassment. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick recently resigned, partly because of his role in championing a toxic workplace culture rife with sexual harassment. During an all-hands meeting that was supposed to address how the company could move forward from these issues, an Uber board member made a sexist joke towards fellow board member Arianna Huffington.
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