500 startups co-founder quits, says: 'I put women in compromising situations'

After being alleged for sexually harassing women at workplace, Dave McClure, 500 Startups co-founder, offered his resignation as General Partner at the firm he co-founded in 2010. The decision to step down came after several women alleged McClure of inappropriate behaviour.

McClure's troublesome history with women first became public late Friday via a NY Times article, after which he wrote a blog post titled: I'm a creep. I'm sorry. In a blog post letter, he accepted that he made advances towards multiple women and apologised for his behaviour.

"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 behavior was inexcusable and wrong, he wrote accepting his mistakes," wrote 500 startups co-founder.

He also took to twitter to express remorse for his action.

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

McClure‘s actions were first exposed when entrepreneur Sarah Kunst said about McClure illmannered behaviour when discussing a potential job.

Speak the truth even if your voice shakes. https://t.co/namwTm4ZxH

— sarah kunst (@sarahkunst) June 30, 2017

Story went live only a few hours ago and so far 2 more women have told me they had similar/worse experiences with @davemcclure. Both WOC.

— sarah kunst (@sarahkunst) July 1, 2017

Make that 3. Plus the woman I already knew about, plus myself. Puts us at at least 5. It's been 6 hours.

— sarah kunst (@sarahkunst) July 1, 2017

This led to series of revelations and allegations. On Monday, another woman accused McClure of unwelcome sexual advances. As per a Bloomberg report, ‘Cheryl Yeoh, a founder whose company had been funded by 500 Startups, was in talks with McClure about collaborating on an accelerator in Southeast Asia, she wrote in a blog post. After a business meeting in 2014 that stretched late into the evening, McClure proposed having sex with Yeoh, according to the post.

After she rebuffed him more than once, McClure made yet another entreaty, she said. He “pushed himself onto me to the point where I was backed into a corner, made contact to kiss me,” she wrote.’

Last week, Dave McClure stepped back from operational functions as the Founding Partner.

Earlier, the NYT report added that the women talked ‘about being sexually harassed and many of them named the investors involved.

Meanwhile, raising voice against the bad behaviour in blogpost Christine Tsai, Managing Partner at 500 Startups said, “In recent months, we found out that my co-founder Dave McClure had inappropriate interactions with women in the tech community. His behavior was unacceptable and not reflective of 500’s culture and values. 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.”

Following the incident, 500 Startups partner Elizabeth Yin also resigned on Monday.

500 startups co founder not alone

This is not the first instance where founder or CEO of the company has been alleged to have harass women at workplace. Uber founder Travis Kalanick was requested to quit as CEO after multiple allegations abounded including sexual harassment case.

In another similar incident VC firm Binary Capital asked its co-founder Justin Caldbeck to resign after allegations of sexual harassment. ScoopWhoop co-founder Suparn Pandey to was alleged for similar case. In mainstream media Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal too was held guilty in sexual harassment case.