Anyone else surprised about Dave McClure and various VC’s being called out for their inappropriateness toward female entrepreneurs?
Questions
Anyone else surprised at what’s happening with these VC’s?
11 answers from the community
A· Jul 3, 2017
Nobody is surprised. Dave McClure is the guy who gave a presentation[1] about pitching VCs that featured racist caricatures of starving Africans, money shots, porn actrices, cartoon Hitler with swastika and more.
This guy had no concept of what appropriate behavior is in a professional context, and his partners at 500 and the LPs knew this damn well. Their display of ignorance is just damage control.
[1] https://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/how-to-pitch-a-vc-or-angel-13504703/
A· Jul 6, 2017
The slide deck does start with a warning :-D
This deck is obviously full of humour. Nothing else.
A· Jul 7, 2017
A sexist joke is still sexist and a racist joke is still racist. So phrasing something as a joke doesn't suddenly make it OK.
In addition, jokes are never "just jokes". Jokes make statements too and they convey values. Jokes are also used as a device to say things without really saying them: the speaker can fall back on the "it's just a joke -- lighten up!" defense when people react negatively. A person can be held accountable for what they say, even they express themselves through jokes.
D· Jul 3, 2017
<p>Chris Sacca is the one I'm more surprised about, Dave has always come across as someone who doesn't understand boundaries.</p>
<p>So far this post on here from 2014 seems to be accurate. Looks like others are to come ... https://startupsanonymous.com/question/thoughts-post-listing-male-vcs-infamous-hitting-female-founders-pitch-business-meetings/</p>
A· Jul 4, 2017
What I don't get is this vilification of Silicon Valley. As if this kind of shit doesn't happen in Wall Street? Where's the rage? Or are the Silicon Valley rags just more politically correct?
A· Jul 4, 2017
Sexism is rampant on Wall street, but isn't nearly as bad as Silicon Valley. The entertainment industry is worse, though.
Women have been fighting back against sexism on wall street for decades. Just take a look at this article from 2005. Where are the women in silicon valley who are getting $30 million settlements?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/apr/08/usnews.genderissues
A· Jul 4, 2017
Lumping all vcs together with a few bad eggs is silly.
A· Aug 31, 2017
Well, if you have pitched to dozens of VCs and only two of them WEREN'T bad eggs, it starts to feel sillier
A· Jul 6, 2017
Met Dave several times. He did help female entrepreneurs a lot. In our batch 60% of startups where run by female founders. That's real, that's concrete.
But. He went too far. I'm shocked and I'm surprised. He does provoke in his slides and speeches. But I thought it was controlled communication strategy, not a lack of boundaries. I was obviously wrong.
A· Jul 6, 2017
Only surprise is that more of these names have not come out yet... Charlie O’Donnell, Rob Theis, Justin Caldbeck, Jonathan Teo, Shervin Pishevar, Bryan Biniak, Chris Sacca, Chamath P., Jeremy Liew, Steve Anderson, Paige Craig
https://startupsanonymous.com/question/thoughts-post-listing-male-vcs-infamous-hitting-female-founders-pitch-business-meetings/
A· Aug 31, 2017
The only thing I'm surprised about is that people seem to care all of a sudden. Actually a large reason I quit my startup - unless I can turn into a dude on demand, I don't want to be on the founder's side of a VC meeting ever again. Doing a startup was painfully illuminating on the subject of sexist bias in general... I really believed it wasn't a thing before.