Breaking : McClure steps back at 500 Startups after internal sexual misconduct investigationDave McClure, the founder and public face of 500 Startups — one of the most prolific and best-known accelerator programs for early stage companies — has stepped away from managing the firm he set up and largely built in his own image. McClure is the latest venture capitalist to be ensnared in the industry’s investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by investors with women that they were supposed to be mentoring or backing financially or simply professionally. News of McClure’s departure was first reported by The New York Times. Meanwhile, here’s the statement from 500 Startups’ new chief executive, Christine Tsai, about the changes there:
Sacca writes:
The 20 most impactful VC teams (V1)Last week, Social Capital founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya published an article on Medium that scolded the Forbes Midas List. He argued that the list attributes too much credit to individual VCs and wrongly celebrates partners “picking” winners over investment teams truly building value for their portfolio companies.
Why Theranos Could Bleed Out By The End of 2017A year has elapsed since FORBES estimated that Palo Alto, Calif.-based blood testing startup Theranos's value had dropped from $9 billion to $800 million. A Boston-based medical technology venture investor thinks that figure is now too high. This comes to mind in considering last week's news from the Wall Street Journal that Theranos has $54 million in cash remaining and is burning through $10 million a month on legal fees. Unless Theranos can raise more cash, it will bleed out by the end of 2017. [ Forbes ] Binary Won't Be the Last Venture Discrimination StoryThe Binary Capital revelations over the past week have been disturbing. The founder of the up-and-coming e-commerce company Stitch Fix, Katrina Lake, was allegedly harassed by the now disgraced venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck. And then Lightspeed Venture Partners, where Caldbeck worked at the time, had Lake sign a non-disparagement agreement. Lightspeed allowed Caldbeck to keep the allegations a secret. The firm wrote on Twitter, "In light of what we have learned since, we regret we did not take stronger action. It is clear now that we should have done more." [ Bloomberg ] I’ve raised around a billion dollars in funding from venture capitalists and have been an angel investor in dozens of companies, so I’m not surprised when founders ask me for pitching advice. Having been on both sides of the table, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t many times over. And what works is pretty simple: Winning pitches paint a grand picture. They unveil a huge need, show a broken problem, and present a great solution. There’s validation from customers right from the get-go, and a real business model that shows how big this company could get if it’s given the opportunity. [ Fast Company ] The incredible life of Mike Lynch, the Cambridge academic who sold his search startup to HP for $11 billionMike Lynch, the 52-year-old British tech Goliath behind one of Britain's most successful tech companies, is an ambitious, intellectual powerhouse. Described as Britain's Bill Gates by The Sunday Times, Lynch has been under the spotlight ever since he sold his big data company, Autonomy, to HP for $11.7 billion (£8.7 billion). [ Business Insider ] Silicon Valley Women, in Cultural Shift, Frankly Describe Sexual HarassmentTheir 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. [ NY Times ] |