Sex for Funding? Silicon Valley Reeling After 24 Female Entrepreneurs Speak Out. Legendary VCs Chris Sacca and Dave McClure face accusations. It's been a little over a week since Travis Kalanick resigned as CEO of Uber in the wake of disclosures about a poisonous corporate culture where "Toe-Stepping" was considered a company value and sexual harassment was treated as business-as-usual. At the time a former Uber engineer had come out with a lengthy blog post detailing not only her boss's sexual advances, but also the company's staunch refusal to discipline him in any way. Embarrassing as this was for the ride-share unicorn, Uber engineer Amy Lucido argued at the time that the company was being singled out for behavior that was the norm throughout Silicon Valley. [ Inc. ] Silicon Valley's biggest start-up factory is making a bet on biotech, but it's not an obvious fit
Turning point or momentary distraction for tech? We are at a crossroads. VCs can take the hard road to reforming our industry through innovation and accountability… or continue with the status quo after a moment of self-flagellation.Harassment in general is a symptom of a much bigger problem in tech: exclusion. Just as when a venture capitalist harasses, it’s usually not isolated: It’s not just one woman who gets harassed, it’s many. And it’s often tied to an unhealthy corporate and industry culture. If you have so little respect for women that you’re harassing them, you’re unlikely to be respectful in other contexts: funding decisions, boardrooms, advising. And it’s not just women — you’re less likely to be respectful of other underrepresented groups. [ Ellen K. Pao ] Details of Upfront Ventures New $400 Million FundI am so proud and humbled to be able to formally announce that Upfront Ventures has raised its 6th venture capital fund in the past 21 years. Upfront VI is our latest core fund and is $400 million to invest in early stage entrepreneurs. This brings our combined funds under management to nearly $2 billion. Stitch Fix Founder Katrina Lake Was Coerced Into Silence Over VC Justin Caldbeck's Sexual HarassmentLightspeed Venture Capital made Katrina Lake sign a non-disparagement agreement or risk the welfare of her company. It's the latest twist in the ugly story of rampant sexual harassment and discrimination in Silicon Valley: A powerful VC firm reportedly used coercion to silence a founder who had been harassed by one of its partners. The tech websites Axios and Recode report that in 2013, Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lakecomplained to the VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, saying that then-partner Justin Caldbeck had sexually harassed her and asking for him to be removed as an observer on the Stitch Fix board of directors. The firm did remove him but also presented her with a non-disparagement agreement in which she had to promise not to say anything negative about the firm or its partners. At the time, she was working to raise a round of needed funding for Stitch Fix and was well aware that Lightspeed could prevent that deal from taking place. She signed the agreement. [ Inc. ] BENCHMARK’S PETER FENTON ON HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN GOOD & GREAT VCS, WHY OWNERSHIP IS A BIGGER DETERMINANT OF RETURNS THAN VALUATION & WHAT MAKES A TRULY EXCEPTIONAL BOARD MEMBERPeter Fenton is a General Partner @ Benchmark, one of the world’s leading VC funds with a portfolio including the likes of Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, eBay, WeWork, Yelp and many more revolutionary companies of the last decade. Peter himself sits or has sat on the board of Twitter, previous guest Cockroach, Optimizely, New Relic and ZenDesk just to name a few. Prior to Benchmark, Peter was a Managing Partner @ Accel. It is clearly not just me that has a man crush on Peter though as he has been named to Forbes Midas List for many consecutive years with the last list placing Peter as No 3 in the world. [ 20VC ] Personal Finance And Insurance Are Oversaturated. Regtech Is The New OpportunityRebecca Lynn of Canvas Ventures, Rick Yang of New Enterprise Associates, and Satya Patel of Homebrew discuss where the early-stage fintech opportunity is now. [ CB Insights ] |