This harassment won't stop until people are punished.Some must make sacrifices and kill their attackers. I failed to kill my attacker and now it would be difficult to kill him. So my advice is to kill asap. I also plan to kill not now but when I am older and closer to death. I will kill not my attacker but others who are going to become attackers. If I could I would kill my attackers but it would be difficult now to carry out.
6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
311–320 of 484 posts
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yyes, he is asking exactly that.
"I am deeply sorry for using my position as an investor to take advantage of the female founders who came to me and my firm seeking only our help and support. What I did was cruel and wrong. The harm I've done to myself, my firm, my reputation, and my family does not compare to the harm I did these women. As a man, I will never truly understand what it feels like to be the victim of these transgressions. I can only s…
If there were a job like, "Professional apology writer," you would be great at it. On the other hand, I doubt you would work for anyone who needed such services, and good on you for that.
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#313This harassment won't stop until people are punished.Some must make sacrifices and kill their attackers. I failed to kill my attacker and now it would be difficult to kill him. So my advice is to kill asap. I also plan to kill not now but when I am older and closer to death. I will kill not my attacker but others who are going to become attackers. If I could I would kill my attackers but it would be difficult now to…
wow you don't sound crazy at all./s
but seriously you should talk to a professional about your murderous fantasies.
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
One might call them women...
I'm British, it's customary here to use 'girl' instead of 'woman'. It can be offensive to say 'woman' to a woman under the age of ~50.
this is a perfect example of why, in a globally connected world, this problem will never be solved:
different cultures have different standards for appropriateness and harrasement: you are trying to not be offensive and so used the world "girl", and someone else is offended because you didn't use the word "woman."
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#315Really glad to see people like this getting called out. Dealing with sexual harassment/assault from someone in power is the last thing you want as a female founder - you have a million other things you need to do to keep your startup afloat, and you don't want to rock the boat if it affects your likelihood of being funded. Feels like the valley is slowly but surely changing. And yes, I recognize that this hasn't been…
The sad part to me is that this is just the part of the iceberg that is visible above the surface. I've heard stories from several female founders/VC's (not naming names or specific details to protect anonymity) who have experienced repeated unwelcome advances even after it was made clear they had a significant other. That's not as egregious as groping (one of the accusations in this article), but that's still sexual…
> Another common theme I noticed is when the man in question stays in the gray area where individual incidents aren't clearly over the line and might not qualify legally as sexual harassment, but in context and in aggregate it's clear why a woman would feel very uncomfortable.
This seems like a slippery slope. I can imagine malicious but careful predators who constantly test boundaries in a conscious effort to achieve a sexual goal. But I can also imagine a poor socially awkward guy who just has a severe crush, but is doing his damnedest not to say or do anything to act on it- and a woman who would be particularly sensitive to his unwanted romantic desire.
Both would be "incidents that don't cross the line but in aggregate make the woman feel uncomfortable", but the latter deserves understanding and _perhaps_ a calm discussion, but definitely not punishment.
I'm just saying, even the gray area has a spectrum- but any policies people come up with to handle this, would need to establish a threshold higher than just "a woman felt uncomfortable around a specific man", or perhaps a gentle grade of responses.
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#316At the risk of sounding like I'm defending the guy (which I'm not), do we have a comprehensive definition of "Sexual Assault and Harassement" ? Because in some places (northern europe for example) these terms have very volatile definitions which allows pretty much anything to fall under the "rape" category. I totally understand that repeatedly violating somebody's physical safe space is a form a sexual assault (grabb…
In the USA, "sexual harassment" is generally defined as behavior or words of a sexual nature that make a person feel uncomfortable. Examples could range from an extreme of physical assault or offering a quid-pro-quo to keep ones job or get a promotion, all the way to telling lewd jokes or stories within earshot of a third party, or making comments or compliments about someone's dress or appearance (even telling a co-…
That's too broad / vague. I understand that if my actions/words are making/will make other person uncomfortable, I should stop. But if a coworker changed her hair style and I complemented it, can I be legally complained against?
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#317What follows is a statement that Caldbeck provided to Axios this afternoon. "The past 24 hours have been the darkest of my life. I have made many mistakes over the course of my career, some of which were brought to light this week. To say I'm sorry about my behavior is a categorical understatement. Still, I need to say it: I am so, so sorry. I direct my apology first to those women who I've made feel uncomfortable in…
Good statement. I appreciate that it is sincere rather than the refined legalese that first came out and that the firm published. PR professionals - take note.
Caldbeck might benefit by spending time volunteering for an appropriate organization as a way to help accelerate his awareness - and to help.
It's really sad to see this story emerge, and I hope we can all take lessons from it and nudge the industry in a better direction.
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#318I really wish other founders would name and shame more, even if anonymously, but with examples. For most of the female founders who face these, there is no resource to turn to, to know who to avoid.
Honestly, it wouldn't make a difference. Some VCs are sleazy, but their money's still green. I know with certainty of at least two firms with predatory/creepy partners, but that wouldn't stop me from including them in a round. This behaviour is inappropriate, but it's not nearly as bad as what we learn to fend off at the average final club/frat party.
> their money's still green
VCs do not invest their own money. Instead they invest money of their limited partners.
If limited partners learn that their investments are used to fund VC's love life - they would be furious and likely to withdraw their money.
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the sea change we observe as a result of these allegations is VC's and tech executives being scrupulously professional in their interactions with female founders and employees, to prevent even a whiff of impropriety, I think we'd all be better off. If this guy could say "I was never even alone in the same conference room with any of these women, let alone at a bar where any impropriety is a matter of their word ag…
If you do that, they will call you sexist and that your behavior is a way to keep women from power. For example see Mike Pence: “In 2002, Mike Pence told The Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.” http://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/mike-pences-m...
Abstaining from certain types of meetings with an entire gender unless your wife is present falls outside the bounds of "just fucking work."
Re: 6 Women Accuse Tech VC Justin Caldbeck of Sexual Assault and Harassment
#320Really glad to see people like this getting called out. Dealing with sexual harassment/assault from someone in power is the last thing you want as a female founder - you have a million other things you need to do to keep your startup afloat, and you don't want to rock the boat if it affects your likelihood of being funded. Feels like the valley is slowly but surely changing. And yes, I recognize that this hasn't been…
The sad part to me is that this is just the part of the iceberg that is visible above the surface. I've heard stories from several female founders/VC's (not naming names or specific details to protect anonymity) who have experienced repeated unwelcome advances even after it was made clear they had a significant other. That's not as egregious as groping (one of the accusations in this article), but that's still sexual…
> I've heard stories from several female founders/VC's (not naming names or specific details to protect anonymity) who have experienced repeated unwelcome advances even after it was made clear they had a significant other.
Why should that even be a factor? Unwanted is unwanted, whether they're in a committed relationship or not is not relevant at all.