Jeffrey Dahmer didn’t eat everyone he met, either

I went through 500 Startups a few years ago. Dave McClure was barely present for the day-to-day, but I now have this feeling that while I was working my ass off, women in my cohort were also working their asses off AND may have been dealing with unwanted advances from McClure (and probably other difficulties associated with being a woman founder / early startup employee).

And that's what really gets me... how unequal the situation might have been and how oblivious I was.

So while part of me wants to defend McClure, someone who I've met and respected, I think of the women in my cohort and this article really resonates with me.

FWIW, the OP is responding to a July 1 piece by the co-founder of Slideshare, and both pieces were published before the later, more unsettling revelations and allegations about McClure. The piece being responded to has an update and link to a mea culpa, which states that she would have never posted her original apologia for McClure had she known about the newer allegations: https://medium.com/@rashmi/i-stand-in-support-of-the-victims...

How much of a jerk someone is (due to sexual harassment or other reasons) is like Big O notation. Sure, they’re not like that ALL the time, but do you want to be around someone with a jerk limit of O(n^n) ?

This article feels like piling on to me. VC's by their nature are rapacious, driven individuals... and so are most entrepreneurs, male or female.

I can think of several women I have worked with who have weaponized their sex appeal to gain advantage in the workplace, essentially being outrageously flirtatious with their target and then being outraged when they get the desired results, running to HR and climbing over their patsie on the career ladder. I know somebody who now has a c suite position in a major global company who did their MBA funded by the results of a silicon valley CEO rape accusation settlement.

I've met Dave McLure a couple of times and don't particularly like the guy, he seems very hard nosed and lacking in empathy. When some women swim with sharks they expect them to behave themselves which seems naive to me. This whole 'visit the rich uncle to persuade them to give us a unicorn budget' VC perception seems hopelessly naive, or perhaps I'm just over reacting to the endless articles about this.

>...if the problem is that that Dave behaves inappropriately sometimes, it doesn’t really mitigate the situation that he doesn’t do it all the time, and to every woman he encounters.

The assumption being that "the problem is that Dave behaves inappropriately sometimes", which may or may not be true. Character witness is relevant in these kinds of cases.