Justin CaldbeckSilicon Valley has been roiled again by claims of sexism and the harassment of women.
On Friday, venture capital investor Justin Caldbeck said he was taking
an indefinite leave of absence from his firm after he was accused of
sexually harassing women who work in tech.
"The gap of influence between male venture capitalists and female
entrepreneurs is frightening and I hate that my behavior played a role
in perpetrating a gender-hostile environment," Caldbeck wrote in a
statement released by Binary Capital, the firm he cofounded in 2014.
Reed Albergotti of tech news site The Information reported on
Thursday that six female founders had come forward with stories
about unwanted advances by Caldbeck. Their claims included groping and late-night texts.
Caldbeck, 40, was quoted in the story strongly denying the claims,
calling them "attacks on my character." Binary Capital was also quoted saying the allegations were false. "There is no evidence that Justin did anything illegal," the firm said.
But in his statement Friday, Caldbeck said he was deeply ashamed of
his lack of self-awareness. He thanked the women who spoke out for making him take a "sobering look into my own character and behavior
that I can no longer ignore."
Caldbeck wrote that the past "24 hours have been the darkest of my
life," and said he'll seek professional counseling.
He was previously a managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and a partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Caldbeck led investments for Binary Capital in Grubhub ( ), Stitchfix, TaskRabbit and other startups.
Two of the women named in The Information article, in a statement to
CNN Tech, said they were pleased that Caldbeck had apologized and
thanked people who had supported them.
"We need men to be just as engaged in calling out the problem if we
want to see real change," said the two women, Susan Ho and Leiti Hsu.
They are cofounders of Journy, a travel startup. "At this point, we're
happy to go back to focusing on running our company."
Caldbeck's statement came amid mounting outrage among Silicon
Valley executives and investors.
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman wrote a strongly-worded post on Friday about the allegations and broader problems of sexism in Silicon Valley.
"This is entirely immoral and outrageous behavior. And it falls to us to stand with you, to speak out, and to act," said Hoffman, who is a
member of Microsoft ( , Tech30 ) board of directors.
"We all need to solve this problem," he wrote. "If you stay silent, if you
don't act, then you allow this problem to perpetuate."
A former colleague of Caldbeck's, Bain Capital partner Ajay Agarwal,
posted a series of tweets Friday. "We must all take ownership for
pushing for positive changes," Agarwal wrote, adding that he didn't
witness any harassment from Caldbeck.
The Information's report comes on the heels of workplace culture
problems at Uber, which resulted in the resignation this week of
founder and CEO Travis Kalanick.
A former Uber engineer, Susan Fowler, wrote a blog post earlier this
year about what she called widespread harassment and sexism at Uber. Fowler's post spurred an internal investigation at the company
that resulted in the termination of 20 employees.
Fowler is only the latest woman to come forward.
Ellen Pao sued her former employer, prominent venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins, over gender discrimination in 2012. She lost her court case in 2015 but has been cited for breaking the silence on bad
behavior in Silicon Valley. She continues to be a vocal advocate for
women in tech. "VCs need to get it together already," Pao tweeted on
Thursday.
In his blog post Friday, Hoffman noted the situation at Uber, writing that tech companies are "receiving some very good criticism on fairness
and decency on gender."
"This criticism is important. I welcome it," he wrote. "We should all
welcome it, and of course, remedy it."
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