Dave McClure resigns from 500 Startups as more claims of inappropriate behaviour surface

Dave McClure has resigned as general partner of 500 Startups, the venture capital investment group he founded in 2010. The resignation comes just days after news he had stepped down as chief executive of 500 Startups over concerns within the accelerator’s leadership team about his behaviour towards women. News of McClure stepping away from 500 startups […]

Angela Castles 05 July, 2017

Dave McClure has resigned as general partner of 500 Startups, the venture capital investment group he founded in 2010.

The resignation comes just days after news he had stepped down as chief executive of 500 Startups over concerns within the accelerator’s leadership team about his behaviour towards women.

News of McClure stepping away from 500 startups entirely was reportedly relayed partners on Monday in an email from new chief executive Christine Tsai, which was obtained by Axios. The email states 500 Startups received several harassment allegations against McClure, and after investigation “found his behaviour to have been unacceptable,” noting that 500 Startups “cannot be certain that there won’t be future [allegations].”

McClure announced the news via Twitter last night, stating “in best interest of @500Startups & at request co-founder @christine_tsai, i am resigning effective immediately. pls support christine/500,”.

https://twitter.com/davemcclure/status/881946412472193024

What’s happened so far:

McClure’s history of inappropriate behaviour towards women became public late Friday, after a New York Times article raised claims of harassment. Subsequently, McClure wrote a blog post titled I’m a creep. I’m sorry in response, and head of 500 Startups Christine Tsai announced McClure had stepped down from his role as chief executive, yet would still remain as a general partner of its funds.

In Australia, LaunchVic put 500 Startups on notice and threatened to terminate their 500 Melbourne accelerator on Monday, prompting 500 Startups to issue an apology for sending McClure to Melbourne to launch the program despite the accelerator already having taken action amid claims of harassment.

Since then, Malaysian entrepreneur Cheryl Yeoh published a blog post detailing further allegations towards McClure. 500 Startups’ business partner Elizabeth Yin has resigned over a lack of transparency from management regarding these allegations, stating in an email that the 500 leadership took too long to acknowledge harrassment claims, TechCrunch reports.

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