Taking an alternative approach to Chris Sacca’s pre-publication statement on the New York Times’ story of his alleged misconduct, Dave McClure waited a day to..
Taking an alternative approach to Chris Sacca’s pre-publication statement on the New York Times’ story of his alleged misconduct, Dave McClure waited a day to respond to the allegations made in yesterday’s article.
In a Medium post published Saturday evening, McClure neither denies nor defends the actions that he says have cost him the executive position at the firm he founded. The statement is instead a relatively straightforward admission that he made unwanted advances on several women in work contexts and took advantage of his position of power.
“I made advances towards multiple women in work-related situations, where it was clearly inappropriate, ” writes McClure. “I put people in compromising and inappropriate situations, and I selfishly took advantage of those situations where I should have known better. My behavior was inexcusable and wrong.”
McClure includes a claim that new chief executive Christine Tsai and the rest of the 500 Startups staff were unaware of his actions — and says that the investigation began as soon as McClure informed Tsai of his behavior.
What prompted McClure to come clean is still unknown. Here’s the section that relates to the structural changes at the firm:
McClure writes that he’s in conversations with the management team at 500 and with the firm’s investors to determine what the best course of action will be regarding his potential ongoing involvement with the accelerator.
McClure also apologizes directly to Sarah Kunst, who is mentioned in the NYT piece, for making inappropriate advances toward her.
“For these and other incidents where I have been at fault, I would like to apologize for being a clueless, selfish, unapologetic and defensive ass, ” says McClure.
The full statement is below.
