Dave McClure, the founder and public face of 500 Startups — one of the most prolific and best-known accelerator programs for early stage companies — has..
Dave McClure, the founder and public face of 500 Startups — one of the most prolific and best-known accelerator programs for early stage companies — has stepped away from managing the firm he set up (and largely built in his own image) .
McClure is the latest venture capitalist to be ensnared in the industry’s investigations into alleged sexual misconduct by investors with women that they were supposed to be mentoring or backing financially or simply professionally.
News of McClure’s departure was first reported by The New York Times .
Since revelations of sexual misconduct at the venture capital firm Binary Capital (by its co-founder Justin Caldbeck) first appeared at the Information, basically unraveling the firm, other women entrepreneurs have come forward to share their own stories of harassment (and in some cases, assault) .
Chris Sacca, another storied investor whose early bets in companies like Uber have made him a millionaire several times over, was also brought up in The Times’ report. Sacca, who stepped away from investing earlier in the year, issued what amounts to a public apology in a Medium post earlier today for his behavior.
Sacca writes:
While Sacca has stepped away from investment, his former partner, Matt Mazzeo had jumped over to Binary Capital and had been planning to join the firm as a partner before allegations there unraveled the firm.
Meanwhile, here’s the statement from 500 Startups’ new chief executive, Christine Tsai, about the changes there:
