There's been a massive sexism scandal blowing up in Silicon Valley over the last couple of weeks.
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An investor whose firm is embroiled in a sexism scandal blamed 'corrupted' media for bad press
Binary Capital's Jonathan Teo said portfolio entrepreneurs shouldn't ask for their shares back.
Binary Capital cofounder Jonathan Teo.
It began with Justin Caldbeck, a cofounder and managing partner at investment firm Binary Capital.
Six women working in the tech industry told The Information that Caldbeck had made inappropriate advances to them while in a business setting. Often the advances happened while they were seeking funding for their own startups.
Caldbeck and Binary Capital initially denied the accusations, but then did a u-turn that resulted in Caldbeck stepping down from his company and issuing an apology. Since then, Binary's future has looked in jeopardy as it reportedly paused on closing its second $75 million (£58.2 million) fund in the wake of the scandal.
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Now Binary's cofounder, Jonathan Teo, has waded in to blame "corrupted" media for the way the scandal is playing out, according to Axios.
To be clear, no one has accused Teo of sexual harassment.
Teo said investors leaking information about Binary to the press did not have entrepreneurs' best interests at heart. And he said that he had offered to resign after the revelations about Caldbeck, but seemingly only to shut the press up.
He wrote:
"Media has been corrupted. The voice of many have been diluted by the agendas of a few. My offer of resignation was made to quell a news cycle that we are almost positive was exacerbated by a leak from someone in our investor base that had an agenda not in the best interest of the entrepreneurs we work with. Nor the value of the portfolio we are committed to building."
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Teo's memo, which you can read fully on Axios, addresses reports that some entrepreneurs in Binary's portfolio want to buy their shares back. He described this as "opportunistic grandstanding."
He then goes on a general rant about "entitled human beings," "whiners," and describes anyone who suggests Binary's new general partner ought to be a woman as "moronic."
Teo offered to resign from Binary at the end of June, according to Bloomberg. In his memo, Teo said his resignation hadn't yet been accepted.
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