Brief: TechCrunch reporter says 500 Startups VC groped her

“His behavior was escalating quickly and I was frightened,” wrote Catherine Shu of Tristan Pollock, who remains a 500 Startups venture partner. Photo credit: Tristan Pollock.

The news:

• TechCrunch reporter Catherine Shu says 500 Startups venture partner Tristan Pollock “groped” her.
• “He slid his hand down where my friend couldn’t see and grabbed my butt, as if to pull me in toward him,” she wrote today, speaking out for the first time about the October 2015 incident in which Pollock repeatedly touched her. “His behavior was escalating quickly and I was frightened.”
• Shortly after the incident, 500 Startups’ disgraced boss Dave McClure, fired earlier this month over his own sexual assault allegations, conducted an internal investigation into Pollock’s actions.

Why it matters:

• It’s the latest damaging revelation for the embattled Silicon Valley VC.
• Pollock remains a venture partner at 500 Startups after McClure’s internal investigation. “[W]e took internal action that we felt was responsive and reparative,” said 500 Startups to TechCrunch in a statement this morning.
• It comes amid a sexual harassment and assault crisis in the tech industry that has embroiled big names like Uber.

500’s full statement:

“500 Startups investigated Ms. Shu’s complaint as soon as we learned about it nearly two years ago. We spoke to her, Mr. Pollock, and several other witnesses. Although the various accounts were inconsistent and the investigation was inconclusive, we took internal action that we felt was responsive and reparative, and we communicated that action to TechCrunch’s Editor-in-Chief, Matthew Panzarino. Mr. Panzarino stated in a subsequent text message that Ms. Shu was ‘satisfied’ by our internal actions adding that ‘At this point I believe we can close the books on this one…Thanks for taking the time and treating it seriously.’”

Source: TechCrunch.

(Update at 3.50pm Singapore Time: Removed the line that he “pestered her for sex” as that wasn’t what he explicitly said to Shu.)