As a spate of sexual harassment scandals rock Silicon Valley, half a world away in Bangalore startups are developing plans and strategies to avoid a similar disaster.
From committing to deeper due diligence on founders to creating internal committees to handle complaints, Indian investors and entrepreneurs are pushing for greater scrutiny of the people behind up-and-coming technology companies.
While Silicon Valley has long provided an inspiration to Indian startups, recent scandals that engulfed Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital and Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital are making it a cautionary tale. Travis Kalanick was forced out from Uber Technologies Inc. after a string of controversies, including allegations he failed to properly deal with sexual discrimination. These, combined with incidents in India that have seen the ouster of key founders, have sent a chill through the startup community.
“It has really hit us now that this can take on mammoth proportions,” said investor Krishnan Ganesh. “As the Uber story shows, however valuable a startup is, however iconic its founder, it can still shake the company at its very foundations.”
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Acceptable behavior and zero tolerance policies have been put in place in Ganesh’s portfolio companies. Among the behavior banned is staring, forwarding sexist jokes and calling female colleagues by names such as “sweetie” and “baby,” Ganesh said. He has been an early backer of startups including online grocer Bigbasket and home health-care services provider Portea.
Along with financial and legal audits of startups, investors are stepping up due diligence on individual founders as well, he said.
Read more at: Bloomberg Quint