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Binary co-founder blames “corrupted” media for his resignation offer

zzalpha 9y ago
What I find most surprising about this email is the juvenile tone. "Moronic", "whiners", accusing investors of "reneging" and "grandstanding". I'm not surprised to see a C-level that's self-important and holier-than-thou, but I also expect professionalism and decorum, if only to avoid burning bridges.
- JohnTHaller 9y ago
  It's the same tone the current president of the United States uses in public tweets, so it is unfortunately not that unusual anymore.
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  Narcissists never see anything wrong with their own behavior. There are a LOT of his type of low grade, non clinical, narcissism in tech’s C-level crowd. Tech in general has a problem with people accepting blame for this kind of stuff. They don’t see it as wrong: just complaining about it aid wrong. Frustrating
nodesocket 9y ago
This may not be a popular opinion, but hear me out. I do have some intimate experience with witch hunting and the _current_ media... The "witch hunt" is real and fueled by the internet, misinformation, playing on emotions, and outrage. Let me be super clear... I am not condoning Caldbeck in the least, after all, he did admit guilt. My comment is entirely focused on the hypocrisy of the _current_ media, pretending to stand on the moral pedestal of society, but really just trying to incite outrage to generate pageviews, which generates ad revenue and keeps them in business. Second, has anybody ever taken a look at the editors, bloggers, and writers at media outlets? I'd predict they as a group are not as diverse as you'd expect. Liberal arts college educated, making middle class salaries. Probably not the group of deep thinkers and intellectuals we'd like to believe.
- zzalpha 9y ago
  The "witch hunt" is real and fueled by the internet, misinformation, playing on emotions, and outrage. It's not a witch hunt if it actually happened. It's just news. Is it perhaps the case that the media are now doggedly rooting out this kind of thing in SV because it's pushing page views? Sure. But why does that matter? These incidents are real, and it's about time the silence was broken about it. Is the media, itself, immune to this kind of thing? Obviously not. Fox News provides ample examples. But, again, why is that relevant in this specific context? Does it make Calbeck's actions less serious? Should the media not pursue these very real stories? Should the victims keep silent? I'm just trying to understand the thrust of your comment, here... because I honestly don't see where you're going with this. It strikes me as mud slinging just to make sure everyone looks equally dirty, in order to somehow minimize what folks like Caldbeck have done.
  - thedudemabry 9y ago
    Similarly concerning about cries of "witch hunts" in the media is that the term originated when a powerful group assaulted individuals with little power to distract from their own shortcomings, injuring or killing them in the process. That metaphor is problematic in the case of the founder of a company facing charges of employee sexual harassment. At worst, let's use "sensationalist" or "disingenuous" coverage.
    - mtanski 9y ago
      When this blew up a few days ago, it spread quick. It most certainly didn't start sensationalist... it was a story posted late Friday on the NYT... a story told before. What was different this time is people started naming names. I know myself I was having a lot of conversations with people about the story... mostly because everybody who's been on the harassment of of it, and the names name are names of people who we know as the people who funded the companies of folks we know. So sure, there was auxiliary outlets fanning the flames. But that happens for lots of stories and gets forgotten quickly. So instead of calling it sensationalist... I'd say it was a big story. Some parties named directly came out and confirmed and apologized (McClure). The "fake news" / "sensationalist" claim is not holding water with me since it wants to discredit the story but does not do it on the basis of facts.
chasing 9y ago
> The news we read and have access to is a problem. Media has been corrupted. The voice of many have been diluted by the agendas of a few. I, uh, don't think this is the problem, here. > What I think is that we are an industry full of entitled human beings. Some more than others. But, yes. Apparently. > My job is not to make you all feel good [...] My job is to preserve the integrity of the portfolio we built up and the value in it, and to ensure the resources you count on do not dematerialize. Ah, there it is. This entire letter could've just been this. > I am angry that women have felt hurt. I am angry that many have been hurt. No you're not. See above. I get that this may've been written in the heat of the moment, but this is an embarrassment.
reuven 9y ago
So a VC admits to long-standing sexual harassment, his firm admits that they knew about it and did nothing, and it's the media's fault that the firm is in the news for being slimy? The mind boggles. It's true: A VC's job is to protect the integrity of the firm's portfolio. But there's no contradiction (I'd like to think) between protecting the portfolio and engaging in decent, upstanding behavior. This sort of e-mail just re-enforces the belief that these guys were mostly upset about being caught, and don't really recognize how bad their behavior was.
- ChristianGeek 9y ago
  Textbook Narcissism.
  - deleted 9y ago
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- bsder 9y ago
  The point of being a rich bastard is to ignore the rules. How dare these plebeians actually enforce the rules on we bourgeoisie? /s
goseeastarwar 9y ago
If anyone was left that wanted to work with Jonathan Teo and Binary, this email certainly took care of that. What makes this particularly astounding is he knew it would be leaked, so he wrote this nonsense knowing full-well the public would read it.
deleted 9y ago
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grandalf 9y ago
I think it's easy in situations like this to assume that one party must be right and the other wrong. Chances are for Caldbeck and for his accusers, many signals got mixed up and misread. Yes it is possible Caldbeck is a cunning predator who knew exactly what he could get away with and used his clout as a VC to grope and harass many women, but it's far more likely that he is not. Far more likely he isn't all that smooth with women and ham-handedly attempted to woo his victims. He failed to realize how the power dynamic influenced things. This is important for anyone in a position of power to realize. My moment of realization was when I noticed that every single person on a team I led laughed at a joke I made. I realized something was off. The joke simply wasn't that funny. It's easy to see how simple flattery (which is quite normal when dealing with VCs) might have thrown off Caldbeck's compass. Yes I'd expect someone with his level of experience to be aware of it, but some people can go years without realizing they are being flattered. This is in no way meant to minimize the poor judgment Caldbeck used or to cast any blame at all on his victims. VC is a unique world that is fad-driven and reputation-driven and so the founder of a very hot company has tremendous power over investors, but all other founders are essentially beggars. I know Jonathan and he's an exceptionally gracious person whose behavior is completely reserved and respectful. I imagine he's quite disappointed about being lumped into all this and having his company's brand ruined by it and his name dragged through the mud for Caldbeck's poor judgment.
- pyre 9y ago
  But is it the fault of the "corrupt media" that bad publicity hit this company? Or is it the fault of Caldbeck? Lashing out and claiming that it's the media's fault seems like it's trying to just redirect blame.
  - grandalf 9y ago
    I think the sentiment he's trying to capture with that description is the enthusiasm with which stories about the tech industry being hostile to women are written, and how those stories tend to cast a broad net with respect to who gets blamed. Increasingly, this is becoming national news. I read a story about the Binary Capital fiasco in the WSJ -- a few years go it would have been in Valleywag and probably not even made Techcrunch. The problem is the narrative that comes with these stories is overly general. Most startups hire based on merit and require hard work but have a supportive, kind-hearted culture. Yet stories run with headlines like "Why is Google still so white and male?" etc. Stories like these overlook the deeper social problems that make it less likely for women and minorities to get hooked on building technology at a young age, and focus on the idea that it's backward-thinking male managers who are causing this from the top down. In other words, the lay reader is nudged into thinking that there's some sort of boy's club and that women and minorities aren't welcome. The public is sensitized to this at present after some of the recordings of Donald Trump. We're all ready to send a mob after the next male villain. Teo himself has invested in many female founded companies and the female founders I know who have worked with him consider him one of their most valuable sources of insight and support.
strangeloops85 9y ago
"The story in the public that you are all trying to buy back shares should be revised. Not for my sake. If that's what any of you want, ok, but know this. I strongly urge you not to be considered part of a group of entrepreneurs that would, at the first sign of trouble or opportunity, choose to renege. It is dishonorable. And it is opportunistic grandstanding. It will hurt the perception of your integrity and it will hurt your ability to raise capital down the line. No investor seeks out that risk. It's not an action of integrity. I would urge you to separate yourself from that narrative if it isn't true of your intentions. If it is, I hope you have a very credible reason to do it besides just doing a shakedown, or to stand outside your integrity for the sake of media perception. I also recommend you speak to each reporter who has quoted that erroneous article and have it corrected." Nice, a threat that speaking against them/him will hurt your ability to raise money. This seems only barely removed from the retaliation threats and actions Caldbeck did against the former employee (and others he harassed). Seems like a great guy to work with! Also, 'Not for my sake', lol. Seriously, did one of their lawyers not look this over? They're facing a lawsuit from a former principal alleging extensive retaliation against her throughout the valley, and I suspect this email will wind up being a pretty compelling exhibit in the case. This does certainly cast yet another shadow on all the public remonstrations of fealty and support shown on various social media channels towards him. In the future, you may want to wait a bit and see how things shake out.
- strangeloops85 9y ago
  Also, holy crap is this terrible: "There are victims out there paying for oppression with their lives. As for the people here that whine that they aren't taken care of, who have not to worry about their lives being taken from them or their basic needs met, who owes them more than the voice they already have access to? To these whiners who want me to constantly address their questions preemptively, I say that we all have priorities." If I'm reading this correctly, he's basically telling the women/URMs of Silicon Valley, "Hey, at least you're not dying of hunger here, stop whining." I'm really not sure telling those who face harassment and significant discrimination on a daily basis here that they are 'whiners' is a good response to this fiasco. But, then again, I don't run a VC with management fees that would presumably give me access to a world-class PR firm.. What is furthermore galling about this email to his founders is the lack of contrition towards them for the difficult position he and Binary have put them in. His actions and the actions of the firm have undoubtedly caused a great deal of distraction, angst, heartache and anger within the portfolio firms, and those founders deserve nothing but an apology from him. Instead, they are berated and threatened! Why on Earth would anyone read this and ever want to work with him as an investor?
irascible 9y ago
Everything about this person's language screams guilt and flawed character. Deflecting, victim blaming, media blaming, and narcissism.
deleted 9y ago
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throwawayqf24 9y ago
My friend another programmer (specialist in C#) and he was wanted to know if women in startups is happy with this outcome and with the "heads rolling", and if itis outcome that they would wanted - if improves startup industry for them. The womens I know not answering my questions (maybe part of silence which problem in industry, maybe problem is I or way of ask) but this anonymous forum here, so maybe if women is here you could answering? Is this results improve situation for you, and what you liked? Maybe answer is obvious yes. Sorry to asking. In articles by womens she talked about experiences but not mentioned ask to remove of VC's, but maybe is best outcome. if not woman please not answer: easy to read 1,000 comments from men. if my comment is hurts you please to mention of this and I remove.
parisandmilo 9y ago
i don’t understand how these people are all over the press and love it if something they can boast about happens, but hate the press when something that they are ashamed of, but don’t want to change, happens

What I find most surprising about this email is the juvenile tone. "Moronic", "whiners", accusing investors of "reneging" and "grandstanding". I'm not surprised to see a C-level that's self-important and holier-than-thou, but I also expect professionalism and decorum, if only to avoid burning bridges.

JohnTHaller 9y ago
It's the same tone the current president of the United States uses in public tweets, so it is unfortunately not that unusual anymore.
abritinthebay 9y ago
Narcissists never see anything wrong with their own behavior. There are a LOT of his type of low grade, non clinical, narcissism in tech’s C-level crowd. Tech in general has a problem with people accepting blame for this kind of stuff. They don’t see it as wrong: just complaining about it aid wrong. Frustrating

nodesocket 9y ago

This may not be a popular opinion, but hear me out. I do have some intimate experience with witch hunting and the _current_ media... The "witch hunt" is real and fueled by the internet, misinformation, playing on emotions, and outrage. Let me be super clear... I am not condoning Caldbeck in the least, after all, he did admit guilt. My comment is entirely focused on the hypocrisy of the _current_ media, pretending to stand on the moral pedestal of society, but really just trying to incite outrage to generate pageviews, which generates ad revenue and keeps them in business. Second, has anybody ever taken a look at the editors, bloggers, and writers at media outlets? I'd predict they as a group are not as diverse as you'd expect. Liberal arts college educated, making middle class salaries. Probably not the group of deep thinkers and intellectuals we'd like to believe.

zzalpha 9y ago
The "witch hunt" is real and fueled by the internet, misinformation, playing on emotions, and outrage. It's not a witch hunt if it actually happened. It's just news. Is it perhaps the case that the media are now doggedly rooting out this kind of thing in SV because it's pushing page views? Sure. But why does that matter? These incidents are real, and it's about time the silence was broken about it. Is the media, itself, immune to this kind of thing? Obviously not. Fox News provides ample examples. But, again, why is that relevant in this specific context? Does it make Calbeck's actions less serious? Should the media not pursue these very real stories? Should the victims keep silent? I'm just trying to understand the thrust of your comment, here... because I honestly don't see where you're going with this. It strikes me as mud slinging just to make sure everyone looks equally dirty, in order to somehow minimize what folks like Caldbeck have done.
- thedudemabry 9y ago
  Similarly concerning about cries of "witch hunts" in the media is that the term originated when a powerful group assaulted individuals with little power to distract from their own shortcomings, injuring or killing them in the process. That metaphor is problematic in the case of the founder of a company facing charges of employee sexual harassment. At worst, let's use "sensationalist" or "disingenuous" coverage.
  - mtanski 9y ago
    When this blew up a few days ago, it spread quick. It most certainly didn't start sensationalist... it was a story posted late Friday on the NYT... a story told before. What was different this time is people started naming names. I know myself I was having a lot of conversations with people about the story... mostly because everybody who's been on the harassment of of it, and the names name are names of people who we know as the people who funded the companies of folks we know. So sure, there was auxiliary outlets fanning the flames. But that happens for lots of stories and gets forgotten quickly. So instead of calling it sensationalist... I'd say it was a big story. Some parties named directly came out and confirmed and apologized (McClure). The "fake news" / "sensationalist" claim is not holding water with me since it wants to discredit the story but does not do it on the basis of facts.

chasing 9y ago

> The news we read and have access to is a problem. Media has been corrupted. The voice of many have been diluted by the agendas of a few. I, uh, don't think this is the problem, here. > What I think is that we are an industry full of entitled human beings. Some more than others. But, yes. Apparently. > My job is not to make you all feel good [...] My job is to preserve the integrity of the portfolio we built up and the value in it, and to ensure the resources you count on do not dematerialize. Ah, there it is. This entire letter could've just been this. > I am angry that women have felt hurt. I am angry that many have been hurt. No you're not. See above. I get that this may've been written in the heat of the moment, but this is an embarrassment.

reuven 9y ago

So a VC admits to long-standing sexual harassment, his firm admits that they knew about it and did nothing, and it's the media's fault that the firm is in the news for being slimy? The mind boggles. It's true: A VC's job is to protect the integrity of the firm's portfolio. But there's no contradiction (I'd like to think) between protecting the portfolio and engaging in decent, upstanding behavior. This sort of e-mail just re-enforces the belief that these guys were mostly upset about being caught, and don't really recognize how bad their behavior was.

ChristianGeek 9y ago
Textbook Narcissism.
- deleted 9y ago
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bsder 9y ago
The point of being a rich bastard is to ignore the rules. How dare these plebeians actually enforce the rules on we bourgeoisie? /s

goseeastarwar 9y ago

If anyone was left that wanted to work with Jonathan Teo and Binary, this email certainly took care of that. What makes this particularly astounding is he knew it would be leaked, so he wrote this nonsense knowing full-well the public would read it.

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grandalf 9y ago

I think it's easy in situations like this to assume that one party must be right and the other wrong. Chances are for Caldbeck and for his accusers, many signals got mixed up and misread. Yes it is possible Caldbeck is a cunning predator who knew exactly what he could get away with and used his clout as a VC to grope and harass many women, but it's far more likely that he is not. Far more likely he isn't all that smooth with women and ham-handedly attempted to woo his victims. He failed to realize how the power dynamic influenced things. This is important for anyone in a position of power to realize. My moment of realization was when I noticed that every single person on a team I led laughed at a joke I made. I realized something was off. The joke simply wasn't that funny. It's easy to see how simple flattery (which is quite normal when dealing with VCs) might have thrown off Caldbeck's compass. Yes I'd expect someone with his level of experience to be aware of it, but some people can go years without realizing they are being flattered. This is in no way meant to minimize the poor judgment Caldbeck used or to cast any blame at all on his victims. VC is a unique world that is fad-driven and reputation-driven and so the founder of a very hot company has tremendous power over investors, but all other founders are essentially beggars. I know Jonathan and he's an exceptionally gracious person whose behavior is completely reserved and respectful. I imagine he's quite disappointed about being lumped into all this and having his company's brand ruined by it and his name dragged through the mud for Caldbeck's poor judgment.

pyre 9y ago
But is it the fault of the "corrupt media" that bad publicity hit this company? Or is it the fault of Caldbeck? Lashing out and claiming that it's the media's fault seems like it's trying to just redirect blame.
- grandalf 9y ago
  I think the sentiment he's trying to capture with that description is the enthusiasm with which stories about the tech industry being hostile to women are written, and how those stories tend to cast a broad net with respect to who gets blamed. Increasingly, this is becoming national news. I read a story about the Binary Capital fiasco in the WSJ -- a few years go it would have been in Valleywag and probably not even made Techcrunch. The problem is the narrative that comes with these stories is overly general. Most startups hire based on merit and require hard work but have a supportive, kind-hearted culture. Yet stories run with headlines like "Why is Google still so white and male?" etc. Stories like these overlook the deeper social problems that make it less likely for women and minorities to get hooked on building technology at a young age, and focus on the idea that it's backward-thinking male managers who are causing this from the top down. In other words, the lay reader is nudged into thinking that there's some sort of boy's club and that women and minorities aren't welcome. The public is sensitized to this at present after some of the recordings of Donald Trump. We're all ready to send a mob after the next male villain. Teo himself has invested in many female founded companies and the female founders I know who have worked with him consider him one of their most valuable sources of insight and support.

strangeloops85 9y ago

"The story in the public that you are all trying to buy back shares should be revised. Not for my sake. If that's what any of you want, ok, but know this. I strongly urge you not to be considered part of a group of entrepreneurs that would, at the first sign of trouble or opportunity, choose to renege. It is dishonorable. And it is opportunistic grandstanding. It will hurt the perception of your integrity and it will hurt your ability to raise capital down the line. No investor seeks out that risk. It's not an action of integrity. I would urge you to separate yourself from that narrative if it isn't true of your intentions. If it is, I hope you have a very credible reason to do it besides just doing a shakedown, or to stand outside your integrity for the sake of media perception. I also recommend you speak to each reporter who has quoted that erroneous article and have it corrected." Nice, a threat that speaking against them/him will hurt your ability to raise money. This seems only barely removed from the retaliation threats and actions Caldbeck did against the former employee (and others he harassed). Seems like a great guy to work with! Also, 'Not for my sake', lol. Seriously, did one of their lawyers not look this over? They're facing a lawsuit from a former principal alleging extensive retaliation against her throughout the valley, and I suspect this email will wind up being a pretty compelling exhibit in the case. This does certainly cast yet another shadow on all the public remonstrations of fealty and support shown on various social media channels towards him. In the future, you may want to wait a bit and see how things shake out.

strangeloops85 9y ago
Also, holy crap is this terrible: "There are victims out there paying for oppression with their lives. As for the people here that whine that they aren't taken care of, who have not to worry about their lives being taken from them or their basic needs met, who owes them more than the voice they already have access to? To these whiners who want me to constantly address their questions preemptively, I say that we all have priorities." If I'm reading this correctly, he's basically telling the women/URMs of Silicon Valley, "Hey, at least you're not dying of hunger here, stop whining." I'm really not sure telling those who face harassment and significant discrimination on a daily basis here that they are 'whiners' is a good response to this fiasco. But, then again, I don't run a VC with management fees that would presumably give me access to a world-class PR firm.. What is furthermore galling about this email to his founders is the lack of contrition towards them for the difficult position he and Binary have put them in. His actions and the actions of the firm have undoubtedly caused a great deal of distraction, angst, heartache and anger within the portfolio firms, and those founders deserve nothing but an apology from him. Instead, they are berated and threatened! Why on Earth would anyone read this and ever want to work with him as an investor?

irascible 9y ago

Everything about this person's language screams guilt and flawed character. Deflecting, victim blaming, media blaming, and narcissism.

deleted 9y ago

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throwawayqf24 9y ago

My friend another programmer (specialist in C#) and he was wanted to know if women in startups is happy with this outcome and with the "heads rolling", and if itis outcome that they would wanted - if improves startup industry for them. The womens I know not answering my questions (maybe part of silence which problem in industry, maybe problem is I or way of ask) but this anonymous forum here, so maybe if women is here you could answering? Is this results improve situation for you, and what you liked? Maybe answer is obvious yes. Sorry to asking. In articles by womens she talked about experiences but not mentioned ask to remove of VC's, but maybe is best outcome. if not woman please not answer: easy to read 1,000 comments from men. if my comment is hurts you please to mention of this and I remove.

parisandmilo 9y ago

i don’t understand how these people are all over the press and love it if something they can boast about happens, but hate the press when something that they are ashamed of, but don’t want to change, happens