Startups have their ‘me too’ moment

While start-up valuations over the past decade have skyrocketed and hundreds of millions of investor dollars poured into the sector, Wark said that structures around corporate governance and HR had not kept up. She said issues around harassment span from tech founders themselves to investors, mentors and employees, and affect both women and men.

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“In the start-up ecosystem we give millions of dollars of LPs’ [limited partners] and super funds’ money to founders, and I think we should see that as a higher level of performance, responsibility and governance required,” she said.

Corporate Australia is reckoning more broadly with how to deal with instances of sexual harassment. This month, new positive duty legislation came into effect, which requires Australian companies to take “reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, sex discrim­ination, hostile workplace environ­ments and victimisation.” A recent survey from the Australian Institute of Company Directors found most directors feel their boards are underprepared for the change.

Garg said the Australian start-up sector’s rapid growth over the past decade had led to structural vulnerabilities, making it particularly susceptible to issues of bullying and harassment.

“I’ve worked for companies that range in maturity from seed stage to bigger scale-ups. Often there hasn’t been the formal training or lived experience for people to manage teams effectively or safely,” she said. “And the people and culture function tends to come in later, so it may be a bit immature as well, and if people have reported feeling unsafe, there’s not always processes and procedures in place with how to deal with it appropriately.”

She added that she wanted Grapevine to be the first step in creating a broader community to share stories, but also get practical advice on how to handle difficult workplace situations and conversations.

“At its core, Grapevine is a platform that shares de-identified stories because there’s real power in raising awareness of the kind of situations that a lot of people either face themselves or are bystanders to. We also provide practical advice for the stakeholders on how the situation could have been handled better, or prevented altogether,” Garg said.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And we think there’s also a lot of power in presenting stories as they are, not embellishing them. We also ensure stories are de-identified to protect the individuals and organisations involved. We don’t want this to be about naming and shaming or scare tactics.

“We really believe that systematic change can’t happen through individual acts of courage. We all need to sort of galvanise around this and raise our voices collectively.”