EXCLUSIVE: Cheryl Yeoh opens up on sexual harassment

Cheryl Yeoh has come out to tell her version of events, of how she was amongst the dozen or so women, that has been propositioned, harassed, and even possibly assaulted by prominent Bay-area investor, Dave McClure.

The former founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Center (MaGIC) has alleged that Mr McClure, the 500 Startups co-founder and former CEO, had forced himself on her, after a night of drinks at her apartment.

Prior to Cheryl Yeoh opening up on her sexual harassment episode, it is important to note that the Dave McClure story was first told when entrepreneur Sarah Kunst had claimed in a New York Times piece that Mr McClure sent inappropriate messages after discussing a potential job offer with her. He has apologised directly to her for his behaviour in his post and has also admitted that he had behaved inappropriately towards other women.

Dave McClure announced his resignation in a blog entitled: "I'm a creep. I'm sorry." 500 startups have since acknowledged his resignation.

Below is the email interview between Astro AWANI’s Ibrahim Sani, and Cheryl Yeoh.

Ibrahim Sani (IS): You have recently claimed that you too were sexually assaulted by Dave McClure. Why come out now?

Cheryl Yeoh (CY): I wrote on my website of how I was sexually harassed by him.

Before I continue, please note here that the assault is as far as him pushing himself on me and making contact to kiss me. I wasn't otherwise physically harmed in any other way, in case the public misinterprets the meaning of "assault" in my case. Assault can range from unwanted touching / kissing / groping of a sexual nature, all the way to rape, which is a federal felony, so I wanted to make sure the public had clarity on that.

I felt compelled to tell my story because while Dave acknowledged and apologised for his “inappropriate behaviour” towards multiple women, he generalised his actions to inappropriate comments made in a “setting he thought was social.” It didn’t address the severity of his sexual advances towards me and potentially others. Because of this lumping in all kinds of "inappropriate" behaviour, swarm of comments were out supporting him for his authentic apology and courage in writing it. One guy even mentioned that "Dave was just being Dave – he has always been, and will always be inappropriate! He’s famous for that. Big deal!"

If I didn't come out to tell my account of his more serious sexual advances towards me and his abuse of power, and when people mistaken it for a lesser offence, it would be far too easy to condone “inappropriateness,” and far too easy to gloss over it. And because he has so much public support, he's going to rationalise and justify his actions, and potentially continue doing it to other women.

IS: But as you rightfully pointed out, Dave has himself come out to apologize for his ‘inappropriate actions’, is this not enough?

To be clear, he didn't come out by himself to apologise for his misdeeds. He was exposed by other women in a separate NYT article, and had to step down from being CEO of 500 Startups. So, he was only sorry after he got caught. We cannot be sure that he was truly remorseful for his behaviour.

Additionally, he didn't apologise for using force onto women, he merely apologised for making an inappropriate comment, which is not the same as using force and making unwanted sexual contact. He downplayed his misdemeanour, and that's not right.

Although he'd stepped down from being CEO, he still had his General Partner title and was still allowed and able to travel to multiple countries around the world under the 500 Startups brand. Some of the women who were harassed by McClure was worried that he would continue leveraging his position of power to continue harassing women in these countries.

I am glad that my post prompted him to resign from his position entirely.

IS: What exactly happened between you and Dave?

Three years ago, I’d just moved from Silicon Valley to Malaysia, to take up a position as the Founding CEO MaGIC. Given that my startup Reclip.It was previously funded by 500 Startups, and I had a good working relationship with Dave, I had already spoken to Dave about setting up an accelerator in Southeast Asia. On June 7, 2014, Dave flew into Malaysia to meet some of these investors and other tech players in the industry.

I invited him to attend my board meeting that day as well. After the meeting, Dave and a few others (including two other females), decided to come over to my apartment to brainstorm new ideas. What started out to be an innocent night of just jamming and hanging out at my new apartment turned into a nightmare episode that has been haunting me for the past 3 years.

Dave kept pouring alcohol into my glass before I finished drinking throughout the night, and hours into the night way past midnight, suddenly, everyone except Dave decided to order a cab home. They all promptly left, and left Dave there with me. I quickly asked if Dave wanted to leave like the rest of them but he said no. I offered him to crash on the couch or the guest room. Then I went into my own bedroom but Dave followed me there, and that’s when he first propositioned to sleep with me. I said no. I reminded Dave that he knew my then-boyfriend and that we’d just talked about him earlier that night.

At this point, I led him to the door and told him he needs to leave. On the way out, he pushed himself onto me to the point where I was backed into a corner, made contact to kiss me, and said something along the lines of “Just one night, please just this one time.” Then he told me how he really likes strong and smart women like me. Disgusted and outraged, I said no firmly again, pushed him away and made sure he was out my door.

Once he was gone, still in shock and in tears, I immediately called my boyfriend at the time and told him what had just happened. I couldn’t shake off thoughts of what might have happened if he had applied more force on me, or if I hadn't been able to defend myself. The fact that I had to say no multiple times, and that he had push himself onto me and kissed me without my consent was way more than crossing the line of inappropriateness. It’s legally (at least in the US) considered sexual assault.

IS: Why didn’t you speak up right after the episode? Why the long silence?

Unfortunately, I felt like I couldn’t speak up at the time because we had a business deal at stake and we were supposed to sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) that week. I was extremely conflicted about it. The deal wasn't even for a personal benefit (if I were raising funds for my own startup, I wouldn't have taken his money), but this deal has widespread regional impact. I felt that it was so important that Distro Dojo be established in Malaysia, because it was one of the ways Malaysia can be positioned as a central hub for startups in Southeast Asia. I couldn't risk the deal that could impact hundreds of founders in the region, so I decided to suck it up and put the incident behind me. Even if I spoke up, there wasn't the same awareness of issues around abuse of power and sexual harassment as there is today. Back then, I wasn't sure if my story would be taken seriously.

Plus, as a new CEO of such a public organisation at the time, and with a huge task ahead of me, I just couldn’t spare the emotional or mental energy to report this incident at the time. If anyone knew me over those 2 years, I was barely able to come up for air.

Nevertheless, it’s not easy for women to report incidents like these because they're so personal, emotional and controversial. Everyone is in a very different personal situation and most people don't want to relive the pain and expose themselves on the internet. The internet can be a rough place when you're emotionally raw.

I am finally able to tell this story now, because I’m in a much better and more secure position today, than I was 2-3 years ago. I’m not running a startup or a public company, I’m married to a supportive husband and I don’t have any material threats holding me back from reporting this. I'm also lucky that I had protected myself and did not let him go very far. Unfortunately, women who suffered worse are just not able to tell their stories yet because they're far more emotionally damaged. People should feel more sorry for those victims.

IS: Do you believe that Dave used his position of power to put women in this very position you found yourself in?

Definitely. Sexual harassment itself is wrong. But anytime it occurs when there's an imbalance of power, it's 100x worse, because that's when it makes it harder to report or expose the offender. The risks range from career repercussions, humiliation, blocking of funding, access or referrals, etc. It’s the worst position to be in when the victim feels helpless about the situation. No woman should be put in that position in the first place. And it actually goes both ways, for men too.

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* Cheryl believes that sexual misconduct can and must be addressed. She proposes that companies clearly define the different levels of sexual harassment in a formal and transparent company policy, train employees on how to identify and report sexual harassment and make sure they are reported as data points, not accusations. Find out how she plans to do this on her website.

** Astro AWANI has contacted Dave McClure for comments and is awaiting his response.