Survey: Sexual harassment at startups a widespread problem nationwide

Sexual harassment scandals continue to rock the technology industry this year, leading to the resignations of prominent Silicon Valley investors and founders.

It’s a problem that’s also widespread in startups nationwide, a survey released by venture capital firm First Round Capital shows.

More than 50 percent of 869 startup founders who took the survey have been sexually harassed or know someone who’s faced this problem in the workplace.

But the survey also revealed that female and male founders have different views about the scope of the problem and the top solutions.

About 78 percent of female founders say they’ve had a personal experience with sexual harassment. The majority of women surveyed — about 70 percent — said the problem is underreported in the industry.

In comparison, about 48 per-

cent of male founders say they’ve been sexually harassed or have known someone who has deal with this issue. Only 35 percent of male founders feel like this problem is underreported. Men were four times more likely than women to say that news organizations are overblowing the scope of sexual harassment in the tech industry.

Female founders listed solutions including more female venture capitalists, pressure from limited partners to prevent bad behavior and blacklists for investors and tech leaders.

Male founders said startups should be looking at sensitivity training, more media coverage and more female venture capitalists.

The tech industry is still maledominated. About 17 percent of the founders who took the survey were women. First Round Capital surveyed founders from the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles and other parts of the United States.