Jason, Teddy, and James glanced at one another. Finally, James spoke. “I’m not sure that’s necessarily the most prudent tack right now,” he said carefully.
“Fuck prudent!” Mack said. “I’m done being prudent. Being prudent is what got me here.”
“Is it, though,” Teddy mumbled. James shot him a look. Teddy shrugged.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Mack said.
“As I said, I would not advise that we go that route,” James said smoothly. “And…there’s actually something else we’d like to discuss.” He paused a millisecond longer than felt comfortable and then said, “We’ve discussed this with the rest of the partners, and we think that what’s best for TakeOff right now is if you step down as CEO.”
His heart felt like it was falling—actually falling—into his stomach. He gulped. Was this why they had ambushed him like this? Was this whole thing a setup? They didn’t really care what he thought they should do, he realized suddenly—they were just trying to rile him up to make him look bad. What a crock of shit. “Excuse me? Step down as CEO? That’s…no. No. I’m sorry, that’s just not an option.” He shook his head. “No.”
There was silence again. Finally, Teddy spoke. “You have to understand,” he said slowly, “we are about to make a substantial investment in this company, and all of this stuff”—he gestured around him—“is a huge, huge distraction. And whatever the merits of the case are, even you must be able to see that the optics of it are terrible.”
“We’re in a very male-hostile moment,” James said matter-of-factly. “I’m sure you’re aware of it.”
“What do you mean, ‘male-hostile moment’?” Mack said.
“It’s social media. It’s regular media. It’s everywhere. People are just very, very ready to be suspicious of men and men’s motives right now,” James said. “Look, you were in our office. How many women were in our meeting with you?” He didn’t wait for Mack to answer. “We hear about this constantly—that there aren’t enough women in tech. That there aren’t enough female founders. That there are three VC partners in all of New York City who are women. And it’s not like these things are my fault, or your fault! It’s really a pipeline issue, and that’s something that I can’t fix today, or tomorrow, or next week. But people want it to get fixed yesterday. That’s the problem.” James sighed. “I’ll be perfectly honest with you. It’s just not a good time to be a straight white guy getting accused of sexual harassment.”
“I guess I should jump in my time machine, then.” Mack laughed halfheartedly at his own joke, but everyone else was silent.
“It’s no joke, Mack,” James said. “Guys with bigger companies and more funding at stake than you have lost everything. Everything. Think about it—anyone can be accused of sexual harassment! By anyone! You barely even need to have proof! Because once people find out that you’ve been accused, it’s all over Twitter, it’s all over the blogs, it’s on cable news, and you’re presumed guilty until proven innocent. And even when you’re proven innocent, that’s still not enough. These people, they will go after you.” He paused, as though he hadn’t expected himself to unleash this tirade, and seemed to gather his thoughts. “Look, Mack, we still believe in you. We just think that it’s better for the company if you step aside as CEO.”
Breathe, Mack told himself. Count to three and exhale. “That is bullshit and you know it,” he said. James looked surprised. Teddy and Jason were both very much not looking at him. “Why should I have to pay because the world is messed up? The fact that there’s no female partner at Gramercy has nothing to do with my situation. And I’m going to deal with it! I’ll make the public apology. We can put together a settlement for Isabel. I’ll do whatever it takes. This is going to go away, and when it does you’re going to be sorry that we even had this conversation. I’m not going to be bullied into giving up my company.”
“This is, unfortunately, not negotiable,” James said calmly. “Either you step down as CEO, or we rescind our term sheet.”
Mack looked at each person in the room. Surely one of them would be on his side, but none of them, not even Jason, met his gaze.
“And one other thing,” James said. “We’d like Jason to take over as CEO immediately. You are welcome to stay on in a senior-level role to be determined.”
Oh. So that’s what this was. A coup. He realized Jason hadn’t said anything in the entire meeting so far. He must have known this was coming. “You asshole,” Mack said to Jason. “All of that stuff about how we were going to get through this—what was that? Just total bullshit? Or…or what?”
“I’m sorry, Mack,” Jason said. “I really meant that. But I need to think about not just what’s best for you or me, but what’s best for TakeOff. You understand that, don’t you?”
26
Lift Every Voice
KATYA HAD NEVER seen her mentions column on TweetDeck scroll as fast as it did in the minutes after she published her story about Mack. First it was people just retweeting her story. Then comments like damn @katyapasternack out here with the killer scoops about sleazy founders is and why am I surprised but not surprised that @mackmcallister is a total sleazebucket. Thanks @katyapasternack! But soon, she started to see other tweets from people whose avatars were the Twitter egg or a cartoon. Tweets like typical TechSleaze story by @katyapasternack that doesn’t even consider that @mackmcallister’s accuser is a lying slut. FALSE ACCUSATIONS DESTROY LIVES #justice4mack. She pinged Dan. Katya: The Twitter eggs are starting to come out against me
Dan: block block block
Katya: yeah I know :/ just wish it didn’t have to be this way. do you think they actually believe what they’re saying, or they just do it to see what kind of reaction they’re gonna get? bc some of the stuff they’re saying is really crazy