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A VC Left The Founder Of Nasty Gal A 'Super Aggressive' Voice Mail, Then Blamed It On Being Drunk And High

A VC Left The Founder Of Nasty Gal A 'Super Aggressive' Voice Mail, Then Blamed It On Being Drunk And High
Tech2 min read

Sophia Amoruso, Nasty Gal, hi-res

Courtesy of Nasty Gal

Sophia Amoruso is the founder of a large e-commerce company, Nasty Gal. When it came time to raise money, she had an unpleasant experience with an investor, which she documented in her book #Girlboss and on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt.

In her book she writes:

Sand Hill Road is the legendary venture capital hub in Menlo Park between Stanford University and Silicon Valley. The people who sit in those offices operate in a very different paradigm than I do, spending their days talking business models and IPOs in a way that I never will ... Some of them wanted to be friends and others tried to appeal to my edgy side ... One investor left me a strange late-night voice mail and then apologized for it on the phone the next day. 'Sorry about that,' he said. 'I was all messed up on Percocet and Jack Daniels.' I'd be freaked out if a friend said something like that, so needless to say, I did not go with that firm.

When asked about that inappropriate voice mail on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, Amoruso elaborated:

"People think because I have tattoos and I run a company called Nasty Gal that I'm crazy," Amoruso told interviewer Alexia Tsotsis of the voice mail. She didn't explain what the voice mail said exactly but noted that it was "super aggressive."

Amoruso declined to say who the investor was, but noted that this person is still a venture capitalist. "They're a good firm and have good investments and stuff, but that doesn't really mean anything when people do stuff like that," she said. "They probably don't even know who they are and they probably don't remember that happening, and that's why they do things like that."

Amaruso isn't the first woman to be offended by a man in tech. Yunha Kim, CEO of Locket, recently posted an inappropriate email she received from a man she was trying to recruit. The recruit replied, "I'm pretty happy with my current job, but if you're single I'd like to date you. Perhaps there are some unconventional ways to lure me away from my company (besides stock options) if you know what I mean :)"

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