Imagine being the ambitious founder of a startup, when one of Australia’s best-known entrepreneurial success stories approaches you on LinkedIn with an offer of professional support.
You’d be thrilled. And you would likely quickly respond to learn more.
But according to allegations that have emerged against prominent tech founder Richard White this week, you’d also be wise to tread cautiously.
Professional support offers can come frequently on LinkedIn, especially if you’re active on the platform and have a clear and ambitious idea of what you want to achieve.
The vast majority of these offers are legitimate, and they can be seriously helpful.
But it’s the odd one that may come through. These outliers can start innocently and seem legitimate, but can then take a sudden turn, revealing that the person making the approach had other intentions in mind.
The claims published in the Nine papers say that White, the founder of the ASX listed transport and logistics company WiseTech Global, is alleged to have approached multiple female entrepreneurs on social media, and via text messages, offering professional support. The paper says some of the women claim the exchanges then turned unprofessional, and included crude and suggestive language. One of the women making such claims described him as the “LinkedIn Lecher”.
The WiseTech board says it is “reviewing the full range of matters” raised across various media outlets this week, which include a series of other allegations regarding the purchase of multi-million dollar houses for women working at WiseTech, whom White had been in relationships with.
Support offers that are not as they seem.
Richard White is a well-known entrepreneurial success story in Australia. A man with an interesting back story of being a former musician, guitar repairer and roadie for big bands, including AC/DC and The Angels. He formed the logistics company WiseTech Global in 1994, which went public in 2016, and has since been achieving massive revenue growth. .
So, in this case, the person allegedly involved in making offers of “support” on social media has big name recognition in Australian business circles, hence the ongoing media headlines regarding White.
However, what is alleged to have occurred is hardly out of the ordinary for many women on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is pitched as a “professional network,” typically where people share news regarding their latest work-related projects, professional wins and concerns, as well as opinions on issues and news affecting their work and industry.
Last year, a survey of 1049 women on the platform in the US who use LinkedIn at least once a week found that nine in ten (91 per cent) had recent sexually inappropriate messages or romantic advances on more than one occasion. A quarter of those surveyed said they receive such advanced messages almost every day.
Also, last year, comments left by a male crypto business founder on the posts made by women emerged, carrying misogynistic, aggressive and vile language. In one case, he told a female founder that diversity “might be the dumbest shit of the entire century” and that he “would bang you, then abortion.” He resigned from his company and issued an apology letter.
On learning about the allegations against White, I put the question to three female founders in my own immediate circle this morning, asking if they have ever received an offer of professional support that turned to clearly involving different intentions once they followed up. All three said yes.
This kind of behaviour doesn’t only let down the individual women involved, especially female entrepreneurs who receive just a tiny portion of the startup funding pie. It lets down everyone in business, men included. They make it all the more difficult for anyone to ask for and receive help in business, as well as those who seek to offer support genuinely and can see the opportunity in cross-gender business relationships./
But for the women involved, seeing an offer of help – especially from someone you may have once admired – only to have that offer turn into something else is a serious blow that can have monumental consequences on confidence around interacting with others and in ever accepting offers for help in the future.
The WiseTech board is “reviewing the full range of matters” raised in this week’s media reports. It seeks further information and takes some external advice regarding allegations that go much further than social media approaches, including transferring multi-million dollar properties to women who worked at WiseTech. The “full range of matters” have been described as concerning by major investors, especially regarding what was disclosed and when and how much the board knew. On Wednesday, White settled a legal battle with Linda Rogan, an entrepreneur who had alleged that White was “expecting” sex after investing in her business.
Of course, there has also been much discussion about the falling share price at WiseTech Global. But let’s not forget that there is more at stake here than a share price, including further uncertainty for women regarding who and what they can and can’t trust when it comes to asking for and accepting offers of help.