A movement that began just a few weeks ago as an informal WhatsApp group chat of women speaking up against sexual harassment,Grapevine launched this week as a fully fledged initiative for women and men in the start-up sector to anonymously share their stories in the hope it will help stamp out the bad behaviour.
The Grapevinewebsite,which will share de-identified stories as well as advice on how to navigate instances of harassment,is the result of work from Lucy Wark,start-up founder Misha Garg and women in the sector including Kirstin Hunter,Emma Earley,Sam Garven,Paloma Newton,Jessy Wu and Margot Kilgour.
“These conversations have been happening in silos,person-to-person and in private conversations,for a long time,” Wark said.
Wark is the co-founder of sexual wellness brand Normal and skills platform Fuzzy,and said that as a founder of a sexual wellness start-up,she is often on the receiving end of inappropriate LinkedIn messages and sexualised comments from investors.
“I think now is an inflection point,and a maturing point,for the Australian start-up sector. We want everyone to be able to come to work safely,and to actually eliminate this behaviour. I think that’s a goal worth shooting for,” Wark said.
A code of conduct was created for the start-up sector in 2018 by venture capital firms including Square Peg,Blackbird and Airtree,but there’s been no monitoring around it and many companies aren’t aware of its existence,according to Wark. Grapevine’s founding was spurred by a start-up CEO who harassed female investors and founders,before later resigning from his company.