A person with a big online presence is calling out Athena for the seed investment she received from a big corporation that appears to be in opposition with Athena’s company’s mission. Heidi points out why founders need to know as much as they can about potential investors before they take their money to avoid being blindsided by an association that may lead to reputational fallout.

 More Information: https://www.threshold.vc/podcast/the-case-of-the-compromised-capital

Further Reading: 

• Spot on to the topic in this podcast, Should Climate Tech Startups Accept Money From Big Oil?: https://sifted.eu/articles/climate-tech-startups-big-oil-gas
• An article about tainted donors, though topics also relevant to tainted investors, Tainted Money and Tainted Donors:  A Growing Crisis: https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/tainted-money-and-tainted-donors-a-growing-crisis
• Business Insider’s take on the topic: https://www.businessinsider.com/startups-silicon-valley-jeffrey-epstein-problem-2019-8
• An article highlighting increasing concern about taking money from Chinese investors due to geopolitical clouds on the horizon: https://www.wired.com/story/chinese-venture-capital-silicon-valley-party-over
• Here’s the apology statement from Joi Ito, former director of MIT’s Media Lab, about taking money from Jeffrey Epstein: https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/my-apology-regarding-jeffrey-epstein/
• Interesting Quora thread on “Catch and Kill” startup M&A: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-big-companies-acquire-and-then-kill-promising-startups