n late 2019, a seasoned startup investor took a meeting with a young Army veteran and UT Austin alum named Andrew Ryan. The 28-year-old was full of big ideas, claiming he was going to “democratize entrepreneurship” with a new program training startup founders.
“We did not align ourselves to his values and character, as a human being and as a businessman,” this person said, although Ryan told the Daily Beast he left voluntarily to work on other projects.Newchip appeared to be a success. Conceived as an online marketplace for casual investors, the company raised $2 million in seed funding and drew more than 50,000 users in its first year in operation.
In an email to The Daily Beast, Ryan defended his leadership style, saying that “driving a visionary company can sometimes require assertive communication and ambitious goal setting.” He added that the role of CEO “require[s] final decision-making authority in most companies,” but that he “emphasized a balanced approach.” He said he let go of the executive coach because it was too expensive and he would have been the only CEO enrolled in the group program.
Ryan denied making inappropriate comments and asking employees about their sex lives. He said any invitation to his hot tub would have been “part of the broader social invitation to the small team at the time,” and called the allegation that seating arrangements were influenced by his behavior “fundamentally false.”
“I just haven’t felt like I have with you with anyone else in years and it’s starting to hit me,” he wrote, according to screenshots provided to The Daily Beast. “You were a surprise to me, and working closely with you—you’re so smart and passionate, you just get me and that means a lot to me.” Ryan acknowledged to The Daily Beast that this employee had rejected his advances but said their relationship had developed, over the course of several months, into something that “extended beyond the professional realm.” He said they spent time together outside work and traveled together and that “a lot of the staff knew we were dating.” When the relationship ended, he said, he apologized to the employee and initiated an HR and board review.
Ryan said he demanded their resignations after a “blow up” between them at the office, though he said it was because they had violated a rule against managers dating subordinates. He acknowledged that “there's hypocrisy in that.”