Lesbian entrepreneur with start up company asks for tech advice but receives sleazy messages
A lesbian entrepreneur with her own start up tech company sought out some advice from a business man but in return received sleazy messages about her sexuality.
Lydia Jones is an 18-year-old woman who recently founded Trooops, a content providing service.
Currently, she is based in the North of the country and she was finding it “very hard” to find people “willing to help” with her company’s growth in the capital.
Jones decided to contact a separate male entrepreneur, Vishal Morjaria, for advice with her business after seeing how active he was in a Facebook group for London based start up companies.
“I simply asked him if he could introduce me to any mentors or advisors in London for growth and funding,” she explained.
However, she was surprised when Morjaria began to ask more personal questions about herself including if she was single, and if her “BF” helps her with Trooops.
When Jones told Morjaria that she is gay he responded: “Are you quite open about your sexuality?”.
He continued to question: “So men don’t turn you on at all?”.
Jones replied stating that she thought he was a “businessman,” clearly hinting that his behaviour was inappropriate, to which he replied, “I’m also a human being too right?”
Morjarian added that he was a businessman “for sure”.
Jones shared the gross exchange on Twitter writing that “the tech scene needs to wake up”.
The tweet has since been retweeted thousands of times by people who are disgusted by the behaviour of “the businessman”.
“Thanks for your courage for outing him Lydia. This should not have happened to you. I’ll spread the word about him,” one person wrote.
Another added: “He’s disgusting. I hope people stop inviting him to speaking engagements / working with him. Super creep.”
On Twitter, Lydia wrote that she had not reported the man because he is “frequently posting people in the London Startups & Entrepreneurs Facebook group”.
Mashable contacted Morjaria and he defended his actions.
He said: “In the end I didn’t say much else because I found out that it wasn’t appropriate to ask her even though she said she was open.
“The digital and text word can be misunderstood but if this was said in person it wouldn’t have been a big deal.
“Richard Branson said all publicity is good publicity so I’m glad she’s spreading my brand around. I haven’t committed a crime here.”
He added that he understood why his messages seemed inappropriate but said that it wasn’t in this instance because she admitted: “yes to being sexually open.”
“If you heard me talking in person you’d know I’m a nice person and I’m a very open conversationalist,” he added.
