Dave McClure’s apology has the catchy headline “I’m a Creep. I’m Sorry.”

Sounds promising!

Then 900 words calling himself creep, asshole, selfish, inexcusable, clueless, inappropriate, defensive, crappy, shallow, shitty, and one who has lost the plot.

Nice. Does that mean it’s a great apology?

Hell, no.

McClure’s apology, slightly abridged:

By now you may have heard I fucked up, and people are calling me a creep.

While I’d like to believe I’m not a bad or evil person, regardless it’s clear that some of my past actions have hurt or offended several women.

And I probably deserve to be called a creep.

So, what did I do?

I made advances towards multiple women in work-related situations, where it was clearly inappropriate. …I selfishly took advantage of those situations where I should have known better. My behavior was inexcusable and wrong.

With respect to the NYT article… and Sarah Kunst specifically, I’d like to sincerely apologize for making inappropriate advances towards her several years ago over drinks, late one night in a small group, where she mentioned she was interested in a job at 500. [CORPORATE DETAILS ENSUE]. Again my apologies to Sarah for my inappropriate behavior in a setting I thought was social, but in hindsight was clearly not. It was my fault and I take full responsibility. She was correct in calling me out.

For these and other incidents where I have been at fault, I would like to apologize for being a clueless, selfish, unapologetic and defensive ass.

To all those I let down, and especially to those I directly offended and hurt: I’m very sorry.

I’m ashamed I didn’t change my behavior until I was forced to do so by circumstance and by others. …I was stopped from further bad actions by those who spoke up about my offenses, at substantial risk to their personal and professional reputations… and, subsequently, by Christine and others on the 500 team….

When confronted about what happened, I was at first defensive. What did I do wrong? We were just hanging out! Why are people so upset? I tried to present my crappy behavior in the best possible light. I didn’t have much empathy for the people I hurt and offended, and rather than face up to my own shallow motivations, I rationalized my actions…

After several tough conversations with Christine and senior management at 500, I realized that—guess what?—*I* was the problem. I wasn’t full of goodness and light as I thought… Somewhere, I had lost the plot.

As a result of the above intervention, I agreed to hand over day-to-day management of 500 to Christine, and she is now leading 500 in the new role of CEO… I also started regular counseling sessions about a month ago to address my shitty behavior and poor judgement….

…my past actions are most certainly my own fault and responsibility. Until recently, Christine and other senior management at 500 were unaware of my actions. Once they did become aware, they took steps quickly to investigate and prevent further inappropriate behavior. You can place the blame squarely on me, not Christine or anyone else at 500.

[ABOUT FUTURE OF COMPANY]

My personal failures aside, 500 has long supported a diverse community of entrepreneurs including women, minorities, LGTBQ, international, and other overlooked founders. …I sincerely hope 500 will be able to continue that mission. To the extent my actions have now made that more difficult, I am truly sorry to Christine and the 500 team, and again most specifically to the women I have hurt or offended, all of whom I have clearly failed….

Again, what I did was wrong. It wasn’t and isn’t acceptable. I’m working on behaving differently in the future….

Why doesn’t SorryWatch like this lengthy self-denigrating screed? It’s not all bad. He explains his defensiveness well. But he’s vague about his actions, he minimizes, and mostly he really has “lost the plot.”

Vague: He doesn’t say exactly what he did to hurt or offend those “multiple women.” What exactly did he do to Sarah Kunst? You’ll have to chase links to learn he messaged her he was “getting confused trying to figure out whether to hire you or hit on you,” which seems to be excusing unnamed advances he made to her. And when Kunst discussed that message with someone at 500, they “ended discussions” with her. See, it’s not just about ‘hurting or offending’ women. These women are people. People who are serious corporate founders and entrepreneurs, trying to get things done, not fend off horndogs or parse flirty texts.

Minimizing: In “I’m a Creep” McClure says he “hurt and offended several women.” When mentioning Kunst he repeats his discredited excuses – it was late! There were drinks! It was just a few people!

The apology struck entrepreneur/founder Cheryl Yeoh as so inadequate that she’s given an account of her own experiences with McClure. “The apology definitely didn’t address the severity of his sexual advances towards me…” Her account is of him pushing into her bedroom, wedging her into a corner, trying to kiss her, begging her to have sex with him just this once. Just once, I guess, because she had a boyfriend and he was married. (But he said he loved strong smart women like her! All righty then!)

He also uses the slightly distancing phrasing “I’d like to apologize” instead of “I apologize.”

Losing the plot: in McClure’s self-scolding Jeremiad Against Me he apologizes to women he’s “hurt or offended.” He apologizes for the damage to 500’s reputation. But he doesn’t see past that to the effect of discouraging women in his industry. He needs to see that his actions are part of a pattern that makes a climate.

One creep hitting on multiple women is bad. Multiple creeps hitting on multiple women is very bad indeed for their industry.

This actually should be an easy point to spot, because it’s right there in the New York Times story he cites in his first sentence. The link from “fucked up.” The link about how many women, not just the ones he’s gotten access to, have endured predatory comments and propositions, and how if they complained they were ignored or told they’d hurt their careers if they didn’t shut up. The link that also referenced charges of sexual harassment by, among others, venture capitalist Chris Sacca (Lowercase Capital), venture capitalist Justin Caldbeck (Binary Capital), and angel investor Pavel Curda (who at first claimed his email and phone had been hacked to make it seem he’d been hitting on women before he admitted it and then, horribly, offered to apologize “in person with a big bouquet of flowers”). The link with the headline that includes “Culture of Harassment.”

Culture of harassment? Means what? It means a female entrepreneur/founder needs to worry about going for “drinks, late one night in a small group” in a way that a male entrepreneur/founder does not. (Go and risk that in a “social” setting she’ll be hit on, or not go and miss the opportunity to network, to talk informally with people in her industry?) It means that if she doesn’t raise VC capital, she may wonder if she’s being punished for not encouraging sexual advances. And she may be right. If she does raise capital, people are liable to say that it’s because she did encourage/accept sexual advances. Whether she did or not.

Chris Sacca claims he’s learned about how “behaviors of men in our industry… collectively make it inhospitable to women.” If so, maybe he could message McClure a clue.

Elizabeth Yin, a partner at 500 Startups, has now quit over the McClure issue. Yin said that advance information of Yeoh’s accusation prompted the company to change McClure’s management role – but only nominally.

If you’re thinking these problems wouldn’t happen if there weren’t all these pesky sexpot women running around the VC industry, that’s wrong. Sexual harassment can be same-sex. It’s the percentages that make this situation so focused on men-harassing-women.

The good news for McClure is that it’s not just him. He’s not uniquely creepy. The bad news for his industry is that he’s not uniquely creepy.

Plenty of creeps out there wearing DISRUPTIVE T-shirts, thinking that means acting badly is cool.