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A toxic culture at SoftBank’s Vision Fund

Masa Son, the Japanese billionaire, instilled a hard-driving work ethos at his venture capital firm, SoftBank Vision Fund: Go big or go home. But the fund has also been described as an environment of sycophancy and harassment, reports Bloomberg Businessweek.

The workplace is “steeped in vintage Wall Street macho belligerence,” according to Bloomberg: “Current and former employees of the fund and SoftBank describe an environment of sycophancy toward Son, internecine political rivalries, harassment, compliance issues and an abnormally high tolerance for risk — all wrapped in a casing of general weirdness.”

The fund is known for making outsize bets on tech start-ups, which helped it take in more than $21.2 billion on investments in 2017. But its practices have raised skepticism from outsiders.

“The strategy that Son and his all-male phalanx of managing partners followed seemed less about any specific technology than about placing large bets on the buzziest start-ups,” Bloomberg writes.