Mike Germano, onetime chief digital officer at Vice and co-founder of that company’s former in-house agency Carrot Creative, has found a new home at brand conference platform FounderMade.
The company, whose tagline is “best in class, first to know,” hosts a series of events for startup founders and product developers looking for investors and other ways to bring their creations to market. It specializes in organic foods and cosmetics, and its employee base is almost exclusively female.
Here is a recent Instagram post from CEO Meghan Asha with Germano second from left.
According to LinkedIn, Germano joined FounderMade in February as entrepreneur in residence, and it is his first new position since leaving Vice early last year.
In December, 2017, The New York Times ran a long-rumored report by Emily Steel regarding the culture at Vice. It detailed several sexual harassment settlements—including one in 2016 that involved president Andrew Creighton—and described two incidents involving Germano, one of which was reported to human resources. Germano said he had apologized to the woman in question at the time but did not acknowledge the other incident.
Germano and Creighton were later suspended, with the former leaving in late January 2018 and the latter officially resigning in October of that year as new CEO Nancy Dubuc came aboard.
The Wrap was the first to report on Germano’s departure from Vice. He told that publication, “I was not fired. Nor is there any info that states that. I left the company I started after it merged with our parent company, something that was planned for six months.” Other pubs such as Business Insider, however, reported Vice representatives confirming that he had been terminated.
Beyond his statement to the Times, Germano has not otherwise publicly addressed the claims made in that story. A Vice spokesperson declined to comment for this post.
AgencySpy spoke to some of Germano’s former colleagues, one of whom shared the below Instagram post which had reportedly been passed among a group of Carrot veterans. They noted the use of the word “cows” in its text.
Others have voiced their concerns publicly, as in the comments of the Asha post above.
FounderMade has not responded to multiple emails regarding Germano’s new position.
Germano himself has not responded to several direct messages asking for comment on FounderMade and the “cows” comment.