Marcia Butcher, a Silicon Valley VC and founder of Day One Ventures, addressed reports this week documenting her close business and personal relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Butcher’s name, primarily her maiden name Masha Drokova, appeared more than 1,600 times in the latest Epstein file dump, the San Francisco Standard reported.
“He made me feel like someone with power and connections could protect me from the regime,” she wrote in the post, from threats from her native Russia, which she feared after receiving a U.S. green card.
“I was naive. I didn’t dig deep enough early on,” she wrote about why she agreed to work with Epstein. “I believed his story regarding his previous conviction for sleeping with a girl who lied about his age, and I trusted the verification from multiple investors and scientists.” She also apologized to the founders, team and investors, saying the situation had “caused pain that was not intended.”
As Forbes reported, the files describe how Butcher, whose Silicon Valley career began in social media and public relations, agreed to become Epstein’s spokesperson in 2017, helped rebuild his reputation after his 2008 sex trafficking conviction, and set up meetings with him and various journalists.
Documents show that Epstein supported and encouraged her in the early days of Day One Ventures. The company has grown significantly since then, closing its latest fund, a $150 million third vehicle, in 2024, bringing assets under management to $450 million, Butcher told TechCrunch.
The most sordid details of the emails include that Epstein gave her money and a Prada bag, and at one point asked her for nude photos, although it’s unclear whether she complied, SF Gate said. Butcher is certainly a well-known VC in the Valley, having backed breakout companies such as Superhuman, Remote, WorldCoin, and Trueville (which exited to Rocket Companies in 2021), as well as companies such as Valor Atomics.
This whole episode is especially embarrassing for a VC who is all about promoting himself as a PR expert who can help founders with their public image. But this isn’t the first time Butcher has courted controversy.
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In his youth, Butcher was known in Russia as a member of the pro-Putin youth group Nashi. In fact, as reported by CNN, she appeared in a 2012 documentary called “Putin’s Kiss,” named after the moment in which she kissed President Putin on the cheek that went viral in the country.
In a post on X, she said she has since given up her Russian passport, publicly denounced President Putin and met with some of Epstein’s victims.
She’s not the only VC whose name was found in Epstein’s files, but this isn’t surprising considering how connected he was to some of the biggest names in the tech industry. The documents do not show Butcher broke any laws. However, she was in friendly correspondence with Epstein until just 11 days before his arrest in July 2019, Forbes reported. Epstein died in prison about a month later.
