Sexual harassment or gender discrimination lawsuits are rare in the tightly knit, still male-dominated world of venture capital and startups—a world where where nondisclosure agreements or non-disparagement clauses are prevalent and settlements typically precede public accusations.
That’s why high-profile cases such as the Ellen Pao-Kleiner Perkins case from 2012, the Whitney Wolfe-Tinder lawsuit in 2014, or the Ann Lai-Binary Capital lawsuit in 2022, made waves.
And it’s also why the ongoing litigation at equity management startup and unicorn darling Carta is remarkable. Carta—which was last valued at $7.4 billion two years ago and is backed by a16z, Silver Lake Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners—has now had three women file gender-related lawsuits against the company as of this summer. Another woman published an essay on Medium in 2020, laying out alleged grievances against the company. (Carta, its CEO Henry Ward, and CRO declined to comment for this story but, in court filings, have vehemently denied all allegations against them.)
I wrote about this in a feature story published this week, detailing the most recent allegations against the company. I also spoke with eight former and current employees, investors, and people familiar with the board and company to report the story, as well as reviewed a letter that Carta’s former CTO sent to Carta’s eight board members—which include Marc Andreessen, Joe Osnoss, etc.)—that prompted a board investigation this time last year. (Carta’s former CTO was fired two months after he sent the letter, and Carta is engaged in an ongoing lawsuit against him, alleging that he secretly recorded executives, among other claims.)
This plus a remarkable degree of turnover among Carta’s senior employees, seems to be plaguing the equity management company. “The perception is that [Ward] doesn’t really have control over anything, really, because of what is going on publicly,” a current Carta employee told me.
The venture capital and startup world is a small one, as is made evident by the resumes of people involved in the ongoing Carta lawsuits. We at Fortune have written extensively about how Pao’s case against Kleiner Perkins in 2012 (that she ultimately lost) helped lay ground for the #MeToo movement. Some of those very people are involved in Carta’s litigation. The lawyer defending Carta’s CRO, Jeff Perry, is Lynne Hermle—the same lawyer who defended Kleiner Perkins against Ellen Pao in 2012–2015. Perry’s wife, Jessica Perry, had also been on Kleiner’s legal defense team. And Matt Murphy sits on Carta’s board. He’s the one who fired Pao.
You can read the full story here if you want (please do!). And you can reach out to me below if you have relevant information as I continue to report on Carta.
Yesterday afternoon….Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave issued an apology after a tweet he wrote about Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks prompted intense backlash and led the Israeli government and some speakers to cancel plans to attend the upcoming conference in Lisbon. “I understand that what I said, the timing of what I said, and the way it has been presented has caused profound hurt to many,” Cosgrave said in his apology, noting that he firmly believes that “Israel should adhere to international law and the Geneva Conventions – ie, not commit war crimes…even if atrocities were committed against it.”
The manifesto…By now you have probably read Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto. It goes into everything from how technology "opens the space of what it can mean to be human" to how tech ethics is the enemy. One thing it interestingly doesn’t mention is crypto.
Because I don’t say this enough, I would quickly like to say how grateful I am that you read this newsletter every day, and for the tips and constructive feedback you continue to send my way. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Term Sheet readers are truly the best in the business. Thank you for supporting the journalism we do here at Fortune.
See you tomorrow,
Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
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