The views expressed in this article are those of Kate Lowry and do not represent the editorial position of Impact Loop.
In the 24 hours after I filed my lawsuit against Insight Partners, I heard from hundreds of people, most of them people who had been in similar situations. At tech giants, at venture funds, at startups - these people had been abused and silenced in truly scary ways - and they hadn’t had anyone stand up for them, ever.
My suit gave them hope - and also, someone to tell their story to.
Lawsuits like mine aren’t just about yourself but about being a role model for those who couldn’t stand up on their own. Role modeling that big, powerful, bad actors can be held accountable is sorely needed, and that’s one reason why I chose to take a stand.
'No one tells stories like this for attention'
Today I am going to tell you what I heard from the voiceless - both what happened to them, and why they couldn’t speak out, at least not yet.
Across hundreds of people, I heard that it was extremely normal for people to be screamed at at work - told they’re less than nothing, that they’re like animals, that they can’t do anything right - that women are being routinely sexualized and hit on at the office, and that in multiple instances, employees were being forced to engage in prostitution, take drugs, or role play for their executives.
Across several different companies, both venture funds, and startups, I heard over and over that CEOs were embezzling, committing fraud with revenue numbers, selling contracts to clients then refusing to deliver services while keeping the money, withholding pay from their teams and vendors, and lying to the investors.
I have heard that in some venture firms there is a playbook to run predatory plays on their own portfolio companies, squeezing founder equity down to nothing, illegally withholding investment tranches, then throwing founders out of their own companies.
And above all, I have heard that the ecosystem knows this is happening. Most venture funds could tell you which of their peers are known for showing their portfolio company CEOs the door and replacing them with loyalists. The people who are at the parties and company events where prostitutes and drugs are commonplace represent some of the most powerful and well known people in the entire tech ecosystem. They are people with benevolent foundations, protective PR wings, and milquetoast outward brands.
This behaviour is becoming more common. Leaders who coerce, lead through fear-based tactics, and push 9-9-6 and “founder mode” levels of extreme deference and compliance are starting to become the norm.
But no one feels like they can say anything, and I can tell you why.
Why it's hard to speak out
I heard not only from people who couldn’t come forward, but those who tried to and failed. And what they experienced - which is in line with what I experience daily now - is harrowing.
First, the industry blackballing is extreme. Universally, when good-hearted people tried to tell HR, or their boards of malfeasance, they were fired within days.
Then, the ecosystem was told often extensive, defamatory lies about why they left - in multiple cases I heard stories of people being accused of false fraud, of extortion, of pathological lying, or of even more heinous crimes.
Most people can’t afford to have their industry reputations destroyed - they have kids in school, mortgages to pay for, elderly parents who have nursing home fees.
As someone who has gone through this, I can tell you, no one tells stories like this for attention. To say that the process of suing a major entity is no picnic would be the understatement of my life. To get to the litigation stage, I had to personally pitch 90 law firms, 5 PR firms, and sit through interviews with reporters pressure testing my motives, at major cost to me.
Secondly, there are actual, real, security risks that come with speaking truth to power. This began several years ago when people like reporter Sarah Lacy were harassed and audited for trying to tell stories, and it became markedly worse after Epstein and Weinstein were brought down. Suddenly, untouchable titans were falling - and you can bet that other billionaires took notice.
The stories
This is where the stories I heard - and the story I live - got scary. Some billionaires in the valley has an entity like Black Cube or a similar shady private intelligence firm on speed dial, and I heard of:
- A woman suing a VC fund being stalked and having her home broken into, requiring her to relocate
- A woman suing an AI company who had goons show up at her door, forcing her to leave her city
- A man whose lawyer received direct death threats from his defendant, who then found strange vehicles repeatedly following him
- A woman suing her VC fund whose investor deliberately personally bankrupted her, while threatening to “take her down and everything around her”
- A plaintiff who had an intelligence agent try to become his girlfriend
- Several plaintiffs who had almost all of their devices completely hacked, exposing their personal details
These are not the worst stories that I heard - those are often in privileged and private litigation - but they are very real, and match my own experiences. The most common question I got from other past private litigants was not about the content of my suit, but “Are you safe? Are you ok?”
The fact that tactics like this are commonplace, and well known, is specifically not ok. And so for every other potential plaintiff out there, I am here, holding the light on the path for others. If you have a story to tell, or need help navigating, I am, and always will be, in your corner.