Silicon Valley Braces for Ellen Pao’s Memoir

Ellen Pao may have been forced to pay her ex-employer $276,000 after losing Silicon Valley’s biggest gender discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit, but Pao is about to crank up controversy again with the release of her memoir, titled Reset.

Silicon Valley venture capitalists are preparing for a coordinated attack on their business model and ethics with the September 19 release of Pao’s Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change. The book is being hyped as the firsthand account of the depth of workplace discrimination from the tech feminist hero who is determined to empower the status of women in the struggle to be heard in the industry.

Ellen Pao has been out of the press for almost two years, but she took to Medium over the weekend to demand that venture capital firms (VCs) must pay not-for-profits, like her Project Include, to police portfolio companies’ willingness to set and achieve diversity patterns to ensure “open, empathetic, and inclusive cultures.”

Pao titled her Medium article, “Turning point or momentary distraction for tech?,” because she warns: “We are at a crossroads. VCs can take the hard road to reforming our industry through innovation and accountability… or continue with the status quo after a moment of self-flagellation.” Because no one in Silicon Valley underestimates the turmoil that Ellen Pao is capable of creating, VCs major attack on their business model.

Breitbart News reported extensively on Pao’s 2015 demand for $16 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages of up to $144 million, from the prestigious Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield Byers. Pao claimed she filed the lawsuit to unmask how greedy Silicon Valley venture capitalists continue to victimize women and minorities, including by hiring 70 percent white and Asian men for tech jobs.

Pao’s salacious allegations became a lightning rod for Jesse Jackson and others to disparage Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurship as a “backward culture.”

But a San Francisco jury of six women and six men ruled against the former KPCB junior partner on all four claims for gender discrimination and retaliation in March 2015. Pao’s attorneys filed an appeal after losing the case, but Pao was forced to pay Kleiner Perkins $275,966 for legal costs to settle counterclaims in September 2015.

Despite the highly visible loss, Pao continued as CEO of Reddit, where she said she was creating the type of open, empathetic, and inclusive culture where women could flourish. But Breitbart noted in June 2015 that Pao created massive user turmoil by launching a policy to muzzle any harassing comments by “trolls.”

Pao retaliated by firing Victoria Taylor, Reddit’s communications director and moderator of the site’s “Ask Me Anything” Q&A sessions. Users and volunteer monitors went into full rebellion. Pao resigned after 200,000 users signed a petition stating that she was killing Reddit’s viral reputation for free speech and no-holds-barred debate.

Pao has probably burned her opportunity to end gender injustices as either a venture capitalist or a corporate president. But with a new wave of sexual harassment-based resignations — most notably, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick — Reset could be perfectly timed for Pao to stage a comeback.