People sometimes compare him to Woody Allen, because he has that strange mixture of nervous energy, nerdy charm, and awkwardness, though John was also an unapologetic salesman. John Doerr wanted his new chief of staff to “leverage his time,” which he valued at $200,000 per hour. The list of requirements was comically long: an engineering degree (only in computer science or electrical engineering), a law degree and a business degree (only from top schools), management-consulting experience (only at Booz Allen or Bain), start-up experience (only at a top start-up), enterprise-software-company experience (only at a big established player known for training employees) … oh, and fluency in Mandarin. When I first got the three pages of specs for a chief-of-staff position at Kleiner Perkins in 2005, it was almost as if someone had copied my résumé. For a long time I didn’t challenge those stories, because I wasn’t ready to talk about my experience in detail. My husband and I were both dragged through the mud, our privacy destroyed. Seven months later, I would sue Kleiner Perkins for sexual harassment and discrimination in a widely publicized case in which I was often cast as the villain - incompetent, greedy, aggressive, and cold. (When Sandberg’s book Lean In came out, that same Jenna Jameson–obsessed CEO became a vocal spokesperson for it.) Taking your seat at the table doesn’t work so well, I thought, when no one wants you there. And once we landed at Teterboro, the guys made plans to go to a club, while I headed into Manhattan alone. Somehow, I got the distinct vibe that the group couldn’t wait to ditch me. I suggested Marissa Mayer, but the CEO looked at me and dismissively said, “Nah, too controversial.” Then he grinned at Ted and added, “Though I would let her join the board because she’s hot.” Ted said that he preferred white girls - Eastern European, to be specific.Įventually we all moved to the couch for a working session to help the tech CEO he was trying to recruit a woman to his all-male board. He asked Ted what kind of “girls” he liked. #Ellen pao prominent bay area venture capital firm. seriesHe asked if I knew who she was and then proceeded to describe her pay-per-view series ( Jenna’s American Sex Star), on which women competed for porn-movie contracts by performing sex acts before a live audience. Once we were airborne, the CEO, who’d brought along a few bottles of wine, started bragging about meeting Jenna Jameson, talking about her career as the world’s greatest porn star and how he had taken a photo with her at the Playboy Mansion. Matt ended up with what would have been my original seat on the couch. Ted sat across from me, the CEO next to him, and the tech investor next to me on my right. The rest of the folks filed in one by one. But Sheryl’s words echoed in my mind, and I moved to one of the power seats - the fourth, backward-facing seat, but at the table nonetheless. I was sure the white men booked on the flight (Ted, senior partner Matt Murphy, a tech CEO, and a tech investor) would be taking those four seats and I would end up on the couch in back. #Ellen pao prominent bay area venture capital firm. tvUsually the most powerful seat faces forward, looking at the TV screen, with the second most powerful next to it. The main cabin of the plane was set up with four chairs in pairs facing each other. I was the first to arrive at Hayward Airport. One day, I was part of a small group flying from San Francisco to New York on the private jet of another managing partner, Ted Schlein. Kleiner was then one of the three most powerful venture-capital firms in the world. I had been working for six years at the Silicon Valley firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a junior partner and chief of staff for managing partner John Doerr. Less than a year later, I would take those words to heart. In December 2010, Sheryl Sandberg gave a talk about women’s leadership in which she mentioned “sitting at the table.” Women, she said, have to pull up a chair and sit at the conference-room table rather than clinging to the edges of the room, “because no one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |