INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Rachel Moore, the former director of Product at computer vision startup Pilot AI, is suing its co-founders CTO Robert Elliot English and CEO
Jonathan Su for sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation and wrongful discharge
Pilot AI human resources provider TriNet and its Series A investor NEA are also named in the suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court
The plaintiff, a 24-year-old Master graduate of Stanford University, is seeking a trial by jury.The suit alleges that Su and English created
a hostile work environment colored by sexually inappropriate comments, including discussions of pornography, English sexual exploits and
that he &participated in an anal sex workshop at Burning Man led by a famous porn star.& Only when Moore agreed to participate in the crude
comments was she awarded more status in the company and a $20,000 raise.English allegedly later invited Moore into his office, closed the
door, dropped his pants while talking about his ex-girlfriend and initially refused to let Moore leave
For rejecting his advance, he then began to retaliate against her in the workplace, according to the suit
It states that Moore reported the incident to Su who dismissed the allegations as English being &sexually frustrated.& Su is said to have
encouraged Moore to ask English out on a dinner date to resolve the issue, which she eventually declined out of fear for her safety.Su later
urged Moore not to file a formal report about the incident in English office because it could &end the company,& according to the suit
She did, prompting an investigation by law firmWilmerHale
Moore agreed to participate only if the law firm remained neutral and did not act as counsel for Pilot AI
NEA Rick Yang, who sits on the board, is said to have overseen the investigation
The suit calls the investigation &an utter sham and a cover up.&NEA allegedly took the position of refusing to disclose the investigation
report, claiming attorney-client privilege
Yang is said to have eventually disclosed a summary of the report that confirmed the pants-dropping incident, but found there was nothing
sexual about it, and there were no repercussions for the founders
After the investigation, Moore allegedly requested a leave of absence rather than returning to the office where she would have to report to
When additional leave requests were ignored, she inquired about her employment status, and allegedly ceased to be paid or have access to
company systems and concluded she had been terminated.The charges filed include quid pro quo sexual harassment, hostile working environment
harassment, discrimination based on gender, retaliation, failure to prevent or correct harassment, aiding and abetting harassment, wrongful
discharge, intentional infliction of emotional stress, failure to pay wages, waiting-time penalties and violations of labor and business
codes.Requests for comment from English, Su, Pilot AI, NEA and TriNet were not returned before press time
Moore law firm Arena Hoffman LLP issued this statement to TechCrunch, from its attorney Ron Arena:As alleged in the complaint, Ms
Moore contends that she was subjected to a sexually charged workplace, where Pilot AI founders discussed anal sex workshops, boasted of
sexual conquests on Tinder, named a server ‘Deep Head,& and let executives drop their pants in a meeting and call Ms
Moore footwear ‘fuck me boots.& Ms
Moore alleges that her complaints were ignored, then swept aside in a sham investigation & after she declined the CEO direction to meet her
pants-dropping supervisor alone on a dinner date.We&ll have more info as it becomes available and will update with comments from the parties
