Pinterest Pinned By Sexism

Another summer, another sexism case in Silicon Valley. This one brought by ex-Google, ex-Square power-woman and Pinterest COO, Francoise Brougher. Her accusations, laid out in a powerfully-written and detailed blog, echo every other bro-culture inditement of tech company cultures. Her’s carry particular clout because she’s so senior (and the New York Times has embraced her story). She had a seat at the top table, and a front-row view of the corporate culture. It ain’t pretty.

Pinterest was supposed to be the attractive poster child for humble, middle American leadership. Its CEO Ben Silbermann was described by the Guardian as “the Clark Kent of the San Francisco startup scene.” His mother was, for a long time, one of the platform’s most popular pinners, with a section devoted to ‘strong women.’ She may need to help her son and his team understand what just happened to them.

While Silbermann’s Clark Kent persona might be interpreted as humility by the media, it may simply mask ineffectual leadership. Brougher describes a CEO unresponsive to her complaints and unready to confront his rather more aggressive, US Military Academy-trained CFO, Todd Morgenstern. The latter seems to have taunted Brougher, in public, asking her what her job was. Silbermann suggested the two were having a marital spat she should manage. Neither of these gentlemen seems to have thought it fair to make transparent that her stock vesting schedule was different from the rest of the boys. She only found out in the IPO documents.

They fired her in April, two years into a tenure that saw Pinterest double its revenues and successfully IPO. It wasn’t her performance they objected to, she says, but her objections. “I was fired,” she asserts, “for speaking out about the rampant discrimination, hostile work environment, and misogyny that permeates Pinterest.” She’s not alone. Two black women, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, left in May, calling out the hypocrisy of the company’s virtue-signalling posts around the #BLM movement, given the racism and sexism they say they’d experienced inside.

Kara Swisher, of the NYT, got the following astonishing comment from Silbermann about the affair: “I have talked about how deliberate you have to be to build products, but now I see how much more deliberate we have to be to build a culture. It does not just happen.” This after 10 years as CEO. I’d really like to talk to his mom.

The majority of Pinterest’s users (70%) are women. “Women are from Pinterest,” a commentator quoted by the Guardian explained, “and men are from Reddit.” This won’t look good for a brand all about beauty. A multitude of pretty pins is unlikely to cover up the ugly storm this particular case will spark. Its reputation with its female base may be hanging by a … pin.

Here are three things Silbermann should do, immediately:

1.    PIN IT: Audit, understand and own the current picture on gender and race, what we call your ‘gender jaws’ – include the attitudes and behaviours of the leadership team. Acknowledge it.

2.    PRIORITISE IT: Put gender and race balance on the agenda of the top team. Define targets and make each ExCo member individually accountable for their area. Communicate the results.

3.    UNLEASH IT: Build management skills to build balance and adapt the culture. Reward those who balance, fire those who don’t. Visibly. It’s the fastest way to shift toxic cultures.

Time for Clark Kent to get in that phone booth. Today’s Supermen are those who build balanced businesses.