Pissed off investors have had it up to here with Uber

Ouch.
 By 
Karissa Bell
 on 
Pissed off investors have had it up to here with Uber
Early Uber investors are not happy right now. Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK / JOHNKWORKS

Two of Uber's earliest investors have joined the hate-on-Uber parade.

In a stern open letter published on Medium, Mitch and Freada Kapor, who invested in Uber in 2010, criticized the company for a history of "toxic patterns" and hiring a "team of insiders to investigate its destructive culture and make recommendations for change."

Those charged with digging into sexism and sexual harassment allegations that surfaced over the weekend following a female engineer's scathing blog post all have ties to the company, the early investors point out. They have little faith that the investigation will be truly independent. Arianna Huffington's on the board, Chief Human Resources Officer Liane Hornsey reports directly to CEO Travis Kalanick, and former attorney general Eric Holder was once a paid lobbyist for Uber.

"We are disappointed to see that Uber has selected a team of insiders to investigate its destructive culture and make recommendations for change. To us, this decision is yet another example of Uber’s continued unwillingness to be open, transparent, and direct," they write.

Noting that investors rarely publicly criticize executives at high-profile companies, the Kapors criticize what they described as "toxic patterns" of "responding to public exposure of bad behavior by holding an all-hands meeting, apologizing and vowing to change, only to quickly return to aggressive business as usual."

"Uber’s outsize success in terms of growth of market share, revenues and valuation are impressive, but can never excuse a culture plagued by disrespect, exclusionary cliques, lack of diversity, and tolerance for bullying and harassment of every form," they write.

The two are not the first to raise doubts about Uber's investigation, but they are the first investors to publicly criticize the company after Susan Fowler Rigetti (who goes by Susan J. Fowler on her blog) revealed horrendous management and HR practices.

When reached for comment, an Uber spokesperson provided the following statement attributed to Holder and Tammy Albarran, whose law firm was hired by Uber to investigate the claims.

"We will leave no stone unturned in our work and all voices will be heard. We will be thorough, impartial and objective, and we are conducting this review with the highest degree of integrity and professionalism.”

Topics Uber

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Karissa Bell

Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.

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