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Here's a relevant totally hypothetical "long con" involving Ellen Pao's hiring-and-firing and re-hiring of the original founders: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskRe

Here's a relevant totally hypothetical "long con" involving Ellen Pao's hiring-and-firing and re-hiring of the original founders: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszjqg2/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the... The hypothesis is posed by Yishan Wong, an ex-CEO, with responses from Altman and Ohanian. edit: I made a mistake understanding this story. Please see the correct timeline in geofft's comment.

geofft 6y ago
Relevant, but I think the timeline is a bit subtler than that. (Mostly, the CEO referenced in that story is Wong himself, not Pao.) - Reddit was acquired by Condé Nast in 2006. - Founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman left in 2009. - Yishan Wong became CEO in March 2012. - Reddit raised its Series B in September 2014, led by Sam Altman. Wong was one of the investors. - Wong resigns in November 2014. Ellen Pao becomes interim CEO and Ohanian becomes executive chairman. - Reddit introduces an anti-harassment policy and bans fatpeoplehate and other subreddits in early summer 2015. - Later in the summer, Victoria Taylor is fired. Users hold Pao responsible, she apologizes for how it was handled, and she resigns on July 10 under pressure from the board. Huffman becomes CEO. - One day later, Wong writes the above post. - One more day later, Wong reveals on Quora that Ohanian, not Pao, fired Taylor.
- xster 6y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3d2hv3/kn0thing_says_he_was_responsible_for_the_change/ct1ecxv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3d2hv3/kn0t... is also Yishan calling out Ohanian for reference.
- DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
  > Later in the summer, Victoria Taylor is fired. Celebrity AMAs just haven't been the same since. She was, in my opinion, one of the best parts of any of the default subs back then. It was very unexpected when she was suddenly gone with no reasonable explanation, and all the AMAs right around then were absolutely garbage. She did a lot for /r/IAmA.
- dwaltrip 6y ago
  Thanks for this, very helpful. I had no idea Ohanian was the root cause of that incident.
  - redditadmin1499 6y ago
    Even on a throwaway, I can't share more, but Alexis royally fucked Victoria on that one. But don't think Ellen didn't have anything to do with it. The management structure at that time was pretty weird.
- KKKKkkkk1 6y ago
  It's interesting how sexual harassment has long-term implications for one's career. You're a VC partner who is sexually harassed by another partner, as a consequence you get pushed out, as a consequence you're forced to take a position at a failing company, as a consequence you're forced to take the role of the fall guy by the failing company's founders, and as a consequence your career in tech is over. It's remarkable how much shit Ellen Pao had to take just for speaking out about sexual harassment at Kleiner Perkins.
  - kbenson 6y ago
    It's all power and positioning. That chain of events does a good job of explaining how the soft consequences of speaking out (a little less trust from others, not being perceived as the person you actually want to lead) can lead to real outcomes. It's hard to know for sure how much she knew about when hired, but without what she'd experienced prior, would she have felt the need to take on this role? Was she viewing her career or reputation in need of rebuilding or strengthening, so that's why she entertained this (and if so, was the outcome expected, or did they throw her under the bus)?
  - bananabreakfast 6y ago
    Keep in mind that it was found that all of her allegations of sexual harassment were completely unfounded and she was likely just trying to get a settlement to help her dire financial situation
    - geofft 6y ago
      > it was found that all of her allegations of sexual harassment were completely unfounded Do you have a source for this? The courts ruled in Pao v. Kleiner Perkins that Kleiner Perkins did not discriminate against her. I don't think they ruled on whether or not Ajit Nazre sexually harassed her (or others), and evidence for it was presented in the case. I'm pretty sure they did not rule that the allegations were "completely unfounded." > she was likely just trying to get a settlement to help her dire financial situation Given the publicity around how her case was the first like it, you'd have to be very, very foolhardy to go into it for financial reasons, especially if you didn't think you had a strong case. And if you were going for a settlement, you wouldn't want it to actually go to court if the other side didn't offer one, you'd just withdraw the lawsuit.
- fireattack 6y ago
  Why was Victoria Taylor fired again?
neonate 6y ago
> The hypothesis is posed by Yishan Wong, an ex-CEO, with responses from Altman and Ohanian. I found the response from Altman (https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszwpgq/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...) but where is the response from Ohanian?
redditadmin1499 6y ago
I used to work for reddit. I was talking with another former admin, and we both remember a post on reddit asking admins how they got their jobs at reddit. I was never able to find it, but Ellen Pao said something like "I invested in it and asked for a job."

geofft 6y ago

Relevant, but I think the timeline is a bit subtler than that. (Mostly, the CEO referenced in that story is Wong himself, not Pao.) - Reddit was acquired by Condé Nast in 2006. - Founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman left in 2009. - Yishan Wong became CEO in March 2012. - Reddit raised its Series B in September 2014, led by Sam Altman. Wong was one of the investors. - Wong resigns in November 2014. Ellen Pao becomes interim CEO and Ohanian becomes executive chairman. - Reddit introduces an anti-harassment policy and bans fatpeoplehate and other subreddits in early summer 2015. - Later in the summer, Victoria Taylor is fired. Users hold Pao responsible, she apologizes for how it was handled, and she resigns on July 10 under pressure from the board. Huffman becomes CEO. - One day later, Wong writes the above post. - One more day later, Wong reveals on Quora that Ohanian, not Pao, fired Taylor.

xster 6y ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3d2hv3/kn0thing_says_he_was_responsible_for_the_change/ct1ecxv/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/3d2hv3/kn0t... is also Yishan calling out Ohanian for reference.
DonaldPShimoda 6y ago
> Later in the summer, Victoria Taylor is fired. Celebrity AMAs just haven't been the same since. She was, in my opinion, one of the best parts of any of the default subs back then. It was very unexpected when she was suddenly gone with no reasonable explanation, and all the AMAs right around then were absolutely garbage. She did a lot for /r/IAmA.
dwaltrip 6y ago
Thanks for this, very helpful. I had no idea Ohanian was the root cause of that incident.
- redditadmin1499 6y ago
  Even on a throwaway, I can't share more, but Alexis royally fucked Victoria on that one. But don't think Ellen didn't have anything to do with it. The management structure at that time was pretty weird.
KKKKkkkk1 6y ago
It's interesting how sexual harassment has long-term implications for one's career. You're a VC partner who is sexually harassed by another partner, as a consequence you get pushed out, as a consequence you're forced to take a position at a failing company, as a consequence you're forced to take the role of the fall guy by the failing company's founders, and as a consequence your career in tech is over. It's remarkable how much shit Ellen Pao had to take just for speaking out about sexual harassment at Kleiner Perkins.
- kbenson 6y ago
  It's all power and positioning. That chain of events does a good job of explaining how the soft consequences of speaking out (a little less trust from others, not being perceived as the person you actually want to lead) can lead to real outcomes. It's hard to know for sure how much she knew about when hired, but without what she'd experienced prior, would she have felt the need to take on this role? Was she viewing her career or reputation in need of rebuilding or strengthening, so that's why she entertained this (and if so, was the outcome expected, or did they throw her under the bus)?
- bananabreakfast 6y ago
  Keep in mind that it was found that all of her allegations of sexual harassment were completely unfounded and she was likely just trying to get a settlement to help her dire financial situation
  - geofft 6y ago
    > it was found that all of her allegations of sexual harassment were completely unfounded Do you have a source for this? The courts ruled in Pao v. Kleiner Perkins that Kleiner Perkins did not discriminate against her. I don't think they ruled on whether or not Ajit Nazre sexually harassed her (or others), and evidence for it was presented in the case. I'm pretty sure they did not rule that the allegations were "completely unfounded." > she was likely just trying to get a settlement to help her dire financial situation Given the publicity around how her case was the first like it, you'd have to be very, very foolhardy to go into it for financial reasons, especially if you didn't think you had a strong case. And if you were going for a settlement, you wouldn't want it to actually go to court if the other side didn't offer one, you'd just withdraw the lawsuit.
fireattack 6y ago
Why was Victoria Taylor fired again?

neonate 6y ago

> The hypothesis is posed by Yishan Wong, an ex-CEO, with responses from Altman and Ohanian. I found the response from Altman (https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszwpgq/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...) but where is the response from Ohanian?

redditadmin1499 6y ago

I used to work for reddit. I was talking with another former admin, and we both remember a post on reddit asking admins how they got their jobs at reddit. I was never able to find it, but Ellen Pao said something like "I invested in it and asked for a job."