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Venture firm sued by Ellen Pao issues diversity report, but forgets diversity is more than a gender issue
Venture firm sued by Ellen Pao issues diversity report, but forgets diversity is more than a gender issue
Biz CarsonJun 20, 2015, 06:26 IST
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Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a prominent venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, released a diversity report - except that it missed out on the whole point of diversity.
Tristan Walker, the CEO of Walker &Co., was one of the first to point out KPCB's glaring omission.
Kleiner Perkin's report only focused on the male to female ratio among the firm and its fellow program. Ethnicity was entirely left out.That's a big faux pas for a firm that's already been in the headlines this year for facing issues related to discrimination. Interim Reddit CEO Ellen Pao sued the firm for gender discrimination, but ultimately lost in March after a jury found the firm not liable. Still, why issue a diversity report without all sides of diversity?The firm did respond to Walker and said that it agrees "ethnicity is important." In the tweet, KPCB said it plans to expand and add ethnicity for the firm, its fellows program and portfolio companies, too. A source said that will likely be released next week.Pius Uzamare also pointed out that the firm isn't the first. Popular Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator had also posted a blog about "diversity" then spoke primarily about women founders. The post did acknowledge founders from outside the U.S., but didn't go beyond that into any other kind of racial diversity.Facebook, Google and Apple do not release their reports in piece meal chunks, so it's unclear why investors aren't following suit.
