‘This Isn’t Just Adding Insult to Injury; It’s Adding Injury to Injury’

Nick Summers, writing for Businessweek on Whitney Wolfe’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Tinder:

This conduct would be abhorrent directed at anyone. What gives these allegations even greater sting is Wolfe’s contention that she was not just any employee but a Tinder co-founder — and was stripped of the designation as a result of the treatment she endured. This isn’t just adding insult to injury; it’s adding injury to injury, since a co-founder of a hot startup can be expected to attract better career opportunities than someone who was a mere early employee.

Was Whitney Wolfe a co-founder of Tinder? I think the answer exposes a different, quieter, but no less punishing form of the sexism that is pervasive in the startup world.

Later:

None of the many men I spoke to had mentioned her name. In my notes is a single reference to “Whitney” — from a preliminary phone call with Rosette Pambakian, Tinder’s PR rep, who described her as one of five company co-founders. (Take note, Wolfe and IAC legal teams.)

Don’t miss the second and third pages of Summers’s story, which contain screenshots of blatantly racist and sexist posts from Justin Mateen’s now-private Instagram account.

Update: Look at the timeline, and consider just how long this situation was tolerated within Tinder. Tinder is not unique.

★ Wednesday, 2 July 2014