Bullpen Capital didn't respond to our request to comment on Lai's departure, but a quick look at its website reveals a company populated at senior levels almost entirely by white men, aside from a female CFO, plus a female executive assistant and a female office manager. Before she joined Bullpen, she quit another fund, Binary Capital, which she claimed was assessing receptionists based on "hotness," appraising founders based on whether they were "cute," and where partners had allegedly discussed ' designing an Uber-esque app to match people with sex workers.'īinary blew up in 2017 and no longer exists. This isn't the first time Lai has called out discrimination in the investment industry. She claims to have been targeted for defending female founders, for asking that male partners recommending investments from their (male) networks be subject to equal levels of due diligence, and for standing up for herself when she was bullied and called "a waste of time" in partner meetings. Discriminatory because in an "all-white, all-male partnership, “equal” wasn’t ever truly equal." Retaliatory because Lai, who was a general partner, isn't the sort of young woman to stay quiet about discrimination, perceived or otherwise. In a post on LinkedIn, Lai said the exit was "unexpectedly forced" upon her and claimed it was both discriminatory and retaliatory.
Lai left Bullpen Capital, the San Franciso-based provider of post-seed round fund-raising last week. Especially if they let her go, seemingly without cause.
Especially if they're colleagues, working in the predominantly male environment of venture capital investing. Ann Lai doesn't suffer fools gladly, especially if they're male.
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