Twenty-three current and former Coinbase employees allege mistreatment and racial discrimination, as some say the cryptocurrency startup ignored complaints
whose CEO said “keep politics out of the workplace”—has a hostile and racist workplace. https://www.nytimes.com/... Wynter Mitchell Rohrbaugh / @wyntermitchell : Y'all gon learn the hard way to not treat black employees with respect and ignore their concerns. https://twitter.com/... James Ball / @jamesrbuk : (1) Using the NYT as an example of “failing” or “declining” media is a category error best left to Donald Trump. (2) Startups and founders are honestly welcome to try this. But the audience for cheerleading publications with no independence will be...small. https://twitter.com/... Laura Shin / @laurashin : Great reporting, @nathanielpopper — interesting to hear more of the backstory to the “Coinbase is apolitical” blog post https://twitter.com/... John Koetsier / @johnkoetsier : I disagree strongly with @paulg. There's crap journalism, sure, but there's also great journalism. What I do to build trust: - stream my interviews live - embed the video in the story - share the audio in the TechFirst podcast Example: https://www.forbes.com/... https://twitter.com/... @davewiner : My own experience supports @paulg's advice. If you depend on journalism to let you do the great thing you're doing, if they didn't think of it first it'll never happen. By going around them I was able to make blogging and podcasting happen. Create the media you need. https://twitter.com/... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : Yes. The weird tech bro anti-media attitude is so dumb. I think media is broken, but for very different reasons https://twitter.com/... Cindy Gallop / @cindygallop : You end racism in business by hiring, welcoming & promoting Black talent, bc then you PAY Black talent & channel wealth to Black households. This esp needs to happen in #crypto, where wealth needs to spread beyond white men. But: @coinbase@nathanielpopper https://www.nytimes.com/... Veni Kunche / @venikunche : “It was the first time I realized what racism felt like in the modern world, I felt like I was being bullied every day at work.” - Layllen Sawyerr on her experience working at Coinbase before quitting in 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/... Helena Price Hambrecht / @helena : For anyone tired of seeing CEO take-downs: CEOs are objectively more privileged and protected than employees. By multitudes. CEOs don't need protecting. Employees do. https://www.nytimes.com/... @davidgerard : When the Coinbase crew - and the a16z-funded SV startup crew in general - complain about “corrupt journalism”, they specifically mean stories about how they abuse their employees. Here's a rundown: https://www.inputmag.com/... Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp : Finally reading this in full, and wow this company has some serious issues. https://www.nytimes.com/... Mike Dudas / @mdudas : The story about @Coinbase's treatment of black employees, supported by 23 individuals and troubling diversity data, highlights a real, rampant problem in tech and crypto. To attempt to deflect from it, shoot the messenger, call it a “hit job” does a disservice to the victims. @verge : “I was told I don't have the right brain”: Read this damning report on Coinbase by @nathanielpopper for @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Noah Kulwin / @nkulw : I can't believe a cryptocurrency company has a toxic work environment. Next youre gonna tell me freaking Donald Trump is the president Drew Olanoff / @yoda : Imagine being that terrible of a person that you'd completely discount the stories and feelings of these employees before you had the chance to read them. Plenty did. THIS is why we have a discrimination problem in our industry. https://twitter.com/... Laurie Voss / @seldo : I cannot imagine why they were worried this article would make them look bad, all they did was suggest that Black employees are less capable. https://twitter.com/... Cathy Reisenwitz / @cathyreisenwitz : “It was the first time I realized what racism felt like in the modern world.” What people like Brian Armstrong and his supporters have the privilege of ignoring is that racism is the default. Taking a principled stance against being a better person is supporting existing racism. https://twitter.com/... Ari Levy / @levynews : I'm sure Coinbase's IPO, when it happens, will be objectively covered by the company's editor in chief @vogon : wow incredible that the We Don't Have Politics Here guy was trying to cover something up https://twitter.com/... Alyssa Miller / @alyssam_infosec : ICYMI: Here's the article that got Coinbase all hot and bothered to the point that they doubled down on their toxicity to release a pre-emptive blog. Just in case you need it....for science. https://www.nytimes.com/... Charlie O'Donnell / @ceonyc : After not bothering to attempt or understand the hard work of building an inclusive culture, and then *doubling down* on willful ignorance, it's hard to argue that Brian Armstrong himself is not what is most distracting Coinbase from its mission. https://www.nytimes.com/... Drew Olanoff / @yoda : Read the story and then go back and read Coinbase's blog post again. https://blog.coinbase.com/... https://twitter.com/... Emily Best / @emilybest : These are incredibly brave women. They shouldn't have to but they do anyway to protect those coming up behind them. https://www.nytimes.com/... Matt Beland / @beland_matt : Just in case you saw the bullshit Coinbase was spreading about the NYT article from this weekend - 23 complains for a not-terrible-large company is a lot. I mean and then there's *also* the cryptocurrency issue. https://twitter.com/... Nathaniel Popper / @nathanielpopper : Employees quoted in the report said a lot of their concerns grew from actions of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: “Trust with Brian and the executive team has eroded over time: sometimes it feels like it's Brian vs. everyone else.” Nathaniel Popper / @nathanielpopper : Bonus material thread. This was only briefly mentioned in today's story about Coinbase, but managers surveyed Black employees at the end of a summer of turmoil to see how they were feeling The resulting report did not paint a pretty picture. https://www.nytimes.com/... Taylor Lorenz / @taylorlorenz : All the Silicon Valley ppl who spent yesterday defending this toxic company and its culture should take a long hard look in the mirror https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Quinn Emmett / @quinnemmett : I think I've seen enough at Coinbase. Alternatives? https://twitter.com/... Roberto Baldwin / @strngwys : Well coinbase is a shitty place. I mean, we knew that but it's worse than you thought. https://twitter.com/... Corey Quinn / @quinnypig : Good god. Worth the read. https://twitter.com/... Marc Bodnick / @marcbodnick : Upon reading this NYT story, does anyone believe that Coinbase took this problem seriously? @antoniogm : 90% of the media animus against tech is projection from fields like Wall Street or (ahem) media itself where all sorts drama and dysfunction unfold constantly. The peanut gallery can't understand how an industry that's gotten so powerful is so largely anodyne culturally. @antoniogm : What's most shocking about tech, in the actual experience of working in it, is how utterly boring and tame it really is. It's a bunch of nerds staring at screens mostly. Every once in a while, a meeting gets sightly heated and someone gets feedback and/or apologizes. That's it. Gady Epstein / @gadyepstein : Damning story about Coinbase: “One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun... Another said a co-worker at a recruiting meeting broadly described Black employees as less capable.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Marc Bodnick / @marcbodnick : This NYT Coinbase story is 🔥 damning. I don't want to hear any more about journalistic ethics or the NYT. We need to talk about Coinbase. https://twitter.com/... Cindy Gallop / @cindygallop : 'Managers in customer support wrote their own report. It concluded @Coinbase's executive team “hasn't learned anything from the amount of time & labor put into listening sessions or the vulnerability expressed by Black employees.” @nathanielpopper https://www.nytimes.com/... #crypto Cindy Gallop / @cindygallop : ‘The report was presented to @coinbase executives, two people with knowledge of the situation said. The executives, they said, have not acted on its recommendations.’ @nathanielpopper @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... #BlackLivesMatter #DiversityAndInclusion #crypto #bitcoin Justin Ouellette / @jstn : feel how you want about coinbase, but don't try and tell me brian armstrong is some kind of genius for how he's handled this https://twitter.com/... Cindy Gallop / @cindygallop : Funny how that always happens when a company hires a consultant to review itself. '@kimbatronic said @Coinbase hired a consultant over the summer who did interviews and looked at the company's history, and found “no evidence of structural bias.” https://www.nytimes.com/... #crypto Sara Ashley O'Brien / @saraashleyo : Three percent of Coinbase's employees are Black, a percentage that has stayed flat in recent years. “If the numbers haven't changed, it's definitely because there wasn't a real intention to do so” - @cmesi https://www.nytimes.com/... Nick Bilton / @nickbilton : This article about the way Coinbase treats black employees is infuriating. 23 employees came forward for the piece — 23!! — and yet @brian_armstrong sounds like so many other tech CEOs, who only give a shit about their company valuation. https://www.nytimes.com/... Erica Joy / @ericajoy : this story is infuriating. the more things change, the more they stay the same. https://www.nytimes.com/... Erica Joy / @ericajoy : 1. you complain 2. they tell you they can't substantiate your claims because there is no written evidence 3. they push you out you could set your watch to that timeline https://twitter.com/... Brianna Wu / @briannawu : This article on racism at @coinbase is beyond damning. https://twitter.com/... Ellen K. Pao / @ekp : How can you hear these stories and say, “We followed the law” without acknowledging and addressing the pain and harm here? Shame on the board and CEO for not building empathy into the culture. The Coinbase blogpost is a heartless PR and legal CYA. https://www.nytimes.com/... @dhh : If you're going to scoop an upcoming negative story, you probably should know exactly what it alleges. Otherwise you might just end up making a sizzling trailer for a story that's much worse than your denial pretended 😬 https://www.nytimes.com/... Mike Rundle / @flyosity : “One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun.” Hey @brian_armstrong, your company and its culture is trash. https://www.nytimes.com/... Nathaniel Popper / @nathanielpopper : These problems have stayed in the shadows because most of the Black employees who complained about their treatment were given generous severance packages if they agreed not to talk about their experiences at the company. But many of them spoke with us. https://www.nytimes.com/... Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn : A necessary story about anti-Black racism in tech. https://www.nytimes.com/... Pui-Wing Tam / @puiwingtam : Here's the @nytimes story that @coinbase would like to be excluded from. 23 current & former Coinbase employees told @nathanielpopper how Black employees were “bullied.” Coinbase said some episodes would “be difficult for employees to read.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Hamza Shaban / @hshaban : One way companies can claim that their people, their cultures, and their operations are not discriminatory is to...ignore the Black workers who say they face discrimination at work. Hamza Shaban / @hshaban : NYT reports Coinbase: “One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun...Another said a co-worker at a recruiting meeting broadly described Black employees as less capable.” https://www.nytimes.com/... @balajis : @paulg @dannolan Yes. But an even better model today is to have an editor-in-chief rather than a head of PR. Write your own code — and make your own media. Stripe Press, Twitter Moments, AirBnB Magazine are examples of what can be done with first party content developed by a tech company. https://twitter.com/... Peg / @pegobry : Coinbase took a stand against cancel culture, so the NYT decided to do a hit piece saying that Coinbase is RaCiSt. https://twitter.com/... @jason : I would argue @brian_armstrong front running the @coinbase @nytimes story is a brilliant move. It shows they are aware of the issues, addressed them, they care, & that they understand bad press is tough on employees Front running might actually be the a the best practice... https://twitter.com/... @emilygorcenski : My “despite what the NYT is about to say, we don't mistreat Black employees blog post” is raising a lot of questions already answered by my “despite what the NYT is about to say, we don't mistreat Black employees blog post” https://twitter.com/... Sasha Perigo / @sashaperigo : “The New York Times is planning to publish a negative story about Coinbase at some point in the next few days[.]” Thanks, @coinbase, I'll be sure to keep an eye out! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Andrew Sampson / @andrewmd5 : turns out the “mission focus” of @brian_armstrong was the continued disenfranchisement of black people in tech. https://twitter.com/...
It's not a coincidence that these two tweets sound so similar. The quality of traditional publications is declining simultaneously with our need for them. That kind of two-front war is hard to survive. https://twitter.com/...
NEW: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has long styled himself as a Silicon Valley thought leader on management and culture. The culture he built, however, led to a history of complaints about discrimination and racism from Black employees, buried until now. https://www.nytimes.com/..…
Some other quotes from the report: “Employees feel unsupported and unsafe.” “None of my family members think I should stay here.” “I can't leave my skin color at the door.” “This isn't about politics: it's about the well being of employees who work for you.”
By the second graf of this @nathanielpopper story on Coinbase you'll understand why the company felt the need to frontrun it. This is a devastating statistic. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
“Most people of color working in tech know that there's a diversity problem. But I've never experienced anything like Coinbase.” Damning report by @nathanielpopper https://www.nytimes.com/...
I cannot imagine why they were worried this article would make them look bad, all they did was suggest that Black employees are less capable. https://twitter.com/...
“It was the first time I realized what racism felt like in the modern world, I felt like I was being bullied every day at work.” - Layllen Sawyerr on her experience working at Coinbase before quitting in 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/...
I, for one, am shocked (shocked!) that a company like Coinbase—whose CEO said “keep politics out of the workplace”—has a hostile and racist workplace. https://www.nytimes.com/...
(1) Using the NYT as an example of “failing” or “declining” media is a category error best left to Donald Trump. (2) Startups and founders are honestly welcome to try this. But the audience for cheerleading publications with no independence will be...small. https://twitter.com/..…
Imagine being that terrible of a person that you'd completely discount the stories and feelings of these employees before you had the chance to read them. Plenty did. THIS is why we have a discrimination problem in our industry. https://twitter.com/...
When the Coinbase crew - and the a16z-funded SV startup crew in general - complain about “corrupt journalism”, they specifically mean stories about how they abuse their employees. Here's a rundown: https://www.inputmag.com/...
“It was the first time I realized what racism felt like in the modern world.” What people like Brian Armstrong and his supporters have the privilege of ignoring is that racism is the default. Taking a principled stance against being a better person is supporting existing racism. …
I disagree strongly with @paulg. There's crap journalism, sure, but there's also great journalism. What I do to build trust: - stream my interviews live - embed the video in the story - share the audio in the TechFirst podcast Example: https://www.forbes.com/... https://twitter.c…
For anyone tired of seeing CEO take-downs: CEOs are objectively more privileged and protected than employees. By multitudes. CEOs don't need protecting. Employees do. https://www.nytimes.com/...
The story about @Coinbase's treatment of black employees, supported by 23 individuals and troubling diversity data, highlights a real, rampant problem in tech and crypto. To attempt to deflect from it, shoot the messenger, call it a “hit job” does a disservice to the victims.
“I was told I don't have the right brain”: Read this damning report on Coinbase by @nathanielpopper for @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
You end racism in business by hiring, welcoming & promoting Black talent, bc then you PAY Black talent & channel wealth to Black households. This esp needs to happen in #crypto, where wealth needs to spread beyond white men. But: @coinbase @nathanielpopper https://www.nytimes.com…
ICYMI: Here's the article that got Coinbase all hot and bothered to the point that they doubled down on their toxicity to release a pre-emptive blog. Just in case you need it....for science. https://www.nytimes.com/...
After not bothering to attempt or understand the hard work of building an inclusive culture, and then *doubling down* on willful ignorance, it's hard to argue that Brian Armstrong himself is not what is most distracting Coinbase from its mission. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Just in case you saw the bullshit Coinbase was spreading about the NYT article from this weekend - 23 complains for a not-terrible-large company is a lot. I mean and then there's *also* the cryptocurrency issue. https://twitter.com/...
Employees quoted in the report said a lot of their concerns grew from actions of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: “Trust with Brian and the executive team has eroded over time: sometimes it feels like it's Brian vs. everyone else.”
Bonus material thread. This was only briefly mentioned in today's story about Coinbase, but managers surveyed Black employees at the end of a summer of turmoil to see how they were feeling The resulting report did not paint a pretty picture. https://www.nytimes.com/...
All the Silicon Valley ppl who spent yesterday defending this toxic company and its culture should take a long hard look in the mirror https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
90% of the media animus against tech is projection from fields like Wall Street or (ahem) media itself where all sorts drama and dysfunction unfold constantly. The peanut gallery can't understand how an industry that's gotten so powerful is so largely anodyne culturally.
What's most shocking about tech, in the actual experience of working in it, is how utterly boring and tame it really is. It's a bunch of nerds staring at screens mostly. Every once in a while, a meeting gets sightly heated and someone gets feedback and/or apologizes. That's it.
Damning story about Coinbase: “One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun... Another said a co-worker at a recruiting meeting broadly described Black employees as less capable.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
This NYT Coinbase story is 🔥 damning. I don't want to hear any more about journalistic ethics or the NYT. We need to talk about Coinbase. https://twitter.com/...
'Managers in customer support wrote their own report. It concluded @Coinbase's executive team “hasn't learned anything from the amount of time & labor put into listening sessions or the vulnerability expressed by Black employees.” @nathanielpopper https://www.nytimes.com/... #cry…
‘The report was presented to @coinbase executives, two people with knowledge of the situation said. The executives, they said, have not acted on its recommendations.’ @nathanielpopper @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... #BlackLivesMatter #DiversityAndInclusion #crypto #bitcoin
Funny how that always happens when a company hires a consultant to review itself. '@kimbatronic said @Coinbase hired a consultant over the summer who did interviews and looked at the company's history, and found “no evidence of structural bias.” https://www.nytimes.com/... #crypt…
Three percent of Coinbase's employees are Black, a percentage that has stayed flat in recent years. “If the numbers haven't changed, it's definitely because there wasn't a real intention to do so” - @cmesi https://www.nytimes.com/...
This article about the way Coinbase treats black employees is infuriating. 23 employees came forward for the piece — 23!! — and yet @brian_armstrong sounds like so many other tech CEOs, who only give a shit about their company valuation. https://www.nytimes.com/...
1. you complain 2. they tell you they can't substantiate your claims because there is no written evidence 3. they push you out you could set your watch to that timeline https://twitter.com/...
How can you hear these stories and say, “We followed the law” without acknowledging and addressing the pain and harm here? Shame on the board and CEO for not building empathy into the culture. The Coinbase blogpost is a heartless PR and legal CYA. https://www.nytimes.com/...
If you're going to scoop an upcoming negative story, you probably should know exactly what it alleges. Otherwise you might just end up making a sizzling trailer for a story that's much worse than your denial pretended 😬 https://www.nytimes.com/...
“One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun.” Hey @brian_armstrong, your company and its culture is trash. https://www.nytimes.com/...
These problems have stayed in the shadows because most of the Black employees who complained about their treatment were given generous severance packages if they agreed not to talk about their experiences at the company. But many of them spoke with us. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Here's the @nytimes story that @coinbase would like to be excluded from. 23 current & former Coinbase employees told @nathanielpopper how Black employees were “bullied.” Coinbase said some episodes would “be difficult for employees to read.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
One way companies can claim that their people, their cultures, and their operations are not discriminatory is to...ignore the Black workers who say they face discrimination at work.
NYT reports Coinbase: “One Black employee said her manager suggested in front of colleagues that she was dealing drugs and carrying a gun...Another said a co-worker at a recruiting meeting broadly described Black employees as less capable.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@paulg @dannolan Yes. But an even better model today is to have an editor-in-chief rather than a head of PR. Write your own code — and make your own media. Stripe Press, Twitter Moments, AirBnB Magazine are examples of what can be done with first party content developed by a tech…
I would argue @brian_armstrong front running the @coinbase @nytimes story is a brilliant move. It shows they are aware of the issues, addressed them, they care, & that they understand bad press is tough on employees Front running might actually be the a the best practice... https…
My “despite what the NYT is about to say, we don't mistreat Black employees blog post” is raising a lot of questions already answered by my “despite what the NYT is about to say, we don't mistreat Black employees blog post” https://twitter.com/...
“The New York Times is planning to publish a negative story about Coinbase at some point in the next few days[.]” Thanks, @coinbase, I'll be sure to keep an eye out! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...