It started with a questionable tweet. Last month, right in the thick of a rapidly moving scandal involving another tech founder — WiseTech's Richard White — Employment Hero founder Ben Thompson took to Elon Musk's social media platform X to make what he would later describe as a "dad joke".
Women in the ecosystem disagreed, describing it to me in less flattering terms. But after reporting on those comments and the reaction to them, I certainly did not expect what would follow.
A deluge of current and former Employment Hero staff members came forward to detail their experiences at the $2 billion HR software startup, which is backed by Airtree, OneVentures, Seek and US-based Insight Partners and TCV.
First, I was told that the company cancelled an International Women's Day initiative because the plans were at odds with its "apolitical" internal mantra, known as "The EH Way". After that report, more people came forward with even more troubling recollections about their time at the 10-year old company.
