- An entrepreneur says she cofounded Petal, a fintech backed by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.
- One cofounder called her “this chick I banged a few months ago who came up with the idea.”
- Her lawsuit is inching toward trial with perhaps $100 million on the line.
Cassandra Shih says she met Andrew Endicott in 2014 when she was working at New Zealand’s mission to the United Nations and he was an associate at a Big Law firm. After she returned to New Zealand, they stayed in touch by Facebook Messenger.
By April 2015, Endicott had left Big Law for banking, but he was still unhappy, Shih says. He rekindled a chat they had about starting a company, saying he had legal and business skills and connections, but “I basically just need a product.”
That, Shih says, is when she shared with him her idea for a sort of “credit-bridging” company that would cater to foreigners in the United States who had jobs but couldn’t get credit because they didn’t have credit scores.
“That’s an amazing idea,” Endicott replied. “It’s seriously very good.”
The two started researching and building a business plan. But in the months that followed, Endicott began building a team without her, Shih said in a lawsuit that includes the messages quoted in this story. In April and May of 2015, according to Shih’s lawsuit, Endicott reached out to Berk Ustun, a machine-learning researcher, pitching him on “my idea” and “my plan.”
During that process, Endicott forwarded one of Shih’s emails to Ustun, who replied: “Who is Cassie?”
“This chick I banged a few months ago who came up with the idea,” Endicott wrote.
The company is now known as Petal, and Endicott is its president. Shih’s lawsuit said Petal had been valued at $200 million, but the company said Wednesday that it had raised $140 million in a Series D round led by Tarsadia Investments at an $800 million valuation. It has also received funding from Valar Ventures, a fintech investor cofounded by Peter Thiel.
If the company had been split 50-50, as Shih claims, her claim could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
In court papers, lawyers for Endicott and Petal didn’t deny that Endicott sent the email to Ustun. They said that it “speaks for itself.”
Shih says she has written evidence to prove her case
According to Shih’s lawsuit, she and Endicott shared research on immigrants’ access to credit and even created a pitch deck together, with plans for Endicott to network and try to raise funds. But Endicott moved forward without her. He registered a website in June 2015 under the name he and Shih had discussed, “CreditBridge,” but by July, he was saying that his law-school classmate Jason Gross was his cofounder. Gross is now Petal’s CEO.
In late 2015 and early 2016, Shih sent several emails to Endicott, Gross, and eventually one of Endicott’s friends and another person, saying CreditBridge was her idea. It wasn’t until March 2016 that Endicott finally responded, according to Shih’s lawsuit.
“This business has no connection whatsoever to anything that you and I discussed in the past,” he wrote. “Contrary to what you’ve claimed in your letter, CreditBridge is a credit card company and is not based on any of your business ideas.”
“I hope we can resume being friends,” he added later. “I really admire your passion and I encourage you to pursue your business ideas just as I’ve pursued mine.”
Shih has suggested in court documents that she has reams of written evidence to bolster her case. Many of Shih’s early exchanges with Endicott took place over Facebook or email. She said they shared a cloud-storage folder for research that she was eventually shut out of. She also obtained emails that Endicott sent to others.
Petal declined to comment or make Endicott or Gross available for an interview. The company has downplayed Shih’s interactions with Endicott, saying in court filings that she had no “original ideas” and never made a formal agreement to launch a company.
Shih hasn’t spoken publicly about her lawsuit
There’s a history of women being mistreated and sidelined in the tech industry, but it’s rare for them to bring lawsuits over it. And those lawsuits aren’t always successful.
In 2012, Ellen Pao brought a gender-discrimination case against the renowned venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins, only to have a jury reject her claims. In September, Pinterest was sued by Christine Martinez, who said she was an uncredited cocreator of the company.
Unlike Pao or Martinez, Shih has not spoken publicly about her case, though she once talked with a friend in public relations about doing so, according to emails in her case. She doesn’t mention Petal on her LinkedIn profile, and she now runs a travel company called Tripsha.
The company’s leaders also haven’t mentioned Shih. In a podcast in April, Gross said the inspiration came from the struggles of Ustun, the machine-learning expert who has been called one of the company’s cofounders. Shih said as much in her lawsuit in 2019.
“Endicott and Gross fabricated a false origin story for Petal that purports to attribute the company’s founding to Ustun’s personal experiences, rather than Shih’s,” her lawyers wrote.
Ustun didn’t respond to an email about Shih’s claims. Shih also didn’t respond to requests for an interview.
The lawsuit is now in discovery, with Endicott and Gross scheduled to be deposed in the coming days.
Credit: Source link
