A woman entrepreneur has taken to social media to share how she was replaced as the CEO of a company she co-founded, just because she was brown and a white man took over the position she earned through months. She mentioned how step-by-step, the atmosphere was built up to the extent where she was told by the board to be happy about the fact that she was allowed to be the CEO, though was denied the equal pay as per the new CEO – a white man.
It all, she said, began as the company faced hurdles in onboarding top investors and then, an investor made a remark that it could be because of the colour of her skin or her gender.
“In July 2024, the board picked a white man to replace me as CEO in a company that I had co-founded and run for 10 years. And I’m going to tell you why it matters that it was a white man who replaced me,” she said.
“Your first large institutional investor will set the tone for what type of investors you can subsequently attract into the company. When you accept a significant check from a tier 2 or tier 3 investor…” she added.
Quoting one of the investors, she said, “One day, one of our investors casually asked if the color of my skin or my gender was standing in the way of us raising more money. Let’s put a pin on that. Eventually, when a couple of board members decided that this guy would replace me as CEO, one of their main concerns was the optics of a white man replacing a brown woman as CEO.”
Internal board disagreement, and tussle over equal pay
The female entrepreneur mentioned that a woman on the board was not up for the idea of the swap, and even expressed her discomfort as well.
Initially, she said, the board proposed that she and the new CEO would serve as co-CEOs. “One of the board members called me and bluntly said that we couldn’t give equal pay to both CEOs. Now they were bringing a new CEO at a certain salary, and he had the audacity, in 2024, to tell me that as a brown woman I couldn’t draw the same pay as a white man. The board couldn’t reach a decision, so they went with him as the sole CEO,” she said.
She added that the board asked the same woman, who was not okay with the decision, to inform her about the same.
Internet reacts: ‘Probably they were…’
Users praised the woman for coming out with the entire story and sharing it with them. A user mentioned the reason for the entire incident was that “Probably they were counting you on never recounting what happened to you but that’s where they made a mistake. They messed with an articulate woman. Your storytelling is top notch. Love Listening to you even though I have nothing to do with this world…”
“thanku for sharing ur story, more women need to speak up about such things,” said another.
“You are such a breath of fresh air. I wish more content like this was around. How many women? How many brown women don’t have guidance,” another user added.
A woman commented, “I feel bad learning the only women director being the one whose gonna deliver the messages. My God, the audacity to look down to brave and capable women, these people. “