After Travis Kalanick resigned from Uber amid a series of sexual harassment and other scandals, investor Benchmark Capital filed an unorthodox lawsuit against the former CEO. Benchmark General Partner Sarah Tavel says the dispute was driven by Kalanick’s violation of two key principles for the venture capital firm.
“There’s always been two things we’ve been focused on with Uber, which is good leadership and good governance,” she said, speaking on stage at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle Tuesday.
But now it looks like Benchmark and Kalanick could bury the hatchet, thanks to a series of new governance principals universally accepted by Uber’s board last week.
“If we can get those through then we’ll be in a really good place,” Tavel said Tuesday.
Tavel and her team are enthusiastic about Uber’s direction under the leadership of Dara Khosrowshahi, the former Expedia CEO who replaced Kalanick.
“Thanks Seattle for this wonderful export,” she said during a GeekWire Summit panel titled, The VC View. “I feel kind of guilty being here, having stolen him from the Seattle ecosystem but we’re so thrilled to have him as the CEO of Uber. He’s just the right person for this company at this time and now we’re tapping that good governance. We are optimistic.”
