Former vice president Kate Lowry sues Insight Partners

Kate Lowry, a former vice president at Insight Partners, has filed a lawsuit against the firm, alleging disability discrimination, gender discrimination, and wrongful termination. The complaint was submitted on December 30 in San Mateo County, California.

Lowry said she brought the lawsuit because she believes that “too many powerful, wealthy people in the venture industry behave as though it’s acceptable to break the law and systematically underpay and mistreat their employees.”

 “It’s an oppressive system that reflect[s] broader trends in society that use fear, intimidation, and power to silence and isolate truth. I’m trying to change that,” she said.

Lowry began working at Insight Partners in 2022, after previously working for Meta, McKinsey & Company, and an early-stage startup. The suit alleges that, upon being hired, she was assigned to a different supervisor than the person mentioned during her interview.  

She alleges in the suit that she was told by her new supervisor, who was a woman, to be “online all the time, including PTO, holidays, and weekends,” and to respond between “6 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily.”  

Lowry says in the suit that this first supervisor “berated, hazed, and antagonized” her, spoke openly about a hazing that would be “longer and more intense” than what she put other male reports through.  

Some comments the supervisor allegedly made, according to the suit, include “you are incompetent, shut up and take notes” and “you need to obey me like a dog; do whatever I say whenever I say it, without speaking.”  Lowry also alleges that her supervisor assigned her “redundant tasks” and restricted her ability to participate in calls, while allowing less experienced male colleagues to do so. Lowry, instead, she alleges, was relegated to “administrative tasks such as note-taking and cataloging.”