A board member took advantage of the death of Travis Kalanick’s mom to oust him, investor accuses

In the letter, Pishevar takes Benchmark to task, writing (emphasis ours):

Conduct so completely at odds with Benchmark’s fiduciary duty cannot be left unanswered, particularly at this terrible time for Mr. Kalanick and his family. We all owe a huge debt to Travis and his team for their tireless work in imagining, creating, and building Uber. I know how proud Bonnie Kalanick was of her son’s work, and it is an affront to her memory which we cannot silently tolerate that her passing should become the occasion for a secretive and personal assault on her son by those who, by sheer dint of his hard work and determination and that of his team, he has made wealthy beyond all their other investments

Pishevar has remained in Kalanick’s corner and says he has filed a motion to intervene in that lawsuit, along with fellow investor Steve Russell.

Benchmark board member Bill Gurley has not responded to our request for comment. But Benchmark has previously justified its lawsuit in an open letter to employees, saying that Kalanick’s behavior “was utterly unacceptable.”