Agarwal stepped down as the company’s chief executive earlier this month after a Racked piece detailed harsh conditions, along with a lack of feminist values behind the scenes while the company openly touted it in its marketing.
You can find more details on that here:
This Thinx takedown is an object lesson: you can't use feminism to sell a product & not practice it https://t.co/WUSHec5Q0O
— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) March 14, 2017
Agrawal told her side of the story in a Medium post. She calls the Racked account “a true game of telephone,” but admits that she made mistakes along the way.
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The company saw speedy growth and, Agrawal wrote, “Like any Co-Founder/CEO, all I did was the best I could under these crazy circumstances.”
Agrawal explained that she didn’t focus on human resources at the company “because [she] was on the road speaking, doing press, brand partnerships, editing all of the creative and shouting from the rooftops about THINX so [the company] can keep going.”
One of the largest criticisms against Agrawal and the company was a lack of maternity leave. Here’s her response:
We haven’t had any pregnant women until now which is why we didn’t really have a real policy in place for that. Like any start-up when faced with something new, you do your best in solving it as it arises. Our first employee just gave birth (10 days ago) and she is getting 5 weeks paid leave plus we found out that she can take an additional 2 weeks on paid disability leave too. And then we’ll figure out a system where she can either work from home for part of the time and we were also planning on getting an in-house nanny for the office. These were all things we were talking about recently because it only came up recently and we too are learning as we go. We can’t predict everything immediately as a start-up and simply need a little benefit of doubt. This is super standard for so many companies.
A Thinx spokesperson was vague on the details of Agrawal’s future at the company:
At the moment, we’re working together with Miki Agrawal to redefine her role at the company as she moves on from CEO of Thinx, Inc. We’re also making moves to put new leadership and policies in place so Thinx can continue to grow and thrive.
Agrawal directly addressed the Racked article in a statement to Fast Company:
“It was deeply troubling to read that article, as it doesn’t reflect the reality of what happens at Thinx. Like any startup in growth mode, growth often brings change, and with it, evolution of the team.”
It’s a good lesson and reminder that a lack of clearly defined HR policies and procedures today could portend a major PR issue in the future.
What do you make of Agrawal’s response, PR Daily readers?
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