From dinners with Travis Kalanick to fired after maternity leave: One of CloudKitchens’ earliest employees is suing

Hired as a full-time salesperson in 2018, she became a mainstay at President’s Club dinners hosted by CEO Travis Kalanick at his Bel Air home throughout 2020 and 2021. These dinners were prized, invite-only events for top salespeople at CloudKitchens, a company that provides delivery-only commercial kitchens known as “ghost kitchens.”

The gatherings started with cocktails by the pool. Then the partygoers would mingle indoors until they sat for a chef-prepared dinner. Vincenza recalled Kalanick would greet her with a hug and praise her work. Sometimes, he would invite her to sit near him during dinner and they would chat throughout the meal.

“If you were the best salesperson, you were his favorite person because you were making the company a lot of money,” Vincenza told TechCrunch, adding that she was also CloudKitchens’ first female salesperson. 

In August 2022, she arrived at one President’s Club dinner visibly pregnant. When she tried to sit across from Kalanick at the dinner, she recalled him asking her to move over. She said he hardly looked at her, would not engage in conversation, and didn’t say goodbye. Vincenza left the dinner unsettled.

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