Ellen Pao's attorney just revealed the insane amounts top partners at VC firms get paid
Junior partners, like Ellen Pao was before leaving Kleiner, receive both a salary and a bonus. Pao felt she was left out of top partner meetings and wanted to be promoted to a more senior role, but she never was.
Managing members, which are sometimes called general partners, receive a portion of the profits coming from Kleiner's investments and its management fees instead of a salary and bonus.
Alan Exelrod, an attorney for Pao, had Biglieri calculate the difference between what partners made after they were promoted from operating roles.
Biglieri calculated - with some help from Judge Kahn - that one partner promoted in 2011 made close to 5x as much as a general partner than as a junior partner. Another partner made 3x after being promoted to general partner. A third employee promoted that year made 4x as much.
When you factor in the kind of salaries Kleiner employees get paid, those multiples represent a lot of cash.
Kleiner attorney Lynn Hermle said Pao's total compensation in 2011 was $516,000. So had she been promoted to a general partner it's safe to say she could have started making anywhere between $1-3 million.
Pao is seeking $16 million in damages from Kleiner Perkins. Had she become a general partner there, it's likely she could have made much more.