by The CEO of online learning company Skillshare is suing aggrieved former employees for a minimum of $1.5 million, claiming that the company has “inexplicable and meritless hatred after it engaged in a four-year campaign of harassment against Skillshare and its directors and employees. .”
Kelley Miller sent “sarcastic and threatening emails” to Skillshare manager Matt Cooper and has “made disparaging comments about the company to its associates, customers and vendors through social media platforms,” according to the lawsuit, Cooper filed Friday in New. York State Supreme Court.
Miller blamed Cooper for ruining her career, the lawsuit says, accusing him of being a “misogynistic piece of shit,” “a piece of shit,” “such shit,” “the scum,” who called him, among many other things. of the fucking earth,” “low life,” “miserable liar,” “corrupt narcissist,” a “cunt,” “punk,” and “fucking shame of a person.”
In the suit, Cooper says that while he and Skillshare are “sympathetic to [Miller] of any hardships she has suffered in her personal life, has caused, and continues to cause, a lot of damage to the company for which she is famous and making a lot of money, she announced that publicly and in breach of their separation agreement.”
But Miller, who worked in sales for the platform over five years, told The Daily Beast on Friday after the lawsuit was filed against her that she had good reason to fight back, claiming she was evicted after sexual misconduct. let her know. Skillshare executive – and things eventually got so bad that she attempted suicide.
In an email Friday, attorney Adam Felsenstein, who is representing Cooper and Skillshare, declined to comment on the case.
Miller joined Skillshare in May 2017 as a sales representative, and soon earned a promotion to manager of the enterprise sales team, according to the lawsuit. She told The Daily Beast that she followed Cooper to the business after working for him at another company.
“He got me into all this mess, and I respected him,” she says. “I liked it. I looked him up.”
According to the lawsuit, Miller had a conflict with her manager, although the suit does not provide additional details. (Miller says she was dismissed after she complained about the manager’s “myogynistic tendencies” and sexist behavior, alleging that he was also the subject of other employee complaints.)
Cooper says in the suit that Skillshare “investigated the facts surrounding the conflict and determined that the manager’s conduct, while inappropriate, was not grounds for termination.” However, he claims that Miller was “upset about the outcome, and after some discussion, decided to leave Skillshare voluntarily.” (“What am I going to do, wait there and let something worse happen?” she told The Daily Beast.)
Miller was given a severance package and signed an indemnification agreement when she left, according to the suit.
After she left, Miller applied for a new job at another technology company. She had over half a dozen interviews with the new firm, she said; For her final interview, she met with a member of the board of directors.
“The interview is good,” Miller told The Daily Beast. “And towards the end of the interview, she says, ‘Oh, I’m very familiar with Skillshare, I’m very good friends with the founder.’ And the next thing I know I’m getting worse.”
Miller argued in a May 2021 email to Cooper, which was included in the lawsuit, that she lost the job opportunity because “the former founder of Skillsshare… gave her an unfavorable reference.” (Cooper “denied having a specific memory of the Defendant or discussing her with any prospective employer,” according to the suit.)
In the email, which Miller sent at 6:34 a.m., she told Cooper that she planned to release unflattering testimony about him and what she said was a toxic atmosphere at the company, since he was “ you delete. [her] career and now… accountable in the court of public opinion.”
“I am unemployed and have not been able to get work from Skillshare because of your actions and inability to do the right thing,” Miller wrote. “It has negatively affected my life and my psyche on a large scale and, if it wasn’t for the parameters put in place for the pandemic, I would be homeless… I would love for you to try me. I have nothing to lose.”
Miller spent the next 18 months trying to get media traction for her claims, but to no avail, she told The Daily Beast. So, in August 2023, she took her allegations to X, formerly known as Twitter, tagging Cooper and various Skillshare “partners and vendors,” the lawsuit says.
“Still waiting for you to address how you view the workplace [sic] discrimination and destroys the careers of innocent people who report it at Skillshare?” one post read. “I’m calling this out publicly[ly] for 1.5 years and have not received so much as a threatening letter from a lawyer. There is a reason for that.”
Miller “posted this message over fifty times while tagging countless accounts,” the lawsuit claims, adding that she also “contacted the news organization Axios” on Twitter/X with a similar message.
Supreme Court of the State of New York
“Whenever Skillsshare blocked [Miller] from a post on his Twitter/X page, [she] to open a new account to resume her behavior,” the suit says, alleging that Miller “operated twelve different Twitter/X accounts to further her campaign of unfair disparagement.” She posted her allegations under the articles Cooper published on Medium, according to the law, while keeping up the email pressure.
Last September, Miller detailed the damage she said Cooper did to her. When she was forced to resign from Skillshare, Miller said in an email that she lost $150,000 in salary, $300,000 in salary at the job she did not receive, plus the amount of “[i]able to find employment again.”
“With no health insurance, paying out of pocket or not being able to go to the doctor at all and suffering because of it – I almost lost my life to a suicide attempt,” Miller wrote to Cooper. “… You are the one who brought me into this environment. YOU recruited me on LinkedIn for Visually. YOU brought me to Skillshare. YOU built me up and once you tore me down. YOU didn’t stab me in the back. YOU stabbed me in the front with a smile on your face. You are a human disgrace, a ‘leader’ of shit and you owe me a lot. I’ll be waiting in the wings for your fall. I can’t wait to encourage him.”
Miller warned Cooper that he would “Never get rid of me until justice is served.”
“Lean, you’re a fucking punk,” she wrote. “Come to me.”
The emails continued, sometimes as many as 10 a day, through the rest of 2023, according to Cooper’s suit and related exhibits. Miller stayed on message steadily, not saying a word about her feelings about Cooper. In other messages, Miller was more business-minded, reminding Cooper of his success at Skillshare.
“I should be gainfully employed right now because I worked for her,” she wrote in an Oct. 30 email. “I even closed my Department’s two biggest deals while on my first vacation in 1.5 years, over the holidays AND while I was going through a legal process that I should never have been in the first place… That was the type of employee I was. Even if you are not accountable in this life, you will meet your maker one day and I take great comfort in that. You will pay for what you have done in my life, for all the secrets you keep and allow to continue.”
In an affidavit Cooper filed with the lawsuit, he said, “It was clear at this time that the Defendant was blaming me and Skillshare for events in her life that we had no involvement or control over.”
After a Dec. 6 email in which Miller told Cooper he was “the scum of the earth and I hope you pay dearly for what you did and continue to do to me,” attorneys sent Skillshare to Miller cease and desist letter. But Miller didn’t stop, according to Cooper.
“I look forward to watching your career and reputation take off,” she wrote in a Jan. 2 email. “2024 is the year. Just know that when this happens, I will enjoy every second of it. You deserve all the karma that lies ahead.”
The lawsuit says Cooper finally responded to Miller on January 12, demanding that she stop. He invited her to take him to court, or go public with her claims, calling it “your prerogative”. However, she told The Daily Beast on Friday that she stood her ground, telling Cooper, “It’s not harassment to hold you accountable.”
Supreme Court of the State of New York
In a final email to Cooper sent on February 7, Miller drew a line in the sand, giving him until 9 a.m. on February 23 to “hold yourself … accountable” or she would release a video “with all evidence including names of anyone.employees as well as links to their LinkedIn profiles who were involved / saw something and I will send to everyone in my network and anyone I can find in your head…including the people who influence Skillshare works.”
“You will not fuck my life over and you will not be accountable,” Miller wrote.
Cooper says in his affidavit that he has not seen the video, but believes it contains “false and defamatory material as well as proprietary information [sic] the body.”
“Two [Miller] is allowed to be sent to the Skillshare business community, it will cause serious and irreparable harm to the company,” he says, asking the court to issue an order preventing Miller from making the video public.
The lawsuit also asks the court to compel Miller to stop contacting Cooper, arguing the Chief “had to live through a litany of daily, and sometimes hourly, abuse from the Defendant.”
“The loneliness that attracts the Defendant limits all notions of appropriate behavior,” he says. “Skillshare is simply asking this Court to relieve it of its obligations during the pendency of this action.”
Miller called the gambit “a last resort,” adding, “If this is how my life ends, I’m taking it down.”
She suspects that the company is concerned about the video because, she believes, its content could hurt their brand, especially since many of their users are young and on the left.
Despite the legal risk, Miller dismissed Cooper’s lawsuit as frivolous. “It’s amazing that they want to come to me for money, because they’ve ruined my whole life,” she said. “Like, I can’t get a job. I am being evicted on March 15.”
Cooper and Skillshare are alleging breach of contract and defamation, and are seeking $500,000 in each of three individual causes of action.
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