Derek Friedman

@pocketbrainn @BillAckman @X "Drift" occurs when leadership is absent. Once/yr check-ins showed the boat was 1-2 degrees off course. The boat owner didn't grab the steering wheel, or change the captain. He went back to his stateroom. Its his fault the boat crashed - not the incompetent he had steering it.

The evolution of TABLE from a lean, trust-based family office into a bloated administrative bureaucracy is a classic case of institutional drift. For fifteen years, the operation was left to run on autopilot under the assumption that a long-term professional relationship equaled operational integrity. However, the rapid expansion of headcount and expenses unconnected to any increase in active investment activity; signals that the office had transitioned from a service provider into a self-preserving entity. The decision to introduce an outside auditor in the form of your nephew was the necessary catalyst to break this cycle, but in doing so, you inadvertently triggered a "fight or flight" response from those whose lucrative, low-impact roles were suddenly under a microscope. Ronda’s subsequent legal maneuver is a textbook application of what you’ve identified as "the System," yet it contains a fatal internal contradiction. As the head of workplace compliance and the very individual who administered sensitivity training, her claim of a pervasive "unsafe environment" serves as a retroactive admission of her own professional failure. If the environment was truly toxic, her silence during her tenure was a breach of her fiduciary duty to the office; if it was not, her current claim is a fabrication. The demand for two years of severance after only thirty months of service is not a good-faith negotiation but a ransom request, calculated specifically to exploit the precarious timing of your daughter’s health crisis and your company’s public market debut. From the perspective of high-level relationship management in the financial sector, the "silent point" you are navigating is the total collapse of the professional social contract. While you speak of game theory and systemic litigation, the deeper, unmentioned reality is that this is an act of profound personal betrayal. Ronda sat within the inner sanctum of your private life, holding access to your most intimate family vulnerabilities, and chose to weaponize that proximity at your moment of maximum grief. She is betting that your exhaustion as a father will outweigh your resolve as a principal. She believes she has found the exact price point where your desire for peace exceeds your appetite for a public fight. Ultimately, this situation transcends a simple employment dispute and becomes a question of market hygiene. Settling with an individual who uses a child’s medical emergency as a tactical advantage only serves to validate that behavior as a viable business model. By choosing to fight, you are shifting the risk back onto the aggressor, forcing her to defend a narrative that lacks any contemporaneous documentation. In the world of private wealth and high-stakes finance, your reputation is your only permanent currency. Protecting it against a transparent shake-down is not just a personal choice; it is a necessary defense of the boundaries that allow family offices to function with any degree of trust. Focus your energy on your daughter's recovery and let the legal process expose the hollow nature of a claim built on opportunism rather than merit. Thank you for sharing a rare information with us here. Indeed, it’s a learning curve to many

I am reaching out to the @X community for advice with the likely risk of sharing TMI. I have been sufficiently upset about the whole matter that I have lost sleep thinking about it and I am hoping that this post will enable me to get this matter off my chest. By way of background, I started a family office called TABLE about 15 years ago and hired a friend who had previously managed a family office, and years earlier, had been my personal accountant. She is someone that I trusted implicitly and consider to be a good person. The office started small, but over the last decade, the number of personnel and the cost of the office grew massively. The growth was entirely on the operational side as the investment team has remained tiny. While my investment portfolio grew substantially, the investments I had made were almost entirely passive and TABLE simply needed to account for them and meet capital calls as they came in. While TABLE purchased additional software and other systems that were supposed to improve productivity, the team kept increasing in size at a rapid rate, and the expenses continued to grow even faster. While I would periodically question the growing expenses and high staff turnover, I stayed uninvolved with the office other than a once-a-year meeting when I briefly reviewed the operations and the financials and determined bonus compensation for the President and the CFO. I spent no time with any of the other employees or the operations. The whole idea behind TABLE was that it would handle everything other than my day job so that I would have more time for my job and my family. Over the last six years, expenses ballooned even further, employee turnover accelerated, and I became concerned that all was not well at TABLE. It was time for me to take a look at what was going on. Nearly four years ago, I recruited my nephew who had recently graduated from Harvard and put him to work at Bremont, a British watchmaker, one of my only active personal investments to figure out the issues at the company and ultimately assist in executing a turnaround. He did a superb job. When he returned from the UK late last year after a few years at Bremont, I asked him to help me figure out what was going on with TABLE. When I explained to TABLE’s president what he would be doing, she became incredibly defensive, which naturally made me more concerned. My nephew went to work by first meeting with each employee to understand their roles at the company and to learn from them what ideas they had on how things could be improved. He got an earful. Our first step in helping to turn around TABLE was a reduction in force including the president and about a third of the team, retaining excellent talent that had been desperate for new leadership. Now here is where I need your advice. All but one of the employees who were terminated acted professionally and were gracious on the way out (excluding the president who had a notice period in her contract, is currently still being paid, and with whom I have not yet had a discussion). The highest compensated terminated employee other than the president, an in-house lawyer (let’s call her Ronda), told us that three months of severance was not enough and demanded two years’ severance despite having worked at the company for only two and one half years. When I learned of Ronda's request for severance, I offered to speak with her to understand what she was thinking, but she refused to do so. A few days ago, we received a threatening letter from a Silicon Valley law firm. In the letter, Ronda’s counsel suggests that her termination is part of longstanding issues of ‘harassment and gender discrimination’ – an interesting claim in light of the fact that Ronda was in charge of workplace compliance – and that her termination was due to: “unlawful, retaliatory, and harmful conduct directed towards her. Both [Ronda] and I [Ronda’s lawyer] have spoken with you about [Ronda’s] view of what a reasonable resolution would include given the circumstances. Thus far, TABLE has refused to provide any substantive response. This letter provides the last opportunity to reach a satisfactory agreement. If we cannot do so, [Ronda] will seek all appropriate relief in a court of competent jurisdiction.” The letter goes on to explain the basis for the “unsafe work environment” claim at TABLE: “In early 2026, Pershing Square’s founder Bill Ackman installed his nephew in an unidentified role at TABLE, Ackman’s family office. [His nephew]—whose only work experience had been for TABLE where he was seconded abroad for the last four years to a UK watch company held by Ackman—began appearing at TABLE’s offices and conducting interviews of employees without a clear explanation of his role or the purposes of these interviews. During this period, he made a series of inappropriate and genderbased [sic] comments to multiple employees that created an unsafe work environment. Among other things, [his nephew] made remarks about female employees’ ages (“Tell me you are nowhere near 40”), physical appearance (“Your body does not look like you have kids”), as well as intrusive questions about family planning and sexual orientation (“Who carried your son? Who will carry your next child?”). These incidents were reported to senior leadership at TABLE and Pershing Square. Rather than being addressed appropriately, the response from senior management reflected, at best, willful blindness to the inappropriateness of [his nephew]’s remarks and, at worst, tacit endorsement.” The above allegations about my nephew had previously been brought to my attention by TABLE’s president when they occurred. When I learned of them, I told the president that I would speak to him directly and encouraged her to arrange for him to get workplace sensitivity training. The president assured me that she would do so. When I spoke to my nephew, he explained what he actually had said and how his actual remarks had been received, not at all as alleged in the legal letter from Ronda’s counsel. I have also spoken to others at the lunch table who confirmed his description of the facts. In any case, he meant no harm, was simply trying to build rapport with other employees, and no one, as far as I understand, was offended. Ironically, Ronda claims in her legal letter that TABLE didn’t take HR compliance seriously, yet Ronda was in charge of HR compliance at TABLE and the person who gave my nephew his workplace sensitivity training after the alleged incidents. In any case, Ronda, as head of compliance, should have kept a record or raised an alarm if indeed there was pervasive harassment or other such problems at the company, and there is no evidence whatsoever that this is true. So why does Ronda believe she can get me to pay her nearly $2 million, i.e., two years of severance, nearly one year of severance for each of her years at the company? Well, here is where some more background would be helpful. Over the last two months, I have been consumed with a major family medical issue – one of my older daughters had a massive brain hemorrhage on February 5th and has since been making progress on her recovery – and I am in the midst of a major transaction for my company which I am executing from a hospital room office next to her . While the latter business matter is publicly known, the details of my daughter’s situation are only known to Ronda because of her role at our family office. Now, let’s get back to the subject at hand. Unfortunately, while New York and many other states have employment-at-will, there has emerged an industry of lawyers who make a living from bringing fake gender, race, LGBTQ and other discrimination employment claims in order to extract larger severance payments for terminated employees, and it needs to stop. The fake claim system succeeds because it costs little to have a lawyer send a threatening letter and nearly all of the lawyers in this field work on contingency so there is no or minimal cash cost to bring a claim. And inevitably, nearly 100% of these claims are settled because the public relations and legal costs of defending them exceed the dollar cost of the settlement. The claims are nearly always settled with a confidentiality agreement where the employee who asserts the fake claims remains anonymous and as a result, there is no reputational cost to bringing false claims. The consequences of this sleazy system (let’s call it ‘the System’) are the increased costs of doing business which is a tax on the economy and society. There are other more serious problems due to the System. Unfortunately, the existence of an industry of plaintiff firms and terminated employees willing to make these claims makes it riskier for companies to hire employees from a protected class, i.e., LGBTQ, seniors, women, people of color etc. because it is that much more reputationally damaging and expensive to be accused of racism, sexism, and/or intolerance for sexual diversity than for firing a white male as juries generally have less sympathy for white males. The System therefore increases the risk of discrimination rather than reducing it, and the people bringing these fake claims are thereby causing enormous harm to the other members of these protected classes. So what happened here? Ronda was vastly overpaid and overqualified for the job that she did at TABLE. She was paid $1.05 million plus benefits last year for her work which was largely comprised of filling out subscription agreements and overseeing an outside law firm on closing passive investments in funds and in private and venture stage companies, some compliance work, and managing the office move from one office to another. She had a very good gig as she was highly paid, only had to go into the office three days a week, and could work from anywhere during the summer. Once my nephew showed up and started to investigate what was going on, she likely concluded that there was a reasonable possibility she would be terminated, as her job was in the too-easy-and-to-good-to-be-true category. The problem was that she was not in a protected class due to her race, age or sexual identity so she had to construct the basis for a claim. While she is female and could in theory bring a gender-based discrimination claim, she reported to the president who is female and to whom she is very close, which makes it difficult for her to bring a harassment claim against her former boss. When my nephew complimented a TABLE employee at lunch about how young she looked – in response to saying she was going to her 40-year-old sister’s birthday party, he said ‘she must be your older sister’ – Ronda immediately reported it to our external HR lawyer. She thereby began building her case. The other problem for Ronda bringing a claim is that she was terminated alongside 30% of other TABLE employees as part of a restructuring so it is very difficult for her to say that she was targeted in her termination or was retaliated against. TABLE is now hiring an external fractional general counsel as that is all the company needs to process the relatively limited amount of legal work we do internally. In short, Ronda was eminently qualified and capable and did her job. She was just too much horsepower for what is largely an administrative legal role so she had to come up with something else to bring a claim. Now Ronda knew I was a good target and it was a good time to bring a claim against me. She also knew that I was under a lot of pressure because on March 4th when Ronda was terminated, my daughter had not yet emerged from consciousness, she was not yet breathing on her own, and my daughter and we were fighting for her life. I was and remain deeply engaged in her recovery while at the same time I was working on finishing the closing for the private placement round for my upcoming IPO. Ronda also knew that publicity about supposed gender discrimination and a “hostile and unsafe work environment” are not things that a CEO of a company about to go public wants to have released into the media. And she may have thought that the nearly $2 million she was asking for would be considered small in the context of the reputational damage a lawsuit could cause, regardless of the fact that two years of severance was an absurd amount for an employee who had only worked at TABLE for 30 months. She also likely considered that I wouldn’t want to embarrass my nephew by dragging him into the klieg lights when her claims emerged publicly. So, in summary, game theory would say that I would certainly settle this case, for why would I risk negative publicity at a time when I was preparing our company to go public and also risk embarrassing my nephew. Notably, she hired a Silicon Valley law firm, rather than a typical NY employment firm. This struck me as interesting as her husband works for one of the most prominent Silicon Valley venture firms whose CEO, I am sure, has no tolerance for these kinds of fake claims that sadly many venture-backed companies also have to deal with. I mention this as I suspect her husband likely has been working with her on the strategy for squeezing me as, in addition to being a computer scientist, he is a game theorist. My only advice for him is to understand more about your opponent before you launch your first move. All of the above said, gender, race, LGBTQ and other such discrimination is a real thing. Many people have been harmed and deserve compensation for this discrimination, and these companies and individuals should be punished for engaging in such behavior. Which brings me to the advice I am seeking from the X community. I am not planning to follow the typical path and settle this ‘claim.’ Rather, I am going to fight this nonsense to the end of the earth in the hope that it inspires other CEOs to do the same so we shut down this despicable behavior that is a large tax on society, employment, and the economy and contributes to workplace discrimination rather than reducing it. Do you agree or disagree that this is the right approach?

@DNVR_Rockies @DNVR_Sports Why would you do that??? Seriously, why?

The Rockies good vibes on Opening Day

@DMacSportsCO @HankVenture5

@HankVenture5 Hello?

Downtown Denver is an absolute shit hole and anyone who claims otherwise is peddling something. There are 10,000 homeless in Denver (730,000) which is one of the highest per capita in the country. These idiots are gaslighting you.

@MattDSchubert Missed out on SO MUCH. Would have been amazing 😡

Looking at this scene at Empower Field, and it remains a complete travesty that Denver will not be hosting World Cup games this summer.

I definitely experienced this using the Uber app but I did not know that this happens with FLIGHTS as well. Corporations and capitalism are the true enemy of progress in this world and billionaires are trying to convince you that they are not the issue.

WHAT?

@MikeEvans1043 blink twice if you are in danger.

Beyond thankful 🙏🏻❤️ for this season of life. Crypto played a big role in helping me achieve goals I once prayed for. All glory to God, and much appreciation to my coach @coach__ivy who made it possible💯🔥 Celebrating with a new Ride once again 🎉🥳🍾

@Austin485349566 @dobetterdnvr Except, no, it's not.

@dobetterdnvr It’s called capitalism

621 and 633 17th Street Purchased by The Luzzatto Group for just $3.2M in 2025, worth $200M in 2019. Now @therealcityofdenver has agreed to use taxpayer money for a $63M loan. Here is how the cycle works: 🔥 Invite in vagrants, crime and chaos…downtown offices sit vacant while the area declines 💰 Developers scoop up properties for pennies on the dollar ($3.2M purchase in 2025, buildings worth $200M in 2019) 🏗️ Turn the block into a giant subsidized housing project (at least 70 units at 60% AMI) 💸 Use taxpayer money for low interest loans to fund it - $63,000,000 🤑 Developers get rich on the rebuild while we pay 🚨 More subsidized units bring more drug addicts and crime downtown ❌ Businesses see no reason to return They call it revitalization. But we are the ones footing the bill while developers cash in.

@Tyler_Polumbus Good luck!! K9 Resorts ... 7475 Park Meadows Dr, Lone Tree, CO 80124

Just realized I don't have a dog sitter 1 day before vacation. Certified genius move... Don't hit your head for a living folks.

A state supported grocery store that had to close because of rampant unchecked crime in the area is SUING THE CITY for not doing something about crime. Government sucks at running business. 'Smelly' $29m government-run supermarket accuses city of forcing its closure due to rampant crime mol.im/a/15632751 via dailym.ai/android

@CAgovernor @JenSiebelNewsom 🤔🤔🤔

Starting in the 2027-28 school year, California will offer a new personal finance course to high schoolers and require it for graduation beginning with the 2031 class. Every Californian should leave high school with the tools to manage money, avoid debt, and build wealth.

@WomenBeingAwful @AOC Grow up ... she is right on this (even a broken clock ...)

@AOC Shut up slut

This is sad. I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it but 🤷🏽‍♀️ Pervasive gambling is not good for society. It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction & debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.

@elonmusk @BillAckman @DENAirport seems like you have your benefactor. Thanks @elonmusk ... Now that you've got that issue addressed -- I am looking forward to when you wrap-up construction.

I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country

@the_jefferymead @Keir_Starmer

@Keir_Starmer Oh yes, a strong condemnation. That’ll get the job done.

I condemn in the strongest terms the overnight Iranian strike on a Qatari gas facility. We are working towards a swift resolution to the situation in the Middle East, in the best interests of the British people – because there is no question that ending the war is the quickest way to reduce the cost of living.

@OJoelsen @MeidasTouch When did X become the home of verbose, pseudojournalists writing 10 words when four would suffice? I miss 140 characters.

Denmark prepared for a possible U.S. attack: Flew blood supplies to Greenland and planned to blow up runways Key sources in Denmark and Europe are now revealing for the first time what happened during the most critical days, when Donald Trump threatened to take Greenland “the hard way.” When Danish soldiers were rapidly deployed to Greenland in January this year, they brought explosives with them. The plan was to destroy runways in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq to prevent American military aircraft from landing troops on the island, should the U.S. president ultimately decide to seize Greenland by force. They also transported blood supplies from Danish blood banks so wounded personnel could be treated in case of combat. This is reported by DR, which over the past year has spoken with central sources in the Danish government, top military officers, and high-ranking officials and intelligence sources in Denmark, France, and Germany. All sources have played—and continue to play—key roles in the international crisis triggered by the United States’ demand for control over Greenland. Together, the sources describe an unprecedented year marked by sleepless nights. None of them had concrete intelligence of specific American attack plans against Greenland. Still, many feared in January that the historically important ally, the United States, could attack at any moment. At the same time, Denmark reached out to its European allies, leading to closer cooperation. “With the Greenland crisis, Europe realized once and for all that we must be able to handle our own security,” said a French senior official involved in the intense period. A rapid-response force consisting of Danish, French, German, Norwegian, and Swedish soldiers was first deployed to Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq. Shortly after, a main force followed, including: -Soldiers from the Danish Dragoon Regiment in Holstebro -Elite troops from the Jaeger Corps -French alpine troops trained for cold and mountainous warfare At the same time, Danish fighter jets and a French naval vessel were sent to the North Atlantic. According to several sources, the goal of having multinational troops on the ground was to ensure that any U.S. attempt to take Greenland would require a large-scale hostile action—thereby deterring such an attempt. “We have not been in such a situation since April 1940,” said a Danish defense source, referring to the days before Denmark’s occupation during World War II. Unlike in 1940, when Denmark chose not to resist militarily, the government and defense leadership this time decided—after extensive confidential discussions—to take the opposite approach: If the U.S. attempted an attack, Danish forces would be armed and ready to fight. Danish F-35 fighter jets deployed north were also fully armed. All this despite the understanding that Denmark could not realistically withstand a U.S. military attack. “The cost for the U.S. had to be raised. The U.S. would have to carry out a hostile act to take Greenland,” said a senior Danish defense source. Source: DR

@AllbrightNFL @walterfootball Lol ... and Ben wasn't even trying.

I didn’t unblock you. I just replied because you decided to post something about me. You trying to play the victim of that somehow is typical behavior for you. Made a lot of mistakes over the course of my life, and the fact that I can somehow still sit here and look down on you, should tell you something about who you are.

This guy had me blocked. He unblocked me just to reply to me, made up something about debunking some sort of story (no idea what he's talking about) and then re-blocked me so I wouldn't respond 😂

Repost if you wish @rickygervais was hosting the #Oscars   tonight.

Been glued to the toilet for 2 straight days. Violence… No fever, no nausea, just rear end violence… When does this end? Food poisoning or virus?

@elonmusk #same

Same

@CherylPahaham @Sen_Alsobrooks @SenWarren Cheryl- it would be easier in any state/city.

@dnkfriedman @Sen_Alsobrooks @SenWarren In what state and municipality

My parents bought their first home in their 20s. My dad was a car salesman. My mom was a receptionist. Today, the average first-time homeowner is nearly 40. That’s not progress. And it’s why I fought to pass the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act.