The Shocking Allegations Against Daylight, an LGBTQ+ Focused FinTech Startup

Last week saw an explosive NY Magazine feature on Daylight. Daylight is an LGBTQ+ neobank. Daylight’s CEO, Rob Curtis, has been accused of making his employees uncomfortable. 

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In April 2022, Rob Curtis invited almost 30 employees to his home for a retreat. He called the retreat Diva Camp and said that it cost him almost $50,000. Curtis lived with his husband-to-be in Casa Do Re Mi, a beach-view villa. Although Daylight was registered in New York, there were no fixed headquarters. Most of its employees were working from home. When they went to Mexico, most of them met Curtis for the very first time. Almost half the staff identified as nonbinary or trans.

Curtis began by saying that they would all be toasting to a huge new funding round. However, they would first begin with a few team-building exercises. Things suddenly got uncomfortable during the speed dating session. Labels were handed out that read ‘sexual assault survivor’ and ‘formerly homeless.’ On the second day, everyone gathered for another session that was called ‘take pride.’ During this session, each participant was asked to share their personal experiences. Some employees began shaking as they started sharing their stories.

The third day was even weirder. Curtis began sharing his vision for Daylight and wanted it to become a queer marketplace. He wanted to expand beyond banking and move to surrogacy services and fertility. He even suggested all the gay men could donate sperm and the queer women would be surrogates. He wanted the tagline for this project to be ‘the bank that made me pregnant.’

Curtis went on to suggest that a new generation of Daylight babies would soon meet up. It was obvious Curtis was serious about the idea and asked anyone who was not onboard to leave the company. While the party was a huge hit, it was obvious that he had misrepresented the finances. The funding round that they were celebrating had not yet closed and wouldn’t be for almost seven more months. Three former employees filed a federal court lawsuit against Curtis for misrepresenting Daylight’s finances and data. The lawsuit also alleged that Curtis was discriminating against his employees on the basis of color. While Daylight and Curtis have rubbished these claims, it remains to be seen how this unfolds in federal court.

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