Brackeen said: “Steve, Melissa, and Mary, as cause for my termination and their lawsuit against me, have accused me of stealing 60k from Kairos, comprised of non-work related travel, non-work related expenses, a laptop, and a beach club membership.

“Let’s talk about this. While I immediately found these accusations absurd, I had to consider that, to people on the outside of ‘startup founder’ life— their claims could appear to be salacious, if not illegal.”

He subsequently countersued Kairos on the grounds that the company and its CEO Doval intentionally destroyed his reputation through fraudulent conduct. Brackeen and Kairos settled the lawsuits in 2019 and later went on to found Lightship Capital with his wife, Candice Brackeen.

According to Techcrunch, Brackeen would not be working full time as he is occupied with his new startup, Lightship Capital. However, he is generally tasked with steering the ship during quarterly meetings.

Brackeen said despite the drama that characterized his removal, he still considers Kairos as his baby. “First, I will always feel a responsibility to the team, investors, and fans of Kairos. Many of whom I was singularly responsible for. Secondly, as a society, bias can be found in everything from Twitter image cropping to air dryers not turning on for Black hands. It’s a painful reminder of a society that’s not fair for all,” he said.

“The challenge is that as AI gets to be embedded in more and more products, we will see bias in all kinds of products. Kairos with its large data set and years of IP must be the firm that saves us from that dystopian future. I am uniquely situated to lead that strategy.”

Brackeen founded the facial recognition firm Kairos in 2012.