Haley Mossmer was the Founding GTM (go-to-market) hire at Taya. She was fired after six weeks.
At Taya
Haley worked 12+ hour days and commuted from Los Altos. She conducted 60+ user interviews. She received positive feedback during her tenure. Elena fired her the day after a new PM was confirmed, telling her: "I don't know what you're doing with your time."
First Contact
On March 6, 2026, Haley reached out to Amy via LinkedIn with the subject line: "URGENT Want to Hear Your Taya." This was the first communication between them after both had separately left the company. The urgency in the subject line suggests Haley had been carrying her own version of the Taya story and needed someone who would understand it.
The Meetup
They met on Friday, March 13, 2026 at 3pm at The Social Study (1795 Geary Blvd, San Francisco). Haley described the plan as "Taya trauma bonding irl."
Amy wrote about it: "We ranted about Elena for a while. It felt less like venting and more like... comparing field notes. Two people who both worked inside the same machine, saw the same things, got chewed up in different ways. There's something grounding about that. Not healing exactly. Just less alone."
Significance
Haley's experience confirmed for Amy that Elena's behavior is not personal or situational. It is a pattern. Haley is proof that the problem is structural to how Elena operates, not specific to Amy's relationship with her.
The seven-day gap between Haley's LinkedIn message (March 6) and Amy's first diary entry (March 8) is worth noting. Haley's message may have been part of what prompted Amy to start writing things down. Someone else showing up with a parallel story can make your own story feel more real, more worth examining.
As of March 2026, Haley was still listed as an employee on Taya's LinkedIn page despite having been fired months earlier.