Guideline Accused of Corporate Espionage by Human Interest

Human Interest Inc. has once again renewed its accusations against two of its former employees and Guideline Inc. for corporate espionage—funneling Human Interest’s most sensitive intelligence, including customer data, partnership leads and internal strategy documents, directly to Guideline’s C-suite executives.

The original complaint, from February 28; the first amended complaint, from May 22; and the second amended complaint, from October 6, were all filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, where Human Interest maintains an office and employed personnel at the center of the dispute.

“‘We’re going to tear apart HI. It’s going to be the easiest thing to do,” wrote then-HI employee Brandon Sterri to his brothers, Brian—also employed by HI at the time—and Eirik—a Guideline employee—on January 29, according to the complaint. The brothers, in their communication channels, dubbed the operation “Sterri Takeover.”

In Human Interest Inc. v. Sterri, the plaintiff sought relief for a breach of contract claim against Brian and Brandon Sterri, and accused all defendants of violating the Defend Trade Secrets Act, Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Brian Sterri and Guideline were also accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

In the complaint, Human Interest claimed Guideline CEO Kevin Busque and Chief Financial Officer Steven Wu “personally orchestrated a concerted effort” to recruit the Sterris, exploited their insider access to gather HI’s trade secrets and used that information to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

On December 20, 2024, Busque personally met with then-HI employees Brandon and Brian Sterri, the complaint alleged. The day before, according to the complaint, an email from Guideline Senior Vice President Andrew Conley said the brothers’ compensation packages would be finalized and ready for their review in early January, implying they were hired by Guideline. Following the December 20 meeting, Busque allegedly messaged Eirik, praising him for his brothers, saying: “[T]hey deserve to work for a better company and I’m stoked they would consider joining!”

Eleven days later, Brian Sterri disclosed to Eirik a screenshot of HI’s report on “Units Sold or Assisted This Week.” The screenshot contained trade secrets and confidential business information regarding HI’s sales volume and sales representative productivity, data not publicly available, according to the complaint.

Moreover, on January 29, following a presentation by Eirik to Guideline’s executive team, Conley publicly praised Brian and Brandon Sterri, saying Guideline had “‘just signed HI’s best [account executives].’”

Then, two days after Brian Sterri resigned from Human Interest on February 24, he made a request to a former colleague, allegedly writing, “Got a big favor to ask,” followed by: “A screenshot of total lead flow for [the inside sales representative] team this month.”

Human Interest alleged the screenshot would not only provide Brian with confidential and trade secret information as to HI’s total lead flow, but also other sensitive data such as client information, contact names, company names and other proprietary sales information.

After the employee declined the request, Brian continued to reach out, via call and text. When the employee stopped responding, Brian’s wife reached out on his behalf.

On February 27, Brian allegedly reached out to another HI employee with a request for internal metrics from a Slack Channel. That employee also refused to comply.

Brian’s response—“Mitch [another HI sales rep] would be the only person that could really give me the information GDL would want” —is a clear admission, the complaint alleges.

The case was pending, as of October 30.

Human Interest declined a request for comment. A spokesperson for Guideline wrote to PLANSPONSOR, “Guideline believes allegations in this lawsuit are false and without merit. We are vigorously defending ourselves and we look forward to presenting the facts and showing that these claims are unfounded.”

As of July 2024, Human Interest raised more than $700 million at a $1.4 billion valuation from investment firms such as Ballie Gifford & Co. and Marshall Wace LLP. Guideline raised $340 million, at a nearly $1.2 billion valuation from General Atlantic Service Company L.P. and Felicis Ventures, as of June 2021.

Human Interest is represented by Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart PC. Guideline is represented by Mayer Brown LLP. Both Brian and Brandon Sterri are represented by Jackson Lewis PC.