FanFare

Gimlet co-founders Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber are pretty much on the same page...right? This week, we put their relationship to the test. Producer Luke Malone got Matt and Alex into separate studios and asked them the same set of questions. Then, Matt and Alex listened back to each other's answers and find out if they're really as in sync as they thought. Do the same things keep them up at night? Do they want the same things for the company? And what were their first impressions of one another? [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Apr 6, 2018 - 1 comment

Mokhtar Alkhanshali is trying to produce the perfect cup of coffee. And he's trying to do it with beans grown in the midst of an active war zone in Yemen. Despite those challenges, his company's first batch earned rave reviews, and sold for $16 a cup at one of the fanciest coffee chains around. But can he turn that early success into a profitable business, or will the challenges of trying to achieve perfection using a supply chain that starts halfway around the world do his young company in? [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Jul 8, 2017 - 2 comments

This week, Alex receives feedback about his job performance from his co-workers, friends, and family. Some of it is good, some less so. But there is something else that comes up during the review process that shocks him. We explore what happens when you unpack your emotional baggage—or someone unpacks it for you—and you realize the unexpected effect that it has been having on your team. In this final Gimlet-focused episode of season four, we take a raw and intimate look at a defining moment in the trajectory of a CEO.
posted by radioamy on Oct 21, 2016 - 17 comments

Growth. It can be exciting, it can be motivating, and it can be really stressful. In this week's episode, we take a look at the tensions that Gimlet's growth spurt is creating. We speak with the team producing one of our upcoming shows to see what it's really like to build a podcast from the ground up. Each of them is being asked to step up to the plate in a way that they never have before, and some are realizing that the support they expected, it just isn't there. People are pushed to their limits, emotions run high, and things that have remained hitherto unsaid are finally aired. [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Oct 15, 2016 - 4 comments

A story of asylum, ashes, and acidophilus. [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Jun 24, 2016 - 5 comments

Lisa Chow comes back from maternity leave and notices some big changes at Gimlet. And these changes... they aren't all for the better. Lisa talks to Gimlet employees about concerns over power, accountability, and control - things that crop up when you go from startup, to regular company. And she takes those concerns to the bosses.
posted by radioamy on Jan 8, 2016 - 9 comments

Under pressure, the Dating Ring founders make a big decision. [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Jun 26, 2015 - 15 comments

Picking up where the last episode left off, at YC's Demo Day, the women of Dating Ring start trying to raise money. At the post-Demo mixer, Emma gets her first (literal) brush with sexism when an investor gropes her and then offers her $50k. Subsequent meetings go better and they manage to raise $400k in angel funds while "riding the wave." Then the tide turns - the investors' questions start getting tougher, and the rejections pile up. The founders begin to wonder - how much of their struggle is due to quality of their product and pitch, and how much is just plain sexism?
posted by radioamy on May 8, 2015 - 4 comments

The final episode of Season 1. Alex reviews where he started and where the company is now. He talks to his insightful wife, Nazanin, and investor Chris Sacca. In the second half, Alex and Lisa introduce the company that will be featured in Season 2.
posted by radioamy on Feb 17, 2015 - 14 comments

This installment addresses an a question that was brought up in earlier episodes, back before Gimlet was an actual business: are they a technology company or a content company? [more inside]
posted by radioamy on Feb 3, 2015 - 9 comments