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Startups

Business Travel

Paradise Lost: The Rise and Ruin of Couchsurfing.com

The once-utopian accommodations site, now headed by an alum of surveillance-analytics firm Palantir, has gone back on its always-free ethos.

Andrew Fedorov Input Magazine Sep 2021 30min Permalink

Tech

I Called Off My Wedding. The Internet Will Never Forget

In 2019, I made a painful decision. But to the algorithms that drive Facebook, Pinterest, and a million other apps, I’m forever getting married.

Lauren Goode Wired Apr 2021 25min Permalink

Business Health

How SoulCycle Lost Its Soul

The boutique fitness phenomenon sold exclusivity with a smile, until a toxic atmosphere and a push for growth brought the whole thing down.

Alex Abad-Santos Vox Dec 2020 30min Permalink

Business

What Is MasterClass Actually Selling?

The ads are everywhere. You can learn to serve like Serena Williams or write like Margaret Atwood. But what MasterClass really delivers is something altogether different.

Carina Chocano The Atlantic Aug 2020 30min Permalink

Business

How Cameo Turned D-List Celebs Into a Monetization Machine

Inside the surreal and lucrative two-sided marketplace of mediocre famous people.

Patrick J. Sauer Marker Mar 2020 Permalink

Tech

Four Years in Startups

Life in Silicon Valley during the dawn of the unicorns.

Anna Wiener New Yorker Sep 2019 30min Permalink

Media

So, What Really Happed to The Cauldron

Thinking about launching your own media startup? You might want to consider my crazy story first.

Jamie O'Grady The Cauldron Jan 2019 25min Permalink

Business

Mayonnaise, Disrupted

How did Josh Tetrick’s vegan-mayo company become a Silicon Valley darling—and what is he really selling?

Bianca Bosker The Atlantic Oct 2017 25min Permalink

Best Article Business Tech

Uber’s C.E.O. Plays With Fire

A profile of Travis Kalanick, who resigned from the ride the ride-hailing company he built after leading it to the brink of implosion.

Mike Isaac New York Times Apr 2017 15min Permalink

Business Religion

What Would Jesus Disrupt?

Inside a megachurch started by Procter & Gamble brand managers.

Mya Frazier Businessweek Apr 2017 15min Permalink

Business

Inside Glossier, The Beauty Startup That Just Happens To Sell Makeup

Emily Weiss has reinvented herself from reality TV villain to patron saint of dewy skin, no-makeup makeup, and no-commerce commerce. Why young women — and investors — are buying in.

Nitasha Tiku Buzzfeed Aug 2016 25min Permalink

Tech

The Perks Are Great. Just Don’t Ask Us What We Do.

50onRed is a fixture in Philly’s startup world. But there’s something the leadership didn’t talk about, even with some of its own staff. They make malware.

Juliana Reyes Backchannel May 2016 10min Permalink

Business

Crowd Source

On a company that provides fake paparazzi, pretend campaign supporters, and counterfeit protesters on demand.

Davy Rothbart California Sunday Mar 2016 20min Permalink

Business

The CEO Paying Everyone $70,000 Salaries Has Something to Hide

Thirty-year-old payment processing CEO Dan Price made an audacious decision and was rewarded with viral stardom. But what were his real motivations?

Karen Weise Bloomberg Businessweek Dec 2015 15min Permalink

Tech

The Real Teens of Silicon Valley

High school dropouts are descending on San Francisco with nothing more than a backpacks full of clothes and ideas.

Nellie Bowles California Sunday May 2015 Permalink

Business

“The Dumbest Person in Your Building Is Passing Out Keys to Your Front Door!”

Airbnb vs. New York City.

Jessica Pressler New York Sep 2014 25min Permalink

Tech

My Day Interviewing For The Service Economy Startup From Hell

“The idea for Handybook occurred to me when I was studying at Harvard. It was so hard to find a reliable cleaning service to tidy my apartment! You know?”

Amanda Tomas The Billfold Oct 2014 10min Permalink

Tech

How to Succeed in Silicon Valley Without Really Trying

Tech investors gave Seth Bannon, co-founder of the seemingly surging startup Amicus, over four million dollars, despite knowing almost nothing about him.

Noam Scheiber The New Republic Sep 2014 15min Permalink

Business Tech

I Want It, and I Want It Now

A five-part series on the instant gratification economy.

  1. It’s Time for Instant Gratification

  2. It Takes a New Kind of Worker to Make “Instant” Happen

  3. Can “Instant” Become a Viable Business?

  4. Instant Replay: The Second Coming of On-Demand Delivery

  5. Living in an Instant World: What’s Next After Now?

Liz Gannes Re/Code Aug 2014 50min Permalink

Business Tech

The Most Fascinating Profile You’ll Ever Read About a Guy and His Boring Startup

On Stewart Butterfield, the founder of Flickr and now Slack, a wildly popular, difficult-to-describe messaging service that has 38,000 paying subscribers just a few months after launching.

Mat Honan Wired Aug 2014 20min Permalink

Business Tech

The Inside Story of Rap Genius (Annotated!)

On a $40 million raise and a fired co-founder.

Nicholas Carlson Business Insider Jul 2014 Permalink

Business Tech

"Let’s, Like, Demolish Laundry"

The laundry wars of Silicon Valley.

Jessica Pressler New York May 2014 20min Permalink

Business Tech

No Exit: Struggling to Survive a Modern Gold Rush

The dark side of startup life in Silicon Valley.

An extended version of this story is available as an ebook.</em></p>

Gideon Lewis-Kraus Wired Apr 2014 40min Permalink

Science Tech

The Watchers

A startup’s plan to launch a fleet of cheap, small, ultra-efficient imaging satellites and revolutionize data collection.

David Samuels Wired Jun 2013 15min Permalink

Business Sports

Show Yourself the Money

Aside from the wealthiest players, nine out of 10 NFL athletes are likely to be insolvent within 10 years of retirement. A new executive MBA program aims to change that.

Ben Austen GQ Apr 2013 20min Permalink

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