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Alex Blumberg

Co-founder & CEO, DaisyChain Energy · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderjournalisthostexecutive@abexlumberg ↗LinkedIn ↗daisychain.energy ↗Wikipedia ↗

Alex Blumberg is an audio journalist who co-founded Gimlet Media and created or co-hosted hit podcasts including Planet Money, StartUp, and How to Save a Planet. Following Gimlet's acquisition by Spotify, he transitioned into climate technology to launch DaisyChain Energy.

8statements → 3claims → 2claims resolved → 3.88/5average certainty → 1.62/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 5said about them ↓

2 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 assertions · 2 opinions · 1 insight · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Alex argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Blumberg: Planet Money Sold 20,000 T-Shirts and Raised Nearly $600,000
“We sold, like, 20,000 t-shirts. We made, like, almost 600,000 dollars.”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 26:58 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Alex Blumberg on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Alex Blumberg said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Blumberg: Successful Podcasts Should Be For-Profit Rather Than Non-Profit
“With planet money, I was like, no, there's, you can turn a profit on planet money. That's like advertisers want to be in that show. The audience is big enough. It can be profitable. And if it can, it should be. It doesn't make sense to force it into a structur…”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 29:25 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Insight
Blumberg: Media founders undervalue institutional support behind their success
“I think I was a risky venture. You know, like, there's not that many places that are set up to, like, take that kind of risk. Even though I didn't feel like a risk, even though I felt like, well, I know how to do this, and, like, obviously I've done it before,…”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 30:56 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Opinion
Blumberg: NPR was sitting on financial gold with Planet Money
“I felt like we were sitting on gold. I felt like we, they recognized the editorial gold, but I felt like we were sitting on financial gold with Planet Money, and people love it, and it's brand new, and it's different, and they're consuming it in a different wa…”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 31:32 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Disclosure
Blumberg: Initially offered co-founder Matt Lieber only 1% to 10% equity
“I think it was, I think I said in the range of one to 10. I'm key to the success of the company, and I want to feel I want to feel that that is reflected in the cap table, I guess.”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 48:21 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Assertion Supported
Blumberg: Planet Money Sold 20,000 T-Shirts and Raised Nearly $600,000
“We sold, like, 20,000 t-shirts. We made, like, almost 600,000 dollars.”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 26:58 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Disclosure
Blumberg: Recording the Startup podcast was originally a marketing ploy
“So I had to do something that was going to attract attention to what we were doing, and I figured, like, okay, a guy recording himself trying to start a company. That'll be good. It was like a marketing ploy.”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 35:05 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blumberg: No investors offered funding until Matt Lieber joined Gimlet
“Nobody was offering me money until, I literally, nobody, I don't think anybody offered money until Matt and I teamed up. I think when I was doing it by myself, I didn't even get to that point.”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 40:43 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
Assertion Supported
Blumberg: Early This American Life Ran on Ira Glass and Three Producers
“And being the administrative assistant at This American Life, it was, like, Ira and three producers, and they were trying to get out an hour of, like, highly produced radio every single week, and they were just, like, completely up to their necks in work, and …”
Alex Blumberg Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 12:06 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber

The other half of the tape: Alex Blumberg's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 4 times in 2 episodes on How I Built This. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Guy Raz 4

Statements about Alex Blumberg, by other people (1)

Opinion
Matt Lieber: Gimlet's Success Came Primarily From Luck, Privilege, and Timing
“I think it's mostly luck but not in the obvious way. Like, I think I think for me it was the luck of, like, being born into the family I was born into at the time that I was. So I had the luck of being in a family where my parents sent me, like, paid for my co…”
Matt Lieber Oct 21, 2019 ▶ 1:11:46 Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0021312020202120222023episodesmentions
0112020202120222023episodes it came up in
001.50.5312020202120222023episodesmentions per episode
2023 3 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber Oct 21, 2019 28m
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