Gimlet Media co-founder Matt Lieber reflects with host Guy Raz on whether Gimlet's lucrative acquisition was driven by founder talent or good fortune.
0:00 / 0:46exact quote · 46.2s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“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 college, and then were in a position to financially support me so I could do unpaid internships and Producing radio because that was my passion, and then they also sent me to business school, and that is like an extreme level of privilege, and then the other forms of luck are having met Alex when I did, and having really good timing on the idea of starting a podcast, an audio podcast company in 2014.”
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AssertionNot checkable as stated
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Disclosure
Lieber: Gimlet initially planned to reach profitability on its $1.5M seed round
“Well, when we raised the first million and a half dollars of financing, our plan was that that would take us through to profitability, and then we would fund our growth through profits.”
Matt LieberOct 21, 2019▶ 54:29Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber
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