Corporate Gossip

In 2007, the mecca of hipster paradise was the Etsy headquarters in Brooklyn. Etsy epitomized elder-millennial quirk with a sprinkle of digital delusion, and no one personified the vibes quite like their CEO and founder, Rob Kalin.

But while Kalin and his friends were building a crafters utopia, a ruthless venture capitalist had another plan for the company: destroy it from the inside out and get SUPER rich doing it.

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Etsy Wants to Crochet Its Cake, and Eat It Too

Etsy Was a Twee Culture Punchline. Now It's a Wall Street Darling.

Etsy CEO says company is escaping 'race to the bottom' and getting back to its artisan roots

Dispatches from the Charlie Javice Trial!

You can find the full episode (along with my courtroom drawings) on Patreon. 

Corproate Gossip is supported by listeners like you. We have no advertisers or Corporate sponsors. You can be part of the CGP community discussion board, get two bonus episodes a month (sometimes more), and lots of other jucy extras at Patreon.com/CorporateGossip

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Charlie Javice is another Forbes 30-under-30 uber-genius-startup-founder (see: SBF, Elizabeth Holmes, or Carlos Watson) who spent about 18 months in the warm center of the venture capital fake-it-till-you-make-it circle jerk before the sisal rug gets pulled out from under her. Once she was exposed as a total phony, every investor immediately covered their own ass and scrub the internet of any trace of themselves slobbering all over her. But one investor, JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon, took it a step further, and (in our opinion) weaponized the United States Justice Department to punish Javice for embarrassing him infront of his big bank friends!!!

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We're an indie podcast supported by listeners like you! Support us by joining the Patreon, and get two bonus episodes every month! I'm also covering the trial in more detail over there.

Got an idea for a good news story? Send an email to our good news correspondant [email protected]

Links:

USA v. Javice

How Charlie Javice Got JPMorgan to Pay $175 Million for … What Exactly?

Charlie Javice, Millennial CEO Sued by JPMorgan, Was a 'Namedropping' Cool Boss

The 8 Most Confusing Things About FAFSA

Jamie Dimon Says Frank Acquisition 'Was A Huge Mistake' After JP Morgan Alleges Millions Of Fake Customers

This is an episode for our true crime lovers! we're talking about a 2019 GANG STALKING SCANDAL that involves the executives at a fortune 500 company criminally stalking a sweet old couple. What made these executives so mad? The chief executives at Ebay so deeply butthurt about a comment the couple made on their niche ecommerce blog that they crashed-out into a goodfellas-esque, rage fueled paranoid spiral, and orchestrated a highly illegal stalking and harassment campaign against them.

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Join us over on Patreon for bonus episodes twice a month. Right now I'm also attending the trial of Charlie Javice and providing regular debriefs from the courtroom. We are a 100% ad-free community supported podcast!

Links from today's episode (let us know if you need gift links)

Elliott Management letter puts eBay on notice to improve stock performance

Inside eBay's Cockroach Cult: The Ghastly Story of a Stalking Scandal

Silicon Valley elite defend nonprofit CEO with dark past - San José Spotlight

A Special Message for EcommerceBytes Readers

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PLUS good news about a health care strike in Oregon!

We emerge from the vapor haze of a high school bathroom (how are these kids blowing PERFECT smoke rings??) to tell the tale of two Stanford grads who did what every single-celled-business-ameoba-boy dreamed of doing but was too scared to actually commit to doing - MAKE SMOKING COOL AGAIN!! They undid decades of work by doctors and public health advocates and turned millions of kids who would have never smoked a traditional cigarette into nicotine dependent freakazoids. CA-CHING!!

Riddled with RAGING CASES of silliconvalleyitis, Juul's founders market their powerful nicotine delivery device straight to kids while the FDA was taking a well-deserved half-decade nap. They BLITZSCALED their way to a $38billion valuation and made like 50 people a lot of money.

But of course, after the BLITZSCALE comes the HYPERFLOP...

Research:

The Devil's Playbook by Lauren Etter

Big Vape by Jamie DuCharme

Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. JUUL Labs

The Juul Is Too Cool

How Juul Got Vaporized

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We're BACK and starting off with an absolute banger! Sit back and enjoy the messy escapades of a bunch of horned up teenagers trapped in adult bodies: 23&Me Founder Anne Wojcicki, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and A Bald Eagle's worst nightmare, Elon Musk. With cameos from RFK Jr (POST Brain Worm) and the corporate scandal Forrest Gump, Diane von Furstenberg, this episode is the WHOSE WHO of Silicon Valley hanky panky.

We also update our listeners on the state of the podcast, including exciting changes around 1:11:00

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Support the pod by buying us a coffee

Check out Mike's new studio!

Links:

The Doyenne of DNA Says: Just Chillax With Your Ex

O.K., Glass: Make Google Eyes

As 23andMe Struggles, Concerns Surface About Its Genetic Data

Don't forget to rate and review!

Becca and Adam talk about the Giggly Grain Grandpa: Bob Moore of Bob's Red Mill. But don't toss your oats just yet, this is a good episode. We'll teach you how to have a Bob Moore Summer (Perfecting your porridge, socializing the means of production, hyperfixating on hobbies, and being jolly) and restore your faith in CEOs.

Then we answer listener questions (37 min mark).

THANK YOU! For another great season - we'll see you soon :)

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Pics on substack

Links:

Bob's Red Mill: Securing The Future Through Employee Ownership

Bob Moore, Who Founded Bob's Red Mill, Is Dead at 94

Executive greed is driving the labor shortage, says 93-year-old leader whose workers own 100% of the company

Put on your flower crowns and don your skinniest jeans and join us at the center of the Millennial universe: Coachella 2007!

Adam & Becca meet the personification of the turn of the century hipster entrepreneur, Dov Charney. Sitting atop a pile of v-neck t-shirts ethically made in the USA, Charney was somewhat of a renegade business oddity on wall-street. But for the 20-something dreamers that clamored for the brand's clothing, he was a captivating revolutionary. Their devotion, along with a bevy of young corporate employees, easily exploited under the guise of "a greater purpose," allowed American Apparel to rapidly expand and IPO in 2007. The stores were everywhere you wanted to be… until they weren't.

Eventually, abuse allegations coupled with financial mismanagement threatened Charney's reign as king of t-shirt mountain. With the walls closing in on him, he spiraled out of control… taking the company he founded with him.

CW: Sexual abuse

Pics on substack

Links:

Read Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles

Watch Big Rad Wolf

The Young Garmentos (and the If Books Could Kill episode on Malcom Gladwell)

Meet Your New Boss

Dov Charney's Sleazy Struggle for Control of American Apparel

NO ONE does fraud like Eddie Antar, and Crazy Eddie is the bizarre story that got Becca hooked on fraud!

Adam, Becca, and their Dad Jeff pop a few ludes and drop down the rabbit hole into a 1970's New York City punk rock fever dream. They meet a young Eddie Antar scamming tourists in a seedy Time Square clip joint and follow his journey to become the eccentric millionaire founder of Crazy Eddie Electronics. Antar was a marketing genius, and by the mid 1980's commercials for the chain were inescapable, shoppers were practically screamed at to rush out to Crazy Eddie's because 'HIS PRICES ARE INSANE!!!!'

The insane prices, of course, were facilitated by an elaborate criminal racket. Money laundering, insurance fraud, tax evasion, bribery, insider trading… Eddie Antar did it all! But when the cash begins to dry up, Eddie's increasingly desperate and brazen behavior puts him in the crosshairs of the SEC. That's when Eddie Antar became an international fugitive and left his family, who enabled and benefited from his behavior, holding the bag.

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Read Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie

Crazy Eddie commercial from 1982

Remembering Crazy Eddie: His Prices Were Insane

Why does doing taxes suck so much? Because Capitalism!

Over the past 20 years, the lovable dweebs at the IRS have been on a quest to make filing personal taxes free and easy. They say America should be like other countries, where the government sends you a pre-filled tax return and all you have to do is sign-off. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Like what kind of deranged psychopath wouldn't want that?

Enter Intuit, maker of tax preparation software Turbo Tax, and their disgruntled band of lobbyists. Their entire business model depends on you being afraid to screw up your taxes. So they bribe lawmakers to over-complicate tax laws, threaten the government into underfunding the IRS, and run dubious misinformation campaigns alleging that free tax filing is somehow… racist?

The nefarious knuckleheads at Intuit would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for the determined efforts of Propublica journalists. They joined forces with the unlikely heroes at the IRS, and from a muggy basement office in Washington they stood up to Big Tax and won.

We <3 the IRS and you will too after this episode!

Support the pod

Pics on our substack

Links:

How Intuit Reinvents Itself (Fortune)

The TurboTax Trap (ProPublica Investigation series)

IRS makes free tax return program permanent and is asking all states to join in 2025