Welcome back to Insider Weekly! I’m Matt Turner, co-EIC of business at Insider.
Remember Goop?
It wasn’t so long ago that Gwyneth Paltrow’s health and wellness brand was glowing. Even some questionable products (remember “Yoni eggs”?) couldn’t hold it back. It had star power and more than $100 million in funding behind it.
But as Madeline Berg and JP Mangalindan report this week, the pandemic has taken some of the shine off of Paltrow’s brand. Their sources describe an exec exodus, complaints of low salaries, and burnout. Read on to get the inside track on Madeline and JP’s reporting.
Also in this week’s newsletter:
- $9 billion cybersecurity firm Tanium is facing an exodus over uncertainty about its IPO plans and business model.
- Ozy Media is shutting down after a New York Times report. Current and former Ozy staffers described internal doubts and a breakneck culture.
- Meet the rising stars of Wall Street who are shaking up investing, trading, and dealmaking at firms like Blackstone, Tiger Global, and Goldman Sachs.
Have you tried the Insider Crossword yet? Each morning through October 8, we’re publishing new puzzles with clues on politics, tech, pop culture, and more. You can find all of our crossword puzzles here.
As always, let me know what you think of our stories at mturner@insider.com. Let’s get started.
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The inside story of Goop
After their exposé on the Goop exec exodus was published, Madeline and JP stopped by one of our weekly newsroom meetings to share the inside track on their reporting. Here’s what they said:
How did the story come about?
Madeline: I was tipped off that investors weren’t happy with how the company was doing during the pandemic. That’s when we started poking around on LinkedIn and realized that many executives had departed the company during the last year. As we spoke to our sources, we realized there was a bigger story here about the company culture.
How did you get people to talk to you?
JP: We wanted to tell this story in a fair and balanced way, and we made sure to tell everyone we spoke to that we didn’t have an agenda, that we’d protect our sources, and that we just wanted to hear about their experiences.
How did you get such strong examples?
Madeline: If someone made a claim, we’d ask for examples, and for specifics. For example, we’d heard claims of low pay, but we needed to corroborate that. We were then able to report that Goop management acknowledged the low pay during an all-hands meeting.
Read the full scoop on Goop’s exec exodus, salary complaints and more.
Uncertainty is pushing out execs at Tanium
Staffers are leaving the $9 billion cybersecurity firm in droves. Former employees say no one was sure if the company would ever have an IPO, and that the company lost major contracts in its military business.
When Tanium hired a new chief financial officer in April, the new exec was meant to lead the company to its IPO. But there have been no concrete updates on the status of the public offering.
Take a look at what’s behind Tanium’s IPO delay.
Ozy Media employees spoke out after NYT report
Ozy Media is shutting down, just days after a bombshell New York Times report. Before the Friday announcement, Ozy employees told Insider there had been internal questions about the company’s stated audience and a workplace culture of burnout. One former staffer told us, “I felt like I was killing myself for very little recognition. I have never once told someone that I worked at Ozy and they’ve known what it is. Not once. That was concerning to me.”
Here’s what Ozy staffers were saying.
Meet the up-and-comers on Wall Street
Wall Street’s next crop of young leaders are doing it all – including shaking up investing at the largest US pension system and deploying make-or-break capital to municipal governments. The young movers and shakers hail from top tier firms like Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Tiger Global. Each of them shared stories about their successes, challenges, and career advice.
Here’s Insider’s list of 25 rising stars on Wall Street.
More of this week’s top reads:
- Some insiders at Doctors Without Borders say it’s a racist workplace where nonwhite workers get inferior medical care and worse pay.
- Meet 30 solo capitalists writing a lot of checks to startups who every founder should scramble to pitch.
- The new co-president of CBS News is looking to shake up its talent lineup. He’s telling people big changes are coming.
- A millennial investor who built a 25-unit real-estate portfolio in one year breaks down how she financed it – and how she uses social media to source deals.
- David Adelman quietly built a $1.6 billion fortune on campus housing and private equity. Now he’s making aggressive VC-style bets on private jets, vodka, and more.
- How TikTok employees are rewarded and reprimanded based on parent company ByteDance’s 6 culture principles.
- “Why I quit Big Law:” Four lawyers reveal why they left top firms, and their message to former colleagues.
- LinkedIn is hiring for 1,000 jobs right now. Here’s how to land one, according to its director of inclusion.
- Walmart’s health clinics are struggling with basic functions. Employees say it’s struggling to deliver on the push to upend healthcare.
Sponsored event invite: Join bestselling author David Allison and PayPal on Thursday, October 7 at 12 pm ET for a virtual event on how marketers can reach customers based on core values. Register here.
Compiled with help from Phil Rosen.
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