Corporate America is facing a reckoning. From our reporting this week:
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- Rachel Premack spoke with 14 current and former contributors or employees at Bon Apptit , all of whom identify as people of color, who described a "toxic" culture of microaggressions and exclusion . Not long after her story published, top Cond Nast executive Matt Duckor, who was head of video for Bon Apptit, left the company .
- Reformation 's CEO and founder just resigned. Bethany Biron spoke to 12 current and former employees who claim the company has a "horrible" culture of racism that pushed out, silenced, and degraded Black employees .
- Refinery29 's top editor stepped down after backlash over a lack of diversity and claims of "racist aggressions."
- Audrey Gelman stepped down as CEO of The Wing as employees staged a digital walkout criticizing the company for failing to "practice the intersectional feminism that it preaches."
- Lauren Johnson, Amanda Perelli, and Rachel reported that Digital Trends staffers are calling for 2 of the tech site's top execs to resign after photos from a 2018 "gin and juice" party circulated on social media .
- Shoshy Cimentgot her hands on documents that show how Adidas is confronting racism internally by banning certain terms like "asset." Shoshy alsoreported that Adidas fired its head of US retail over a "violation of company policy" amid social-justice protests at the brand .
- Google has created a special task force to help improve the company's racial equity. A leaked memo reveals employees suggested more than 500 changes , Hugh Langley reported.
- Eugene Kim reported on Amazon emails that show execs are "still searching for answers" to addressing racism and police brutality .
- Ashley Stewart reported on internal messages showing Microsoft employees calling for leadership to take a firmer stand on the George Floyd protests .
- Weng Cheong reported that leaks of "disturbing" and "racist" comments from a LinkedIn staff meeting show the challenges facing diversity and inclusion efforts in corporate America .
- Paige Leskin reported that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in an internal meeting he doesn't release diversity numbers because it would reinforce the perception that Silicon Valley isn't diverse .
- Patrick Coffee and Sean Czarnecki reported that the world's two largest PR firms, Edelman and Weber Shandwick , pledged to hire more people of color in senior positions .
The killing of George Floyd has triggered a round of urgent, necessary conversations across corporate America. Many companies have failed their BIPOC employees. As our reporting this week shows, employees are demanding their companies do more and be better.
Jennifer Eum asked 24 CEOs of companies like HP, Prudential Financial, Publicis Group , and Duke Energy what they were doing to address racial inequality and inclusion within their companies . Her story with Joe Williams has the five main takeaways . You can read their responses in full here .
We'll have ongoing coverage on this reckoning, and you can follow all of our stories right here .
Read on to hear fromDan DeFrancesco, who this week reported on how $3 billion Brex went from raising $150 million to slashing staff in just 10 days , and Ashley Rodriguez, who has been reporting on a rough start for mobile-video startup Quibi , which has raised $1.8 billion and is still looking for a breakout hit .
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From $150 million to layoffs in 10 days
Heading into 2020, unicorn startup Brex could seemingly do no wrong.
The fintech, which markets corporate charge cards to early-stage companies, had a laundry list of achievements in 2019, most notably a $100 million equity funding round that doubled its valuation to $2.6 billion and the launch of Brex Cash, a product that significantly expanded its capabilities and potential.
The coronavirus pandemic, and market downturn in its wake, raised questions about what type of impact Brex's business would see as startups tightened up spending habits.However, the San Francisco-based startup seemingly quelled concerns with the announcement of a $150 million raise on May 19. The capital infusion was positioned as a way to further pad the three-year-old startup's already deep pockets and ensure it remained in a good place.
But 10 days later Brex changed course, announcing on May 29 that 62 employees, or roughly 17% of its staff, would be let go. The news shocked both those inside and out of the company.
I spoke with eight current and former Brex employees to get a better understanding of what led to cuts being made less than two weeks after a significant funding round was announced. Sources described a startup that was already facing trouble by the start of 2020 as it pushed to eclipse the significant growth it enjoyed in 2019.
You can read the full story here:
The inside story of how $3 billion Brex went from raising $150 million to slashing staff in just 10 days. Here are the execs who are out, and what's next for the fintech.
Dan DeFrancesco
Quibis rough start
Mobile-video startup Quibi got off to a rocky start in April, when it launched its subscription service amid the coronavirus pandemic without the established franchises like Star Wars competitors have leaned on. The bar for Quibi's success was also high as the startup, led by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, raised $1.8 billion and secured $150 million in ad buys from brands like PepsiCo and Walmart.
But Quibi is still figuring out how to make hit shows for mobile format that people will pay for. People who developed and worked on shows for Quibi told Business Insider that the company, which commissions titles from production partners, has very specific ideas of how shows should look on Quibi and is closely involved in the productions:
Multiple insiders said that Quibi's content execs gave extensive notes to production partners on what the shows should look like, down to the graphics, set decorations, on-air talent, wardrobe, and zoom of a shot.
The feedback, the people said, went beyond what execs at other mobile-first platforms like Snapchat Discover and Facebook Watch, or at Netflix, typically give. Some notes were more extensive than what TV networks provide.
" There are notes and then there are Quibi notes ," one of the development execs said. "Quibi from the start of an idea, to the title of the show, to the set design, color scheme, pixels in the graphics, I don't know that there was a detail that Quibi isn't involved in."
Quibi has also been sparing in the way it uses social media to promote the programming, whichcould make it harder for its programming to generate the word-of-mouth needed to stand out in the crowded streaming category .
You can read the full story here:
Inside Quibi's productions: From extensive notes to close control over social-media clips, the mobile-video startup is still figuring out how to create its first hit
Ashley Rodriguez
Also read:
See Also:
- 'You just have the wrong idea about Facebook': Facebook's chief AI scientist defends the company over Black Lives Matter uproar
- Some Tinder users say they've been banned from the app for encouraging others to donate to Black Lives Matter
- Hundreds of Reddit moderators demand the platform change its policies to explicitly ban racism