Foundering

Bloomberg

Foundering is an award-winning, serialized podcast from the journalists at Bloomberg Technology. Each season, Foundering brings you inside a different high-stakes drama from the technology industry, where its companies are wielding unprecedented capital and power.

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187 episodes
Updated May 7

Episodes187

Newest first

Mar 13, 2018 · 24 min
The Surprising Power Broker Backing E-Commerce Startups
When Abigail Stone decided to start an online candle company, she had neither investors nor a product. But she found an early ally in the branding agency Red Antler, which agreed to help her get her business off the ground in exchange for a cut of her company. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Jing Cao and Brad Stone follow Abigail in the frenzied months leading up to and following the launch of her startup Otherland. Along the way, we'll see how much Red Antler can help an unknown entrepreneur stand out in the highly-competitive e-commerce industry—and we'll judge whether its services are worth the considerable price. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mar 6, 2018 · 26 min
A Hacker's Redemption (Part 2)
By the time he was 27, Hector Monsegur had become one of the most notorious hackers on the internet. With the vigilante group Anonymous and its offshoot LulzSec, he launched attacks against multibillion-dollar companies and governments around the world. But then he got caught. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Aki Ito and Brad Stone bring you his story in its entirety, in two episodes. Part 1 recounts Hector's childhood as he fell in love with the internet, and gradually descended into the world of cybercrime. Part 2 traces his complicated journey to rebuild his life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mar 6, 2018 · 30 min
A Hacker's Redemption (Part 1)
By the time he was 27, Hector Monsegur had become one of the most notorious hackers on the internet. With the vigilante group Anonymous and its offshoot LulzSec, he launched attacks against multibillion-dollar companies and governments around the world. But then he got caught. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Aki Ito and Brad Stone bring you his story in its entirety, in two episodes. Part 1 recounts Hector's childhood as he fell in love with the internet, and gradually descended into the world of cybercrime. Part 2 traces his complicated journey to rebuild his life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 27, 2018 · 2 min
Coming March 6
Decrypted returns on March 6 with a brand new season. Here's a sneak peek of what's in store. We'll be releasing new episodes every Tuesday starting next week. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 26, 2017 · 2 min
A Special Announcement From Decrypted
This week, Brad and Aki have a special announcement: Decrypted will be on break for the next few weeks. The team's already hard at work on a bunch of new stories for 2018, and we promise they'll be worth the wait. In the meantime, happy holidays! We'll be back with weekly episodes in February. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 19, 2017 · 23 min
Inside the Big Plan to Make Ethereum Go Mainstream
Cryptocurrencies have exploded in 2017. But while prices are surging, transactions are facing long delays because the networks are flooded with traffic. This is the problem facing the Ethereum network, which, along with its digital currency ether, has quickly become the world's No. 2 cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. And one man, Vlad Zamfir, has a plan to fix it. This week, Bloomberg's Matthew Leising and Brad Stone speak to Zamfir about his big dreams for Ethereum and how his project (codenamed Casper) could pave the way for masses of ordinary internet users to join in the craze. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 12, 2017 · 26 min
He Sparked the Fake News Boom. Then Facebook Broke His Business
From a young age, Cyrus Massoumi knew he wanted to become rich one day. In 2012, he figured out how: by creating an inflammatory, hyper-partisan news site that used Facebook to make its articles go viral. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Sarah Frier and Aki Ito talk to Cyrus about how MrConservative.com's success sparked a frenzy of other sites like it. Cyrus watched the phenomenon snowball—until one day he realized he had created a monster. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dec 1, 2017 · 33 min
UPDATE: Life After Blowing the Whistle in Silicon Valley
When Francisco Riordan suspected his company of breaking the law last year, he secretly reached out to federal regulators. His actions helped set in motion events that left Rothenberg Ventures subject to a government investigation and multiple lawsuits -- and according to Francisco, cost him his own job. This week, we're re-broadcasting this May episode, in which Francisco first went public with his role as a whistleblower. At the end, you'll hear a recent conversation between Decrypted's Aki Ito and Francisco, who give us an update on his life. There's valuable advice here for people who are considering calling out their own employers for bad behavior. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 21, 2017 · 23 min
Could Robots Take Away This Classic Wall Street Job?
For a decade, Ken Sena has had a classic Wall Street job as an equity analyst, which means he researches companies to help investors decide which stocks to buy and sell. Last year, he met developer Bryan Healey, who helped build the AI assistant Alexa at Amazon. The two of them embarked on a curious challenge: to make a computerized version of Ken that can dole out its own stock recommendations. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Alistair Barr and Julie Verhage meet Ken and Bryan's creation. What does their breakthrough mean for the future of Ken's profession? And will we all soon be taking investment advice from robots? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 14, 2017 · 24 min
I Was Ridiculed on Instagram. Here's What I Learned
A few months ago, Bloomberg Technology's Adam Satariano found an unflattering video of himself going viral on Instagram. Someone had filmed him riding the train, furiously typing on his phone. That discovery and his quest to get the video deleted got Adam thinking about the changing nature of online privacy. This week on Decrypted, we meet the man behind SubwayCreatures, the popular Instagram account that briefly featured the video of Adam. As internet companies face growing pressure to police more of what's on their platforms, Adam and Aki Ito ask: do we want these businesses to become the editors of our digital lives? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 8, 2017 · 24 min
Facebook, Google and Twitter Face a Reckoning in Washington
Fake news, Russia and the U.S. election: It's been one of the biggest stories over the last year. Last week, it all came to a head as Congress summoned representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter to explain how Russia used their platforms to sway the minds of American voters. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Sarah Frier, Gerrit De Vynck and Joshua Brustein discuss how we got here and what consequences these tech giants could face as lawmakers prepare to take action. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nov 2, 2017 · 20 min
My Five Nights at a $20 Billion Startup's Dorm-Like Apartment
In 2014, WeWork told its investors that its next big thing would be a product called WeLive: a dorm-like apartment that applies the company's success in providing office space to the home life. Investors were told there would be 34 WeLive locations by the end of 2017; today, there are just two. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Ellen Huet spends five nights at a WeLive apartment in New York to figure out why growth has come so slow, and what that means for the future of this $20 billion startup. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 25, 2017 · 20 min
A Conversation With Billionaire Masayoshi Son
Back in May, we brought you an episode about the life of Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, who at that time had just raised his $93 billion tech fund. This week, we'll play you a wide-ranging conversation that Son had for a Bloomberg TV series called The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations. Among the topics Son discusses: the dot-com crash in which he lost much of his wealth, the 45-minute conversation he had with one investor that led to a $45 billion commitment, and his vision for the future of humanity. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 17, 2017 · 26 min
How Extreme Risk-Taking Pushed Uber to the Brink
At the center of the crisis enveloping the world's most valuable startup is Uber's mounting legal problems: The ride-hailing giant today faces at least five criminal probes from the U.S. Justice Department, as well as dozens of lawsuits. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Eric Newcomer and Brad Stone explain how things got so bad. They'll also discuss the challenge ahead as the company's new CEO scrambles to get Uber back on stable footing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 9, 2017 · 23 min
Iran's Budding Tech Scene Fears Trump's Next Move
In 2015, Iran signed a landmark deal with global superpowers. An end to Iran's isolation pointed to a bright future for the country's budding tech scene -- but then, Donald Trump, a vocal critic of the nuclear agreement, won the U.S. presidency and once-eager foreign investors got spooked. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg's Ladane Nasseri visits the founders of a homegrown e-commerce startup called Koodakoo as well as several other companies. These young entrepreneurs are awaiting Trump's next move -- and what his actions would mean for the future of their businesses -- as he threatens to renegotiate and even withdraw from the nuclear agreement. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Oct 3, 2017 · 24 min
Why Investors Poured $110 Million Into a Sock Maker
Many of Silicon Valley's most celebrated companies build software -- but these days, the startup everyone's talking about is Stance, which makes socks. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Sarah McBride visits Stance to see why venture capitalists have poured $110 million into a business that has little to do with technology. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 26, 2017 · 21 min
The Worst-Case Scenario After the Equifax Hack
A devastating cyberattack on Equifax has compromised critically sensitive information on 143 million U.S. consumers. While we won't know the full repercussions for years, this week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Lizette Chapman explores the worst possible things that could happen to these people whose information was stolen. You may think that identity theft ends after a couple canceled credit cards, but Lizette speaks to victims who spent years rebuilding their shattered finances and lives. Lizette and Brad also outline what you can do right now to protect yourself -- although nothing can guarantee complete safety on today's internet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 19, 2017 · 27 min
UPDATE: Russian Interference in the U.S. Election
As news continues to break about Russia's attempts to influence and hack the U.S. election, this week we're re-airing an episode from 2016 about how investigators traced the breach of the Democratic National Committee's email servers to Russian spies. At the end of the episode, Brad and Bloomberg Technology's Jordan Robertson discuss everything that's happened since then. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 14, 2017 · 23 min
Here's One Big Reason Tesla Still Doesn't Dominate Our Roads
Despite tremendous advances over the last decade, electric cars have yet to go mainstream. Even once Tesla ramps up production of its Model 3 cars, one obstacle will remain: a lack of infrastructure lining America's roads. This week on Decrypted, Bloomberg Technology's Pia Gadkari dives deep into the companies, led by Tesla, that are trying to tackle this problem -- by pouring millions of dollars into building a network of charging stations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sep 6, 2017 · 23 min
How to Teach a Kid Thousands of Miles Away
In China, parents are desperately seeking good teachers for their children. A number of local tech startups are meeting that demand; one is even connecting them with American tutors halfway across the world. This week, Bloomberg Technology's Peter Elstrom explores VIPKid's data-driven approach to online tutoring, to see what it means for Chinese students, as well as the U.S. teachers who are finding a new source of employment. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Foundering

The Surprising Power Broker Backing E-Commerce Startups

A Hacker's Redemption (Part 2)

A Hacker's Redemption (Part 1)

Coming March 6

A Special Announcement From Decrypted

Inside the Big Plan to Make Ethereum Go Mainstream

He Sparked the Fake News Boom. Then Facebook Broke His Business

UPDATE: Life After Blowing the Whistle in Silicon Valley

Could Robots Take Away This Classic Wall Street Job?

I Was Ridiculed on Instagram. Here's What I Learned

Facebook, Google and Twitter Face a Reckoning in Washington

My Five Nights at a $20 Billion Startup's Dorm-Like Apartment

A Conversation With Billionaire Masayoshi Son

How Extreme Risk-Taking Pushed Uber to the Brink

Iran's Budding Tech Scene Fears Trump's Next Move

Why Investors Poured $110 Million Into a Sock Maker

The Worst-Case Scenario After the Equifax Hack

UPDATE: Russian Interference in the U.S. Election

Here's One Big Reason Tesla Still Doesn't Dominate Our Roads

How to Teach a Kid Thousands of Miles Away