Podcast about failed startups and/or Silicon Valley drama?

January 12, 2020 8:05 AM

I'm looking for something like the 'Behind the Bastards' episodes on WeWork, except a series featuring multiple companies* or something that provides the kind of non-hagiographic/shilly industry coverage that Valleywag used to with an irreverent tenor and largely without the shepherding of previously involved parties. *'The Dropout' and 'The Missing Cryptoqueen' certainly have the subject matter I'm looking for but are high budget affairs with interviewed sources that feature only one company. I understand why I'm unlikely to find a series like that with a new company every few episodes.
posted by Selena777 to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

One of the seasons (perhaps the second) of Gimlet’s Startup podcast was like this. Although, it was more about problems with fundraising and product/market fit rather than SV drama.
posted by sideshow at 9:44 AM on January 12, 2020

Failory?
posted by parmanparman at 10:29 AM on January 12, 2020

there was one that sticks with me "startup.com" not easy to find, but a good representation of that whole dotcom boom company explosion then implosion
posted by edman at 10:56 AM on January 12, 2020

Business Insider's "Brought to you by..." on Stitcher, formerly known as "Household Name" has insidery, sometimes post-mortem stories about companies that're pretty interesting. Not all of them are about some downfall somewhere, but more of a "what's the story behind..." So while there's an episode about the downfall of Sears, there's another one about just who the hell is Charles Shaw and why is his name on Trader Joe's cheap wine. I think they just describe their podcast as telling "surprising stories" about companies.

There are about 40 episodes out, so you might pick through them for the stories that interest you.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:39 AM on January 12, 2020

There is a podcast called Catastrophic Failures that covers this, each episode focuses on a different company. Not many episodes though, I don’t think.
posted by ElasticParrot at 12:28 PM on January 12, 2020