Gimlet Media: Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber

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Alex Blumberg made his early career by helping build two of the most successful shows in radio and podcasting: Planet Money and This American Life.

In 2014, convinced that podcasts could make money, he walked away from the safe umbrella of public media to start a new media company with co-founder Matt Lieber.

Every doubt, triumph and humiliation of building the business was documented on the podcast Startup, which included the back-and-forth over how the company got its name: Gimlet.

Many more successful podcasts followed, and five years after launch, Gimlet sold to Spotify for roughly $200 million.

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