Fleeing staffers at Cory Booker's internet start-up say the company 'is just staying open until after the election so that it doesn't hurt the founder's Senate bid'

Cory Booker helped found a video aggregation start up site called Waywire

Financial disclosure forms show that he appointed Jeff Zucker's 15-year-old son Andrew on the company's advisory board

Andrew has since quit after his role was publicized



Booker is now running for the empty New Jersey Senate spot and insiders say it is staying open so that it doesn't hurt his election chances



Eight staffers at Cory Booker's tech start-up have started looking for new jobs as the company is expected to shutter.

The video aggregation company is said to be losing cash quickly and it is supposedly being kept alive through early November so that it's closure doesn't hurt Booker's chances at winning the New Jersey Senate race.

The latest news about the floundering company, called Waywire, comes days after it was revealed that the 15-year-old son of CNN president Jeff Zucker had a position on the company's advisory board and had stock options in the company.

The teenager resigned just hours later, and it now is clear that he is not the first person to leave the company.

Public face: Cory Booker (pictured Thursday), the current mayor of Newark, New Jersey who is now running for Senate, is the founder of a video aggregation start up and he stands to make $1million to $5million out of the company

Keeping up appearances: Insiders believe that the company is going to remain open just until after the November election so that its closure doesn't hurt Booker's chances at winning the New Jersey Senate seat

It was known that the small company had a round of layoffs in the spring, but now The New York Post reported that eight peole left in April.

'When the company moved its focus from original production to curation, the production team was impacted. Several were given the option of changed, curation-focused roles with the company; they declined,' a spokeswoman told The Post.

It isn't just staffers who are looking for work elsewhere, but also one of the three founding partners, Nathan Richardson.

The company spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Richardson, who serves as CEO, is looking to be appointed on the board of a different, unidentified company.

'That engagement would not impact his ability to meet his Waywire commitments,' she said.

Booker did his best on Thursday following a debate to calm the fires without actually revealing any more details/

Her idea: Sarah Ross is said to be the one who approached Jeff Zucker's son Andrew (seen with his father at left in 2009) to be a member of the advisory board of Cory Booker's start-up Waywire. He has since resigned



Connected: Sarah Ross, seen here talking with Booker and trailed by Mark Zuckerberg, is well known in Silicon Valley

'This company is in its infancy. Of course it has changed its business model. It’s going through changes,' he said of the internal overhaul at Waywire.

'I’m a part of an ownership group and we’ve concluded not to discuss that.'

The other parts of the ownership group are Mr Richardson and Sarah Ross, the tech entrepreneur who admitted to being the one to suggest Zucker join the board because the teenager is apparently known for his insight into popular trends among teens.

Ms Ross then had a conversation with both Jeff and Andrew Zucker and they agreed to have the now-15-year-old sign on to Waywire's advisory board and receive a 'de minimus' amount of stock options in return.

An unidentified source told CNN Money that Booker himself was 'not involved at all' with the decision, and Ms Ross herself admitted at an early stage that the politician would not be a part of the day-to-day operations of the start up.

Promoting the brand: If Booker wins, he will have to resign from the board of Waywire and stop promoting it from his well-followed Twitter feed

The New York Times reported that even in the nascent phase, it was clear among the founders that Booker would be a more public role.

When the launched the company, Ms Ross reportedly said to Booker: 'You know what? You should do it, found the company. Obviously you don’t have to be involved — you’ve got a full-time job. But found the company.’

Unlike many of the other boldface names connected to Waywire, like Oprah Winfrey and Google's Eric Schmidt, it does not seem as if the elder Zucker actually has any financial stake in the company.

Very little has previously been revealed about the start-up, which was officially created in May 2012.

Booker reportedly came up with the idea for the company, whose mission is to effectively become a different iteration of YouTube where the work of up-and-coming students is highlighted, while meeting with Ms Ross and Mr Richardson.

He said it was easy to raise the $1.75million worth of seed money for the venture 'because of the power of the idea'. He said nothing of his rising power on the national political stage.