The inside story of what went wrong at robotics startup Zume Pizza - Business Insider

  • 📰 BusinessInsider
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 107 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 46%
  • Publisher: 51%

Deutschland Nachrichten Nachrichten

Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten,Deutschland Schlagzeilen

How a video game wunderkind promised a robot revolution that mesmerized SoftBank but went off the rails: The inside story of Zume Pizza

By the time he founded Zume in 2015, Garden had added high-level roles at Microsoft and Zynga to his resume, and he was not shy about highlighting his industry credentials during meetings with early investors and employees, sources told Business Insider.

Garden met with Masa, as the Japanese billionaire is regularly referred to in Silicon Valley, in 2017 ahead of a planned Series B fundraise. Garden liked to tell employees that "Masa invested in me," implying that he personally was the driving force in securing the Series B and subsequent Series C investments, a former Zume employee told Business Insider.

But Garden was struggling financially, the Zume investor said, and was starting to look for other ways to boost his personal income. SignalFire stepped in and made Garden a venture partner with a salary of roughly $250,000, plus the usual deal carry incentives. It's not clear how many of those robots were in existence and how that figure has changed in the years since, but a Zume spokesperson told Business Insider in 2018 that its Mountain View production facility was capable of churning out about 370 pizzas an hour.

"Pieces of information would come in from a single source or customer and the overcorrection to that one data point was incredible," another former employee told Business Insider. "That was the case from the beginning, and when you add $375 million it's like pouring gasoline on the fire.

"It was all really reckless," one of the former employees said. This employee left Zume after voicing concerns with the machinery, specifically the metal shavings and malfunctioning blade, to Garden, and threatened to alert the FTC to misleading advertising since Zume was still marketing the pizzas as baked on the way. Every former employee that spoke to Business Insider spoke of an argument or disagreement with Garden that.

Multiple sources said Garden changed the business direction often, and had a habit of talking over women employees and executives during meetings. , and several employees that were affected said the promised severance has yet to materialize. One employee said they were given "Alex leave," an internal joke that employees could not show up to work for several months and still collect a paycheck until severance kicked in a few months down the road.

 

Vielen Dank für Ihren Kommentar.Ihr Kommentar wird nach Prüfung veröffentlicht.

How a (probably) good articles stays unread, unengaged, uncommented, and unshared, behind a PayWall. SorryNotSorry IfISubscribeWillTheArticleBeAdFree? NoThanks

Wir haben diese Nachrichten zusammengefasst, damit Sie sie schnell lesen können. Wenn Sie sich für die Nachrichten interessieren, können Sie den vollständigen Text hier lesen. Weiterlesen:

 /  🏆 729. in DE

Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen

Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.

Data security startup Open Raven launches to prevent data breaches - Business InsiderNew data security startup Open Raven just launched out of stealth to tackle the next big security challenge: helping companies find where their data actually is and preventing the next big data breach
Herkunft: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Weiterlesen »

T-Mobile-Sprint merger just cleared its last hurdle - Business Insider - Business InsiderThe formation of New T-Mobile amid a time of flux in the US wireless market will have wide-ranging consequences for the US telecommunications space. I have been with t-mobile for 15 years hopefully they won't start acting like sprint or I am gone
Herkunft: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Weiterlesen »

Netflix is investing in kids content - Business Insider - Business InsiderGreater investment in kids content from Netflix could cause even more young viewers to migrate away from ad-supported environments Does that mean NetflixFilm will cut back on all the pro-pot exposure in the rest of their programming? Every other show someone is toking up or worse, pretending its harmless. It's out of control. 👎 I think this is a necessary strategy to beat Disney+. Let's be honest, no one but kids is really using Disney+, and if Netflix wants to keep parents using their platform they need to make content kids wanna watch and can watch ElRodrigo69 are you ready? kiddo 3
Herkunft: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Weiterlesen »

Unmind: Mental health tech startup raises $10 million from Project A - Business Insider'The negative impact on companies of poor mental health is massive and we want to help change that,' Unmind CEO Nick Taylor told Business Insider.
Herkunft: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Weiterlesen »

Cybersecurity startup Deep Instinct raises $43 million, turns down M&A - Business InsiderIt's more common for security startups to get acquired, such as BlackBerry acquiring Cylance. Deep Instinct CEO Guy Caspi wants to buck that trend. Looks more like a “they”. That’s quite the head shot, not sure if his hairline will survive an IPO. When people have such poor taste, it’s really hard invest with confidence. But I guess birds do know how to attract each other to lucrative garbage systems so... Floofon Floofyfluff! NoThankU
Herkunft: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Weiterlesen »