Bitwise Industries'"South Stadium" at 700 Van Ness Ave in Fresno opened in 2015, with three floors of office space in a converted automobile dealership.Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr.
The termination of Soberal and Olguin Jr. was the next domino to topple as more information regarding the crumbling company and its financial troubles came to light. Ollen Douglass, a Bitwise board member since 2021 who will now serve as Bitwise’s interim president, said the board of directors voted to fire the co-founders as they conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the company’s collapse.
“Unfortunately, the non-management board and I, like many of you, are finding out that the picture the company consistently communicated orally and in presentations, was not an accurate picture of the company’s financial health,” Douglass wrote in an email to employees on Friday night. “It is heartbreaking and disappointing on multiple levels, as you know.”
Bitwise was founded in 2013 as a coding bootcamp that eventually rented out coworking spaces and offices across the country, training thousands of workers in its mission to revitalize downtowns and bring tech jobs to underserved communities. It grew to raise $180 million in funding over the last decade, including an $80 million investment round led by the Motley Fool Foundation in February, the company’s largest yet.