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2. Blitzscaling

From the rubble of the dot com crash, an ambitious young Harvard student with a passion for hacking, sets up an exciting new website.

From the rubble of the dot com crash, an ambitious young Harvard student with a passion for hacking and love of Roman emperors, sets up an exciting new website.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is an instant hit on college campuses.

Soon it attracts the attention of Silicon Valley’s most successful - but controversial - venture capitalist, Peter Thiel.

The company starts to scale up. But there’s one problem - how is it going to make money?

Contributors: Roger McNamee, author of Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe; journalist Owen Thomas; Eric Jackson, author of The Paypal Wars; Jeff Hammerbacher; Anil Dash, tech entrepreneur.

Producer: Caitlin Smith
Researchers: Rachael Fulton, Elizabeth Ann Duffy and Juliet Conway
Executive Producer: Peter McManus
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Music: Jeremy Warmsley
Story Consultant: Kirsty Williams
Commissioning editor: Dan Clarke
A Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Scotland Production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

Archive: Bloomberg Quicktake, October 2019; C-Span, Telecommunications Bill signing, Feb 1996; Hoover Institute, Decemeber 2009; Startup Academy, March 2018; Makers, December 2012.

New episodes released on Mondays. If you’re in the UK, listen to the latest episodes of The Gatekeepers, first on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds: bbc.in/3Ui661u

Available now

29 minutes

Last on

Tue 18 Jun 2024 15:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Broadcasts

  • Mon 12 Feb 2024 11:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Tue 18 Jun 2024 15:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

Podcast

  • The Gatekeepers

    The founders of social media conquered the world... and they're not finished yet.