New Tech Tonics Podcast: When Companies Go Awry

The success of Silicon Valley is often attributed to the ability of the entrepreneurial community to embrace setbacks, rather than punishing those who experience them.  Celebrating these setbacks has become an art form of it own; as a recent NYT op-ed suggested, “telling the story of what went wrong is a way to wring insight from failure, but it’s also a way of proclaiming membership in a community of innovators who are unafraid of taking risks.”

In contrast to pat narratives of failure and redemption, or of lessons learned from flying too close to the sun, today’s guest, Geoff Clapp, offers an unvarnished — and still slightly raw — account of what happened in the months between the time we interviewed him in early 2015 about his promising startup, Better, and the time it shut down last fall. Geoff’s candid discussion provides unusual insight into what it feels like to be a leader in this difficult and uncomfortable situation.

We are grateful to Geoff for his authenticity and generosity of spirit in sharing his experiences with us on Tech Tonics today. You can listen to his interview below or find it on iTunes by clicking HERE or on the Connected Social Media website HERE. 

This episode of Tech Tonics is sponsored by DNAnexus, the secure and compliant cloud platform that enables enterprise users to analyze, collaborate around, and integrate massive amounts of genetic and other health data.