The Thrillist Media Group CEO on e-commerce, what went wrong at Fab, and why he believes his company can be a $1 billion business.
FORTUNE -- With 9 million active readers, Thrillist Media Group will bring in more than $100 million in revenue this year, according to chief executive Ben Lerer. During a recent visit to the Thrillist New York offices, Fortune asked him for his thoughts on the future of commerce.
It's the MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Feb 24, 2014 8:35 AM ET
With Glow for Enterprise, the PayPal co-founder aims to make his fertility app a perk for progressive employers.
FORTUNE -- Max Levchin wants to sell companies on the benefits of helping their employees get pregnant. On Feb. 20, the fertility application he backed announced Glow for Enterprise, a new product for businesses. A number of buzzy tech startups including Evernote, Eventbrite, and Domo (see: Josh James: The Wildest, Craziest, Most MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Feb 20, 2014 10:00 AM ET
Facebook is buying WhatsApp for $19 billion, but it wasn't the only suitor.
My colleague Dan Primack has written a smart post on the numbers that weren't in the press release Facebook (FB) issued announcing it will acquire messaging service WhatsApp. I'll add just one more:
$10 billion
Two separate sources have told me that's how much Google (GOOG) offered to purchase WhatsApp. The bid did not come with promise of MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Feb 20, 2014 6:26 AM ET
You know what's cool? $19 billion
FORTUNE -- Remember back in 2012 when a billion dollars seemed like a lot of money to pay for a fast-growing photosharing app called Instagram? Turns out, that's nothing. Facebook (FB) has just announced plans to purchase mobile messaging service WhatsApp for at least 16 times that. The company will pay an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp employees MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Feb 19, 2014 6:14 PM ET
How the biggest social network has won over more than 1 million of the smallest companies.
FORTUNE -- On Wednesday morning, Kay Martinovic advertised a sale at her Ormond Beach, Fla. consignment store, aptly named Kay's Designer Consignment. She paid $40 for a "boost" on Facebook (FB), which caused her store's ad to appear in fans' newsfeeds. She targeted women in the more affluent nearby communities including the town of Smyrna MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Feb 10, 2014 8:52 AM ETDomo's founder survived a near-death experience and signed a deal led by TPG in the same week.
FORTUNE -- Today, enterprise software company Domo announced that it had closed $125 million in funding. TPG led the round, which includes Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price (TROW), and Salesforce (CRM), among others. TPG principal Nehal Raj will join the board. Here's the story explaining the tenuous situation surrounding the deal.
This is an edited excerpt from MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Feb 5, 2014 12:00 PM ETHow close do today's artificial intelligence technologies resemble the emotive operating system in the film Her? You might be surprised.
FORTUNE -- Samantha, the hot and sexy operating system in Spike Jonze's Oscar-nominated film Her, has a lot in common with the IBM (IBM) computer system Watson, the bold and brainy 2011 winner of the nationally televised television show Jeopardy! They both read quickly. They both process natural language, understanding with relative ease MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Jan 28, 2014 11:19 AM ET
After IBM again misses most expectations for its quarterly earnings, its chief executive makes a concession of her own: her compensation.
FORTUNE -- IBM (IBM) chief executive Virginia "Ginni" Rometty is passing up her annual bonus.
It's a rare move for any tech CEO, and it signals that Rometty knows she's got trouble on her hands. She made the announcement Tuesday as the company missed Wall Street's expectations yet again for its MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Jan 21, 2014 4:39 PM ET
Early on, the IDEO veteran saw the potential in a "green" company that understood consumers.
FORTUNE -- Among the happiest of the investors behind Google's (GOOG) move to buy Nest Labs for $3.2 billion earlier this week is the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which is believed to be the company's largest outside shareholder. The deal will likely return the firm 20 times its original investment, a win for MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Jan 16, 2014 3:22 PM ET
The company's new CEO hopes to turn a profit by 2016. Which means quite a bit must change.
FORTUNE -- Smartphones are a consumer business. Apple (AAPL) taught us this truth back in 2007 when it introduced the iPhone. Chief information officers are now acquiescing to it as their employees insist on bringing their own devices to work.
For the last five years, BlackBerry (BBRY) has tried to win consumers over, too. MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Jan 9, 2014 2:13 PM ET
Jessi Hempel is a New York-based technology writer for Fortune. She has written extensively about digital media, online advertising and social networking. Before joining Fortune in July 2007, Hempel worked at BusinessWeek and most recently served as their innovation department editor. Hempel is a graduate of Brown University and received a Masters in Journalism from The University of California at Berkeley.
