Things Just Went to Hell at Pharma Bro Ex's Newsroom

A digital-media startup founded by an enemy of WeWork villain Adam Neumann and led by the journalist who fell in love with “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli seems to be in some trouble.

Workers at The Business of Business have mysteriously stopped receiving their paychecks. Employees, and some executives, appear unsure how the publication seems to have run out of funds—or whether it can survive for much longer.

For the moment, staffers have been told to stop doing their jobs because their managers aren’t sure if they’ll be paid. Joel Lindenfeld, who as of last week was a creative content producer at The Business of Business, told The Daily Beast he hasn’t received a paycheck for more than a month.

Adding fuel to speculation about the missed paychecks, The Business of Business abruptly placed co-founder Justin Zhen on leave last week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Zhen did not respond to requests for comment, nor did his two co-founders, Marta Lopata and Gregory Ugwi. A message to the company’s media relations email went unanswered, while the press team’s listed phone number simply went to Zhen’s cell phone. He did not pick up or respond to a voicemail.

Zhen is best known as one of the earliest antagonists of WeWork and its founder Adam Neumann. In 2016 he posted a blog on behalf of his tech startup, Thinknum, which claimed—using data harvested from WeWork’s internal social network and other sources—that the co-working business faced major problems belying its mammoth valuation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/things-just-went-to-hell-at-the-business-of-business-pharma-bro-martin-shkrelis-exs-newsroom?ref=home