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The Gatekeepers, The Gatekeepers, 2. Blitzscaling

The Gatekeepers

The Gatekeepers

2. Blitzscaling

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February 12, 2024

29 minutes

Available for over a year

From the rubble of the dot com crash, an ambitious young Harvard student with a ion 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?

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 BBC Scotland Production for BBC Radio 4

Archive: Bloomberg Quicktake, October 2019; C-Span, Telecommunications Bill g, 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 BBC Sounds: bbc.in/3Ui661u