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<ul><li><keyword id="155484" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="salesforce" source="Orion">Salesforce</keyword> launched <keyword id="67227" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="genie" source="Orion">Genie</keyword>, an upgraded data platform that can provide better digital experience for businesses running online. </li><li>Companies like Ford, L’Oreal, Formula 1®, and PGA TOUR Superstore are using <keyword id="15037607" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="salesforce-genie" source="Orion">Salesforce Genie</keyword>. </li></ul><ul><li><keyword id="1815769" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="slack" source="Orion">Slack</keyword>, acquired by Salesforce, launched <keyword id="15037604" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="slack-canvas" source="Orion">Slack Canvas</keyword> and upgrades in <keyword id="15037606" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="slack-huddles" source="Orion">Slack Huddles</keyword>. </li></ul>Salesforce Customer 360, a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) today unveiled the Genie, an upgraded data platform that aims to provide better digital experiences for businesses running online. The platform, Salesforce says, can provide real-time data that powers its Customer 360 platform. "Every business leader wants to take advantage of real-time data to create compelling, personalized customer experiences — milliseconds matter in this new digital-first world," <keyword id="10689770" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="david-schmaier" source="Orion">David Schmaier</keyword>, president and chief product officer, Salesforce said. Customer 360 provides a complete view of a customer's data which includes a website inquiry or even product purchase and customer support ticket. The new Salesforce Genie helps businesses streamline their vast data stores and provide better customer experience. How can Genie help businesses? A sales representative no longer relies only on in-person communication to close a large deal. Reps need real-time insights about every customer, based on real-time and historical data, to act on the most relevant information in the moment, every time. Today, 71% of customers expect every interaction with a business to be personalized, says Salesforce. "That's why we built Genie, our most significant innovation ever on the Salesforce Platform. Genie makes every part of Customer 360 more automated, intelligent and real-time,” said Schmaier. The amount of data created, captured and consumed each year is expected to more than double by 2026. Salesforce claims that its new platform can ease the processing of large data sets. The platform is already being used by Ford, L’Oreal, Formula 1®, PGA TOUR Superstore, Amazon SageMaker, <keyword id="15037605" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="snowflake-and-google" source="Orion">Snowflake and Google</keyword> to name a few. Slack enhances working in a digital headquarter post-pandemic Slack was acquired by Salesforce last September last year. Globally, Slack is being used by multiple businesses to run their office online. Through Genie, Slack also announced enhancement of their digital headquarters, offering various innovations. “We are focused on helping our customers navigate the future of work, whether that’s hybrid, remote or in the office,” said Tamar Yehoshua, chief product officer, Slack. “We’ve been introducing capabilities like Slack Connect, Clips, Huddles and now Canvas, that bring more value to our customers and enhance working in a digital HQ,” she added. Slack Huddles will now feature lightweight video, multi-person screen sharing and better communication via message threads allowing you to monitor your colleague’s work in real-time. A new addition to Slack called Canvas, will be launched in 2023, enabling teams across the globe to ‘work together’ on a Slack Canvas. This would include sharing texts, files, audio for colleagues to see. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/samsung-to-offer-up-to-60-off-on-galaxy-s20-fe-5g-galaxy-m53-and-more-during-amazons-upcoming-sale/articleshow/94303882.cms">Samsung to offer up to 60% off on Galaxy S20 FE 5G, Galaxy M53, and more during Amazon’s upcoming sale</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/best-offers-on-smartphones-and-laptops-on-the-amazon-great-indian-festival-sale/articleshow/94302092.cms">Best offers on smartphones, laptops, and more on the Amazon Great Indian Festival Kickstarter deals</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/realme-gt-neo-3t-review-power-packed-mid-ranger/articleshow/94299230.cms">Realme GT Neo 3T review: Power-packed mid-ranger</a>

Milliseconds matter in a digital-first world, says Salesforce as it launches real-time data platform

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In 2022, Salesforce unveiled software that processes and organize customer data in "real-time."</li><li>A lawsuit filed by a former company vice president says "it was all a lie."</li></ul>An ex-<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-18-difficult-months-at-salesforce-2023-4">Salesforce</a> vice president is suing his former employer, claiming the company lied about its software capabilities and retaliated against him for raising concerns about the product claims, court documents show.Karl Wirth, who was Salesforce's vice president of product management when he joined the company in 2020 before being promoted to senior vice president in January 2022, said in a lawsuit filed on July 28 that the company falsely advertised the capability of its Customer Data Platform (CDP).CDP is marketing-industry speak for software that can process and organize user data to create a unique customer profile which companies can then use to advertise a product or create a personalized customer experience. Salesforce promoted that its CDP can process large amounts of customer data in "real-time," meaning in "milliseconds," the lawsuit says.One benefit to real-time data processing that Salesforce advertises, for example, is when a hospital may need the most up-to-date information on a patient regarding urgent healthcare needs."When milliseconds matter most, your healthcare provider can deliver proactive guidance and care recommendations with access to your real-time patient data," <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.salesforce.com/ap/blog/2022/09/what-is-salesforce-genie.html#genie-business-impact">the company wrote</a>.Salesforce unveiled its CDP software, Genie, to the public on <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-dreamforce-acquisitions-growth-margins-revenue-target-2022-9">September 20, 2022</a>. In a keynote slide attached to the court documents, the company repeats the term "real-time" four times.According to the court documents, Salesforce said it was the "biggest announcement" it had made since the founders started the company.But "it was all a lie," the lawsuit says.The court documents say the software does not operate as fast as the term "real-time" suggests, and "in fact many of its processes took several hours.""While it was able to execute some functions such as information collection in real time, other operations such as the processing and organizing of that data took hours to complete," the lawsuit says.On <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.salesforce.com/ap/blog/2022/09/what-is-salesforce-genie.html">Salesforce's website about Genie</a>, the company says the software "collects and unifies data in milliseconds."For example, "a personalized offer on a website you're browsing changes instantly because of something you just clicked in a marketing email," the company writes. "Because the company uses Marketing Cloud Genie, that offer changes immediately into something that is more relevant to you than the one you'd otherwise be looking at. This convinces you to go ahead and make a purchase."Wirth recommended that Salesforce pursue this software capability in late 2021 or early 2022, according to court documents, but it became clear to the Customer Data Platform (CDP) team that it could not "develop the technology in time" for Salesforce's announcement in September 2022.The lawsuit also claimed that the CDP team "wanted to redefine the meaning of 'real-time,' so that it could falsely claim that the CDP operated in real-time.""Plaintiff reasonably believed that publicly claiming the CDP operated in 'real-time' without actually having (or even intending to have in the near future) such a capability would be fraudulent, and likely violate numerous provisions of Federal law relating to fraud against shareholders, as well as rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission," the lawsuit stated.Wirth then decided to act as a whistleblower and brought up his concerns to the CDP team and other "key executives," the lawsuit said.In addition, he approached his direct supervisor, Lidiane Jones, now <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meet-lidiane-jones-the-new-slack-ceo-succeeding-stewart-butterfield-2022-12">CEO of Slack Technologies</a>, about his concerns. The lawsuit says Jones then began a "deceitful campaign to diminish" Wirth's reputation at the company.One of Wirth's last "whistleblowing activities" was a one-on-one meeting with Saleseforce's CTO, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/parker-harris-salesforce-cofounder-profile-2015-2">Parker Harris</a>, during which he brought up his concerns about the CDP team and Jones's "use of false criticisms."Wirth was fired hours later, the lawsuit says.Harris and spokespersons for Slack and Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.Wirth is seeking monetary damages due to what the lawsuit calls Salesforces' "whistleblower retaliation."His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

A former executive says he was fired by Salesforce after raising concerns about software said to process and organize customer data in milliseconds: 'It was all a lie.'

The shadowy new way employees are cheating their way to the top

Hi, I'm Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. Welcome back to Insider Weekly, a roundup of some of our top stories. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-weekly?utm_source=post">Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox each Sunday.</a><h3>On the agenda today:</h3><ul><li>Things get ugly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-leaked-messages-all-hands-2023-1">at Salesforce</a>.</li><li>Buying cars will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/car-dealerships-shopping-inventory-prices-incentives-2023-1">never go back to normal</a>.</li><li>"Zoomtowns" might <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-home-house-prices-rent-cost-decline-cheaper-cities-2023-1">actually be a good thing</a>.</li><li>Meet the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nepo-babies-big-business-family-connections-helped-reach-top-2023-1">"nepo babies" of business</a>.</li></ul>But first: Diamond Naga Siu, the new voice behind our excellent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-in-tech">10 Things in Tech newsletter</a>, is giving us a look at a phenomenon sweeping the internet: ChatGPT. Without further ado…<h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-used-chatgpt-for-day-and-found-it-very-impressive-2022-12">ChatGPT takes over</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-used-chatgpt-for-day-and-found-it-very-impressive-2022-12"></a>ChatGPT brings all the techies to the yard, senior reporter Diamond Naga Siu writes. If you've somehow missed the ChatGPT buzz so far, it's a chatbot equipped with the most advanced example of generative artificial intelligence — a powerful technology that can create original answers to questions and commands. It's eerily humanlike and is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bing-chatgpt-google-faces-first-real-competition-in-20-years-2023-1">seen as posing a threat to Google</a>. When one Insider reporter used ChatGPT for their searches, they <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-used-chatgpt-for-day-and-found-it-very-impressive-2022-12">found it to be scarily impressive</a>. My colleague Beatrice Nolan even asked the chatbot to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-job-applications-hiring-managers-job-interview-candidate-2022-12">write cover letters for real jobs</a>. Hiring managers told her they would likely reach out to the "candidates" for the next round. You can see how this could end up in academia. NYC schools have already <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-schools-ban-chatgpt-cheating-concern-grows-2023-1">banned the use of ChatGPT</a>. And a Princeton student <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/app-detects-if-chatgpt-wrote-essay-ai-plagiarism-2023-1">built a tool</a> that can sniff out if someone used AI to write an essay. No promises this newsletter was written by a human.There's big bucks behind the buzz. There are reports that the latest valuation for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, could be close to $30 billion. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-openai-investment-the-smartest-1-billion-ever-spent-2023-1?r=US&amp;IR=T">Microsoft's looking astute</a> for having invested $1 billion in the company back in 2019. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-in-tech">Keep up with the latest tech news — sign for our daily newsletter here</a>.<h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/read-marc-benioff-email-to-salesforce-staff-announcing-mass-layoffs-2023-1">A blow to the Salesforce workforce</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/read-marc-benioff-email-to-salesforce-staff-announcing-mass-layoffs-2023-1"></a><div type="image" title="Marc Benioff, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce, speaks at an Economic Club of Washington luncheon in Washington, DC, on October 18, 2019" height="3244" width="4325" msid="96834695" hostid="261" sizebytes="831222"></div>It was a rough week to be a Salesforce employee. On Wednesday the company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-marc-benioff-overhiring-profits-costs-economic-downturn-staff-2023-1">announced plans</a> to trim about 10% of its jobs. That means <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/read-marc-benioff-email-to-salesforce-staff-announcing-mass-layoffs-2023-1">roughly 7,000</a> employees are facing the ax, with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-marc-benioff-mulesoft-hardest-hit-so-far-2023-1">1,000 already out</a> as of this week. It's also going to close some of its offices.Making matters worse, things got ugly on Thursday when Salesforce's co-CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-leaked-messages-all-hands-2023-1">Marc Benioff dodged questions</a> during a rambling, two-hour all-hands meeting. It was so bad, and employees were so upset, that one executive subsequently apologized and told people who hadn't seen the meeting to not bother watching it.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-leaked-messages-all-hands-2023-1">Read more about the tense all-hands at Salesforce.</a>Read more:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-layoffs-a-sign-that-things-get-worse-cloud-2023-2023-1">Salesforce's massive layoffs are a sign for Silicon Valley that the worst is yet to come</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-layoffs-worst-month-for-job-cuts-is-january-2023-1">It's not just Salesforce; read about the week from layoffs hell</a>.</li></ul><h3>'<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-home-house-prices-rent-cost-decline-cheaper-cities-2023-1">Zoomtowns': A good thing?</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-home-house-prices-rent-cost-decline-cheaper-cities-2023-1"></a><div type="image" title="illustrated work from home set up with a view out the window of three multicolored houses with red sale tags" height="1200" width="1600" msid="96834696" hostid="261" sizebytes="358720"></div>White-collar workers who moved to cheap locales during the pandemic, turning them into "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-workers-flooding-zoomtowns-causing-affordable-housing-crisis-2022-5">Zoomtowns</a>," became a popular point of contention. Many of those towns became emblems of inequality and rural displacement. But a new analysis shows Zoomtowns might actually turn out to be a good thing.A bipartisan public-policy organization said the shift to remote work may eventually make rent and home prices cheaper for everyone. That's because many of these cities are best equipped to build cheap housing to help absorb the influx of new people.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/remote-work-home-house-prices-rent-cost-decline-cheaper-cities-2023-1">Here's how Zoomtowns can transform the housing market</a>.Read more:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zoom-town-inequality-remote-workers-work-from-home-big-cities-2022-4">Welcome to America's 'Zoomtowns,' where an invasion of remote workers with big-city paychecks are driving long-time locals into tent cities and homeless shelters</a>.</li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/car-dealerships-shopping-inventory-prices-incentives-2023-1">Buying cars has changed forever</a> </h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/car-dealerships-shopping-inventory-prices-incentives-2023-1"></a><div type="image" title="person shopping for a car at a dealership" height="1414" width="1885" msid="96834697" hostid="261" sizebytes="116570"></div>You can't stuff the genie back in the bottle, and that's particularly true for the process of buying cars post-2020. Ever since the pandemic began, car dealerships have been keeping fewer vehicles in their lots, even though production is back up.Executives at Ford and GM say car buyers have adapted — and that behavioral shift might be permanent. Now, customers can order a car online and get it shipped to them directly. If a carmaker doesn't have its money tied up in inventory, it can afford to charge a pretty penny for that new Prius. And it doesn't have to offer incentives, either.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/car-dealerships-shopping-inventory-prices-incentives-2023-1">Here's a closer look at our new car-buying reality</a>. Read more:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cars-deals-december-holiday-end-of-year-sale-season-over-2022-12">The pandemic killed the end-of-year blowout sale for good</a></li></ul><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nepo-babies-big-business-family-connections-helped-reach-top-2023-1">The 'nepo babies' of business</a></h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nepo-babies-big-business-family-connections-helped-reach-top-2023-1"></a><div type="image" title="Photos of (clockwise from top-left): Delphine Arnault, David Lauren, Lachlan Murdoch, Gus Wenner, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump." height="1080" width="1440" msid="96834698" hostid="261" sizebytes="139486"></div>The term "nepo baby" has exploded ever since <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html#_ga=2.200351150.1873862993.1672842847-164654994.1672842847">New York Magazine put a bunch of famous children</a> of Hollywood stars on its December cover. But the idea of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nepo-babies-big-business-family-connections-helped-reach-top-2023-1">nepo baby</a> — "nepo" is short for nepotism, in case that wasn't clear — extends to the world of business, too. We put together a list of notable nepo babies in business, like Lachlan Murdoch and John Tyson, who were all handed their executives titles.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nepo-babies-big-business-family-connections-helped-reach-top-2023-1">Check out our list here.</a>Read more:<ul><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/jamie-lee-curtis-nepo-baby-conversation-aims-to-hurt-2022-12">Jamie Lee Curtis says 'nepo baby' conversation aims to 'diminish' and 'hurt' relatives of famous people</a></li></ul><h3>This week's quote:</h3>"If you want to look for a new market, you look where big-box companies are moving. Then you buy around all of those areas and where they're building an airport." <ul><li>Krystie Moore, a 38-year-old who <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-investing-2023-housing-market-strategy-tips-advice-outlook-2023-1">built a real-estate portfolio</a> with her husband worth $19 million</li></ul><h3>More of this week's top reads:</h3><ul><li>What it's like to work in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/work-party-hostels-around-world-europe-what-its-like-2023-1">party hostels around the world</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shopify-shuts-down-slack-cancels-meetings-in-new-policies-2023-1">Shopify's "Chaos Monkey"</a> transforms the company's internal structure.</li><li>Biotech investor Brad Loncar shares <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brad-loncars-biotech-investor-predictions-for-2023-2023-1">10 predictions for 2023</a>.</li><li>A couple in their 30s shares 3 reasons why they took <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/life-insurance-amount-ideal-for-my-family-2023-1">$2 million in life insurance</a>.</li><li>I was able to quit my job after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-built-airbnb-treehouse-and-now-host-full-time-2023-1">building an Airbnb treehouse</a> in my yard.</li><li>5 places <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/conflicts-that-could-turn-into-world-war-iii-during-2023-2023-1">World War III</a> could start in 2023.</li><li>A Tesla required <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rented-tesla-stopped-six-times-one-day-charge-hertz-2023-01">6 charges in one day</a> due to the cold weather.</li></ul>Curated by Matt Turner. Edited by Dave Smith and Lisa Ryan. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter">Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.</a>

ChatGPT is ready to transform the internet

Hi there. Amazon has knowingly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3">tricked people into signing up</a> for Prime subscriptions, and an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pete-davidson-on-blue-origin-space-flight-jeff-bezos-2022-3">SNL star is headed to space</a> this month.Let's dive in.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3"></a>1. Amazon has known for years that it funneled people into signing up for an Amazon Prime subscription without them realizing it. The Federal Trade Commission has asked Amazon about whether it tricked customers into signing up for Prime subscriptions. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3">Internal documents show that some employees felt it did</a>.<ul><li>Since at least 2017, the company has been concerned that user interface designs on Amazon.com have led customers to feel manipulated into signing up for Prime. </li><li>Amazon executives were aware customers felt tricked. Plans to clarify the sign-up process were considered, but shelved because they reduced overall subscription growth, the documents show.</li><li>"We have been deliberately confusing," one former employee told Insider. "It's very un-Amazonian in terms of customer obsession."</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-prime-ftc-probe-customer-complaints-sign-ups-internal-documents-2022-3">Read our exclusive report here.</a>In other news:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-uber-adding-surcharges-to-rides-offset-cost-of-gas-2022-3"></a><div type="image" title="Lyft logo is displayed on the back of a car" height="1332" width="1776" msid="90224788" hostid="261"></div>2. Lyft is adding a temporary surcharge. As fuel prices increase nationwide, the ride-hailing company has announced it will be implementing extra fees that will go to drivers, following <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-adds-surchage-as-gas-prices-soar-russia-ukraine-2022-3">Uber's</a> similar announcement. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-uber-adding-surcharges-to-rides-offset-cost-of-gas-2022-3">Here's what you need to know.</a>3. A leaked email shows Microsoft expects its HoloLens-like goggles to disappoint soldiers. In two months, the US Army is scheduled to begin real-world operational tests with Microsoft's mixed reality goggles — and the company is bracing for negative feedback. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-military-hololens-contract-soldiers-test-2022-3">We explain why.</a>4. Elon Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to a duel in a bizarre tweet. The Tesla CEO invited the Russian president to "single combat," adding, "Stakes are Ukraine." He also tweeted at the Russian presidency's official account — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-challenges-putin-single-combat-over-ukraine-2022-3">see it here.</a>5. Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff shares the books that inspired his leadership style. To get a sense of what shaped Benioff's perspectives on <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech" source="Orion">tech</keyword>, leadership, and mindfulness, we asked him which books he recommends. He gave us a list that includes titles by Matthew McConaughey, Michael Dell, and the Dalai Lama. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salesforce-marc-benioff-book-recommendations-leadership-technology-mindfulness-2022-3">Here are his 19 must-read books.</a>6. Meta clarifies that it won't allow content that calls for assassinating heads of state like Putin. After Reuters reported the company would approve content encouraging the death of Russia's president, Meta narrowed its policy. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-facebook-says-users-cannot-call-for-death-of-putin-2022-3">Here's the latest.</a>7. Google employees are grilling leadership over the decision to terminate dozens of roles within Cloud. Staffers want affected employees to be given more time and support to find new roles. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employees-grill-leadership-over-plans-to-layoff-support-staff-2022-3">Read more on the layoffs here.</a>8. Former Disney chief Bob Iger is jumping into the metaverse. Iger is <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/disney-ceo-bob-iger-metaverse-nft-startup-genies-web3-rihanna-2022-3">investing in Genies</a> and joining its board of directors. Genies is a startup popular among celebrities like Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nft-hollywood-blockchain-studios-producers-creatives-audiences-entertainment-2022-2">Here are eight other companies driving the future of digital assets in entertainment.</a>Odds and ends:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/face-id-with-mask"></a><div type="image" title="iphone running ios 15" height="1036" width="1382" msid="90224790" hostid="261"></div>9. iOS 15.4 has been released. Apple's latest iPhone operating system comes with a few updates, like the ability to unlock a phone <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/face-id-with-mask">while wearing a mask</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/see-37-new-emoji-coming-your-phone-apple-ios-update-2022-1">37 fun new emojis</a> — like a smiley face holding back tears. <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/14/22976606/ios-15-4-mask-compatible-face-id-emoji-tap-to-pay-airtags-stalking-update-release-date-features?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4">Here's the latest on iOS 15.4.</a>10. It's official: Pete Davidson is going to space. The SNL star and Kim Kardashian's new boyfriend will blast off on Jeff Bezos's next Blue Origin launch, scheduled for March 23. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pete-davidson-on-blue-origin-space-flight-jeff-bezos-2022-3">More on the rocket's fourth human flight.</a>What we're watching today:<ul><li>Today is the provisional deadline for the European Commission's decision on Amazon's proposed acquisition of MGM. </li><li>Google for Games Developer Summit <a href="https://gamedevsummit.withgoogle.com/">starts today.</a></li><li>Volkswagen is set to announce its annual earnings.</li><li>Digital Summit Phoenix takes place <a href="https://phoenix.digitalsummit.com/">today and tomorrow.</a></li><li>Adobe Summit: <a href="https://summit.adobe.com/na/">The Digital Experience conference</a> starts today. </li></ul>Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out <a href="https://www.insider.com/therefresh">The Refresh from Insider,</a> a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. <a href="https://www.insider.com/therefresh">Listen here.</a>Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email <a href="mailto:jerb@insider.com">jerb@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanparkererb?lang=en">@jordanparkererb</a>.) Edited by Michael Cogley in London.

10 Things in Tech: Prime subs scrutiny

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortZenefits cofounder CEO Parker Conrad</div></div></div>Just one year ago, 34-year-old Parker Conrad was riding high.He was CEO of one of the fastest growing startups in Silicon Valley.Earlier this week <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/parker-conrad-is-out-as-zenefits-ceo-and-david-sacks-takes-over-2016-2">he found himself out</a> of the company he founded, with Zenefits in a world of turmoil. And his No. 2 man, COO David Sacks (who was also an investor), took over as CEO, effective immediately.It's another crazy chapter in Conrad's life, which has been so filled with highs and lows, that it sounds like a made-for-TV movie.<h2>Failing Harvard, beating cancer</h2>Conrad has always made the most of difficult situations - even as as far back as high school, where his grades were mediocre."Then I did this thing called the Westinghouse Talent Search, now called the Intel Talent Search, where I spent about 2 years doing research on neuroscience lab and I ended up coming in third place in that nationally," Conrad explained to Business Insider in a February 2015 interview. (All quotes in this piece are from interviews conducted when Conrad was still CEO.)That helped him get into Harvard where he joined the college newspaper, The Crimson, which he loved. He was eventually named managing editor."I was spending all my time at the Crimson, like 70 hours a week and I didn't go to class for like a year," he said.Because of the time spent on the paper instead of on classes, "I failed out of school. I had to leave Harvard, really halfway through my tenure as the Crimson managing editor. It was this incredibly humiliating and shocking experience," he told us.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5pKtnmHTxg">Screenshot Via YouTube</a>Students on Harvard's campus.</div></div></div>He returned a year later, graduated, and got a great job at biotech firm - Amgen - based in Southern California. "I had a very great stable life, where I was living two blocks from the beach in Santa Monica. I felt like I was a big star in the company. I was very, very junior, but felt like I was moving up and getting lots of attention," he says.Shortly after college he got, and got rid of, testicular cancer.<h2>Living in an old-folks home</h2>Conrad was starting to get frustrated with the slow pace of advancement at Amgen when his old college roommate called - a guy he used to do day trading with in the dorms. He wanted to do a startup."We had this idea of starting a Wiki for stock research. So I left my company, left LA, and moved to San Francisco."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>With no job and no money, they moved into "an old folks home" in Walnut Creek, a retirement community called Rossmoor.His cofounder's grandparents had an apartment they weren't using, so they lived there for free.One catch: No one under 65 was allowed to live there, so "we were sneaking in and out each time," he explains."We lived there for about six months. It was by far the worst six months of my life. There was a store outside of Rossmoor that was literally called 'A Better Denture' right outside the gate."He admits, "It's a funny story now - but I sort of felt then like my life fell off a cliff. I had this great life, living situation in Santa Monica, a great job. Suddenly, I'm living in the old folks home, trying to do something like god knows what, to get something off the ground, not having any idea what we were doing."<h2>Fired from his own startup by his cofounder</h2>Being broke and stressed out at his startup "sort of stayed like that for like five or six years, to be totally honest. At Wikinvest, which got renamed Sigfig, we were constantly just two or three months away from not being able to make payroll. We constantly pivoted, two or three times."He and his cofounder were co-CEOs, "which everyone will tell you is a very bad idea. Eventually, there was a critical juncture where Mike's family put in a whole bunch of money and part of that agreement was that he would become sole CEO. He and I really started not getting along after that. And not long after that he fired me."He continues, "And to really make the situation really bad, I stayed around for another year, working at the company, closing out some deals and finishing up some stuff, which was incredibly unpleasant."He continues, "So when I started Zenefits, I was kind of at the bottom. I had been fired. I left in disgrace. And I was thinking, 'How am I going to do this to come back from this?'"Answer: another startup.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortMotivational sign at Zenefits offices</div></div></div>On the very day he left SigFig, he incorporated Zenefits and launched the company on a shoestring.He had about $20,000 saved up from his exit, but his wife had a job so they could live on her salary while he tried to get the company going.<h2>Resentment leads to a great idea</h2>The idea of Zenefits came from SigFig, which at its height had about 30 employees, making it too small to hire an HR person.As a former cancer survivor, he was vigilant about health insurance, and employees always asked him for advice since he knew so much about it."There's a lot of just administrative work that comes along with having employees," he says. "It was like a couple of hours every month, and it was a couple of hours I deeply resented. I felt like, 'Man, if this stuff was all connected up and all integrated and all worked together than a lot of this stuff would go away. It could run on its own.'"For instance, the only way to enroll a new employee in the insurance program was to fax the form in. He had to go to Kinko's to do that because the company didn't own a fax machine.After he launched Zenefits, Conrad taught himself to code (Python), just enough to build an early version of his idea for Zenefits. "I was non-technical at the last company, and I'm still obviously a sh--y engineer."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortZenefits employs over 500 people, mostly in this San Francisco office</div></div></div>He was accepted into the Y Combinator program in 2012 and once in, he took on a cofounder, Laks Srini, a top engineer from SigFig. He hired a bunch of others away from SigFig, too.To build the Zenefits site, he talked to a lot of insurance brokers and others, trying to find out why the paperwork was done the way it was. That's when he discovered how much money they all made.And inspiration struck: the "hub and spoke" business model. Give Zenefits away for free and charge for services it could sell them."The insight in our business model is that if you could be the hub, it's such a powerful place to occupy that you could make so much money off all of the spokes that you can give the hub away from free," he says.<h2>VCs poured $582 million into the young company</h2>At the end of 2014, Zenefits was on track to be the fastest growing software-as-a-service company EVER. The company caught fire because it offers a free cloud service for human resources functions - onboarding, payroll, benefits, vacation tracking, and so on. Its original plan was to make most of its money from selling benefits - for example, companies can use it to purchase health insurance. Zenefits is the insurance broker, taking a broker fee."We launched in May 2013 and by the beginning of 2014, (8 months later) we were at a $1 million of run-rate revenue," Conrad told us <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-incredible-story-of-zenefits-founder-parker-conrad-2015-2">at the time</a>.By the end of 2014, Zenefits was at just over $20 million in run-rate revenue, and the goal for 2015 was $100 million."As far as we can tell, we're the fastest growing SaaS out there," Conrad told us at the time. "Salesforce is one of them, Workday is another, and it took those guys four years to get to $20 million. We did it in less than two. It took them five to six years to get to $100 million. We'll do that in less than three."Conrad's bravado had VCs tripping over themselves to invest huge sums of money in his company.By the middle of 2014, he had raised $83.6 million in three rounds from such backers as Lars Dalgaard, currently a VC for Andreessen Horowitz. (Dalgaard famously sold his own fast-growing cloud startup, SuccessFactors, to SAP for $3.4 billion in 2011.)<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Owen Thomas, Business InsiderDavid Sacks</div></div></div>In fact, Zenefits was so impressive that one of the Valley's most successful entrepreneurs and angel investors, David Sacks, became both an investor and an employee in December 2014. He took the COO role, the No. 2 job to Conrad.Sacks is part of the so-called PayPal "mafia," a sizable group of former PayPal execs who have gone on to massive success in Silicon Valley. He was the COO of PayPal from 1999 to 2002 until the company's sale to eBay, then founded two successful startups: Yammer, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/yammer-ceo-david-sacks-bio-2012-6">Microsoft bought for $1.2 billion in 2012</a>, and genealogy site Geni, which <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/11/28/myheritage-raises-25-million-aquires-geni/">MyHeritage bought for $25 million</a> in 2012.He's also an <a href="https://angel.co/davidsacks">an angel investor</a> in companies like Twitter, Uber, SpaceX, Airbnb, Scribd, AngelList, Slack, Eventbrite, Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, Lyft, and dozens of others.Sacks could do anything he wanted but he chose to take a job at Zenefits because he fell in love with the company, he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-is-suddenly-a-hot-employer-2014-12">told Business Insider at the time</a>."Zenefits was honestly the most exciting company that I've seen that needed my help," he said, and added that since he's already done it all, he wasn't hung up on being the boss. "In addition to being a entrepreneur and having founded stuff, I've been active as an angel investor. So I've got experience being supportive of other people's visions," he told us.In mid-2015, with venture funds flowing and unicorn madness gripping the Valley, VCs invested another $500 million at a $4.5 billion valuation. That was a whopping $582 million raised by the two-year old company.Conrad was at that point, a Silicon Valley golden boy, a major success story.<h2>Things started to crash</h2>With so much money in the bank, and the VCs chanting, "Grow faster! Grow Faster!" Zenefits went on a hiring spree. In 2014 alone, Zenefits grew from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-is-suddenly-a-hot-employer-2014-12">a mere 15 people to over 420 employees.</a> In 2015 it opened an office in Arizona, in addition to its San Francisco headquarters, and grew its headcount to over 1,000, the company says. By the end of 2015, it had about 10,000 customers.But in the summer of 2015, it got into <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/adp-drops-zenefits-lawsuit-2015-10">a much-publicized brawl with HR software giant ADP,</a> a former Zenefits partner, in which each side accused the other of lying and misleading customers. The brawl led ADP to sue Zenefits, but the suit was eventually dropped.In the meantime, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-launches-a-free-payroll-service-2015-11">ADP was also working on a competitor to Zenefits</a>, and other competitors were arriving as well.As it became clear that Zenefits was not going hit the promised land of $100 million in revenue, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-launches-a-free-payroll-service-2015-11">it started rolling out more fee-based services.</a> Customers that signed up suddenly found themselves being pitched to upgrade to paid versions by Zenefits new and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-ceo-refutes-the-naysayers-2015-11">highly-pressured sales force</a>, a potential customer told Business Insider.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Business Insider/Julie BortParker Conrad's father painted this picture called "Lives" a play on how the insurance industry measures things in "lives." It hangs on the entry wall.</div></div></div>At the same time, the traditional insurance industry started fighting back against the upstart service - much like the cab industry and hotel industry did to Uber and Airbnb respectively. For a short while, <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/04/13/zenefits-utah-ban-insurance/">Zenefits was even banned in the state of Utah</a> after insurance brokers lobbied the Department of Insurance.Ultimately, Zenefits was accused of selling insurance without the proper licenses in multiple states. This ultimately to Conrad's departure from the company, Sacks said in an email to Zenefits employees after taking over as CEO."The fact is that many of our internal processes, controls, and actions around compliance have been inadequate, and some decisions have just been plain wrong. As a result, Parker has resigned," the email said.<h2>Failure's biggest lesson</h2>What has he learned from it all?Back when we first talked to him about his up-and-down life in February 2015, he told us, "The only thing I learned is that failure sucks and you never want to do it. There's not a lot to be said for that particular lesson," he laughed at the time.We have reached out to Conrad to hear what he has to say about the latest developments. We'll update you if and when he responds.

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