Brian Ach/AP
Nearly two weeks after closing up shop on The Messenger and suddenly leaving hundreds of employees out in the cold, the “centrist” news site’s CEO Jimmy Finkelstein finally sat down for a lengthy interview with Axios to discuss his startup’s spectacular flameout.
Besides maintaining that his business model would have eventually been successful if investors had just given him more cash, Finkelstein also told Axios that he is now weighing severance payments to out-of-work staffers. At the same time, he also said it was “wonderful” that his ex-employees had started a GoFundMe to raise $50,000 to help their colleagues pay bills.
Needless to say, Finkelstein’s tone-deaf remarks were not taken kindly by those he abruptly left without a job.