E3: Nathaniel Whittemore on FTX's Downfall: SBF's Lies and Confidantes, Binance, and Culture Chaos

Nathaniel Whittemore is the host of The Breakdown, the world’s biggest daily crypto podcast, and a former Marketing and Strategy Specialist at FTX. Nathaniel took no part in the activities that led to FTX’s downfall, but his insights and observations are equal parts horrifying and enlightening. Host Jesse Genet and Co-host Erik Torenberg talk to Nathaniel about the internal culture and comms at FTX during the crisis, SBF’s lies, as well as red flags and lessons he took away from witnessing the crisis unfold. 

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Introducing Nathaniel Whittemore

(02:05) Setting the scene for FTX’s collapse from $40 billion to nothing 

(06:55) Twitter debacle and FTX’s comms

(08:29) The FTX Slack during the crisis

(11:33) The emergency raise

(12:31) Who do you tell first about the crisis?

(14:40) FTX employees discover Binance acquisition through SBF’s Twitter

(15:20) Internal comms 

(18:10) SBF encouraging employees to keep their money on FTX

(19:44) HR at FTX

(24:11) When did employees turn on SBF?

(26:18) What was normal about FTX from a startup lens?

(31:14) Red flags to keep in mind

(34:58) Effective altruism culture at FTX

(36:21) Employees taking money out of FTX

(37:42) Is there anything that could’ve been saved at FTX?

(41:37) Doing things differently after witnessing the FTX crisis

(45:54) Evaluating SBF

(50:27) SBF’s confidantes and what might be next for SBF after serving his sentence

(55:02) Bouncing back after FTX

LINKS:

The Breakdown: https://nlw.substack.com/

TWITTER:

@nlw (Nathaniel)

@BreakdownNLW (The Breakdown Podcast)

@jessegenet (Jesse)

@eriktorenberg (Erik)

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