Gimlet Media than advertising. Members were given early access to pilots for new Gimlet shows, a Gimlet T-shirt, and access to the company's Slack channel. Gimlet then hired Blumberg's spouse and former "Rachel Maddow Show" producer Nazanin Rafsanjani to explore other ways to diversify the company's revenue. Rafsanjani spearheads Gimlet Creative, a wing of the company that "creates highly produced narrative audio in partnership with brands." On August 2, 2017, Gimlet announced it closed a $15 million Series B investment round, led by Stripes Group. Emerson Collective, Graham Holdings, Betaworks, and Cross Culture Investors also contributed to the round. In September, 2017,
Gimlet Media TV series. Amazon gave the show a two-season order. In July 2017, Variety reported that Julia Roberts was set to star in the series, replacing Keener's role from the podcast. The show's first season, starring Roberts, Bobby Cannavale, Stephan James, Shea Whigham, Alex Karpovsky, and Sissy Spacek, premiered on Amazon Video on November 2, 2018. Sam Esmail, who created "Mr. Robot", produced and directed the show. The podcast's original staff, including Eli Horowitz and Micah Bloomberg, as well as other Gimlet staff members, assisted in writing and producing the show. "Mogul" is produced by Gimlet in collaboration with Loud Speakers