Gimlet Media British advertising firm WPP announced it was investing $5 million in Gimlet for a minority stake in the company. Alex Blumberg, a radio journalist, producer for "This American Life", and co-founder of "Planet Money", came up with the idea of a for-profit podcast network after the success of a T-shirt fundraising campaign for "Planet Money". He chose to document the foundation of Gimlet in the first season of "StartUp", the company's first show. Gimlet's co-founder, Matthew Lieber, holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, is a former radio producer at WNYC, and worked as a management consultant
Gimlet Media would not be returning for another season. Gimlet launched "Surprisingly Awesome," originally featuring Adam Davidson and Adam McKay, on November 3, 2015. Producer Rachel Ward filled in for Davidson or McKay throughout season 1 when one or both were unavailable. On October 5, 2016, Ward announced at the beginning of season 1 episode 22 that Davidson and McKay had left the podcast. In episode 23 on January 19, 2017, Ward announced that she would be moving on to another Gimlet project and the show was then replaced by Flora Lichtman's "Every Little Thing". The premise of the show was to