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 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