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 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