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True story: I have two very close younger friends who are practically my little brothers. They come from an established family in Hollywood, and have a very fa
by numair 7y ago
True story:
I have two very close younger friends who are practically my little brothers. They come from an established family in Hollywood, and have a very famous actor-dad. The younger brother is about 20 now, and is friends with half of the teen “influencers” on Instagram/YouTube; the older brother is about 22, and hangs with a group of LA kids who are obsessed with the movie American Psycho and dress/look the part — ironic given that their lives are a 2010s version of that book’s author’s other classic, Less Than Zero.
About two years ago, I’m at a club in Hollywood when these two hand me a thick pile of paper, which looks like a legal document. I’m really confused — is someone getting sued? Is this a screenplay? Am I being asked to sign an NDA?
The older brother, in his American Psycho-inspired suit, takes a puff of his vape and then whispers in my ear, “this is the funding prospectus for Juul. Our friends have been invited to invest.”
I looked at the thing. It was crazy. The valuation was well over $1 billion. The growth rate was off the charts. And, looking around at that club in Hollywood, filled with kids vaping in the outdoor area, I realized the numbers made sense. But the fact that a 19 year old Hollywood kid was handing me the funding documents for this company and telling me that his friends had been invited to invest told me that there was something very, very wrong about how Juul got into the hands of all of these young people — it clearly wasn’t an accident.
- appleshore 7y agoMaybe you should delete this, seems identifiable.
- uoaei 7y agoShutting down an opportunity for whistleblowing against a company that knowingly preys on minors using the addictive properties of tobacco products -- because of potentially identifiable information -- seems ludicrous.
- flattone 7y agoAvoiding being identified seems more like "do this but more carefully"?
- onetimemanytime 7y agoUmmm...no. He is telling information gained while hanging with his friends. Breach of etiquette and norms to say the least.
- uoaei 7y agoThere is no identifying information. Could be any actors' sons, could be any of maybe 400 clubs in Hollywood, and anyway that behavior isn't a breach of contract for something like an investment prospectus unless they also had to sign an NDA.
- Scoundreller 7y agoSometimes, people change enough details to get the point across. Or so I’ve been told.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- zelly 7y agoI want the movie rights to your post
- Fjolsvith 7y agoCall the movie "Up in Smoke". No, wait, that name's taken.
- JetSpiegel 7y ago> No, wait, that name's taken. Like that ever stopped anyone. :)
- Despegar 7y agoMaybe you should relay this story to the FTC and the federal prosecutors so they can investigate this and bring Juul to justice.
- morpheuskafka 7y agoHaving a 19-year old investor/employee at a tobacco company isn't illegal. Not really sure what the prosecutors could glean from this in terms of hard evidence of a crime.
- Kudos 7y ago> Not really sure what the prosecutors could glean from this in terms of hard evidence of a crime. That's why it's called an investigation, you follow leads not knowing whether they will pay off.
- 1123581321 7y agoInvestigations can result in a great deal of inconvenience, and occasional retribution from the target. It’s okay to prudently decline to volunteer almost certainly useless information if it doesn’t seem worthwhile. Edit: it seems to be unclear that this is a pragmatic decision made millions of times a day around the world, and not particular to Juul.
- TheMinorityGuy 7y agoIt is called snitching. Do not report people when you are not clear what the crime is and who the victim is. It wastes taxpayer money on needless investigations.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ronsor 7y agoIt's called an investigation for a reason. You're saying they're suspicious, nothing more.