How much would you sacrifice to support a cause? Would you give half your life savings? Would you move to a foreign country? Would you leave the company you founded? One media mogul does the latter.
Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington leaves the company she helped turned into a digital media powerhouse. She signed a deal to be editor-in-chief until 2019. She’s starting a company called Thrive Global. It’s a media tech company dedicated to health issues. Yes, Huffington is fully dedicated to Thrive Global. She’s already accepted venture funding, and plenty of it. And she’s dedicating her full attention to this start-up. Huffington Post was founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington, Andrew Breitbart, Jonah Peretti and Kenneth Lerer. Before then, Huffington started out as a political commentator. In the last 40+ years, she authored 15 books. Huffington Post was acquired by AOL Inc. in 2011. Shortly thereafter, AOL Inc. was bought out by Verizon. In eleven years, Huffington Post helped set the standard in digital and alternative media. This digital medium draws over 100 million viewers a month, and expands to fourteen countries. AOL’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong said of Huffington: “Arianna is a visionary who built The Huffington Post into a truly transformative news platform.”
Thrive Global works with other companies to improve employees’ health. This is particularly true for tech and media based companies. The business is expected to launch in November 2016. Perfect timing. We’ll all need mental health improvement after this brutal election season. Arianna Huffington built her legacy off being a trailblazer. At 66 years old, she’s doing it again. There is a market for Thrive Global’s services. Individuals are concerned for their health. Employers are concerned for their employees’ health. They can’t afford to pay high insurance claims for unhealthy employees getting sick on them. With that being said, everybody wins with Thrive Global. Who wants to be sick? Nobody does! Is Arianna Huffington taking a good risk here?