Vulture:

“I can honestly say I’ve never been in such a cocky pitch environment,” Gairdner recalls. “I would describe the atmosphere as almost Wolf of Wall Street, not in terms of actual debauchery, but it’s an incredibly nice office that just goes and goes. They had two lobbies; you went in and checked in at a nice, big lobby, then you were moved to another lobby. There’s massive jars of expensive, nice-seeming candy everywhere. It’s sleek and modern, and you see hundreds of people passing by. And there’s this energy of people who really believe they’ve got the next big thing.”

And:

Drawing on his deep well of relationships earned after more than four decades in Hollywood, Katzenberg recruited an amazing array of talent: Sam Raimi would produce a horror anthology; Idris Elba would star in a car-stunts show; Chrissy Teigen would put on judge’s robes and comically preside over a courtroom; Lena Waithe would make a show about sneakerheads; Anna Kendrick would anchor a comedy in which her character befriends her boyfriend’s sex doll; and the Kardashians would do a mock reality show featuring a mythical fraternal twin brother named Kirby Jenner.

And:

Most subscribers have signed on with a 90-day free trial. This month, as that period expires, Quibi will learn how many of those people will stick around once they’re asked to pay. If they don’t, Quibi will be left to reckon with how it miscalculated so badly, and for Katzenberg and Whitman, it could be a deflating capstone to two storied careers.

This is an amazing read. An almost infinite well of money to throw at the problem, some great talent, and solid design chops. What went wrong here? And is the story over? Is there enough money left to pivot, to correct mistakes?

I think part of the issue here is the content itself. Having a star attached is never enough. The content needs to be compelling. And it’s hard to compete with free, crowd-sourced content (YouTube, TikTok, etc.)

Another hurdle for Quibi is the lack of an existing ecosystem or tentpole content. Disney has that deep back catalog. Apple has the ecosystem. Quibi does have a partnership with T-Mobile, but that’s mostly an advertising partnership.

And, of course, there’s the pandemic. Will Quibi survive? Or will it be a lesson in hubris?