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Home
Who We Are
The Team
Jobs
Press
Awards
Contact us

Home
Who We Are
The Team
Jobs
Press
Awards
Contact us
Home
Who We Are
The Team
Jobs
Press
Awards
Contact us


WAITWHAT HAS BUILT THE MOST VALUABLE INDEPENDENT PORTFOLIO OF PREMIUM IP
DESIGNED AROUND ESSENTIAL HUMAN NEEDS. EACH MEDIA PROPERTY IS DESIGNED TO SCALE
BEYOND THE FIRST FORMAT, WITH A PASSIONATELY LOYAL USER BASE AND AN EXPANSIVE
SET OF PRODUCTS AND EXPERIENCES.

 


WITH MORE THAN 100 MILLION DOWNLOADS, 36 WEBBY AND AMBIE RECOGNITIONS, AND
EXCEPTIONAL ENGAGEMENT RATES, WAITWHAT’S MEDIA FRANCHISES REPRESENT ONE OF THE
LARGEST BODIES OF TIMELESS WISDOM, AND A RICH, INCLUSIONARY RELATIONSHIP
ECOSYSTEM OF ICONIC PERSONALITIES.




ORIGINAL PROPERTIES


MASTERS OF SCALE

Growing from an award-winning podcast hosted by LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock
partner Reid Hoffman, Masters of Scale is a platform for cultivating the
entrepreneurial mindset at scale. The podcast unfolds like a music-infused
detective story as Hoffman tests his theories with famous founders and leaders,
including Barack Obama, Reed Hastings (Netflix), Sara Blakely (Spanx), Brian
Chesky (Airbnb), Stacy Brown-Philpot (TaskRabbit) and many more. Our platform
encompasses our daily Courses app, a best-selling book, live events, executive
education, and more.

Listen


MEDITATIVE STORY

Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with
the immediate, science-backed benefits of a mindfulness practice. Every week,
you’ll hear a new Meditative Story from a storyteller who will transport you to
a time and place where everything changed for them — a story you might find
yourself relating to deeply. As the story unfolds, mindfulness guide Rohan
Gunatillake will offer gentle prompts designed to calm your mind and help you
connect with your own observations, empowering you to feel restored.

Listen


SPARK & FIRE

Spark & Fire celebrates the creativity of the world’s most admired artists,
musicians, architects, dancers, photographers, writers and more – turning the
abstract idea of the “creative process” into a captivating, edge-of-your-seat
hero’s journey. You’ll hear what was happening in the mind of a creator as they
brought their iconic work to life — and you’ll gain specific, actionable
insights into your own creative practice. These stories are told entirely in the
artist's own words, against a backdrop of original music for the prepared piano.
Spark & Fire is a WaitWhat original.

Listen
 


MASTERS OF SCALE RAPID RESPONSE

Real-time wisdom from business leaders in fast-changing situations, covering the
Covid-19 crisis and beyond. Hear from leaders and founders on how they’re making
hard decisions with limited information, as they work to create safety for their
teams and customers – while preserving the momentum their companies need to
survive and thrive on the other side. These fast, focused interviews are the
in-the-moment counterpoint to the timeless episodes in the classic Masters of
Scale podcast. Hosted by Masters of Scale editor-at-large Bob Safian and Reid
Hoffman.

LISTEN


SLEEP SONG: A MEDITATIVE STORY EXPERIENCE

Sleep Song from Meditative Story is a bedtime experience born out of our
community’s love for the original music of the Meditative Story podcast. Here we
take the immersive melodies from each episode and create a one-hour soundtrack
to settle your mind, allowing you to wind down. As you shift into sleep, Sleep
Song transitions from detailed, episode-inspired story songs into more abstract
musical washes and tones that drift in and out of focus — becoming a dream
score. Sleep Song is available to Meditative Story members and to subscribers on
Apple Podcasts.

Listen


SHOULD THIS EXIST?

It’s the question of our times: How is technology impacting our humanity? On
Should This Exist? we invite creators of radical new technologies to set aside
their business plan and think through the human side: What is the technology’s
fullest potential? And what could possibly go wrong? Show host Caterina Fake
(the cofounder of Flickr, early investor in Etsy, and now a partner at Yes VC)
drops listeners into the minds of today’s edgiest entrepreneurs and guides them
through the journey of foreseeing what technology might do to us, and for us.
Should This Exist? is a WaitWhat original series.

Listen
 


SINCERELY, X (TED)

This original audio series features the first-ever anonymous TED Talks. It was
created by WaitWhat cofounders Deron Triff and June Cohen ahead of the formal
company launch. Hosted by June, the series goes in search of ideas in hiding —
powerful ideas that can only be shared in secret. The series launched February
2017 on Audible, in partnership with TED, and premiered on iTunes in June 2017,
hitting #1 on the podcast charts.

Listen


THE POSSIBLE

“The Possible” was the first documentary series filmed in virtual reality. It
was created by WaitWhat cofounders June Cohen and Deron Triff, in partnership
with VR pioneers Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin of Within. The ground-breaking
five-part series brings the viewer into places inaccessible to the public,
reaching scientists and inventors at the moment of breakthrough. Each episode
featured industry firsts — for example, filming from the stratosphere in a space
balloon. The series was created with a sponsorship from GE and support from the
Sloan Foundation.

Listen
 


WHO WE ARE

WaitWhat is creating the most valuable independent portfolio of premium IP at
the intersection of daily habit and human potential — with a contrarian strategy
to scale.

Downloaded more than 100 million times, WaitWhat’s media properties have defined
entirely new genres in the areas of business (Masters of Scale with Reid
Hoffman), wellness (Meditative Story), creativity (Spark & Fire) and technology
(Should this Exist?). In everything WaitWhat creates, it aims to elicit the
contagious emotions of wonder, curiosity, and mastery — infusing its content
with “Wait, what?” moments that spark curiosity and help us live at the top of
our potential.

Founded by June Cohen and Deron Triff — the former TED execs who launched TED
Talks and led the media organization for a combined 17 years — WaitWhat’s
approach to content is unique in the industry. Their passion for inventing new
business models and building inventive partnerships make allies out of
competitors.

The company’s success is rooted in its ability to scale each property beyond the
podcast format, establishing an engaged community and ecosystem that extends
into technology products, live experiences, story-driven learning programs,
publishing, and first-of-their-kind partnerships.

Today, WaitWhat has assembled one of the largest bodies of timeless wisdom,
available for free. When users engage with WaitWhat’s products or podcasts,
they’re tapping the collective knowledge of generous mentors including President
Barack Obama, Sir Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, Arianna Huffington, Yo-Yo Ma,
Wynton Marsalis, Disney’s Bob Iger, Alex Rodriguez, Isabel Allende, Rubén
Blades, David Duchovny, NetFlix’s Reed Hastings, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr,
Director Rian Johnson, On Being’s Krista Tippett, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella,
Pianist Lang Lang, Grammy winner Mickey Guyton, Tyra Banks, will.i.am and Adam
Grant.

Developing beloved, original content will always be core to WaitWhat's mission,
but it’s only the first step. In May of 2021 WaitWhat closed its Series B in
order to accelerate its ability to build a full suite of technologies and
products to platform the organization's content, and bring it more deeply into
users’ lives. Along with Raga Partners, other Series B investors include Emerson
Collective, Lupa Systems, Capital One Ventures, Maywic Select Investments,
GingerBread Capital, Burda Principal Investments, Cue Ball Capital, and Reid
Hoffman.

Based in New York City, WaitWhat has built a valuable team who are committed to
the founders’ vision for inventing first-of-their-kind media platforms that
endure and scale. The company’s vibrant culture is rooted in optimism,
possibility thinking, and an uncommon willingness to embrace risk with intention
to push the outer bounds of creativity and experimentation. The team —
purposefully rich in diversity — treats each other with kindness and respect,
and always supporting “yes, and”-style conversations.

And if you want to join us, drop us a note at Hello@WaitWhat.com.

 


JUNE COHEN


CO-FOUNDER & CEO

Prior to co-founding WaitWhat in January 2017, June headed up media for TED,
building its digital media operations from the ground up. In 2006, she launched
TED Talks on the Internet. And in 2009, she introduced the TED Open Translation
Project, the largest subtitling effort in the world, with 120 languages, 20K
translators and 100K translations. She also co-hosted the annual TED Conference
with Chris Anderson and co-founded TEDWomen with Pat Mitchell. Under her
leadership, TED’s media efforts earned 17 Webbies, 8 iTunes Best Podcast of the
Year awards, a National Design Award and a Peabody. Prior to TED, June was VP of
Content at HotWired.com, the pioneering website from Wired magazine, which
introduced many of the conventions now commonplace on the web. Before that, as a
student, she led the Stanford team that developed the world’s first networked
multimedia magazine in 1991. June holds a BA from Stanford, where she was Editor
in Chief of The Stanford Daily.

Reach June Cohen at hello@waitwhat.com

 


DERON TRIFF


CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER

Prior to co-founding WaitWhat in January 2017, Deron served alongside June on
the executive team at TED where he built nearly 100 partnerships that grew TED’s
audience to over 100 million per month. His love and unique skill set for
creating successful partnerships resulted in hits like the TED Radio Hour on
NPR, TED Weekends on The Huffington Post, TED in Cinemas with Fandango, TED
Shows on Netflix, TED English with National Geographic Learning, and
international collaborations throughout Asia, Latin America, The Middle East and
Europe. Deron negotiated significant funding for TED-Ed from Google and a joint
venture with Simon & Schuster to relaunch TED Books, among other collaborations
that brought millions of dollars in new annual revenue. Prior to TED, Deron
served as Vice President of Digital Ventures for PBS, where he launched the kids
cable network Sprout. He holds an MBA degree from McGill University in Montreal.

Reach Deron Triff at hello@waitwhat.com


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