Inside Capazoo's drug-fueled implosion
The Montreal-based social network that's teetering on the edge of extinction was a family affair, both in the nepotism sense and allegedly in the mafia sense. That's according to a former employee who sent in an epic tale of sex, drugs and shady business dealings under CEO Luc Verville, pictured here in happier times. His brother Michel, a cofounder, was kicked out of the company — but not before generating some serious ill will among employees:
- The flip side of the founder's coke addiction was a black market Viagra dealer in the office who supplied him, which enabled him to brag publicly and often about having sex with his 20-year old girlfriend several times in one day.
Much, much more after the jump.
- When I arrived at Capazoo, his wife worked there, as did his mother. And the other founder's wife as well. I should have run screaming. He left his wife a few weeks later... That didn't stop her from showing up at the office with their young child and spitting on the window while we were having meetings.
- [His wife] started posting messages on the founder's page on the website, including that he was bi. Unfortunately, we hadn't yet implemented "remove comment" functionality, which led to several weekends spent just cleaning up the founder's profile, over and over again. Fun.
- The brothers often talked shit about each other, saying that they saved the other from destitution, and that one would be nothing without the other. Should have run screaming.
- Was contacted one day by the founder's assistant, because she was trying to mount a coup d'etat with the other founder to get rid of him. As if that's something you can do to the guy who holds over 50% of the company.
- Several people with ties to the gambling and porn industries, as well as the mafia were hired. On this last point, at least one investor/partner told me he was not worried about losing his investment for this reason. Just another reason you cannot use my name.
- BTW, pro athletes are idiots, it's not hard to swindle them out of money by saying things like "next MySpace, next Facebook".
