Iterable, which offers SMS, email, and app notification growth marketing services and is valued at ~$2B, ousts CEO for taking LSD before a board meeting in 2019
BloombergSarah McBride
Context & Ripple Effects
Iterable had been on a steady funding climb — a $50M Series C in March 2019 followed by a $60M Series D led by Viking Global Investors that December — when the board moved against co-founder CEO Justin Zhu over his taking LSD before a 2019 board meeting. The ouster surfaced publicly in late April 2021, and Zhu went on record weeks later about his disputes with key investors and the pressures of being Chinese in Silicon Valley.
First-order effects
Iterable operates without its founder-CEO during a critical stretch, with the board absorbing direct control of a company it valued around $2B.
Second-order effects
Zhu's decision to speak publicly in May about investor disputes reframes the ouster as a governance conflict rather than purely a conduct story, shaping how founders read their own boards.
The episode does not deter growth capital: within weeks Iterable closes a $200M Series E at a $2B post-money valuation, signaling investors priced the leadership change as manageable risk.
Third-order effects
The case joins the later IRL CEO departure in a widening pattern of boards replacing or pressuring founders at unicorn-scale companies once conduct or metrics questions surface — founder control is no longer assumed to survive a hot valuation.
The trend: Venture boards are increasingly willing to assert formal governance authority over founder-CEOs even at billion-dollar valuations, with conduct disclosures becoming a trigger rather than a taboo.
Important conversations likely to be had about the use of substances of different types after @hjzhu of @iterable admitted to microdosing, consider by some to be a legitimate approach to boosting focus. Especially interesting is drug policy in WFH https://www.bloomberg.com/...
CEO of a $2 billion startup fired for taking LSD at work. Justin Zhu said he was experimenting with microdosing in an effort to boost his focus, @mcbridesg reports https://www.bloomberg.com/...
My right eye won't stop twitching today so it must mean there's a “CEO ousting” in tech blamed on something dumb and not as important as, you know, actual execution. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Crazy story of tech CEO getting fired for microdosing LSD at work. He must have said/done something REALLY weird for them to let go off the CEO. Psychedelics nearly legal at this point too, esp in Cali. Someone should intv this guy https://www.bloomberg.com/...
I can totally see why someone could get fired for dosing themselves on psychedelics before a board meeting. ... But there's something really weird about the firing happening three years later. Something ain't right here. https://twitter.com/...
<Bloomberg report>: Justin Zhu, co-founder of Iterable, said he was trying microdosing LSD as a way to boost focus <Every person ever forced to rely on Iterable>: nods head https://www.bloomberg.com/...
genuinely surprised that an sf-based startup would boot its ceo for microdosing (a thing lots of people seemed to be optimizing/experimenting with & blogging about 4 years ago??) unless it was having negative effects or was an excuse for another reason https://www.bloomberg.com/.…