Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, "anti-woke" banking startup GloriFi is "going to sleep" after less than three months of business. Although the pro-gun financial company had pitched itself to conservative folk as a banking institute where like-minded customers were "free to celebrate your love of God and country without fear of cancellation," it's now cancelling itself.
"Effective immediately, we have begun the process of helping our customers resolve their accounts," GloriFi says on its now stripped-down website.
From Rolling Stone:
The company has laid off employees and informed them the end is nigh, via an email from Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Landtrop obtained by the Wall Street Journal. Landroop cited "financial challenges related to startup mistakes, the failing economy, reputational attacks, and multiple negative stories," as reasons for the downfall.
The Journal reports the company's fate was sealed Friday when a funding arrangement fell through.
Founder and CEO Toby Neugebauer pitched plans to offer gun owners discounts on home insurance, credit cards made of shell casing material, and assistance paying legal bills if customers shot someone in self-defense. Over the summer, GloriFi secured conservative commentator Candace Owens as a co-founder and spokesperson for the brand. …
But GloriFi was unable to translate ideological grandstanding into functional corporate management. Even before its public launch, the startup was plagued by reports of chaos amongst staff and financiers. GloriFi missed its planned launch date several times, at one point due to clashes with Texas financial regulators.
So in the end, although GloriFi used to say on its About page (when it still had an About page), "We are one nation under God," the startup is actually just one bank under water.
