Cory Booker's Tech Startup Adds CNN President's 15 Year Old Son to Advisory Board, Son Resigns

[The Real]

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/08/07/cnn-boss-cory-booker/

Why did a tech startup hire the teenage son of a cable news boss?

FORTUNE -- New Jersey senatorial candidate Cory Booker was "not involved at all" in the addition of Andrew Zucker to the advisory board of a tech startup that Booker co-founded, according to a company spokesperson. And now it may not much matter, as the 15 year-old has resigned from the board -- effective as of earlier this afternoon.

Zucker is the son of CNN president Jeff Zucker, and his arrangement with Booker's venture was viewed in some quarters as being inappropriate.

The company is Waywire, a digital video curation site that has raised venture capital funding from such folks as Oprah Winfrey and Google (GOOG) chairman Eric Schmidt. Booker is one of three co-founders, alongside veteran marketing executive Sarah Ross (ex-Yahoo, TechCrunch, etc.) and former Gilt Groupe executive Nathan Richardson (who serves as Waywire's CEO).

Andrew Zucker's involvement seems to have first stemmed from a conversation that Sarah Ross had with an existing Waywire advisor, who had heard that the kid had a knack for spotting tech adoption trends among teens. For example, Andrew and a small group of his friends were known to informally advise his father on such matters, such as why some young people would be interested in the Vine video service but not in Twitter's traditional text service.

Ross met with both Andrew Zucker and Jeff Zucker, and reached an agreement whereby Andrew would join the Waywire advisory board in exchange for what the spokesperson refers to as a "de minimus" number of stock options (at least in comparison to other Waywire option grants).

It is unclear what led to this afternoon's resignation, which was disclosed to Fortune by a CNN spokesperson.

[Disclosure: FORTUNE.com is part of CNNMoney, which is produced in partnership with CNN.]

 

[Trip]

Nepotism in politics. Im shocked.

 

[88m3]

questionable from several angles

 

[tru_m.a.c]

whatever

CB is the next BO

 

[No1]

whatever

CB is the next BO

Nah, having met them both, Booker is more moderate than Obama. If people are mad at Obama's presidency, Cory will have you equally furious, if not more so.

 

[Trip]

Nah, having met them both, Booker is more moderate than Obama. .

oh.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Nah, having met them both, Booker is more moderate than Obama. If people are mad at Obama's presidency, Cory will have you equally furious, if not more so.

was all sarcasm

 

[No1]

oh.

Met is a very vague term to obviously not give away where I was working

 

[Trip]

Met is a very vague term to obviously not give away where I was working

The self promotion was more amusing than anything. Like we couldnt decipher Booker was more moderate than Obama by listening to them speak. But let's not split hairs here.

Booker looks like a fool with this.

 

[No1]

The self promotion was more amusing than anything. Like we couldnt decipher Booker was more moderate than Obama by listening to them speak. But let's not split hairs here.

Booker looks like a fool with this.

There is no self-promotion. Please miss me with that bullshyt. I'm getting really annoyed with people finding a way to take whatever someone says to flip it to whatever they want it to mean on here. I make a 2 second comment on my phone and it's self-promotion. I don't know what's so special about having met Corey Booker for that to be self-promotion any college kid go can volunteer in his offic No, it's not obvious from Booker's speeches that he's more moderate than Obama. He is half these liberall college and grad school kids' wet dream.

 

[Trip]

There is no self-promotion. Please miss me with that bullshyt. I'm getting really annoyed with people finding a way to take whatever someone says to flip it to whatever they want it to mean on here. I make a 2 second comment on my phone and it's self-promotion. I don't know what's so special about having met Corey Booker for that to be self-promotion any college kid go can volunteer in his offic No, it's not obvious from Booker's speeches that he's more moderate than Obama. He is half these liberall college and grad school kids' wet dream.

The guy was vouching for Bain Capital for crying out loud.

As far as the self-promotion, I was joking. You have to expect some sort of ribbing with unsolicited name dropping.

 

[theworldismine13]

the communists are on their grind i see

 

[Danie84]

Nepotism

 

[Trip]

the communists are on their grind i see

I like Booker, however the arrogance of this in your face nepotism is a bit ridiculous. At least try and hide it better...we all know it exists....but a 15 year old?

 

[The Real]

the communists are on their grind i see

What does communism have to do with charges of nepotism and favors?