SEX, LIES, AND VIDEO GAMES
Fast Company. August 2020
This dive into the underworld of Roblox condo games — digital sex parties where kids act like adults and adults may be posing as kids — was the culmination of four months of reporting that included interviews with over 50 sources and an analysis of nearly a million pages of chat logs. The story was covered on CBS This Morning.
CREDIT CRUNCH
Fast Company. May 2020
For those willing to pay, ”anonymized” data is easy to re-identify, and even Apple can’t stop Mastercard from aggregating and selling its cardholders’ transaction data. An examination of the latest front in the battle between data brokers and privacy advocates: the credit card.
JUST WHAT THE PATIENT ORDERED
Fast Company. October 2019
Well-funded start-ups are turning patients into customers—and doctors into assembly-line safety inspectors. Major pharmaceutical companies, meanwhile, are now eyeing a promising new business opportunity: adding Rx-happy tele-doctors to the payroll.
WHY DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB CAN’T QUIT SEAN HANNITY
Fast Company. December 2018
Multiple brands said they’d stop advertising with the controversial Fox News host last year. But once the social media furor subsided, they returned.
HUNGER GAMES
Inc. August 2018
The investigation of Hello Fresh’s U.S. operation, which involved reporting everywhere from Newark police precincts to cafes in Berlin, turned up anarchy in the company’s New Jersey warehouse—with fearful managers calling the police on fed-up employees and intoxicated customer service workers conducting explicit in-office photo shoots in the wee hours. All the while, clueless investors blindly wrote checks to keep the party going.
THE ADS THAT KNOW EVERYTHING
New York Times Magazine. November 2, 2017
Many startup companies have made all-in bets on Facebook’s oracular advertising algorithm—giving the social networking platform unprecedented influence in the worlds of media and Internet retail. To tell the story, Helm analyzed the inner workings of Facebook’s advertising technology, and followed one young startup, Hubble, to show the incredible power the social network holds over modern-day e-commerce.
INSIDE THE IMPLOSION OF FUHU
Inc. September 2016
At one point, the children’s tablet-maker was the fastest-growing startup in the country—until ego, bullying, big spending and bad decisions caught up with the El Segundo company. Helm and his colleague, Lindsay Blakely, piece together what happened through extensive executive interviews and a review of bankruptcy filings runnning thousands of pages.
BETRAYED IN CHINA
Inc. March 2013
Winner of the SABEW award for international feature writing. To tell the story of Adam Kasha and an overseas partnership that went spectacularly wrong, Helm traveled to the Jiangsu province of China to retrace the entrepreneur’s steps and interview his old business partners.
AFTER THE SQUEEZE
November 2012
Winner of the SABEW award for small business coverage and the Stephen J. Barr prize for feature writing. A look at what happened to small business owners in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and how banks systematically shut out whole industries and regions, including entrepreneurs who were close to recovery.
A SILICON VALLEY TALE OF HUMILIATION & REVENGE
March 2012
He was fired from the company he helped create, YouSendIt. Then the cyberattacks started—and the FBI decided to investigate.
A PEEK UNDER THE HOOD OF A BUSINESS BOOK
September 03, 2009
Evidence of plagiarism in a new book from Boston Consulting Group.