Tech start-up Corgi tests the limits of free speech

An AI-powered insurance start-up permits staff to post racist slurs, make fun of the disabled, and battle with each other on social media. The CEO is even doubling down on it.

California-based Corgi is in the dog house after a series of alarming employee posts, such as one marketing staffer tossing around the word "re***d" casually, as in “Reading is hard for the re****ed it’s ok I understand.” She then defended it, saying she came from a gaming culture where the term was considered acceptable, according to Insurance Business magazine.

The same employee posted she would “not attempt to police” those who use the N-word, and then deleted it after a public uproar and condemnation from another staffer.

Brooke LeBlanc, Corgi's head of community, posted (and now deleted) a grocery list of requirements for men to date her on X: “post economic (still hardworking),” “fit and sober,” “healthy masculine” and between the ages of 35 and 42. "Sorry! I don't want to date a loser!"

Forbes estimates Corgi is valued at $5 billion after raising four rounds this year alone.

You would think 26-year-old CEO Nico Laqua would clamp down on his company airing their dirty laundry in public. 

Nope. He posted this on X:

"Cancel culture is alive and well, but, at Corgi, we have thick skin and believe strongly in freedom of expression. For those who don’t know us, Corgi is an increasingly diversified financial institution, best known for our insurance products and generating hundreds of million of dollars in revenue more quickly than any other financial services company before us."

Corgi CEO Nico Laqua

No shortage of male-fueled Musk-mimicking ego there.

Having an unfiltered social media policy -- if there IS a social media policy there -- is totally within their rights. 

But that doesn't mean people have to do business with them either.

Corgi's board is not public, but their last critical investor is: Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). I wonder what they think?