Jun. 4—The board of Fresno-based Bitwise Industries has fired its two CEOs and launched an investigation into events leading up to last week's abrupt cease of operations and furlough of all its 900 workers.
A news release announcing the terminations Saturday said the board only recently learned of the company's financial trouble and explained that, when it did, it made the call to stop everything.
There was no mention of when or whether operations would resume at Bitwise or companies it owns.
No one was named CEO to replace Irma L. Olguin Jr. and Jake Soberal, but the release said that effective two days earlier, the new interim president is a New York-based specialist in early-stage companies backed by venture capital.
The appointee, Ollen Douglass, CEO of consulting firm Hanover Street Advisors, stated in the release that the board recently became aware of the company's cash deficit "and took immediate action as a result."
"It was an incredibly difficult decision to suspend operations at Bitwise Industries and furlough the hardworking team members," Douglass stated. "The board of directors is taking this matter very seriously."
"We are committed to determining the root cause and will continue to take action," he added.
Douglass will oversee the investigation as a former chief financial officer with experience in auditing, the news release said. It noted Bitwise is engaging independent experts for support.
Local supporters of Bitwise could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.
Olguin and Soberal grew Bitwise from its founding in 2013 as a kind of coding academy in downtown Fresno to become a workforce training, business services and office space concept that was expanding into nine cities with the support of at least $150 million from outside investors. The company represented in March that its value has tripled since 2021 to top $600 million.
Bitwise won contracts with Bakersfield and Kern County government totaling more than $1.5 million. Some of the promised workforce training has been completed but much remains on hold, including a business accelerator seen as fitting well with other entrepreneurship initiatives afoot around the county.
At a pair of office spaces at the southwest corner of 18th and H streets, the company struggled to duplicate the social energy of its sister hub in Fresno. The tenants it has attracted now wonder about their future in the buildings now that Bitwise employees have disappeared and there has been no word on what to expect going forward.