Compass struggles — Ghostwriting tweets — Miami renos

Hi, welcome back to Insider Weekly, a roundup of some of our top stories. This is Spriha Srivastava, filling in for Matt Turner. I am Insider's London bureau chief and international executive editor. I oversee our London and Singapore newsrooms and help Insider drive international expansion. We've got a lot to cover this week.

On the agenda today:

• Real-estate brokerage Compass is in a precarious position.
• A tech founder rakes in $200,000 ghostwriting tweets for superstar VCs.
• It's probably time for Mark Zuckerberg to step down.
• Miami transplants are rejecting Florida traditions and radically transforming their homes. 

But first: Senior healthcare reporter Shelby Livingston is giving us a behind-the-scenes look at her reporting on Elemy, a startup that insiders say often failed to provide the quick access to autism care that it had promised. 

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Insiders say Elemy often couldn't deliver on its promise to provide quick access to autism care

Startups that want to disrupt how healthcare is delivered are struggling as they try to grow fast, senior reporter Shelby Livingston writes. This week, I reported how SoftBank-backed Elemy aimed to transform autism care — but insiders say the $1.15 billion startup overpromised on its capacity to treat kids. 

More than 20 former and current employees spoke with me for this story. Here's what they told me: 

• To build up demand for its services, Elemy developed relationships with doctors to collect hundreds of patient referrals.
• Employees said the startup left kids on waitlists because it struggled to hire clinicians.
• "We were going and gobbling up referrals anyway just to stash them on our bench," one source said. 

One family, whose daughter Hope was recently diagnosed with autism, said their specialist recommended they try a type of autism therapy known as applied behavior analysis. The family heard from Elemy right after getting the diagnosis. After an initial assessment, Elemy told them they'd be in therapy in no more than eight weeks. 

It failed to deliver. 

Check out the full story here. 

Now, on to this week's top stories.

What's going on at Compass

The real-estate brokerage Compass is in a tricky position. It's worth a fraction of its IPO valuation, it's never turned a profit, and employees say the former centerpiece of the business — its vaunted tech tools for agents — is falling apart.

We spoke with four former employees who said the company's efforts to establish itself as one of the leading players in the multibillion-dollar proptech industry have been dashed.

Here's what Compass insiders told us.

Inside the life of a Twitter ghostwriter

Twitter is Silicon Valley's hottest and most important social club. To get in on the next big deal, investors must establish their credibility and appeal to startup founders. That's where ghostwriters come in.

One ghostwriter who spoke with Insider is tasked with crafting tweets for top VCs, aiming with each quip to make the investor look good — all in 280 characters or less. The job takes him just five hours a week, and last year he raked in $200,000. 

Read his story here.

Is it time for Mark Zuckerberg to step down?

Senior correspondent Linette Lopez thinks so — and she thinks it's the only way for him to save his empire.

In her latest analysis, Linette writes that Zuckerberg should let someone else manage Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, and then use his wealth and venture-capital connections to launch a startup that can build out his vision of the metaverse.

She explains why in her analysis. 

Also read:

• Meta's 'desperate' metaverse push to build features like avatar legs has Wall Street questioning the company's future

Miami homes are getting a fresh new look

Gone are the days of simple white-on-white decor in Miami homes. 

Wealthy residents from New York and California moved to southern Florida in droves during the pandemic — and changed the Magic City's aesthetic, according to Ray and Eilyn Jimenez, two of the top interior designers in Miami. 

How newcomers have changed Miami's feel.

This week's quote:

"I was a total tomboy. I couldn't understand why I was born a girl. What the hell is going on? I want to carry a knife! I want to be lighting fires with a flint and steel! I want to be a pioneer!" 

• "Mountain Girl" Carolyn Adams, Jerry Garcia's widow, in an interview with Insider. Read her account of what the age of free love was really like.

More of this week's top reads:

• #MeToo accusers, 5 years later: 8 survivors who catalyzed the movement and where they are now.
• The rich can use offshore life-insurance policies to pass down everything from stocks to yachts to their kids tax-free. Here's how it works. 
• It's official: The pandemic turned us all into jerks.
• Gene-editing companies are growing, even as biotech faces a downturn.
• Leaked Amazon slides instruct employees to "double down on frugality." 
• Equifax said it fired employees for working as many as 3 jobs at once.
• Publicly funded data, America's best tool to fight inflation and prevent recessions, is under threat. 

Plus: Keep updated with the latest business news throughout your weekdays by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here tomorrow.

Edited by Jordan Parker Erb and Lisa Ryan. Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.