STUDY ACQUISITIONS

“She basically pointed out that TBPN's style is really uniquely suited for a company like OpenAI, where quote, the standard communications playbook just doesn't apply. So I think like if you kind of read between the lines there, basically they're saying traditional PR isn't enough for OpenAI. It's one of these really consequential technologies shaping what's happening.”

“I think once all this is finalized, TBPN is going to sit under OpenAI's strategy team. They're going to report to Leon, who's a long time political strategist. He's often described as a practitioner of the quote, political dark arts. Lehman also played a big role in shaping a lot of the different political narratives inside of Washington, including the crypto industry SuperPAC, FairShake.”

“But I think for this creator model, the way that I think about it is, like, if at you're as a creator, you are almost like, a label of sorts. Right? You're attracting people that are interested in the things you have to say and your experiences, etcetera. And when you start to build this, like, audience or community, what people don't realize is that your audience is probably likely to get along really well.”

“My mom quit her job, in choosing tech sales, big tech career, and, bought a house in Italy, started documenting that. She found that a lot of, you know, people, her core audience were these, like, middle aged women that had the money to spend, like, a very valuable demographic, and they, like, love to travel, and wanted, like, experiences to go to. So she's like, let me start hosting some retreats. And some of them were, like, real estate focused in terms of people that wanted to to move abroad, and others were just, like, for fun. But that's been kind of, like, her surprise business model of sorts is she's got a she's got a paid Substack community. She's making money through her retreats”

“They said that their team is still going to have quote, run their program, choose their guests and make their own editorial decisions. So even if OpenAI owns them, they're allowed to say whatever they want. I was actually reading some tweets by the founders, and they were like, look, sometimes we've been critical of OpenAI, and we hope to still be critical of them and other people in the future.”

“And, like, even with me, like, I struggled for a while because I was like, I'm building my personal brand. It's under me. And I was like and I wrote from a newsletter. It was just my name. And I was like, no. I need an entity that feels like it could grow from beyond just me when eventually I will have two you know, not enough time to to build this out. And so I think that does derisk you in a way. So you build your personal brand, and then you say, I'm building this as a brand, as a business, as a community, what have you.”

“And I think just this week, Plaid bought this week in fintech, which, again, is not a traditional, like, creator in terms of how it's more of a traditional newsletter brand. But, again, it proves that same model, as we've been seeing, like, works. And I think with with creators, we're we're seeing a lot of, like, investment in terms of, you know, people want, like, a face to the brand”

“But I think the big the big opportunity here and I've been trying to do a lot of research around this in terms of how many creators out there actually, you know, have x amount of followers, have this money and they're not doing newsletter. And, like, there's a lot. There's a lot of people that are they're leaving it on the table, and and and what would that look like if if they kind of expand into their own audience?”

“Well, like, something cool like Jay Klaus is doing. So he's got his, you know, high ticket creator science community. And they're just pegging it to the conference, to the the kids' Craft and Commerce conference. So it's like, can you peg it to something that people are already traveling for? Like, I think there's ways you could get, you know, creative with it, basically.”

“So, salary transparent, she started as a TikTok account, and you might have seen them if you're on social media where they go up and, like, interview people on the street and ask them how much money do you make. And they obviously think that The US go viral. It's, you know, been this, like, cult sensation. And I think most creators might just stop there. They say, I've got a million followers. I'm getting brand deals. I'm good. What else is even possible here? And, you know, from the early days, I felt like she and eventually had you know, has a little bit of a team behind her. It's built more intentionally as, like, how do we actually expand this as a business”

“I mean, I wouldn't say there's a typical number. I think you would be well, you wouldn't be surprised given the nature of what you what you do, but most people would be surprised at the amount of people that are running 7 figure businesses, and it's them a couple of, you know, maybe some contractors, maybe one employee, and, you know, some VAs and things. Like, I think that is really that lean creator business that is very, very successful.”

“OpenAI has just acquired the popular tech show TBPN, the Technology Business Programming Network. This is OpenAI's first big move into owning a media company, but this isn't a classic media company, right? They're not buying the New York Times, or, you know, the Wall Street Journal or something. They're buying kind of one of these up-and-coming tech shows that has only been around for 18 months.”

“OpenAI right now is planning to kind of go beyond just owning the show. They're also going to tap the founders, what they said, they're, quote, amazing comms and marketing instincts. So I think beyond just like, hey, we want to get like this kind of YouTube channel that does AI news, they want to grab those founders and they want to get their communications and their communications instincts.”