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The Rebooting Show · Yesterday · 50 min

Inside the knowledge creator business

Josh Kaplan is co-founder and CEO of Smooth Media, a talent management company for knowledge creators: people like Joanna Stern, Matt Wolf, Cat GPT and the Breaking and Entering guys. Smooth started out selling newsletter and consulting services to creators. It found its footing by doing the opposite: bringing in sponsor revenue and taking a 20% commission. Josh and I talk about why most of their creators are video-first, why they moved away from taking equity, what it means that a top creator now owns a piece of Smooth, and who carries the risk when creators start throwing events. Chapters: 01:32 Smooth Media Origin Story 09:12 Video First Knowledge Creators 14:33 Monetization And Talent Model 27:40 Creator Equity Partner 36:49 Events and Creator Ops 48:31 Talent Management

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Josh Kaplan is co-founder and CEO of Smooth Media, a talent management company for knowledge creators: people like Joanna Stern, Matt Wolf, Cat GPT and the Breaking and Entering guys. Smooth started out selling newsletter and consulting services to creators. It found its footing by doing the opposite: bringing in sponsor revenue and taking a 20% commission. Josh and I talk about why most of their creators are video-first, why they moved away from taking equity, what it means that a top creator now owns a piece of Smooth, and who carries the risk when creators start throwing events.

Chapters:

  • 01:32 Smooth Media Origin Story

  • 09:12 Video First Knowledge Creators

  • 14:33 Monetization And Talent Model

  • 27:40 Creator Equity Partner

  • 36:49 Events and Creator Ops

  • 48:31 Talent Management

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