The creator economy is entering a new phase of maturity and I'm not just saying that cause Colin and I have been making videos on YouTube for 15 years now. The past decade has been defined by exponential growth, lower barriers to entry, and algorithm-driven distribution. Overall, content supply feels like it’s starting to outpace demand. Audiences are overwhelmed with content options, while creators face increasing difficulty differentiating themselves in an environment where anyone can publish and anyone can go viral.
In industries where production becomes cheap and distribution becomes universal, the market always reorganizes around something new: identity, heritage, curation, and craft. These are the dynamics that have historically separated mass-market brands from luxury ones. Today, those dynamics are finally emerging inside the creator economy too.
How TBPN Became The Rolex of Podcasts
Amongst the 1,500 or so watch brands that exist globally, Rolex still stands alone. To wear a Rolex is to send a signal about your identity and more specifically your wallet.
What Rolex is to watches, TBPN is becoming for creator-led media.
TBPN stands for Technology Business Programming Network, or as the creators Jordi Hays and John Coogan described it to us, “SportsCenter for the Linkedin Crowd”.
At only a year old. their 5-day a week 3 hour live show has hosted guests like Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, and Mark Cuban.
Listening to TBPN has become a symbol inside certain circles of tech and business culture. Their tight-knit audience of founders, operators, investors, and executives is small but mighty. And while their viewership may pale in comparison to more mass-market shows like Hot Ones, their advertising rates do not. Like Rolex, luxury comes at a price.
We traveled to their Hollywood studio to speak with creators John and Jordi about their quick rise to their luxury status. Like Rolex, TBPN didn’t become luxury overnight. Their quick and strategic rise to luxury status stems from years of experience in the creator industry.
It boils down to 3 main reasons:
After recording with John and Jordi at their Hollywood Studio “The Ultradome”
1. Embracing ‘Anti-Scale’
According to John their maximum audience is capped at 200,000.