TBPN and the Luxury Tier of the Creator Economy

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. “If we have 10 million subscribers we've pivoted. Something's gone wrong and we're not niche enough. The dopamine that comes from putting out a video that gets a bunch of views is very real, but we are not willing to let that guide the content. If we wanted to do that, we would get into politics. If we wanted to optimize for views, we'd get into sports.” On any given episode, 4,000 to 10,000 people will be watching live. It’s not huge relative to the rest of the creator economy, but it’s the right 4 to 10k, and that’s what matters. Jordi told us an average viewer online might have $5,000 in discretionary spending, whereas their audience of executives and VC’s could spend "$1 million a year on software" or invest "$100 million” into companies. To have a high-quality audience, you need to have an incredible clarity of audience. ## 2. Making a Show, Not a Company To make a show like TBPN 5 days a week, 3 hours a day, it takes extreme focus and commitment. As Jordi told us, “We’re building a show, not a company”. They aren’t looking to sell merch and create side-businesses from TBPN, their just looking to make the best possible show. Everything about the show is regimented. from the time they start their day (6:30am at the gym) to the suits they wear on camera. Their consistency of style, format, and quality allows them to build one of most impressive ad businesses we’ve ever seen in the creator economy. ## 3. Selling Ads Like Sports Teams During our conversation we learned something incredible about TBPN: In 2026 they’ll make 250 episodes, each with 20 host-read ads, amounting to 5,0000 ads in total. Those ad spots will be split across 20 year long sponsorship deals, each paying in the 6 to 7 figures. Jordi told us “a lot of creators are reluctant to do advertising. They're very embarrassed to do advertising. We had zero embarrassment around advertising early on.” They treat their ad partners like a Formula One team, wearing the logos proudly across TBPN merch and showcasing it clearly throughout the show with overlays. This is a clear break from the status quo in the creator economy and a primary reasons why they’ve been able to secure luxury rates for their luxury audience. Even the way they pitch is different. Their biggest deal of last year was with expense management company Ramp, and came to fruition via a physical deck that was hand delivered to executives. ## The Other Side of the Spectrum: MrBeast & McDonald’s If creators like TBPN, Acquired and Emily Sundberg represent the emerging luxury tier of the creator economy, MrBeast represents the mass-market tier, but not in a negative sense. McDonald’s didn’t become a global empire by serving the world’s most extraordinary and exclusive meal. It won by engineering a system that’s repeatable, predictable, and capable of delivering the same experience to everyone, everywhere, every time. MrBeast is the first creator to fully master that logic. Jimmy at the opening of his theme park ‘Beast Land’ in Saudi Arabia His content is built on algorithms the way McDonald’s is built on supply chains: high volume, high efficiency, high predictability. Every thumbnail, every story beat, every challenge is engineered to capture the broadest possible audience. He was the first to invest in dubbing his content into a multitude of languages at incredible quality, so that it can be enjoyed anywhere in the world. His goal is the attention of billions, not the admiration of a niche. And like McDonald’s, he does not hide it. Both are valid. Both are powerful. But they are opposite ends of the same spectrum. You can listen to our full conversation with John and Jordi of TBPN on Spotify.