The New Media Playbook with Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz

[00:01] going to dive into all things new media. What is new media? What the new media team is doing here at A16Z, what we're focused on, where we're going in 2026. focused on, where we're going in 2026. Really stoked to be making this happen.

[00:17] summarizes some of the some of the one of the main principles of of new media. I just want to, you know, read a small small part of it and then have you elaborate. Uh old media is defense-oriented and in new media

[00:30] offense is always better than defense. We've spent many years fretting about our results being leaked. Old media tries to please every audience. Old media is terrified of upsetting people and new media only cares about being

[00:42] zone. >> Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like something I said. >> W- Why don't you share some of the tenets behind that idea and how you came to it?

[00:55] how you came to it? >> Yeah, so I actually it's interesting um from you know, I mean, I spent my whole career in old media or dealing with old media and now we're in new media.

[01:09] firm we've been the the one thing that we really really really really defended against was basically leaked results. And uh the reason and it goes back to

[01:23] in the pretty early days of the firm, uh the New York Times got a leak of our results. And they they were very I mean, we were like a young year old. Um

[01:38] and you know, venture capital firms don't have high returns in the first year cuz like nothing happens in the first year. It's not like a stock market type thing. And so, you know, that

[01:51] Street Journal. I mean, one of the two, but they misinterpreted the results. Um the early funds were good cuz those had enough years to get kind of returns in them, but like fund three was terrible and like da da da da da and so forth."

[02:07] and like da da da da da and so forth." And there was no, um, you know, because old media was still powerful, it was very hard to combat it. and that and the other and blog posts but explaining like why they were wrong,

[02:21] um, but it didn't land and it was such a like a inside the firm it was such a big crisis that actually I'm pretty sure Balaji quit because he thought we were dead cuz the New York

[02:33] Times had just like ruined the whole firm with that uh article. Um, so it was firm with that uh article. Um, so it was like that kind of existential a threat. And so, you know, we were very oriented around like, "Okay, don't let anything

[02:48] out that could be misinterpreted or this or that cuz you can never correct it. It kind of come back from it." >> And and and say more about the the flood the zone concept in terms of of of why it works or or or you know, why and and

[03:02] why it's so different than uh than you know, what happened in the past. >> Yeah, well, so in the past the traditionally it didn't count if it wasn't in the Wall

[03:14] Street Journal or the New York Times or like the Economist or CNN or like there maybe eight channels that could say something and then whatever they said

[03:26] was permanent and that like once it was out there, it was very hard to deal results like the whole thing. Um, but now you know, like we can go on, Mark and I,

[03:41] if it we really had a problem could go on 30 podcasts, uh, all of which get a much bigger audience than any of the publications I talked about. Um, and just basically And we wouldn't have to talk about that.

[03:55] more interesting. Um, and erase that from everybody's memory very quickly. So, it's just you know, without commenting on what's a better world like the laws of physics are completely different in this world

[04:09] than the other world. And I I think to be effective uh, as a organization in marketing and media you have to like you you have to embrace the new world because you can't be half and half. The

[04:25] because the whole motion of the old world will kill you in the new world. and vice versa. And so, you have to kind of commit to about what goes down through the old channels or we're not going to give a

[04:40] Um, sorry to use language and we're just going to you know, say interesting things and flood the zone. And uh, we're doing the latter by the way. history to this. But but basically like the the the whole idea that there's like

[04:53] quote unquote corporate brand. Like the whole idea that there's like a corporate that there you like as a business you basically load everything into that into thing you know, whether it's General Electric or International Business

[05:06] idea that that thing is somehow abstracted away from the people involved, you know, their main job is to kind of you know, led to this you know, you know,

[05:18] this like maybe your kind of reign of like everything being synthetic and the you know, we we Ben and I have had this experience for many many decades at this point. Um, it's just like you know, the the the job of a corporate CEO for a

[05:30] and just say absolutely nothing in any sort of public public event. Um, I I actually was on a board of the CEO who very firmly uh, believed this. Um, and uh, he literally would come off stage having having very deliberately

[05:43] been thrilled. Um, because like he he had made no news of like mission mission accomplished, right? And anyway, so Eric, to your question, like basically I what happened was basically in the past your communication channels were just

[05:56] like super narrow, right? And so and so how could you get a message through to to your customer base? Um, in a message that was encoded into as few bits as possible, right? Cuz that

[06:08] was kind of your only shot because it was always limited by you know, TV newspaper column inches or whatever. And so you just you had to kind of crystallize everything down to this kind of min minimal and sort of least

[06:20] position. But but it's always been a natural does like it it never felt right. Like, you know, it always felt like weird cuz thing. You know, it it always felt weird and

[06:33] got used to it and it just, you know, it turns out as as as our friend Mitt Romney famously said, corporations are people, too. Um, and right? And like poor Mitt. Yeah, he was using it in a different

[06:47] context. Uh, he he was not he was not calling to change in PR, but um but uh you know, for our purposes, um you know, like this is Like when when you know, when a when a big company or a government agency or a

[07:01] nonprofit or a venture firm or a startup is like making decisions and acting in know, there's there there there are you know, there there are some set of people decision. And I and I just think like and and then it's kind of you know, it's

[07:14] shock therapy or something where it's just like the calls actually like show up and talk on their own behalf and explain think it like blows everybody's minds, right? It's just it's just, you know,

[07:26] response people have to, you know, Elon and the response people have to, you notable in the environment who are running large large things who are very thing of like and it's just it's almost

[07:38] like, well, wait a minute. Number one, they can say that, like, you know, Like, they're allowed to say, you know, whatever they want. Number one. Number how about they actually tell us what they think? Like, how about we hear

[07:51] actually understand what they're thinking and who they are, you know, and the what their assumptions are. Um and and of course the the technological cost that narrow media funnel just got like completely blown to smithereens, right?

[08:04] the work that, you know, that we that, you know, all of us have done uh on this call over the last 30 years. And so, like, it it's just, you know, and you could kind of maybe say, you know, love it or hate it, like, the the the the the

[08:16] narrowcasting and then what I would argue is just this like inherently deceptive practice um of abstracting things away from people. I you know, Um and in the new world we're we're just going to hear direct from people. And I,

[08:29] I'm not a utopian and it's not going to be like 100% better, but I I think improvement. >> Yeah, and by the way, you know, the other um thing that's really interesting in

[08:41] retrospect is the things that people got in trouble for, uh canceled for, fired for, etc. in the past that they said in the press were

[08:53] all just misinterpretations. So, they, you know, was somebody saying something and because it was so narrow and because you could never erase it and because you could never come back and defend it because the audience would be,

[09:07] the defense. You know, people just it was all it wasn't I said what I thought and people thought I was a horrible person. It was I said something, it got misinterpreted, and people thought I was a horrible

[09:21] person. So, now in this world where like, you know, people say much more like aggressive things, I would just say in terms of, you know, not being mainstream thinking, but have room to explain it. Um they

[09:35] like, I mean, everything from like Howard Dean to you know, you name it. Like, in today's world, that that would be nothing. Um, but in that world, because there was no

[09:48] chance to say, "Well, like, this is what happened." Um, you know, like, there there were just thousands of times when people have gotten to incredible trouble for things that they

[10:01] said that were misinterpreted uh that they could not correct. >> Yeah. And and Eric, you know, Ben Ben gave me good advice, you know, actually trying my best to stick to, although I will tell you it is a significant

[10:13] >> Um, again, was not eating an entire box of Oreos and drinking an entire bottle also trying not to do. Um, so, cuz we live in a healthy world now. So, um, uh less self-destructive world. So, um,

[10:27] you know, Ben Ben Ben pointed out that like the see the what Ben just said actually just as much as the old world in in the sense of like when every time decade, it's because I tweeted something.

[10:39] here probably knows how much I love Twitter and like it's great to be able really good at like compressing something super controversial in 140 rip with 280 characters. But Ben pointed out like, "Look, every time every time

[10:51] every just gets like completely ripped at you over over that, basically what's and so what what Ben said is, "Look, say it on a podcast. Right? Say say it in the context of an hour and a half

[11:03] is, you've surrounded it with the full explanation, or say it in the form of an articulated your argument and and it's fully in context." Um, and and just playing to myself, but just more broadly, it's actually interesting if

[11:17] public figures get blown to smithereens, it's almost always because of something that's basically too short. Um, when people actually do the full think, even if it's on a highly controver you know, even if it's imputed

[11:29] it's the full explanation, it is again and again, you could kind of say it's actually really funny. know, the moral panic was around television, right? Kind of pre pre the

[11:41] lot of moral panic in television always was around the concept of sound bites, 5 seconds of what anybody's thoughts are. Right? And somehow television is information transmission. The internet's evil. Like somehow it all flipped. But

[11:54] internet gives us the chance to not only express ourselves like in short form. chance to express ourselves in long form. Right? And fully explain things. And that's that's just so different. Like the the the the hour hour and a

[12:07] who's like deeply into something and is really involved in something. Like yeah, consumers. Like it's just so much better than the than the 30-second bit that, Nightly News 30 years ago. >> And by the way, you know, the long form

[12:23] of almost anything that's interesting, complex, a systems problem, um which is most everything in politics and in technology, sound bite that gives you any information.

[12:39] Um and so you have to have uh a long conversation. So it is actually much Or is it really? As far as thing

[12:51] sugar, you know, using bones or whatever to be whiter, that kind of thing. I'm going to eat a gigantic package of Oreos tonight. Deborah's on her. I really appreciate it. >> The Oh yeah, it's We've also talked

[13:04] about, you know, media training in the past. Used to be around sort of, you kind of thing. And that now you you know, if you're a CEO, you want to be, from TV personality's concept of a Joe Rogan CEO. I mean someone interesting

[13:17] hours, you know, someone like an Alex Karp, someone like a Palmer Lucky, right? And um is in And the flip side of that is that know, if you're powerful, you're you're it's because you're interesting. Uh cuz

[13:33] know, people want to be customers of. It's people want to invest in. Um and if going to be controversial. And and and that's something that you guys have also helped me get more more more accustomed to is like, "Hey,

[13:46] we we you know, this is the big leagues. You know, and there are people like who are going to be mad at what we're doing. And and that is that that's a In some ways, that's a good thing. That's That's evidence of our of our power and and our

[13:58] >> Yeah, no, I think that's right. And I think it you know, it's hard th- th- between the old world and the new world cuz if you're a corporate brand, then you know, you try and keep all the dust off the brand and and, you know,

[14:12] try and be uh something that nobody hates. Uh then, you know, I think in today's world, to be good at marketing, you've got to be interesting. To be interesting If

[14:25] are going to be a lot of people who don't like you. Um and that's like that's a good thing. Um and I was very happy to see by the way the infrared piece cuz we can get like a nice piece on like a

[14:39] ever going to write like a really nice thing about the law firm. Um I think that it's a This whole new world is much better for

[14:51] founder CEOs because to be a founder, you have to have an original idea. And original ideas are interesting by nature. I think that professional CEOs um often get to that position through very

[15:05] careful politicking, which uh kind of is the opposite where you want to be uncontroversial. Like nobody can ding you right as you get to them thing. And you know, Mark and I have uh been on, you know, Mark much more than me, but

[15:19] boards, you know, when it comes to picking the professional CEO they're all about what's not wrong with Not what's right with him. Or what's right with her. And so, you get these

[15:31] very vanilla characters who definitely could not go on Joe Rogan. And that, you know, is all to our advantage cuz we basically deal almost entirely with founder CEOs. >> I want to uh transition to one more

[15:45] structural mechanic cuz it's a segue into how we've built our team a little bit. And it's um this uh market system of McLuhan quote, you know, if it's on TV, it's a TV show. Um and just talk about how the different

[15:57] formats yield different different types of content. Um >> Yeah, yeah. >> Okay. All right. Okay. This is the thing. Okay. So, yeah, Marshall McLuhan was the great media theorist of the of

[16:09] is actually held up really well. And it's it's it's it's worth reading. Um but uh he he had the he had this this thing that Eric just said. He said, "If if it's on TV, it's a television show." Um In other words, like basically the

[16:21] he said, "The medium is the message." Um basically, what he said is like, "Look, like TV TV is a specific kind of technology. It's a specific kind of like all of the questions around TV are like, you know, is it a is you know,

[16:35] only real parameter is length. Like, is it a 3-minute news segment? Is it a 20-minute sitcom? Is it a 40-minute drama? Like, there there there's very can do cuz it's just a linear you know, it's just a straight you know, just you

[16:47] broadcast video. And so, he said, you know, basically, the medium in its first know, basically, the concept of what we now know to be a television show, which is basically either a comedy or a drama or or combination of the both. And it's

[16:59] little story that plays out over 20 to 40 minutes. And it kind of has to be a when people are going to watch it. And you know, now they're doing you know, They're doing serial stories. But you know, television shows properly

[17:11] everything was a one-off. You can watch episodes out of order. And so, there's self-contained little basically, you know, plays, little stage plays there are these self-contained little stories and then and then they need to

[17:24] an emotional medium. Uh right, it's not like an information dense medium. It's it's a it's a medium that literally put somebody in your living room. Um and so little morality plays, right? Where there's and there's got to be like good

[17:37] simplistic story and there's like a few, you know, a few mild plot twists and And he And he said sort of the consequence to that is like everything show and that includes everything in the real world that gets talked about on

[17:50] television show. Right? And and and this is kind of, you know, the running joke know whatever current events or politics on TV right now, which is you you kind on either party, which is just kind of like, "Oh, you know, that you know, you

[18:03] the next season. Oh, you know, this is the new, you know, is the new secondary plot that's happening." And if you watch CNN every with these stories you know, kind of over time the way that a the way that a

[18:15] soap opera might or that a, you know, that a that a that a that a that a drama comedy might. And so so basically we we've just like lived in a world where show. Um and it's and it's a world where like all the edges are sanded off and

[18:28] professional and everything is kind of within this very narrow band of what can be put into these kind of little little morality plays. Okay, so Marshall I I assert that if he were alive today, he would say, "If it's if it's on the

[18:41] internet, it's a viral internet post." Right? So like what's the native medium of the internet? Like what's the thing that what's the form of media on the internet that like rips and dominates? And it's clearly the viral post, right?

[18:54] it's the viral Tik Tok, it's the viral Instagram, right? It's the it's the it's the viral Facebook post, it's the viral Substack, it's the viral YouTube video. specifically it's the viral post. Like it's it it's the one that really rips.

[19:07] so basically, you're right, right. So my theory is, if it's on on internet, just ask yourself two questions, which is like, okay, what's the characteristic out of 10 it's something that like really gets people cranked up, right?

[19:20] Like on whatever topic, right? It might be on whatever your favorite pop star whatever, you know, a politician said or it might be on whatever, you know, a like it's something that like causes people to like flip out, right? You

[19:33] flip out positively, some people flip out negatively. Something caused people with viral posts that's really interesting is you can actually observe rapid rise. Like they tend to if if

[19:45] take off within like 12 hours. And then they spike like crazy as everybody it around and talks about it. And then there's basically this like half-life fall off where like within 24 it's like 12 hours up and then it's like 20 24

[19:57] hours down. And then 36 hours later it's like gone from our collective memory. And the reason is because another one has popped up and has taken off instead. kind of chart the media landscape that we've all been living in for the last

[20:10] but you know, you could even say probably 10 years. What what we've learned through is just literally just like thousands of cycles Um okay, is you know, is this good or bad or something in the middle? You can

[20:23] know, I would argue it's it's its own form of emotionality, right? It's it's and so that, you know, it's sort of things that are controversial. And so it interesting, right? And then the other part is, you know, the the people get a

[20:37] just up to a news producer what what shows up on TV. So there there there's that aspect to it. Um another aspect to it, by the way, is that stories come and there will be some thing that pops and

[20:49] it's like the world's biggest crisis in whatever sector it's talking about and has an opinion. This is where I I was using a while back the the the meme of thing. Everybody has to have an opinion on the current thing. It's the most

[21:01] 24 hours later it's like it never happened because something else, right, that leads to, you know, the new the new version of the old time on a strategy of like just like basically make sure something else, you know,

[21:15] You know, gets get something else elevated into that thing. So there you this way to kind of kind of deal with these things. But But anyway, I just the medium of choice, we're going to live in a world in which this is what it

[21:29] you know, this is the cycle now. It's like a 24-36 hour cycle. By the way, the newspapers and television, like at least the way I read them, is they're basically covering whatever was the viral post like yesterday or a week ago.

[21:42] driven by the internet viral post, which is which is you know, which is why I viral post is is the higher order thing. And and I also think like that that's the whole long thing I could do on that, but like they literally if you're a

[21:54] producer or if you're a news editor or whatever, like you you can't possibly stay ahead of these cycles. And so what you end up doing is you end up chasing of mainstream media for the rest of our life is just going to be to follow the

[22:07] >> Yeah, I never saw a funny joke on the Daily Show years ago where they were said, "Why do you call it news? You should call it olds."

[22:19] >> He It was he was interviewing at the time the managing editor of the New York New York Times, you know, was expecting to get this glowing coverage on the in the office and says says what Benja said. And the guy and the editor is just

[22:31] clearly has no idea what the Daily Show "Well, like what do you mean?" And he's like he points to there's like a pile of guy's desk. And he says like, "Look, it's it's all old news." And he says

[22:43] he's like, "No, no, it's yesterday's paper. Like I already know everything that's in that." Like you know, and so yeah, and and like it's just basically very proud of this. They have their editorial process, they have their

[22:57] multi-layer you know, bureaucratic mechanism for you know, all all the news it's at least a 24-hour cycle to figure that out. And I mean, and you know, 24 moved on from whatever the last thing was. And so, it's just it's it's a it's

[23:10] chasing the car, except now they have to chase it like every single day, which time. >> Yeah, they are pissed. people who really understand the platform, not just how the platform

[23:24] works technically, but also the the vibe and the taste and the and the spirit of of of the platform. And and we've gone all in to start um on on X because that and where where people are the most plugged in.

[23:38] >> Almost of tech world is on X, you know, like it or not. Like our world lives on X um just because that's also where all the

[23:52] AI influencers and the crypto influence and like like everybody in our world lives there uh you know, at least in part. So, we can't avoid it even if we didn't like it.

[24:05] But we love it. >> Were you about to say something, Mark? yeah, I know like what Ben said is yeah, so like this is a I posted a link to a the the old characterization is elites and masses, which is a little bit 20th

[24:19] people who are spending 24 hours a day trying to understand, you know, you know, politics or whatever, like they they're on X. Like that and that mass market. Like that's not most of humanity, but like that's most of the

[24:32] what you might I don't know what you want to call like knowledge synthesis trying to like understand and formulate policies on things and and so forth. Um TikTok and Instagram, you know, have just like much more reach. Like they're

[24:45] you know, they they reach the mass kind of global audience But if if you're on the leading edge of a field like I, you know, it's it's very lead, you know, kind of the edge of that

[24:58] propagation, people, you know, in positions of of authority kind of That's almost all entirely on us. >> By the way, this is another huge difference between old media and new media. So, if you come from old media

[25:12] world, there's just reach. >> Right. Like the targets, you know, if you were going for a target audience, um there was no real easy way to do it on I mean,

[25:26] sports, you'd be in Sports Illustrated whatever, but like there wasn't really a way to do it. Um but now with podcasts and and blogs and X and so forth, you can go to an exact audience. You can really get down to an extremely

[25:42] narrow target in new media world. And, you know, for us that's great cuz the audience our audience is founders, um not the world, uh and so, you know, having a way to talk to 90% of founders as opposed to 4% of

[25:58] the world is just a much better thing for us. The the two two more structural things that Mark I want you to explain and then slides, you know, give some detail about what we're doing

[26:11] that that that relate to what I'm about to say. One is I want you to explain the loop and and why, you know, that that makes Twitter and and social media so much more powerful in terms of, you know, forming consensus. Um and then the

[26:24] other is the difference between written and oral culture and and and what's transition to oral. >> Yeah. Okay, so these are both long topics and so I'll try to do the the CliffNotes version. Um yeah, so um

[26:37] but in in in in military theory there there's this concept called maneuver warfare, which basically just says like speed speed wins. Like speed speed wins speed wins. And so, if if you if you believe that, then there's basically

[26:49] this frame there's this framework called called the OODA loop, uh OODA loop, uh fighter pilots and then later for for broader military strategy. Um and the OODA loop what what OODA stands for is an acronym um it stands

[27:03] for observe, orient, decide, act. Um and so it's basically the decision-making cycle, right? And so and observe is like view the outside world, orient is like figure out where you are in respect to the outside world. Um decide, of course,

[27:15] decide what to do, act uh act and and basically what this guy Boyd who came up with this idea said was like any military opera- any fighter pilot, any military operation, any, you know, basketball player, any um you know,

[27:27] basketball player, any um you know, company, any government um um basically goes through a a decision-making cycle that's like that in order to make York Times has their own OODA loop. It's like 24 hours to go through their

[27:39] like 24 hours to go through their process. Um uh right? And so um and so basically what he said is like if if speed is the thing that matters, then win. But he said, "There's a second-order thing that happens." So one

[27:52] than the than the other guys? So so that's one question. But he said the other thing that can happen is if if you if you can have a sustainably faster guy, um then if you think about what happens like let's say it takes, you

[28:06] figure something out, it takes the other guy 2 hours to figure something out. Uh think about what happens is like okay, you start out on even playing field. Um you both start your your your your decision-making cycles. Um you operate

[28:19] hour. The other guy is still let's say is inside his own OODA loop when you make your decision, you act within an hour. He's only halfway through his process. He now has to start his process over, right? Cuz cuz you've changed the

[28:32] of what's going on. So he now has to go back and re-observe and reorient and course project forward. It's like okay, then you decide again within an hour and gets halfway through his process, he gets interrupted. Um he has to go back.

[28:46] be sustainably faster at running your decision loop, you can get inside the other guy's loop in a in a systematic and perpetual way and and basically the Uh basically you you destroy the psychology of the side because they just

[28:59] operate or function at all. They just like basically go into complete panic. never get oriented. They can never make decisions. They can never They become completely defensive, completely responsive. You completely dominate, you

[29:11] and he you know, he was he was a famous fighter pilot. He was a famous fighter pilot called 15-second Boyd because he his claim was which was pilot in a dogfight within 15 seconds using this method. And so it's basically

[29:25] this this this premium on speed and quality of execution such that you are have a psychological break. Um by the way, like again, going back to explanation for what's happened to traditional media. The The fact that the

[29:38] internet moves events so much faster and the sort of internet collective crowd causes all the people who were television producers or news editors who narrative to just basically have a psychological breakdown. Like how how

[29:50] internet is just basically cycling much faster than you could. And I think this does, you know, to his competitors like in the defense, you know, in the Anduril's now doing in companies in the defense industry.

[30:03] try to do, you know, to our competitors in the venture industry. have to be willing to commit to being fast, right? Um and so you you can't you can't have long bureaucratic processes. You can't have, you know, a you know, a

[30:17] know, stress, you know, you you need enough time to make the Um you know, but you you can't you can't run the fully deliberate, um you know, have in the past where it was days to weeks to months to figure out, you know,

[30:30] something. Um by the way, in in politics they adapted to this probably 30 years ago uh with the concept of the war room. Um and there's a famous documentary in the Clinton campaign in I think in '88 uh or the called the war room where they

[30:42] rapid response and if you if you if you operation on the internet right now, um, you know, they'll have an X account response. So it's like the actually Department of War has one just as

[30:54] response and it's literally like they're responding in real time to stuff that's um, you know, everybody else's Udal Loop. yeah, the the the oral versus written thing is it's it it would probably take

[31:07] thing, but yeah, the the longest short of it is there's basically fundamental modes. There's oral communication, there's written communication, you know, is the original

[31:20] literally as like people around a campfire telling stories, singing songs, Um, you can think about written communication would be, you know, kind of famously the book, um, or the scientific journal article, right, or

[31:33] the math equation, um, or the business plan, right? Um, you know, you know, a a written artifact. Um, and then basically the characteristic of a a reality or oral communication is it's it's sort of inherently emotion first,

[31:45] literally, you know, live interactions with another person. Um, communication is sort of abstraction, you know, and you know, hopefully logic, the scientific method, you know, intellectual rigor, analytical rigor.

[31:58] it it used to be the case that you could kind of really divide these, you know, to be the case you could say that like newspapers and magazines were written and more dispassionate. You could say, you know, television was oral, right? It

[32:12] so it was going to be much more emotional and hot-headed. You know, basically like, you know, that that that's all broken down cuz of everything version of that is like the internet. Like, okay, is the internet an oral

[32:24] out the answer is the internet's both cuz the internet is everything, right? It it supports every kind of media. Um, and so a YouTube video, I will say for sure a short form Tik Tok or Instagram reel for sure is oral culture.

[32:37] bursty and emotional and and and interpersonal and it's experience. Um a written culture. Uh but then things get more complicated because a short tweet, even though it's written, is actually an oral culture

[32:51] short means it has to be like this again this sort of this burst of of of of of sort of say triggering emotionality uh in order to go viral. So so actually even though they look written. And then long-form podcasts are actually written

[33:04] right? Cuz if you're going to talk about something for 3 hours, like that's necessarily something where you're kind of getting into abstractions in depth, moment of emotion. Um and so the internet lets you kind of play with

[33:17] these formats and and and the kind of impact that you want to have um in a way of determined by exactly fixed which fixed media you were in. Uh and and and want to have the internet experience of like doomscrolling and getting really

[33:30] TikTok and X and you can do that. If you want to have like learn a lot of stuff, YouTube podcasts and you can live in that world and like you can like, you it you know, it's absolutely amazing. And so there is a choose your own

[33:42] adventure aspect to it. Um and um and then of course, you know, we you know, hard about how we communicate because of of the differences. >> I I love that as a segue cuz it just emphasizes how different every platform

[33:56] is and it's not, you know, a lot of people or companies will just, you know, you know, across every platform, but it doesn't fully appreciate um you know, what that platform is built for and what that platform rewards. And so for every

[34:10] platform that we have, we have a, you know, with Substack, podcast, Instagram, you know, uh X, YouTube, etc., we have expert running it who is obsessed with with that with that medium. Uh you know, on Instagram

[34:24] we're up 35% you know, month over month right now. We have this guy Hero who's uh who's 18 years old and has been, you know, grew up on on Instagram and and um and and and that really matters. That

[34:38] makes a difference. And and so with with that as a segue, I want to do a share just a few slides that just show um a little bit about what we've what we've done so far. Second.

[34:51] what we're you know, really trying to do is is is king make our companies, right? is is is king make our companies, right? Is is is give them such a a superpower in terms of reaching their customers, in terms of reaching their their talent.

[35:06] the superpower that companies like Anduril have to punch way above their their weight class and and and other brands you know, wish that they they had that level of of of resonance, that level of reach. We're we're we're you

[35:18] superpowers and we do that by by building our own channels, our own you know, media empire across platforms. We do that by making sure that we know everybody else who's got those

[35:32] screen share. But everybody else who's got those powers of distribution and and having great relationships with them. And then also by just you know, making sure that we have the expertise

[35:45] to be able to deploy to our companies as well. You know, Lulu put this put this well, you know, that people don't really invest enough in in in people running these these platforms and you know, we've really

[35:58] spent a lot of time recruiting the the right expert talent to to do it. So, I'm had them build our platforms, we're going to deploy them to to work on behalf of our companies. And so, we're we're you know,

[36:12] Kaster from Applied Intuition, you know, he's he's always been I was an angel in he's always been complaining of like, "Hey, you know, why are we not valued more? Or why do we not have more resonance? Why do people you know, why

[36:24] companies not not our company given how good we are. And I've I'm Is it Kasser, life. How do you expect to have tremendous tremendous mind share? And he he finally, you know, thanks to a lot of pushing that that we did, bit the

[36:38] 4,000 likes. And you know, the first product we have, I'll get to it in a second, was this launch as a service. Um the second one is going to be this this we're working with Kasser, we're working with Garrett from Flock Safety. You

[36:51] should be at the stature of a Anduril as well. And and I really helped them build that machine. So, speaking of the launch as a service early on I was asking, you know, some of

[37:04] the GPs, "Hey, what would Where could we make the biggest difference? Like, what And you know, Cyrus said, "If we could get guarantee a viral announcement, you know, I I I I think that'd be a super power for us." So, so we built out this

[37:17] this launch as a service. Um you know, everything soup to nuts from from, you know, all the all the social media copy, the messaging, the um you know, the the the rollout. We we created these custom videos. You know, we we hired Richard,

[37:30] another 18-year-old who uh you know, we convinced him to go straight from high school to the MBA, i.e., not go to college, or at least not right now. And Cruelty video. Uh and um and uh the browser-based

[37:44] video. And he's just got this, you know, phenomenal um taste for for what really does well. And so, we we built this video team, Richard, Ben, you know, Henry, you know, has really led this led this product. And and you could see the

[37:57] the views here. It's it's it's just done phenomenally well. Um you know, millions companies. We've now scaled up this offering to be to to offer it to to all of our companies. And um that that's our first product. After

[38:11] saying, "Hey, you know, how do I hire people like fellowship was born to to help us hire them, but also help help our companies hire them. And so, uh because, you know, there's this sweet

[38:24] spot where you need to be online enough to really know the the the have taste and and have sensibility and understand these new platforms, but um you need also need to be functioning enough and professional enough to work

[38:39] there's not many people can can can do both. And so, we've really um you know, tried to create this this uh this program to be able to identify these people and then just give them a little bit more sort of technical know-how. And

[38:55] so, our first fellowship uh we you know, 2,000 applications, we picked 65 people. We think we think they're incredible. Um we two hires from us came came from that so so far. Um and we think this is going to be a franchise um to come. And and

[39:10] the other part of it I'll just leave is um popularizing this term new media. Seeing a number of people with, you know, new media. They they're they're they're looking for that. And I think we're uh

[39:26] popularized American Dynamism and other people have American Dynamism practices, with Newbie. And so, it's cool to to see our thought leadership there. our thought leadership there. Um and uh you know, more to uh

[39:41] the things I'll I'll leave you with in our our our presentation. The um you know, our our channels are are up um tremendously and we're going to continue to to invest in them. We um we've got this portfolio offering launch as a

[39:54] service. We're we're, you know, now launching our go direct motion and companies do that. It has to come from the CEO. So, every engagement we do, the CEO is is tremendously engaged. Um and

[40:07] new media category creation, this new media talent base for for us cuz we're continuing to hire, um but then also our our our our our our >> I'm I would just say that I

[40:21] you know, particularly if you've spent time in uh the prior media regime, um you know, of old media. You know, you really have to rethink

[40:34] every instinct that you have cuz it's it's one of the are wrong. I mean, we're actually experiencing a little bit of this in AI, great post on, which is like in the old world of software, the one thing you

[40:51] knew is you couldn't throw money at a problem. And now you can throw money at a problem. And so like you don't even realize how much of your you don't even realize how much of your thinking is affected by that old rule.

[41:03] you know, I would say this is that in spades where like every single instinct you have is incorrect if you're in this world, and you just have to let it all go. And this is why you know, this is people lament,

[41:19] the right wing built this big podcast network and blah blah." That's not what Trump just understood new media. For whatever I don't know why he did cuz he's so old and he's been in old media the whole time. But like he just rolled

[41:34] right into it and you know, not at a technological level, but as a media. technological level, but as a media. Uh as a medium. And I think that you know, we've got to do that. We have to understand uh and and we have to kind

[41:47] >> Uh all my favorite comedians, podcasters, etc. always tell their guests, "Don't read the comments." Uh what do you guys think? Do the manic Reddit posters drive you nuts? I have not dived into our podcast comment

[42:00] Reddit. Not surprising. little conference I've been at while at A16Z has always had an A16Z fanboy Eric, read the contents or read the comments, don't read the comments.

[42:14] >> Uh, don't read the comments if they're going to affect what you say. Um, it's it's kind of like the Yelp problem, you know, people who care love it or absolutely hate it, and we we've definitely got at this point I I I

[42:29] comments. But, uh, you know, I um I well, you know, and Mark and Ben have helped me not not get too concerned about some of the some of the commentary on Twitter by, you know, certain anonymous,

[42:43] uh, Twitter posters who who, you know, raging in their basements, et cetera. But, yeah, in short, don't read the comments. >> Yeah, so I'll just I'll I'll just maybe close on on on on two things. So, one is

[42:55] um Uh, there's a long history of this, and so, if you read any sort of biography or autobiography of any sort of professional author, you know, um Uh, living, like 100% of the time at some point they will tell you, "Oh, the one

[43:08] read the critics, right? I never read the reviews." Um, and then and then they'll say, "Well, actually, no, that's not true. I always read the reviews."

[43:21] definition, are like, you know, basically bitter, you know, bitter you know, who aren't who aren't writing novels or whatever. And so, of course and and I know I shouldn't read. I know it's very bad for me. I know it's going

[43:34] and then I I try, and then it's like a magnetic pull. I I always end up reading the morning, and I can't resist, and then I always end up getting mad. is this push. And and it used to be, right, only professional authors or

[43:47] critics. Right? Reviews. And now, basically, right, the entire the entire world is a critic. And so, I I think we all we all we all we all kind of have little bit of a push and a pull. Um, and so, um, that is a that is a little bit a

[44:01] little bit difficult. Um You know, I will say I I think maybe a thing to kind of bear in mind, Um, I couldn't resist. I posted a link to it another book on this topic with it has a great title called Kill All Normies.

[44:13] from like a decade ago that talked about like this kind of very angry internet culture, you know, the kind of developed after the 2000s. Um, and um, because by like this. Like in the in the very very early days the internet was so hard to

[44:27] on the internet were like basically super basically like smart super >> Yeah, newsgroups were really good then. >> Yeah, yeah, like the pre-1993 newsgroups were like utopian. Um, and then and then and then sort of

[44:41] and then things start that the modern kind of caustic internet culture really developed in the in the 2000s and 2010s. Um, but but basically like it it a genealogy to it and it actually turns out like a lot of it is literally

[44:55] literally it's it's like Call of Duty lobbies um, literally like online gaming lobbies cuz like when the Xbox and the PlayStation, you know, kind of rolled out voice you know, voice

[45:07] players to be able to talk to each other and it turns out you just get like, you know, 12-year-old boys in these lobbies just like torching the [ __ ] you know, trying to get under their opponent's skin and then being willing to, you

[45:20] anything to do it. Um, right? And so that led to, you know, you know, very very coarse, very vulgar, very offensive, you know, kind of thing and know, that kind of culture kind of expanded into early internet forums like

[45:33] metastasizing into things like you know, like YouTube comments obviously social media kind of blew that open. And so um, there is this there is this kind of you know, I don't know like

[45:48] Um, and I guess it just say you know, it just got you you do kind of literally literally in their in their in their parents' basement. generally when we get attacked on the comments are or like that, it's somebody

[46:02] with like four followers or like a bot or something like that. So, >> And by the way, that that includes when it's hey Montra Venod. Montra Venod. >> Yeah. Yes.

[46:14] >> Yeah. Yes. Yes.