Medium: Reaching Profitability while The Internet is Broken + CorePod | E2003
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2024
⏱️ 79 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
Notion. Notion Projects combines project management with your docs, knowledge base, and AI. Try notion projects for free at notion.com/twist
Brex. The financial stack founders can bank on. Brex knows cash is king for startups, so they built a banking experience that takes every dollar further. Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://www.brex.com/twist24
OpenPhone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Tony Stubblebine of Medium joins Alex.
(3:10) The broken internet and ad-based models
(5:57) Impact of AI on content creation and platform quality
(10:01) Medium's curation and financial model
(11:18) Notion - Try notion projects for free at https://www.notion.so/twist
(18:23) Medium's growth, geographic expansion, and AI translation
(20:02) Brex - Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://www.brex.com/twist24
(22:05) AI-driven media platforms and the impact of AI spam
(29:32) OpenPhone - TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
(30:59) Medium's subscriber growth and financial milestones
(34:35) AI data exclusivity and challenges in forming training data cohorts
(41:26) Medium's venture scale potential, profitability, and mission
(45:17) CEO's mindset and financial scaling towards 10 million subscribers
(50:41) Tony's personal use of AI in his workflow
(53:24) Future of AI in practical applications and business model disruption
(57:09) Organizing content and the challenge of integrating different formats
(1:02:19) Growth potential of niche markets and Medium's independence
(1:06:23) Jam with JCal! Introduction to Ulan Abdurazakov and CorePod
(1:07:27) Corepod product discussion and go-to-market strategy
(1:17:23) Jason Calacanis's advice on testing and market validation
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Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com
Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com
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Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp
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Check out Medium: https://medium.com/
Check out CorePod: https://www.corepod.tech/
Enter the Jam with JCal contest: https://www.jamwithjcal.tech
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Follow Tony:
X: https://x.com/tonystubblebine
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonystubblebine/
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Follow Ulan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulanbek-abdurazakov/
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Follow Alex:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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Thank you to our partners:
(11:18) Notion - Try notion projects for free at notion.com/twist
(20:02) Brex - Get the business account trusted by 1 in 3 US startups at https://www.brex.com/twist24
(29:32) OpenPhone - TWiST listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/twist
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis
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Follow TWiST:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups
Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com
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Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I think AI is going to like revolutionize writing don't actually understand what writing is. |
| 0:06.0 | Writing is thinking. Writing is thinking. |
| 0:08.0 | And every time I've tried to introduce an AI into my own thought process. |
| 0:13.7 | Holy, it's such a bad experience. |
| 0:16.5 | Could you imagine a world in which you build like a mini medium, like one for India, |
| 0:22.1 | one for, you know, country X, to see if you replicate the same model in a non-English |
| 0:27.4 | focused area? Yeah 100% but you're giving me heartburn and we just barely saved the company a couple of days ago. |
| 0:34.9 | I mean look this is this is twist not the retirement business show. This is all about what is next. |
| 0:41.0 | This weekend startups is brought to you by Notion. |
| 0:44.3 | Notion projects combine project management with your docks, |
| 0:47.5 | knowledge base, and AI. |
| 0:49.2 | Try notion projects for free at notion.com |
| 0:53.0 | twist. Brex. |
| 0:54.7 | The financial stack founders can bank on. |
| 0:57.2 | Brex knows cash is king for startups, so they built a banking |
| 1:00.4 | experience that takes every dollar further. |
| 1:03.0 | Get the business account trusted by one in three US startups at Brexit.com |
| 1:08.0 | slash twist24 and open phone. Create business phone numbers for you and your team that work through an app on your smartphone or desktop. |
| 1:16.0 | Twist listeners can get an extra 20% off any plan for your first six months at Open Phone. |
| 1:22.0 | dot com slash twist. |
| 1:23.7 | Welcome back to this week in startups. My name is Alex. I am at Alex over on X and |
| 1:29.7 | today I have someone very very special on the show, someone that I've been looking forward to talking to for a long time because he is a man of the moment it is Tony Stubble buying the CEO of medium Tony, and two, how are you? |
... |
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