Distllr

The Kids Aren’t Alright

The Kids Aren’t Alright Platforms profit from children. Parents profit from platforms. Snapchat’s stock just tanked. A new class-action lawsuit claims executives misled investors about user growth and competitive threats from Instagram — wiping billions off the market cap overnight. Investors are furious. But not about Snapchat’s product design. Not about youth-targeted features exploited by […]

Jake Paul’s Circus Can’t Touch This: Bundesliga’s YouTube Power Play

Jake Paul’s Circus Can’t Touch This Bundesliga’s YouTube Power Play While Jake Paul was parading around Studio City selling another pay-per-view circus dressed up as sport, the Bundesliga quietly dropped a move that actually matters: they’ve given YouTube creators Mark Goldbridge (That’s Football) and Gary Neville’s The Overlap the rights to stream 20 live Friday night matches in […]

Dear Jim, Don’t Fuck Around With the Cuban

Dear Jim, Don’t Fuck Around With the Cuban Every morning, I walk the hills above my home. The road ends where the Santa Monica Mountains begin, and I walk with headphones on. Today: The Fifties by David Halberstam, a chapter on I Love Lucy. It’s a story from seventy years ago that mirrors the creator […]

Chrome’s Future Isn’t for Sale — If It Were, It Should Belong to Everyone

Chrome’s Future Isn’t for Sale — If It Were, It Should Belong to Everyone Last week, Perplexity claimed it wanted to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion. It made for easy headlines — but it wasn’t real. Google isn’t selling Chrome. No process. No talks. Not on the table. And even if it were, the problem isn’t just […]

Placeholder Products

Placeholder Products What Roku’s Howdy and Fox One tell us about the future of direct-to-consumer streaming Two new streaming services were announced this week. Neither is built to win.Neither is designed to grow.Neither is really meant for you. Howdy   Roku’s new service is called Howdy.$2.99/month. No ads. No originals. Just a lightly repackaged catalog […]

fractional leadership + the outsider advantage

fractional leadership + the outsider advantage big companies. small companies. the pattern is the same: leadership waits too long to bring in senior strategy — not because they don’t see the need, but because they can’t afford it the traditional way: hiring a full-time executive. and when they finally do pull the trigger,it takes more […]

Superbundling: The Coming Platform Wars

Superbundling: The Coming Platform Wars Everyone in streaming talks about “bundles” like they just invented it. Bundle services, reduce churn, call it innovation. That’s not bundling. That’s billing. The real opportunity isn’t in payment aggregation — it’s in behavioral orchestration. And most operators are still building for a market they don’t truly control. Eighteen months […]

The Gates Were Power

The Gates Were Power “There’s something sacred about walking through the gates of Paramount, Warner Bros, Sony, Fox or Disney.”— Gary Lucchesi, producer (Million Dollar Baby), former president of Lakeshore Entertainment, at the AVP Summit, Merano, Italy, July 2025 That line wasn’t spoken at Comic‑Con.It was shared—without irony—at an invitation-only summit of Hollywood’s most successful […]

Everyone’s a Platform. No One’s in Control.

Everyone’s a Platform. No One’s in Control. Stephen Colbert is out at CBS.Substack just raised another $100 million.Ben Thompson mapped how AI removed the final creative bottleneck. Different headlines—but they all point to the same pattern. Control is breaking where it used to live: in institutions, in formats, in scale.What’s replacing it is something messier, […]

The Platform Wars: Beauty on LinkedIn and the Battle for Creator Loyalty

The Platform Wars: Beauty on LinkedIn and the Battle for Creator Loyalty Unilever, TikTok, and Instagram just revealed where the creator economy is headed next I missed three stories this weekend — which bothers me more than it should. First: Unilever ran a beauty influencer campaign on LinkedIn. Yes — LinkedIn. Second: Meta started offering […]

The AI War Is Here. Here’s How Creators and Small Businesses Can Win.

The AI War Is Here. Here’s How Creators and Small Businesses Can Win. AI is changing everything about how content gets made, distributed, and monetized — and if you’re a creator, publisher, or small business that relies on original content, it’s already affecting you. The truth is, AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude have […]

Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is FAST: Rethinking the Next Wave of Streaming

Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is FAST: Rethinking the Next Wave of Streaming In an age of infinite content and zero patience, everything feels like it’s moving faster — shorter videos, tighter loops, faster scrolls, autoplay defaults. But ask anyone trying to build something that lasts, and you’ll hear a different mantra: Slow is smooth. Smooth […]

Creators: The Game Is Changing. Are You Ready?

Creators: The Game Is Changing. Are You Ready? AI, algorithms, and Big Tech are reshaping the creator economy at warp speed. If you’re not adapting, you’re at risk. The good news? If you understand the threats and move strategically, you can future-proof your business, own your audience, and thrive in the chaos. Here’s your playbook […]

AI, Generalists, and the New Tipping Point

AI, Generalists, and the New Tipping Point A few years ago, I read Range by David Epstein and found it compelling. The core idea — that generalists thrive in complex, unpredictable environments — resonated with me. I’ve spent my career at the intersection of business strategy, media, and technology, moving across disciplines and industries. Back […]

The Platforms Never Really Loved Creators — They Just Needed Them

The Platforms Never Really Loved Creators — They Just Needed Them For the better part of a decade, creators were the beating heart of social media. They gave platforms a reason for users to come back: personalities with a point of view, communities built on trust, and content that felt human. In return, creators were […]

Tariffs, Tight Wallets, and the Creator Economy Squeeze

Tariffs, Tight Wallets, and the Creator Economy Squeeze Tariffs. Inflation. Flatlining fan spend. The headlines make it sound like a macro story. But zoom in and you’ll see where it lands first: independent creators, small shops, and one-person brands—the very people powering the internet’s creative engine. Trump’s latest tariff push is framed as a trade […]

Netflix, Fungible Creators, and the Shrinking Pie for Everyone Else

Netflix, Fungible Creators, and the Shrinking Pie for Everyone Else Netflix’s new move into video podcasts isn’t just about diversifying formats. It’s about owning the next frontier of social commerce—and doing it in a way that cuts traditional creators out of the value chain. The premise is smart. Build podcast-style shows around known hosts and […]

Are Movies Really Back? Depends on Who You Ask

Are Movies Really Back? Depends on Who You Ask Lately, there’s been a lot of noise about Hollywood’s big comeback. The headlines are glowing: theaters are booming, teens are back, movies are having a moment again. At first, I wanted to believe it. But something felt off—so I took a closer look at the numbers […]

For Gen Z and Gen A, Creators Aren’t the Alternative—They’re the Default

For Gen Z and Gen A, Creators Aren’t the Alternative—They’re the Default A new Deloitte study just confirmed what many of us already knew in our bones:For younger audiences, creator content isn’t a niche—it’s the center of gravity. Gen Z now prefers creator-driven video over traditional TV and film.And Gen Alpha? They’re growing up with […]