OpenAI Just Bought TBPN For $200M But Nobody Knows This

0:00Eric Siu:All right, everyone. We're going live today. And, you know, we're doing this podcast on Neil's birthday. He's very old now. Happy birthday, Neil. Thank you. All right. So we're gonna we're gonna jump into jump into things. We got a lot to talk about today. First and foremost, we want to make an announcement. Neil and I will both be speaking at the summit in LA. So if you want to hang out with us, it's invite only, but I don't think it's gonna cost you a dime. So it's the social commerce summit against the social commerce summit. I think it's so calm summit.com or something like that. So S-O-C-O-M-M-S-U-M-M-I-T.

0:32Eric Siu:I think we're both speaking on May 14th or something like that. So check it out. There's going to be some cool speakers there. But more than anything, you can come hang out with us if you are in L.A. It's in Manhattan Beach. All right. So let's jump into it, Neil. So I've been seeing a lot of stuff. Earlier this week, I posted about TBPN, about how their clipping system works. And that post actually did really well. TBPN? TBPN, the one that sold to OpenAI for$200 million, the podcast.

0:59Neil Patel:Oh, yeah, the podcasting company.

1:00Eric Siu:Well, yeah, the tech bro. They call it Tech Bros Podcast Network or whatever. It's not really called that. But remember, we talked about how this podcast, in 18 months, they went from, in 18 months, they went up to$5 million. And then this year, they were on track to do$30 million in advertising revenue, which is a good chunk. And then they sold to OpenAI, supposedly, for$200 million. And so I actually had my open claw do some research on how exactly their strategy works. And I literally just cut and pasted that to Twitter, got 150 ,000 views on it. And so I think it's worth us talking about this.

1:36Eric Siu:And people are talking about chief clipping officers. They're talking about the clipping economy, why Andreessen Horowitz is crushing on social views. I think all these things connect because I just had lunch with the guy who's really strong with social. His name is Ryan. And we're just talking about how this is like the new meta, the new way of playing this game. So let's talk about that. How about that? You want to see the post?

1:57Neil Patel:Yeah, I want to see the post. Well, what's the breakdown? I also think one of the reasons that they do well is a lot of it has to do with the topic, right? A lot of the topics that they talk about are ones that it's easier to get views on, just in my personal opinion. And it's also the people that they have on as guests. They're so successful and a lot of people want to hear from them. It makes it even easier to get the views.

2:20Eric Siu:Yeah. So here's what I was saying. I'm going to share my screen here. So what I have some thoughts around this, especially after, after having the lunch. Okay. So Neil, look at this. So TBPN is a 7k live viewer podcast that sold to open AI for$200 million because their average clip gets 257k views. Everyone's talking about the strategy. So this, this is from this guy, Eric Su on Twitter. And then it says, here's the structure. Number one, Format is engineered for clipability. And I can actually click around here, Neil, so you can see the clips because I think there's probably some things we can take away for this considering all the time and effort we put into this.

2:55Eric Siu:I think we're coming up on 10 years on this thing. So they stream, Neil, three hours a day, live, five days a week. We ain't gonna do that, okay? So massive raw inventory to mind. We have businesses to run. Not that they don't have a business, but that is their business, right? Guest call-ins. So to your point, Neil, they have like Mark Cuban come on. They might have Travis Kalanick from founder of Uber. so they have six to eight per show built in five to ten minute self-contained segments every guest segment is a pre-packaged clip candidate with a hook an arc and a payoff the hosts read the tweets live on air you get instant memes okay and then the tweet author shares the clip back distribution loop so high and low aesthetic so you have a mahogany desk cinematic lighting suits but the content is group chat casual so they make the clips feel premium and authentic at the same time so let's go one at a time so what do you think about this

3:42Neil Patel:um i i i think that helps but i think the biggest thing there is actually the guess because when any of those people say anything if you're talking to them for an hour you're gonna get some aha moment that you can just like clip and it'll just skyrocket and you use mark cuban as example do you remember him in the all-in podcast and the clip that went viral all over

4:05Eric Siu:instagram you saw that right i you have to remind me on what it was so during the all-in podcast

4:11Neil Patel:which is the besties, right? There's four of them. They were doing one of their summits and Mark Cuban was on stage with Tucker Carlson, I believe it was. And they were talking about Ukraine. When you have a lot of these rich people, they tend to be asked about things that are outside of what they're known for. So a lot of times people talk to them about money or politics or war. And someone asked Mark Cuban and they asked Mark Cuban about Ukraine and if the US should fund or help them out. And I think Mark Cuban, I'm paraphrasing here, said, I think so. I'm Ukrainian. I'm talking as he is or part of his family is from Ukraine on I don't know which side.

4:53And Tucker Carlson said, so you're Ukrainian.

4:56Neil Patel:Why don't you put in the money? Have you given any money? And he says, no. And he's like, you're a billionaire. And he's like, well, I'm trying to solve health care. And he's like, solve health care in Ukraine. And then he said, it's so hypocritical for you billionaires to tell other people what to do when you're not really willing to cough up your own money. Now, again, I'm paraphrasing and I'm off, but that's roughly the context of what was discussed and you guys get the point, but that went viral. And it's not hard for those kinds of things to go viral, especially with billionaires who are really well-known.

5:25Neil Patel:Again, Eric and I are not here to sit, talk about war and politics and if Mark Cuban or anyone else should fund or not fund any war or anything like that. But this is just the example we're using here to explain why it's so much easier to go viral on that topic. Now on the flip side, if you took someone like me or Eric and you put ourselves in Mark Cuban's shoes, it wouldn't go anywhere nearly as viral because we're not multi-billionaires who own a sports team.

5:53Eric Siu:So here's what I'll say. So my thoughts on this one. So Forma is engineered for clippability, not the other way around. So Neil, I'm not going to say you're wrong. I think these two things can exist in the same world. So you can have a guest come in and that's why they designed that section for that. But I would also say that when you do three hours a day and you do five days a week, this massive raw inventory is really important because to me, clipping is like a slot machine. I just look at it as you never know what's going to take off. So, for example, you and I talk about Shake Shack discount, 8 million views.

6:22Eric Siu:You and I talk about Laurel Piana discounts, 4 million views on it. Okay, let me show you something else here, Neil. Remember, there's a period of time where I was experimenting with this. Look at this. You see my shorts channel over here?

6:31Neil Patel:Yeah.

6:31Eric Siu:Okay. What does it show you on my most popular shorts? I can't see. You can't? Okay, so Neil's blind. Okay, so I think Neil's on an iPad right now.

6:39Neil Patel:I see your rich BFF. No, I'm on my laptop. I can see your rich BFF. I can't see the number two person. And number three, number four is also your rich BFF.

6:46Eric Siu:I'll read it to you. So basically, this is my shorts channel, okay? Or this is my YouTube channel. So the number one is your rich BFF. And this one has 3.9 million views on it. So the title is, how rich can you get on content creation? Number two over here is, this will change your perception around money. Number three, never stay at a job for more than two years, right? And so all these are based on what? Personal finance, based on real estate. This is based on investing over here. It's a wide tab. And here's the thing. The way I did these podcasts was, Neil, I engineered it for clipping. I made it so the questions I asked were the hook itself.

7:22Eric Siu:Now, I think that part is good and we don't necessarily do that here. And look at this over here, 135K with Brian Johnson and you have all these other people over here. So I think when you create the conditions to make it more where you create more opportunities to get lucky, I think that's what they're doing, right? And I think when you add the guests in that you're creating more opportunities to get lucky. And that's why it pays off. Because here's the thing, Neil, if they're only getting like, I think 7 ,000 live viewers is actually a lot. But when they average 257K views, a lot of that's coming from X.

7:51Eric Siu:And what they do at the end of these videos, Neil, is they add an ad at the end of it. So that actually is their ad inventory. And I think that's really smart. I'm like, oh, we should do that for ours. Like we should have these clips and then have an ad at the end of it.

8:02Neil Patel:Yeah, and you're so right. When you used to do that, and Eric stopped doing, you know, trying to go viral on social media with clips. And it was an experiment for him. And he quickly realized it was getting him attention, but it wasn't driving as much revenue as he would like. So then he shifted. And again, he didn't assume when he started that it was going to drive tons of revenue. It was just an experiment to see what would happen with his brand and if that would create more business. I do believe you did go to some EO or YPO events and more people said that they were noticing you because of the clip.

8:35Eric Siu:You know what came up to me? It was the wives that came and said, I really liked that clip. I was like, oh, okay, thanks.

8:41Neil Patel:But you're spot on about the engineering because if you go back to the Mark Cuban, Tucker Carlson example, why would you put them both on a stage unless you're trying to provoke something and trying to get some clips?

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9:22Eric Siu:No more AI slop, just production-grade content that drives traffic and conversions. Back to the show. So let me show you something real quick, Neil. I got access to this new tool. Shout out to this tool, Social Proof. So you see this over here?

9:36Neil Patel:Yeah.

9:36Eric Siu:Okay. So this actually shows over the last three months or so how TBPN has done. So you can see here, they have this clip over here. Those of you that can't see the screen right now, they're interviewing Andrew Huberman. So you know Andrew Huberman, very popular doctor. So this one got 4.5 million impressions, and it looks like it was on X. A lot of their views, Neil, you can see their top channel. look, 97 % of their views are coming from X, okay? 1.3 % from shorts. So you would expect that they would do really well on TikTok or Instagram, for example. And so when I was having lunch with Ryan today, just now, he's like, dude, your content, so talk about us, Neil, your content should live more on X and LinkedIn because that's where your audience is.

10:17Eric Siu:And I was thinking about it, I was like, yeah, but my really good leads actually come in from X. It's not like, or like a LinkedIn. It doesn't really come from YouTube, if I'm being honest, at least for me personally, I think it's different for you. But I think it's when you look at a social proof and you look at how they've been growing over time, it's like they hit on the right audience because all the tech bros are actually hanging out on X.

10:36Neil Patel:Yes. Speaking of right audiences, you saw what happened with Mr. Beast, right? And someone ended up breaking down how his views are going down and he's declining. And then he actually set up a meeting with them and he's like, oh, cool. I want to learn more and get some ideas.

10:48Eric Siu:Yeah. No. When was this?

10:50Neil Patel:I don't know when it was, but I saw it last week.

10:53Eric Siu:Neil, as a separate thing, I'm not going to read the entire tweet here, but it shows the entire analysis. The clip itself, consistent visual grammar, the caption tweet wrapper, volume and cadence, the real edge. By the way, again, the other meta game here is this post generated 126k views, right? Not bad for an open claw generated post. That's a lot. Yeah. So do you want to see one of their clips? Let's just show people here. Okay. And you will be back soon. So anyway, it's going really long. I'm just going to play the end of it just so you guys can see the ad. But I think my thing's freezing a little bit.

11:26Eric Siu:Hold on. Let me go back here.

11:28Neil Patel:I don't get why they went viral.

11:30Eric Siu:Yeah, I think it's just sheer volume, Neil. But I don't know why my thing has frozen. Anyway, you can continue while I try to repair this.

11:42Neil Patel:Yeah. Look, I think clipping is worth it. I think you have to pick the right platform to clip. and instead of optimizing for views, you need to optimize for views with your right audience. You may not get the leads you want or the sales directly and that's okay because I still think the branding is worth it. But I think the mistake that most people make with clipping is the content doesn't resonate with their ideal customer. And if it does resonate with their ideal customer because you can say, hey, everyone's interested in finance. Well, if what you don't sell is if you're not selling finance, getting views for finance isn't going to help your main business.

12:20Neil Patel:So it needs to be related to your main business and the content needs to be around that. And then you need to focus on the channels that are relevant where ideal customers are sitting. It's the same reason why I don't really log into TikTok or Instagram much. Yes, we collect leads from Instagram and TikTok and I'm passing them on to my team. But even then, it's not like it's our main core focus because we know that's not going to really change our business.

12:45Eric Siu:Yeah. So to Neil's point, I'm back on the TPPNX account over here. So look, they have$400 ,000 and they just did a show about two hours ago. So they had Gary Vee. I think this is the CEO of CrowdStrike. Yep, CEO of CrowdStrike. They had Ben Horowitz, not Ben Horowitz, but Ben Horowitz. And then they had, looks like the CEO of ComfyUI. And so they're bringing on people that have reached Neil's point. And this is a two-hour podcast. Look, 5 ,000 views live stream, okay?