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TOGETHER WITH |
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It's Wednesday and Netflix is testing out its very own mobile vertical video feed (but it promises it's not copying TikTok). |
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Today's News |
💸 Steven Bartlett snags a $425M valuation 👀 OpenAI goes (partially) for-profit 📺 YouTube's TV app gets a makeover 🤝 Adobe partners with YouTube 🤖 The first humanoid home bot arrives
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MONEY MOVES |
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Slow Ventures just backed Steven Bartlett at a $425M valuation |
The investment: Steven Bartlett, the host of the popular Diary of a CEO podcast, has closed a major investment led by Slow Ventures and Apeiron Investment Group. |
The exact size of the investment hasn't been made public, but Podnews describes the capital injection as an "eight-figure" deal that comes with a $425 million valuation. That estimate applies to Steven.com, the holding company that unites Bartlett's growing network of ventures and channels. |
Slow investor Megan Lightcap had this to say about Bartlett in a recent issue of the Slow Upload newsletter: |
"Through Diary of a CEO, his Behind the Diary channel, and constant speaking engagements and live events, he's cultivated a deeply loyal community committed to building a happier, more expansive and successful life by applying lessons from the world's most accomplished figures." | | | | - Megan Lightcap |
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The context: An investment described as "Europe's biggest ever creator holding company fundraising round" is somewhat out of the ordinary for Slow, which is known for its early-stage deals. |
Through its $60 million Creator Fund, the firm has proven its willingness to invest in eclectic creators like bookworm John Fish and woodworker Jonathan Katz-Moses, who fall outside of social media's most popular categories. Now, Slow's investment in Bartlett will give it an opportunity to target a "high-value vertical" that is drawing mounting attention as creators like MrBeast flex their entrepreneurial muscles. |
A fresh influx of capital will also allow Bartlett to renew his resources as he continues to push his personal brand outward. The podcaster has already worked with many top creators through his FlightStory media arm, and has taken a leading role in Flightcast (a video podcast distribution service enhanced with generative AI). Across the pond, London-based Bartlett has also appeared as an investor on Dragon's Den, which is essentially the U.K. equivalent of Shark Tank. |
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Creators like Zach Justice are earning 10M+ views/month with clipping. Here's how: |
Clipping (aka the process of turning long-form content into TikToks, Shorts, and Reels) has exploded over the last few years. |
Today everyone from major networks to musicians are clipping content—and paying a lot of money in the process. Hulu recently spent $40K on a single clipping campaign, while Airrack spends $300K/month on clipping operations alone. In other words: Creators and brands are spending big on clipping—and giving up control in the process. |
The solution: OpusSearch. |
As the industry's #1 clipping platform, OpusClip created a new tool called OpusSearch—an AI tool that automatically identifies viral moments in your long-form content, clips them, and posts the resulting shorts. |
Creator Zach Justice is already bringing in $10M+ views/month with OpusSearch. |
Before using tools like OpusSearch, Zach Justice (who reaches 10M+ cross-platform followers) spent $50K/month on clipping agencies and saw 25% of the provided clips taken down because he didn't control the channels. |
Then he tried OpusSearch—and was able to save tens of thousands of dollars while scoring 10M+ views in 30 days. The result: more control, fewer takedowns, and 64% new viewers (with 97% from the U.S.). |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
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TV TIME |
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YouTube is giving its TV app a makeover |
The makeover: YouTube's dominant performance on TV screens has turned it into a legitimate alternative to traditional channels. Now, to keep its foot on the gas, the Alphabet-owned video hub is making its living room app look more like a streaming service. |
Among other improvements, YouTube is raising the thumbnail file size limit from 2 MB to 50 MB to encourage the upload of preview images that match a bigger-screen format. In a related move, an AI-powered feature will automatically generate higher resolutions for videos (although creators can opt out of quality enhancements if they'd prefer to keep their content AI-free). |
YouTube is also expanding upon its Netflix-style makeover with a homepage feature that arranges users' favorite channels on a scrollable shelf. Once they visit those channels, users will be able to find related videos by employing a contextual search that steers results toward favored hubs. |
The shopping upgrade: YouTube's plan to become a one-stop entertainment and shopping destination doesn't just revolve around replicating Netflix's layout. The platform also aims to distinguish itself with features that can't be found on other streaming services, which explains the launch of shoppable QR codes that connect tagged videos to relevant product listings. |
As YouTube continues to challenge traditional media by claiming billions of hours of watch time on TVs and 12.6% of television consumption in the United States, developments like these are just the beginning. Check out the platform's blog here for full coverage of its latest TV-focused features. |
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PLATFORM PARTNERSHIPS |
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The Adobe Premiere mobile app will let users "create for YouTube Shorts" |
The platform: Big announcements have already come out of Adobe MAX. At this year's edition of the annual "creativity conference," Adobe revealed that it has partnered with YouTube to equip its Adobe Premiere video editing software with an integration that enables direct exports to YouTube Shorts.
"Create for YouTube Shorts"—as the upcoming integration is known—will be available on the Adobe Premiere mobile app. Key features include the ability to save and create templates, as well as coveted editing options like effects and transitions. |
The context: Adobe Premiere's new integration brings it into a crowded field, since all major short-form video platforms already offer comprehensive editing suites. TikTok-affiliated CapCut crossed 200 million users in 2023, and Instagram looked to encroach on that market share with the launch of the Edits app two years later. YouTube responded to that activity earlier this year by enhancing Shorts' viability as an all-in-one editing hub. |
Those platforms are so eager to originate short-form content that they have placed watermarks on their respective uploads while deranking clips that feature rivals' digital signatures. Now, Adobe's integration will provide a solution for creators who want to build out their Shorts channels while still remaining active on Reels and TikTok. |
That offering is sure to appeal to multiplatform creators—but Adobe's programs will still need top-of-the-line features if the company hopes to convert users from first-party experiences. |
That's where the rest of the Adobe MAX slate comes in. In the era of generative AI, partnerships with pioneering firms like ElevenLabs, Google AI, and ChatGPT will keep Adobe competitive as it attempts to be a one-stop shop for all your creative ambitions, be they human-made or AI-assisted. |
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WATCH THIS 👀 |
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For $20K, you too can own a humanoid home robot |
Meet Neo: The "first humanoid home robot"—aka Neo—will begin making its way to consumers in 2026. In advance of that homecoming, The Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern took the current version of the robot, 1X Neo, for a spin. |
Stern was quick to clarify that next year's iteration of Neo will be a bit more polished—but even that updated bot will come with a catch. While it can complete some tasks autonomously, others will require a teleoperator to peer through Neo's eyes into early buyers' homes. |
If you're okay with that fine print, you can preorder Neo for a cool $20,000. But beware: as of right now, it takes the robot roughly five minutes to load two glasses and a fork into a dishwasher. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
