Mark: Jack, same question. Are you using AI to help grow the business?
Jack Coyne: There’s one interesting application in particular. We’re building an app—basically a game you can play every day, like Wordle, but it’s Track Star, so you guess songs. Fans of the show have been requesting it from the very beginning, and we were able to build a prototype using Claude in a matter of a couple weeks. That’s something that would have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars—maybe a million—to build ten years ago.
Mark: Jack, what’s a creator resource or bit of infrastructure you were surprised you needed?
Jack: Honestly? QuickBooks. When we started partnering together, Gus was like, “Let’s take a look at the P&L,” and I was doing the books for the business myself. That’s one of the things that’s changed since we started working together: we have a bookkeeper now. But genuinely, there’s a story connected to the money you’re spending and the money you’re making, and paying attention to that as a creator helps you prioritize how you should be working. I say it jokingly, but that’s the tool I’ve used more than any in my business.
Gus Wenner: When we had our first call, looking at all the numbers before we did the deal, I had on the guy who was CFO of Wenner Media before we sold it—he worked there for 25 years, he’s amazing, and he’s since joined us. We got off the call and he just looked at me and said, “Jack’s really good at QuickBooks.” I thought that said a lot. Definitely better than the opposite.
Pulled Quotes
“If you’re just sitting there trying to get clicks, then you’re feeding the lab rat cocaine in the corner of the cage.”
Lupa Systems CEO James Murdoch, on his content strategy for Vox Media
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“Content is the ‘fuel’ that drives Paramount’s ability to compete.”
Paramount legal head Makan Delrahim, in a letter to the D.O.J. advocating for its acquisition of Warner Bros.
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“Scott Pelley is a flawed protagonist.”
The Rebooting author Brian Morrissey, on the lessons from Pelley’s ouster at 60 Minutes
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“God put it on our hearts to specifically preach the gospel through an energy drink.”
The anonymous founders of Yahweh, one of several new Christian energy drinks
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