Acquiring TBPN Is an OpenAI Hail Mary Pass
OpenAI is spooked. Thanks to Anthropic grabbing a series of business, financial, and product wins along with the need to improve finances ahead of an IPO, OpenAI has been making one change after another in a bid to clean up house. The latest move, acquiring TBPN, is a Hail Mary pass that strikes me as having low odds of succeeding. OpenAI is looking for a way to reach consumers, and they think two tech podcasters with marketing experience hold the keys to unlocking the strategy.
Started just 13 months ago, TBPN is an 11-employee media start-up that hosts a daily three-hour talk show livestreamed on various social media platforms. The livestreams are then cut into short clips that are circulated on the same social media platforms. It’s the clips, not the multi-hour livestreams, that grab the most attention.
TBPN positioned itself as an antidote to legacy media’s tech cynicism. Along those lines, they have been so successful as to be a caricature – a show that could easily be mocked on SNL. By being so over the top, optimistic, and promotional, TBPN was able to build authenticity with a younger audience that is mentally all-in on AI mania.
TBPN’s daily livestream was deemed early on by PR teams across Silicon Valley to be a safe space. At least up until yesterday, TBPN was
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