If you've been paying attention to the creator economy this year, you've noticed Steven Bartlett and Flight Story have been on a tear.

First there was the investment in Stan. Then they raised an eight-figure funding round at a $425 million valuation. Now they've acquired Hot Smart Rich for a seven-figure sum.

Their playbook tells me they understand the future of the creator economy - and the content economy better than most out there. And they're putting their money where their mouth is.

I’m excited about this news for SO many reasons and wanted to break it down a bit and share some more thoughts.

HSR is an exciting case for me because I've followed Maggie Sellers Reum for years, first on TikTok, where she started by sharing her experience as a VC investor. But she also talked about her personal life, beauty treatments, investing in consumers, and navigating her experience as a woman in the VC world.

All of it was SO relatable. She was the first person I really saw break down VC so transparently but also in her own authentic way.

As she's built this brand around ambitious women, she's shown a different model of what it can look like to be successful. And she's turned Hot Smart Rich into a fuller brand and community: a newsletter on beehiiv, meetups around the world, and, of course, merch.

It's the playbook I always see working: build the brand, share content, create community, build relationships - then take that into products, meetups, and real-world experiences.

Paying attention to the news and the reactions yesterday, it's interesting to hear more about Maggie's mission, and I loved listening to this episode below of the Business of Creators podcast. She wants to create the biggest creator-led female ambition brand. People are speculating whether this could be the next billion-dollar creator brand.

She talks about why there's not a female version of Steven Bartlett—someone creating all this entrepreneurship content at that scale. Only 7-8% of business podcasts are hosted by women.

This is a gap I've certainly felt so much frustration with. The way we see entrepreneurship, the stories that are told are largely shaped by just one perspective. Would loveeee to see more female takes on it and the ability to reshape what it looks like to build a business/be ambitious etc.

What also makes this interesting to me is that Maggie isn't just a creator at the end of the day. She's an investor, an entrepreneur - but she's someone who deeply understands content and the creator economy.

That combination is more powerful. She's not having to give up other titles to "become a creator" and build a following. She's building business savvily. That is the Steven Bartlett playbook in my mind.

The Bartlett team understands the value of strong personalities and brands built around a distinct voice. All of their moves tell me we're still early in this game of building content, building a podcast-newsletter ecosystem, building community around these creator brands.

That's the future of media play.

This deal fully validates a new model of building.

Create content around the thing you love, what you feel most experienced in. Build an audience around that. And build from there.

Create your own relationships. Build your email list. Build an actual community where people can find each other. Serve them with products and resources. Test and see what they want more of. Find IRL experiences to bring these people together.

Build the business from there.

That, to me, is THE most exciting opportunity and I’m so excited see how this partnership plays out.

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PS: HSR if you’re reading this and want to hire me, I’m available 👋🏻