Zima Red ep 139: Jarrod Dicker - TCG: Investing in companies that define culture
Primer: Jarrod Dicker has experience in both the media and technology fields, providing him with a unique perspective when it comes to investing at TCG. In this episode of Zima Red, he speaks about content distribution, NFT, and media, among many other topics.
Background
Interested in media early on. Wanted to be a rockstar
Interviewed artists and started writing for magazines
Wanted to be a writer but it was hard to get jobs during the financial crisis back then
Joined Huffington Post
He and the tech team at Huffington Post left to create a company called RebelMouse, which was focused on creator software for a more distributed internet
Subsequently, he joined the Washington Post
Realized that people were no longer going to a website to consume content, but through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter
Google and Facebook took 98% of the lion’s share of online advertising, making it difficult for publishers to survive
Started trading crypto. In 2017, he realized that content could be put on-chain
Became the CEO of a protocol called Po.et
Currently leads the TCG crypto fund
From Writing To Tech
Had experienced the blog, Twitter, and Facebook era
While working at Huffington Post and Washington Post, he understood how media has evolved and where it might go next
In the early days, most ad teams at the larger media companies did not focus on the digital
When Google came out, the disruption to media was significant
Thoughts On Distribution
Is a big believer in mass distribution and enabling the longtail
The entertainment and media landscape has changed — people love independent takes, and people are building brands to reach a mass audience
This has both good (exposure to underrepresented people) and bad (fake news)
The media companies are trying to play catch-up to the disruptions
Had an idea about media companies acting like record labels providing operational support and distribution to creators that can’t get elsewhere
“Why I love crypto so much is because I think crypto both can be accommodating to existing means of distribution on how best to monetize but also creates entirely new behaviors and new ways to do that.”
- Jarrod Dicker
NFT And Media
There’s a misplaced assumption that all content is valuable in the means that it should be transacted on from the first immediate point
Have to think of the role of NFTs as it relates to a creator and their audience:
Must have distribution in mind to not necessarily choke out by way of friction
The crypto sector has not thought deeply about paying for quality content
Thinks that paying for NFTs to gain access is short-sighted
TCG
TCG is The Chernin Group
Was founded by Peter Chernin
On the cutting edge of media and entertainment
Their edge is in identifying companies, founders, and new ways of how consumers behave online
Their early investments include Barstool Sports, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Funko collectibles, etc.
Launched TCG crypto in September 2021
Their focus is on consumers. However, the difficulty is that there are too few consumers
People are becoming better at understanding how audiences are segmented
Have been operating for ~18 months now
The Success Of Media/Entertainment Crypto Companies
People have to get over the fact that onboarding is likely to cause friction
Builders should focus on whether what they are building provides value and the TAM of their market
Nine out of 10 times, users will go through the friction if there is value in the project
Was fascinated with the success of Yuga Labs
The largest critique he has for PFP projects as it relates to media is that the incentive to get out has been higher than the incentive to stay in (i.e. investable asset to 10x then dump it)
If He Was In Charge Of Companies Like Yuga Labs
Have to identify certain aspects of what these companies do and how it pairs with what we have known historically
There are multiple phases:
Phase 1: People are obsessed about digital-to-physical
Phase 2: Awareness from traditional companies. Have to start expanding their business into this realm
Plenty of PFP projects have a roadmap where they will create a show on Netflix. Have to be careful whether is this what their community actually wants
On AI Content And Hollywood
Starting to see things that you couldn't have imagined that are actually happening
There are entire businesses and things to be built out of this
AI in media isn’t necessarily new. They have leveraged it for a long time at the Washington Post (e.g. A/B testing, building article skeleton, and AI writing the actual article)
Crypto should not view AI as a trend that they need to compete against
Remains to be seen as to whether creatives and experts will be at risk as AI is going to help strengthen what they are doing even more
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