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Dec. 08, 2024 06:16PM EST
Apr. 07, 2021 10:00AM EST
Patreon now valued at $4 billion as VCs plow money into creator economy companies
Venture capitalists are plowing money into startups that help content creators to directly monetize their work.
Driving the news: Patreon, a platform that connects creators with fans, today will announce $155 million in fresh funding at a $4 billion valuation.
- Audio platform Clubhouse, which just launched a payments feature for creators, reportedly is raising new money at a $4 billion valuation.
- Last week: Newsletter platform Substack snared $65 million at a $650 million valuation, celeb messaging app Cameo added $100 million at a valuation north of $1 billion and music distribution startup UnitedMasters secured $50 million in an Apple-led round.
- Roblox, which paid more than $300 million to game creators last year, in January raised $520 million from VCs before going public.
Many of these platforms are seeking to both disintermediate and become the new intermediaries.
- One loser in this new paradigm is the digital advertising model.
- Marc Andreessen, whose venture capital firm has backed both Clubhouse and Substack, has argued that the internet is in a "third wave" of content monetization, where direct-to-creator spend will dominate.
The bottom line: This trend is only accelerating, including into burgeoning areas like NFTs. The more money that goes in, the more that may go out to creators.
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Mar. 01, 2021 02:31PM EST
Canceled NFL Scouting Combine puts 40-yard dashes on the backburner
Top NFL prospects would normally be gathering in Indianapolis this week for the annual Scouting Combine. But due to the pandemic, this year's event has been canceled.
What they're saying: No combine means no 40-yard dash times making headlines. Former scout and current NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah thinks that could be a glimpse of the future:
- "We're about 2–3 years away from personnel departments not caring about 40 times. The game GPS data is going to replace it. Who cares what he ran in the 40, I know exactly how fast he ran in game conditions & I have 5 years of data for context."
The big picture: Longtime Cowboys executive Gil Brandt popularized the 40-yard dash in the 1960s, sending staffers to schools with a stopwatch.
- Now, it's a made-for-TV event, with players timed using laser technology. And a combine-specific training industry has emerged to help athletes prepare for the event.
- But now that so much player-tracking data is being collected at the college and NFL level, the 40 will almost certainly lose relevancy with scouts, as Jeremiah suggests.
Yes, but: Will it ever lose relevancy with fans? Probably not.
- Getting rid of the 40 would be like getting rid of the Slam Dunk Contest at the NBA All-Star Game. It might be pointless, but it's why most viewers tune in.
- Two decades ago, there was almost no media presence at the combine. Now, thousands of credentialed media members attend, and it's apparently one of the wildest weekends of the year.
The bottom line: The 40-yard dash is an arbitrary distance; most NFL action comes within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage and players aren't sprinting in straight lines.
- But an especially fast time still drives the offseason news cycle and can also be a fun variable come draft day.
- So, even if scouts and general managers don't care about the 40, the NFL and its fans do — and thus, it's likely here to stay.
📷 Watch:
- John Ross breaking the 40-yard dash record
- Tom Brady "running"
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Dec. 10, 2024 10:12AM EST




Dan stop adding weird things!