I really tried to replicate this exactly in MA’s format. But I got too caught up on proving the exemplary similarities between successful software companies with successful content companies, rather than successful software products vs. successful content products.

The fact is that every consumer (and soon to be enterprise) company has been critically affected by content.

Content is Eating the World: Content as the new infrastructure for Scale

In the early 2000s, the startup ecosystem chose software as the trojan horse to disrupt traditional infrastructure and business models; content now serves as the new infrastructure for communication, marketing, commerce and data. When you really think about it, it always has.

Software Needs Creator

Software companies have been relying on content and creator-related practices to keep itself alive. I go into an entire definition-fest in Creator GTM from my Creator=Consumer thesis, but separate from just consumer, I’d argue that content has been more prevalent and is a pillar to software’s startup success.

Basically, [working on image]

the backbone of software is on scale… scale = distribution of scale = attention… distribution is SEO-optimization… SEO is driven by content…………

Content as a Product

To be a startup, a company has to be a product business, not a service business. By which I mean not that it has to make something physical, but that it has to have one thing it sells to many people, rather than doing custom work for individual clients. Custom work doesn't scale. To be a startup you need to be the band that sells a million copies of a song, not the band that makes money by playing at individual weddings and bar mitzvahs. — PG, 2005

When it comes to an interactive network such as the Internet, the definition of “content” becomes very wide. For example, computer software is a form of content-an extremely important one, and the one that for Microsoft will remain by far the most important. — Bill Gates, 1996

The Traditional Product Paradigm

As a Founder, you might be thinking “Okay, content can be nice, but product is what I care about.” I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially since I have a ton of my friends part-time working for Founders and Investors on their content as if it could be a passive thing, but the consumer’s understanding has changed tremendously since the emergence of platforms. Content, like software, is a digital product. And one that your customers will interact with, and judge, like a product.

It used to be that content wasn’t the main thing. If you ran a magazine, the articles existed to attract readers, and those readers were sold to advertisers. TV shows were created for the same reason—to fill the space between commercials. Content was never the product; it was the bait.

But over the last couple of decades, something changed. Content became the product itself.

This shift might seem super obvious now, but it's one of those big changes that happened gradually. It wasn’t always like this. The internet transformed content from something secondary into something primary. And that’s had enormous implications, especially for startups. The truth is that most of your customers will see your content, and your competitors, before they see your software product itself.

The New Economics of Content

At my almost-alma mater, Media Economics was a full minor, so I’m not going to say that I can solidly teach you everything you need to know about modern content and what it takes to get it to be “good” and “plenty.”

Needless to say, similar to software-product driven startups, the ability to create general media has gotten so inexpensive that the bar of quality has skyrocketed exponentially. The internet has made distribution of media essentially free. Anyone can publish content and reach an audience instantly, without needing expensive infrastructure. And when the cost of distributing content went to zero, something interesting happened: content itself became valuable.

This value doesn’t focus on camera, mic, or “personal brand” quality: as most assume. It focuses on the holistic experience and customer engagement of your newfound product.

Boiled down: how much is the customer getting from the time and attention spent looking at what you just made?

Just because it’s online, doesn’t mean you aren’t making something very real.

Content as The Primary Value

To understand why this matters, think about the companies that dominate the internet today—YouTube, Netflix, TikTok. What are they really selling to the consumer? They aren’t selling physical products, and most of them aren’t even selling software in the traditional sense. What they’re selling is the value of their content.

(Editors Note: Granted, some platforms do have serious software improvements and very impressive technical teams that have built the world’s most impressive distribution algorithms ever seen. My point is that that the selling point for paid vs. unpaid is not always recommendations. There isn’t even consensus on to what point consumers even like recommended and almost overly-tailored algos.)

People go to these platforms not for the technology itself, but for the content hosted on them. You don’t care about YouTube’s infrastructure—you care about the videos. The content is the thing you’re consuming.

The value of these companies doesn’t come from what they make, but from what others make and distribute through them. Content is now the primary value driver. It’s the thing that captures people’s attention, keeps them engaged, and makes them come back.

How Content Became The Product

This shift happened in a few stages:

Content became infinitely scalable. The internet made it possible for anyone to distribute content to millions of people without the traditional gatekeepers.
Content started to drive monetization directly. Companies figured out they didn’t need to charge people for the content itself—they could make money from the attention it captured. Platforms like YT/Meta run ads on the content their users create, and that’s how they generate billions in revenue. On the other side, platforms like Netflix/Substack charge directly for content. Either way, content is what’s driving core revenue.

So you might be thinking, sure Em, this is great for them. A good cash-flow product. But what could that mean for the Startup Community as a whole? We’re getting there..

The Creator Economy

The creator economy is the clearest example of how content has become the product. In the past, content creators worked for someone else— WIRED mag, MSNBC, Penguin Books. But today, individuals can monetize their content directly.

Think of the top Creators. Top-line best creators: MrBeast, Kai Cenat, etc. They’re not just influencers; they’re entrepreneurs. Within the “creator economy” the core product is content, and creators sell it in different ways.

One Example is Recycling, or the process of Long to Short form content repackaging.

What makes this even more interesting is how infinitely scalable content is. Once you make a video, you can distribute it to millions of people at no additional cost. There’s no factory, no supply chain, no physical constraints. Content scales in ways that traditional products can’t.

How Content Scales

Content Scales… like Software.

Here’s why:

Digital Format: The Foundation of Scalability
Zero Marginal Cost of Distribution
Platform Amplifications and Basic Hosting Infrastructure
Network Effects and Viral Distribution
SEO Discovery and Long-Tail Reach
Automation of Content Distribution/Optimization
Global Accessibility
And my personal favorite.. Monetization and Revenue at Scale

1. Digital Format: Foundational Scalability

Point blank — Content scales well because it’s a digital product.

The core excitement, from a woo-woo techno-optimist standpoint and from a financial standpoint is that: digital products are bound by almost nothing. Time and time again, new languages, systems, and structures are created as bountifully and fast as the creator wants.

Content, like software, once created, exists as data that can be infinitely copied, distributed, and consumed without degradation.

2. Zero Marginal Cost of Distribution

For most products, distributing an additional unit costs something. Even software, with its famous margins, requires some server space and infrastructure. But for content, that cost is practically zero.

Within my years of working with content-driven companies, especially creator-founded companies, almost always their CAC is near zero. In my experience, this might be shocking or not believable, in part, that’s because it’s almost not. Creating, hosting and distributing software always has some attached cost. (Famously, the phrase “50 cents to every dollar in the Valley goes to distribution,” is a fun one to bring up here. They can try to lower it, of course, using Creator GTM methods.

Content as the core product, however, is turn-key.

Once you upload a video to YouTube, YouTube takes care of everything else. They handle the server costs, the distribution, and the scaling. It doesn’t matter if one person watches it or a million—the cost to the creator is the same.

This is why content can reach huge audiences without additional expenses. Every additional viewer or reader costs nothing, which is why content scales as effortlessly as software.

3. Platform Amplifications and Basic Hosting Infrastructure

Platforms are doing all of the heavy lifting. Social platforms are built to hold, keep and present product to customers who are eager to consume it.

Granted - there are best practices that focus on great storytelling, great experiences, etc…. but, from what I’ve gathered in my direct research into how platform algo’s want to go it’s focused on great products and experiences for the user. This ends up being longest engagement, best packaging, and holistic experience.

Four general types of Creators, from a creation sense are:

The one-offs
The persona engagers
The storytellers
The sellers

These individuals reprioritize the main factors that go into what per-platforms determines “great product.”

→ Packaging

→ Storytelling

→ Retention

→ Engagement (like, share, comment)

To everyone, platforms act similarly to Cloud in terms of storage at data actualization of their products —an infrastructure that can scale with demand, without you having to build it yourself.

4. Network Effects and Virality

Content has built-in network effects.

It’s infinitely shareable and self-amplifying. Every share, comment, and view adds momentum, increasing its reach through the meaty-words like viral loops, platform algorithms, and social proof.

Like software, content benefits from network effects because each new “user” (viewer or reader) increases the likelihood that the content will reach even more people.

Another powerful reason content scales is that it benefits from network effects. When content gets shared, liked, or commented on, it spreads to new audiences. The more people engage, the more people see it. This is the magic of virality, where one good post can reach millions within hours.

Content has a built-in mechanism to grow beyond its initial audience, often exponentially. If something resonates, it doesn’t just reach the people who follow you—it reaches their followers, and their followers’ followers. This viral effect lets content grow far beyond what any one creator could achieve on their own.

How Content Goes Viral:

How the Cycle Works:

Content Created starts the process.
Initial Audience Reached sees the content.
Audience Engagement (likes, shares) signals popularity.
Platform Algorithm Boost amplifies popular content.
Extended Audience Reach exposes the content to a broader audience.
Increased Social Proof (e.g., high engagement metrics) builds credibility.
Further Sharing and Discovery brings in more engagement, feeding back into the loop.

5. SEO Discovery and Long-Tail Reach

(Editor’s Note: I let that last section get a little boring as punishment for the hundreds of people who have told me that content isn’t scaleable… sowwy!)

Compounded Long-Tail Content Value

Increased Social Proof
Further Sharing and Discovery

The Innovation

Content creators have bypassed traditional gatekeepers (e.g., publishers, media networks) and are establishing direct-to-audience models. They monetize through ad revenue, sponsorships, subscriptions, and merchandise, driving significant revenue.

Customer Expectations

Audiences increasingly expect personalized, on-demand content from trusted voices rather than from faceless corporations. This shift is forcing industries to rethink their approach to marketing and customer engagement.

Founder and Creator

I’m not talking about influencers making brand deals. I’m talking about an individuals decision to produce something new, novel and personal into the world.

If given entrepreneurial and creative freedom, the founder persona evolves to what I likes to consider, the Creator persona.

In People-Focused Investments, we went over the term space to breathe. Feel free to refer back to that In brief, institutional VC isn’t working for those that fit that description for the reason that modern investments look like this: Simple Agreement for Future Equity

When they should look like this:

Multi-Company Contract

If you’ve seen MrBeast’s How to Succeed at Beast Productions, you can very clearly see how although the founder of this holding company has tons of moving parts - the focus has never been more clear and the command he has over that vision is an extent that in my five years investing, I’ve seen in maybe two or three founders. I’d highly recommend taking MrBeast Productions’ document a look.

Compare it to Paul Graham’s Founder Mode.

Here’s the YC Hacker News opinion on the similarities.

Why startup still lives

In the past __ years, we’ve had ___ IPOs. Leaving many builders, makers, creators, whatever you want to call them — uninspired and lacking optimistic connection with each other. The content industry has

[1] The End of the Creator Economy, Inc. 2024

[2] Goldman Sachs, 2023