E7: Honing Your Information Advantage with Steph Smith of a16z

Erik Torenberg sits down with Steph Smith, host of the a16z podcast and the driver behind the newsletter Trends for The Hustle, which was acquired by Hubspot. Riverside.fm is a presenting sponsor of Media Empires. Go to https://creators.riverside.fm/MediaEmpires + use code MEDIAEMPIRES for 20% off individual plans. - SPONSOR: Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth, to power your own. Connect with premium brands, scale your audience, and deliver a beautiful UX that stands out in an inbox.  🐝to https://Beehiiv.com and use code "EMPIRES" for 20% off your first three months. - We're hiring across the board at Turpentine and for Erik's personal team on other projects he's incubating. He's hiring a Chief of Staff, EA, Head of Special Projects, Investment Associate, and more. For a list of JDs, check out: eriktorenberg.com. RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world’s leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000 RECOMMENDED PODCAST: Run the Numbers is a weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups. It's a collection of things host CJ Gustafson (CFO at Partstech and writer of Mostly Metrics) has learned and thought about in the trenches as a tech CFO. Subscribe to listen on the platform of your choice: https://link.chtbl.com/runthenumbers Media Empires is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: www.turpentine.co In this conversation, Steph and Erik discuss unfair information advantages and how to hone them, choosing a social platform based on the degree of truth and anonymity, and Steph’s advice for building a media network from her own experience at The Hustle and now as a podcast host at a16z. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00) Episode Preview (01:21) Sponsor: Riverside.fm (01:52) Intro: Steph Smith  (02:30) Steph’s nonlinear background  (04:28) If Steph could go back four years ago, how would she allocate her time differently? (07:24) How Steph thinks about her “unfair” information advantage (08:46) How Steph grew The Hustle’s Trends (11:58) Challenges of building out great educational content in tech (14:20) The intersection of media and tech companies  (18:29) Having an emotional connection with your audience (19:27) Ownership deals in media (22:39) 85 years from now, what will be different about the creator economy? (25:41) Digital virtual influencers and the metaverse (27:28) What Steph would do if she was unconstrained  (30:00) Using subreddit data to build businesses  (38:14) The degree of truth as a function of anonymity on social platforms  (40:41) Choosing a medium for content  (44:09) Steph’s advice for building a media network (51:34) Anything else that’s top of mind? LINKS: a16z podcast: https://a16z.com/podcast-episodes/ TWITTER: @stephsmithio (Steph Smith) @eriktorenberg (Erik @MediaEmpiresPod (Media Empires)