Stream Coach 🎮

We help the world's next greatest content creators and influencer brands build stronger business models. Ft in @Ninja's book, FOX, & NBC. Need support? 👇

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

The Mafia video with Sam Altman & Bryan Johnson is blowing up on YouTube

Published 4 days ago:
- 137k views
- 6.2k subs
- 600+ comments of people asking for more

People are loving watching tech elites having fun, but they're also asking for content like this from other industries like athletes, scholars, & politicians

The appetitite for consumer formats applied to professional industries (aka new media) is high

IMPORTANT CAVEAT:

This video was only able to generate views and interest like this because the packaging is strong

Most new media arms really struggle with packaging. It's clear that Founders Fund and @micsolana have a strong YouTube strategist helping them

The title + thumbnail open a loop, curiousity gap, large TAM, entertainment travels well, recognizable faces but don't need to know who they are to watch

Overall a really good job. Team should be proud :)

Can't wait for more content like this!

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

X is about to become the most powerful livestreaming platform that exists...

Yes, better than YouTube and Twitch.

Here's why:

- Sharing & attribution to original accounts.
Shoutout @joelcompiles for the brainblast today. X already attributes QT impressions to original posters, even for live (MTS is great at this).

Imagine a world where X also allows users to share your stream to their audience, and the audience can interact directly on the timeline...

- Content is naturally time-based / news
Live is the fastest way to react to news-based content.

- Infrastructure to compete with incumbents.
Livestreaming at scale is brutally expensive. It's why Twitch has never been meaningfully profitable for Amazon and why YouTube subsidizes live with the rest of Google.

X under xAI is building out massive GPU infrastructure

- Discovery. Huge.
Comment section on streams, attribution of impressions, interest-based algorithm, sharing built-in...

Their discovery for live content could be on-par with YouTube's discovery for regular VOD.

- Payouts.
Creator payout program seems to be going well, onboarding is meaningful but still attainable. Streamers need to make $ to spend time here.

X won't be YouTube or Twitch by competing on what they're good at (culture + Google search).

Instead, it should focus on the unique advantage it already has: owning the live conversation.

X is where the world comes to react in real-time. The culture to own live is already built in to the platform, but it won't perform well without strategic focus...

Where I'd build if I worked on live for X:

- Reliability & latency. This is tablestakes.

- "Join from the timeline"
Stop making people click twice to actually enter the stream from their timeline. Include chat engagement, all messages (not just the past 10 mins), and comments next to the stream, as displayed in the timeline.

Allow people to interact without clicking. Encourage the click to create stickiness.

- Browsing streams & replays. VODs need to live on. It is 50% of the value of a stream.

- Real-time captions, live translation. Make platforms compete with your compute advantage lol.

- Analytics. "Viewers" is currently total viewership, not concurrent. People think 2k "viewers" = 2k people watching live. This can be misleading for brands who want to work with creators, a fundamental monetization path for live.

More analytics that empower streamers to know when they lose audience, what worked, what to comtinue doing vs. what to cut.

- Mobile and TV. YouTube is being consumed more & more on TVs, mobile is also large % of social consumption. Live needs to work for both.

The thing I have been historically concerned about...

Video content is not what X users mainly consume. We are here to read things, at our own pace. (Quickly, if you are degen like me)

There would be a bit of behavior shift for users from consuming written to video, and this is not an easy chasm to cross.

But everything else is aligned, the opportunity is available.

And if X invests in live strategically.. they could be the next Twitch. Better tbh, Twitch is structurally problematic

Can't wait to see what happens over the next couple yrs in the streaming space...

Bullish. DM me if you need help building live!

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

AOC claimed "data centers are turning drinking water brown"...

What's actually happening: a combination of private wells with no treatment plant + normal construction consequences

This can happen with any large construction like warehouses, highways, and stadiums

While she did mislead with this theatrical performance, she was right to start the conversation

"We are far too late to this conversation about energy, carbon, materials, and the local cost of AI"

This is the best article I've seen about the nuances of AI data centers, the costs, who pays them, and the practical solution

Amazing work from Matt & Jonah

I just hope this message reaches the eyes of those who need it most...

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

Founders Fund just launched a Mafia game show with Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey, Bryan Johnson, and more.

Yes, it's real. This is new media.

- A consumer format ported over to tech & business

- Earns position in an industry's conversation

- Entertaining. Because prestigious audiences want fun content too

The new media category is two years old and massively undercrowded. Almost every consumer entertainment format hasn't been ported to a professional audience yet

We will see a lot more of this: streaming, clips, EGC, produced shows, and eventually... community

Imagine the business / startup version of Hot Ones, Undercover Boss, Blind date, Judge Judy, The Apprentice, Project Runway, Survivor

It's coming. Everything is being built behind-the-scenes right now.

If you want to learn more about New Media, I'll drop a video explanation below.

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

Just wrapped up a short sprint with the @MTSlive team

1 month stats:
- from 40k to ~100k X followers
- 3k views per stream to ~10k
- ~45 guests booked each week
- ~6 hrs of live content daily M-F
- ~35M monthly impressions (5M on clips)
- 111k total stream views
- ~17 weekly upload on YouTube

My biggest takeaways for the future of live & new media:

1. MTS growth rate is highly abnormal. It's almost entirely a function of speed, budget, and network. Difficult to achieve for most new media. These stats should not be the expectation for most teams

2. Every show is a mess in the beginning, even with resources, like talent & capital. This is normal. Teams should not be afraid of pushing through the chaos. Live is very much a "build in public" tactic, not hyper-structured or one-shot like produced video

3. Social PMF is the MTS product, but this is not true for every team. There is a massive opportunity for groups or individuals to use live for community-building within tech & business

4. News & interview-based shows are great for network-building, especially in initial stages, but the next wave of media will experiment with new formats & ideas

5. More teams will launch live shows (duh) because trust is scarce in the AI world and live is the only format with Proof of Human. Live = relationships, trust, & retention

6. Livestreams are not a growth tool. This is similar to live content in any industry, even traditional game streaming on Twitch. Growth for live shows comes from content posted to top-of-funnel platforms (X, YouTube, TT / IG) with audience being funneled back to the stream with strong CTAs. No change to this, even if you have a lot of resources

7. X is about to invest a lot into live... Just wait :)

I had a great time working with the team on this one! Thanks so much @ChrisJBakke for inviting me after a silly lil X post

Can't wait to see where you all end up

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

MrBeast started Feastables. Logan Paul & KSI created Prime. Pokimane started Myna Snacks.

Just realized there is a huge opportunity for this space...

So creators get into CPG for many reasons:

- Business that doesn't require their constant presence or face (operators can run these companies = non-reliant on the creator)

- Retail as legitimacy and scale (using fans to earn placement in positions to attract non-fans)

- Diversification and durability (relevance is fragile)

- Enterprise value or an exit (easier to sell a CPG brand than a YouTube channel reliant on your face)

The failure rate on these companies is high. They struggle with retention once the novelty fades

But imagine if creators with a CPG business implemented a routine live shopping experience...

They already know how to hold attention & have an established audience.

Live shopping has 3-10x conversion vs. traditional ecommerce, 10x engagement rate, set to explode in the US & seeing a lot of investment

Some of these creators don't want to put a lot of additional time into marketing, this is part of why these companies are created

But there is a big opportunity here for creator CPG brands

Just need to solve for actual product quality and consistent distribution, not just launch-day reach...

They should try live shopping! :) Talk to me and @EddieKoai for this

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

PewDiePie just launched an LLM to compete with ChatGPT and OpenClaw. Yes, really...

110M+ (mostly non-technical) subscribers just received a one-click video tutorial

And all the comments I read are thrilled. How??

Here's the tech overview & what's happening:

- local AI (like Openclaw) has always been more complex than the avg person could deal with

- PewDiePie made "Odysseus", an MIT-licensed, open-source tool that runs entirely on your own machine

- he said "AI sucks but it's not going away so we might as well make it safe for everyone" (note: fantastic framing for his audience which is usually highly skeptical of emerging tech)

- Over 16k stars and 2k forks on GitHub since posting the video yesterday

- The tech connects to any local model or API, with agent tools, memory, and a "Cookbook" that scans your hardware and serves a model in one click

Felix reaches an audience no developer tool launch ever has. That's exactly why r/LocalLLaMA is framing this as a mainstreaming moment rather than just another tool drop

But he still has a long way to go to show true adoption. Current stars & forks signal attention, not longterm user conviction

But Felix has distribution chops... let's see what he can do with them

Is distribution really a moat? Let's find out lol

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

New Media isn’t new.

I spoke to Rob Greenlee- podcast Hall of Famer & host of the New Media Show

Very nuanced conversation around my recent research & New Media framework

We discuss the origins of digital media, terminology in the creator economy, & more.

Thanks Rob!!

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

Twitch streamers are anti-innovation

Mostly the smaller ones. The larger ones are quietly consulting for AI companies lol

This attitude is why I don’t typically recommend building a company for them, nor creating content on the platform

Also why I have so much respect for @StreamWithMeld / @joelcompiles for launching an AI feature amidst backlash

And why I think Kick / Rumble are more interesting platforms longterm- streamers there are more open-minded

Fascinating to watch Twitch consistently crash out about the tech that could prevent the apocalypse happening on their platform…

If you hate AI data centers you have been the victim of Chinese propaganda

AI has problems to solve, but very smart people are already working on it

Gud tech

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

Wow I literally just had this product idea yesterday rip

This is huge for streamers and brands

Heres why its a bigger deal than most people will realize:

Viewers have near-0 context when jumping into a stream. Streamers must give them clarity or they will bounce

Good creators do this very quickly, 2 mins or less

Streams & live shows that struggle to grow are typically bad at giving context fast enough & therefore don’t retain viewership

If viewers are able to get context more easily with this feature, it could result in more stickiness & growth for creators of all sizes

That being said, the success of this feature heavily relies on how efficiently it can give clarity to viewers

If it doesn’t give information that hooks their attention & makes them excited to keep watching…

It will be useless

This is also on the individual streamer to create an experience that will hook people when summarized

Btw- streaming is a very powerful tool in the AI era. The history of the broadcast can be summarized, the future of it can not

Live is the only way to make sure your users / audience hear your message

This is why OpenAI, Anthropic etc are all using it

The future is live :) lmk if anyone needs help using this

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

So what really happened at StreamElements?

I spoke with former team members and a competitor CEO.

This ends in a warning for the space and I’ll admit, I have concerns for other tools…

The timeline:

- 2016: Founded in Tel Aviv. Free tools for streamers. Built to “do right by creators”

- 2020-2021: HelloFresh deal hits $30M/year. Brand awareness team working with HBO, Disney, McDonalds, Spotify etc

- Sept 2021: Raises $100M Series B from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Tripled headcount & CEO swap

- 2022-2023: Builds BOSS, a $50M sponsorship system. Bets on automating what was working manually

- 2022-2023: Three rounds of layoffs. Awareness team fired

- Jan 2026: CEO posts a 4am video asking creators to donate $300k to keep tools running. Campaign raises ~$2,100

- May 2026: Sponsorship dashboard empty. Creators publicly reporting unpaid sponsorships, rumors circulating of a shutdown

- Current status: Acquisition (?) partner confirmed but unnamed

It seems like leadership mistook a pandemmy-era jackpot for a repeatable system (not their fault tbh)

They bet $50M that a sponsorship-matching tool could replace the low-margin brand awareness business

This caused a death spiral: sponsorship rates decreased, large creators who previously worked with SE didn’t sign up at the lower rates, ROI for brands decreased, budgets were cut

All that was left were the small streamers who drive very little ROI for brands

Biz model of packaging up small streamers seems to be quite ineffective

My concern: streaming tools may not be a VC category

- Throne raised $830K, then returned the money to go bootstrapped (founder said their market couldn’t support a venture-backed outcome)
- Tiltify, Streamloots, Restream, Meld… all raised once, never again

CEOs telling me vc will not fund anymore because streaming tools don’t hit enough revenue

Because streamers expect everything to be free

This means future tools & innovation will be bootstrapped, solo devs, or maybe built by rich T1 streamers as passion projects

Unless the tools I listed above can become profitable & prove the vc model… we may see less tools overall

Have also heard someone else on that list is going bankrupt soon too (would be shocking)

If you’re a creator, the free tool you rely on may be running on a model that doesn’t survive scale

Expect more collapses and don’t build your business to be reliant on a tool

Really hope the current tool founders can make it work

Good luck to all and pls lmk if I can help

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

StreamElements raised $100M from SoftBank and powered 23M streamers.

So why is it falling apart?

I spoke to former team members and a competitor CEO to find out what actually happened.

Full story link below.

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

One crucial mistake I see almost every new live show making...

0 chat interaction

If you don't talk to chat, you're missing the chance to build a community that keeps coming back, converts to sponsors, free UGC, growth etc

If 0 chat, you should probably just make videos

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

New Media is what happens when the creator economy grows up and gets a real job.

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

I'm gonna say it...

Rumble is the most interesting livestreaming platform business right now

Even if you think the CEO or platform sucks, the vision is compelling

They are acquiring Northern Data (AI Compute) in an all-stock deal closing mid June

YouTube has Google Cloud, Twitch has AWS, now Rumble will have ~250MW of data center capacity across ten global sites by 2027

They're diversifying across services and industries that no other live platform has even thought about...

I have spoken many times about how live platforms / communities are mostly anti-emerging technology

Rumble and @chrispavlovski really trying to make me stfu

The "Freedom First" framing in the press release is interesting and probably hurts them with institutional investors tho

Political identity is still big for the brand, which limits the customer pool for Rumble Cloud

We'll see what happens :)

[Stream Coach 🎮 @streamcoachtv]

RT @ashnichrist: Feels like every week MTS steps up in a big way

a16z's new media team has speedrun the initial stage of building a live s…

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

YouTube channel ideas that will hit 100k within 1-2 yrs

These are the industries about to explode

1. Spatial computing / AR
2. Wearables & edge hardware
3. Robotics
4. BCIs
5. Agentic AI

For AR - Apple, Magic Leap, Niantic etc. Grows into other categories like gaming

For wearables - Specs by Snap, Meta glasses, and open source @MentraGlass by @caydengineer. Google also announced new glasses at I/O last week

For robotics - Figure by Brett Alcock, Tesla Optimus, Boston Dynamics etc. (lots of $ here)

For BCIs - Neuralink, Synchron, Precision. This channel grows into biotech, longer timeline to hit 100k

For Agentic - aim for consumer apps or you’re competing with massive channels (agentic commerce, household logistics, travel etc)

These categories have a lot of investment & development, but haven’t been consistently ready for marketing yet

Perfect opportunity for new channels, brands, and media companies

Enjoy :)

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

Is content creation over?

This post by Ken can feel very true, especially if you are building in a mature industry like gaming, finance, tech etc.

This is why savvy creators are paying attn to what industries are receiving vc investment

And then they create inside of a brand new category

This is how you see creators skyrocket from 0 to 100k on YouTube, or from 0 to $20k months

And this is done in their first 1-2 yrs

We watched this happen in gaming, then internet finance, now AI

Next will be BCIs and robotics

Content creation is definitely different than when I started 14 yrs ago

If you want to grow now you need to position yourself in a new industry & ride the wave

Or as Ken says, have very unique positioning / leverage in a mature industry (much harder than being in a new industry)

But it’s still possible :) gotta be savvy

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a live series on Twitch

His new show "Talk with the People" will be multistreamed across YouTube, TikTok, IG, FB, X, and Bluesky

But Twitch will be the main platform where viewers submit questions through chat

My analysis as a Streaming Strategist for 13 yrs?

Not surprising. Mamdani, Trump, AOC, Bernie, Obama & few other politicians have done a wonderful job utilizing social media to meet voters where they are

AOC and Bernie have both streamed on Twitch before, even playing games with the community

I have said this so many times but worth it again: Live content (streaming) is the best trust & relationship-development tool in the content stack

It is a great way for anyone with a platform to connect deeper with an audience and build more trusting relationships

In the era of AI and low trust across social, Live is the perfect antidote

Can't wait to see how he does this... will be watching & give yall a post-stream analysis

[Ashni @ashnichrist]

This is NOT what I expected after digging in & learning more.

If this is acquisition, the potential partner will be responsible for all creator payments and the associated PR.

Hope to see SE continue, Perry dedicated a lot of time to this.

But it is a lil sticky.