Looks like CAA is launching a $250M holding company with TPG to acquire YouTube first creator businesses.
With the success of MrBeast / Logan Paul across media, merchandise, and consumer products has shown that creators arent just entertainers but are turning into businesses.
Combined with the rise of internet native franchises like Backrooms, Pop The Balloons or Mark Rober's Crunch Labs, it's clear that distribution is moving away from trad celebs and toward creators who own their audience.
Also Clav raised an interesting question how did celebs become famous before social media? In many cases, gatekeepers like studios, networks, magazines, and paparazzi controlled access to audiences. Today, creators can build and own that relationship directly.
This leads me to believe that the next gen of media giants and franchises will come organically from platforms like YouTube, X, and Twitch. And overtime, many of them will build vertically integrated businesses on top of their distribution.