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Trung Phan

@TrungTPhan

Jun 18, 2021 • 19 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X

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In 2018, Alex Cooper launched "Call Her Daddy" on Barstool with only $70k in guaranteed money. 3 years later, she closed a $60m deal with Spotify.

Every creator should study her story. Fortunately, Dave Portnoy has laid it all out in 2 separate podcasts.

Here's a breakdown 🧵

1/ FYI: "Call Her Daddy" is a female-led podcast that covers sex, culture, relationships etc.

It launched in 2018 on Barstool w/ 2 hosts (Alex, Sofia). They split in 2020.

Cooper took the show to #5 most-streamed on Spotify and just signed a 3yr/$60m deal with the streamer.

2/ Dave Portnoy discovered "Call Her Daddy' on Instagram.

3/ In 2018, Barstool offered Alex and Sofia each a 3-year deal:

◻️ ~$70k base
◻️ % of merchandise
◻️ bonus on podcast downloads

BUT: Barstool kept the "Call Her Daddy" IP

4/ Portnoy's pitch to any content creator that joins Barstool:

5/ "Call Her Daddy" is a total smash shit and the girls make bank in year 1: Alex = $506k, Sofia = $461k.

They push for a new contract for year 2:
◻️ $1m guaranteed
◻️ Become freelancers (not Barstool employees)
◻️ 50% of merch, ads etc.
◻️ **Get back** "Call Her Daddy" IP

6/ Barstool balked at the offer and find out the girls are shopping "Call Her Daddy" to other podcast networks:

7/ "Call Her Daddy" goes dark in early 2020 and stops posting new content.

To get them back, Barstool offers:
◻️ $500k base salary
◻️ 7.5% of merchandise
◻️ A 6-month reduction in contract length
◻️ **Give them** "Call Her Daddy" IP
◻️ Barstool gets 80% of any alcohol sales

8/ TLDR: Alex -- who does all the editing work on the podcast and is the original connection to Barstool -- takes a deal.

Sofia won't do a deal. Turns out, her BF is a hotshot HBO exec trying to poach "Call Her Daddy" to Wondery. (He's now left HBO, Sofia has her own podcast).

9/ Fast forward to June 2021, "Call Her Daddy" is:

◻️ 5th most popular podcast globally on Spotify
◻️ Top 15 across all podcast services

This week, Spotify inked 26-year Cooper to a 3yr/$60m deal and "first look agreement" on any other projects she develops.

10/ Barstool will still do "Call Her Daddy" merch and Portnoy is happy with the arrangement

11/ The math of Cooper's Spotify deal didn't make sense for Barstool

12/ Why the deal makes sense for Spotify

13/ At the end of the day, superstar creators (e.g., Rogan, Cooper) are like top-tier athletes

@TrungTPhan

14/ Follow @TrungTPhan for other business breakdowns (and really dumb memes):

https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan/status/1404946035936403457?s=20

@blakeir

15/ Sources

Portnoy takes over "Call Her Daddy" podcast in May 2020 to explain negotiations: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/81-…

Amazing notes on Portnoy's takeover (via @blakeir): blakeir.com/Dave-Portnoy-C…

Portnoy on the Spotify deal (1hr:10min mark):

@TheHustle

16/ Speaking of Barstool + creators.

I previously wrote for @TheHustle how Barstool + the Spittin' Chiclet's (top hockey podcast in the world) launched a vodka brand (Pink Whitney) that has done $100m+ in sales in less than 2yrs: thehustle.co/pink-whitney-s…

17/ So, I click on this DailyMail article to see why Portnoy’s account was suspended.

The site does a full investigation of Portnoy’s timeline and I discovered my “Call Her Daddy” thread was one of his R/Ts.

18/ UPDATE: Alex Cooper spoke with WSJ and said key to her scoring such a massive Spotify deal ($20m/year) is her popularity with millennials: “In negotiations, I own the audience they all want.”

Totally dedicated to the pod craft, too:

🔗 wsj.com/articles/call-…

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Trung Phan

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The population built makeshift homes tightly bundled by the river banks. Outgrowth from this eventually lead to narrow alleyways between many buildings that is trademark of the city (the Khmer named the region Prey Nokor then French renamed it Saigon and then it was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976 after end of Vietnam War).

Over decades, the French created European street grids and built wide Paris-type boulevards in the city to funnel commerce to larger markets (also make the city easier to administer).

It was at these markets that French baguettes were introduced and traded.

Bánh mì bread is known for being flaky and crispy on the outside while fluffier on inside (so god damn good).

Two features of Saigon helped create this texture:

▫️Climate: The heat and humidity in Southeast Asia leads dough to ferment faster, which creates air pockets in bread (light and fluffy).

▫️Ingredient: Wide availability of rice meant locals added rice flour to wheat flour imports (which were quite expensive). Rice flour is more resistant to moisture and creates a drier, crispier crust.

Fast forward to the 1930s: the French-designed street layout is largely complete. Now, the city centre has wide boulevards intersected by countless narrow alleyways.

The design was ideal for street vendor carts. These businesses were inspired by shophosue of colonial architecture to sell all types of goods as chaotic traffic rushed by.

Vietnam has some of the most slapping rice and soup dishes, but many people on the move in the mornings wanted something more portable and edible by hand.

Bánh mì was traditionally upper class fare but it met the need for on-the-go food.

Just fill the bread with some Vietnamese ingredients (braised pork, pickled vegetable, Vietnamese coriander, chilies) along with French goodies (pate).

Pair it with cà phê sữa đá (aka coffee with condensed milk aka caffeinated crack) and you’re laughing.

Haven’t lived in Saigon for 10+ years but ate a banh mi every other day when I did.

While there, I also sold a comedy script to Fox (pitch: “The Fugitive meets Harold & Kumar set in Southeast Asia”).

It never got made but fun story to retell: readtrung.com/p/im-making-a-…

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Trung Phan

@TrungTPhan

Jul 26

the most underrated winner of the AI boom is the 15,000 person Caribbean island of Anguilla (which has a GDP of ~$320m)

The research team is happy to announce that we’ve played our part contributing to Anguilla’s windfall.

We also paid $99 to GoDaddy to see if we could secure one more .AI domain. Bearly.AI

https://twitter.com/conormyhrvold/status/1949137437768446017

Polynesian island Tuvalu has an even smaller population (10,000)!!

https://twitter.com/conormyhrvold/status/1949137437768446017

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https://twitter.com/jayvas/status/1520795644226588672

LOU PAI!

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Norway discovered off-shore oil in 1969. It launched its sovereign wealth fund with $300m in 1996.

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Norway’s SWF roughly is 65% equity, 25% bond, 10% real estate/infra (all global).

Unsurprisingly, its largest holding is Apple ($47B, or 1.4% of the entire company).

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