Good morning. Hank Green surveyed MIT’s 2025 graduating class ahead of his commencement address, asking about students’ advice, memories, and goals.

“When I asked you what you did at MIT, you said you built,” Green said in his speech this weekend. “But when I asked you what was giving you hope, you did not say ‘buildings,’ you said people. So, to the graduating class of 2025, go forth for yourself, for others, and for this beautiful, bizarre world.”

Monday morning inspiration? ✅

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Former MrBeast retention manager Mario Joos recently joined prank and comedy YouTube channel Stokes Twins as fractional CEO, providing C-suite leadership to the company on a part-time basis. 

Context: The Stokes Twins (Alan and Alex) had a big 2024—they added 60 million YouTube subscribers in the last year and gained upwards of 300 million views in one week last summer. Joos worked with the Stokeses as a consultant through that growth period via his independent research company, Brightrock. 

Now as fractional CEO, Joos aims to continue the momentum. “It’s important that when you bring on a CEO, it’s not that you just need a C-suite person that’s going to be on the ground. You need to have an element of trust, and the CEO is all about strategic alignment,” Joos told us.

Here’s what he’s focusing on →

PR and brand partnerships. Joos wants to improve the twins’ image (they pleaded guilty in 2021 to misdemeanor charges related to a pair of fake bank robbery pranks) and gain exposure to new brands to strengthen their partnerships.

“From a brand point of view, I see a huge opportunity. There aren’t many creators [who] target teens, and I think [there are] a lot of brands that are going to be super excited to work with them,” Joos said.

Business development. Joos plans to focus on new products and merchandise. He says projects are already in the works on a CPG snack to be distributed in stores.

“Being at Beast, I’ve seen what’s possible, and that excites me. I think there are so many untapped markets for the Stokes Twins,” Joos said. “It’s about finding the right relationships, and we’re having some good conversations with a few people who have led departments for some well-known brands.”

Big picture: Joos is leveraging the research he’s done on attention spans and dopamine spikes at Brightrock to help spur the Stokes Twins into their next era.

“At Beast, I started getting passionate about questions like ‘does attention span actually go down?’ We are finding that it doesn’t. We’re looking a lot into neuroscience right now,” Joos said. “So I’m not going to give up on that entirely, but I am taking the role [with the Stokes Twins] because I genuinely like the guys and I think they have a ton of potential.”

Gabriel DeSanti has made a career out of trying different jobs. He’s taken turns in 150+ roles, from peanut mobile driver to beekeeper. Now, he wants to bring that experience out of the feed and into real life with his new job shadowing service, Staj. 

How he got here: DeSanti began making short-form videos in 2022, asking people on the street to take him to work with them for the day. Nearly three years later, DeSanti has amassed more than 1 million followers. 

With Staj (short for stagiaire—another word for trainee), DeSanti wants to help 1,000 people achieve their career goals over the next year.

The details: Staj “hosts” can sell users different experiences on the platform’s website—an informational call, a four-hour shadow course, or a full-day shadow. Current hosts include a bridal designer, a real estate agent, and a private chef.

Zoom out: DeSanti joins the growing ranks of creators who have turned their passions into platforms—like Salary Transparent Street’s salary database or The Wall Street Skinny’s investment banking and private equity fundamentals course.

Google unveiled its latest generative AI video tool, Veo 3, last month. Creators are already putting it to the test. 

Case in point: In a recent Reel, travel and culture creator Nuseir “Nas Daily” Yassin used Veo 3 to animate an educational video about a Russian naval officer who helped prevent a nuclear war. Yassin narrated the video, but the rest was completely AI-generated. 

Now, Yassin is looking for summer interns to help work on more AI-made products and content.

Our condolences are with tech creator Sara Dietschy and her family following the passing of her mother, Jeannie, after a battle with brain cancer.