Good morning. MrBeast started to tease his recreation of Willy Wonka’s factory for an upcoming video, complete with chocolate waterfall. I’m hoping he goes full replica, with flavored wallpaper, edible tea cups, and all.

–Hannah Doyle

Why Logan Paul’s 99 Originals Matter

After a nearly month-long delay, the YouTuber and WrestleMania fighter launched his latest collection of NFTs on Monday, kicking off a consecutive 99 days of auctions.

The 99 Originals are polaroids Paul took himself over the last year, which he describes as “the most significant moments of my life captured on tangible film.” He’s selling each image by itself at auction, which means the NFTs have no set price. Ownership of each comes with voting rights in the affiliated Originals DAO, along with a unique benefit associated with every individual NFT.

How has it gone so far?

• The first piece was a picture of digital artist Beeple, which sold at auction for 25 ETH (~$60,000). Proceeds went to Ukraine relief.

• The second sold for around $104,000, with one of Paul’s Bored Ape NFTs being airdropped to the Originals DAO as an asset that members can choose what to do with.

• On Wednesday, a picture of Mike Tyson with his pigeons sold for $44,000. On Thursday, a picture of Paul in Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon went up for auction, with the winner earning a 1% royalty on Paul’s revenue during the auction phase of the entire 99 Originals collection.

The project isn’t Paul’s first foray into NFTs—he has faced his own successes and failures, once profiting over $500,000 in a single NFT sale, and earning criticism from the launch of his CryptoZoo project and backing of cryptocurrency Dink Doink.

At publication there are 34,000 people on the 99 Originals Discord, where Paul posts daily riddles and awards the first person to solve it with .1 ETH, which equates to about $230. The Originals DAO also has over $65,000 in its shared DAO bank account.

Our Take

When Colin and Samir spoke to Gary Vee he likened his VeeFriends NFT project to his “personal IPO”. Logan Paul’s 99 Originals are similar in that they are highly tied to his image and come with a responsibility for Logan to deliver on value. Because of the amount of time he has poured into the project—curating the photos, interacting in the Discord, promoting each sale—this project feels markedly different from and more earnest than his past NFT projects, signaling potential long-term success.

TikToker Lands a Book Deal

Referred to as “Gen-Z’s Carrie Bradshaw”, lifestyle creator Eli Rallo has built a devoted female following from her TikToks that share opinions on everything from college life to the best and worst ways to say i love you.

Her popular rules videos, which cover topics like rules for the talking stage and rules for a villain era, were used as a pitch for I Didn’t Know I Needed This, a collection of essays that cover dating, love, and life advice. The book was picked up last month by Harvest Books, a HarperCollins imprint.

The deal comes after just two years on the platform, and seven months of being a full-time content creator. She first went viral on TikTok in 2020 for her gluten-free snack “jarrs”, and today has 500,000 followers, a podcast, a Cameo page, and merch.

Our Take

Booktok is reviving the publishing industry not just in resurfacing old titles, but in finding new talent. Rallo has crafted an identity around women’s interests and life advice that makes her an ideal candidate for a publishing deal as it aligns with one of the highest-selling book genres—female nonfiction.

She’s also set herself apart by sharing strong and specific opinions that provided material to use in the book, as well as a passionate audience that identifies with her hot takes and is motivated to purchase her work.

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Creator Exits NYC Content House

Annemarie Chase, a lifestyle creator and one-fourth of content group Ur Mom's House is striking out on her own to live by herself and create independently.

Ur Mom’s House started six months ago with Elliot Choy, Kelly Wakasa, Annemarie Chase, and Ashley Alexander, all in their early-twenties living together in an NYC apartment. They create content as a group on their podcast, as well as on their own individual channels. Unlike approaches taken by other content houses like Hype House and Team 10, Ur Mom's House emphasizes helping each other's individual content and collaborating as opposed to creating content all under one umbrella.

Annemarie cited the group’s interview with Colin and Samir to explain why she’s leaving, “We all have different goals, strategies, and values about content, so I’ve proactively removed myself before we get too far down, locked into this thing together, and we’re not all sure that that’s what we want to be doing.”

Our Take

As creators it's important to take a step back and understand what your metrics for success are. It’s easy in this career to adopt someone else’s vision of success; by making this difficult decision early on before things could get more complicated, Annemarie displays a thoughtful, long-term approach to her creator career.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Vinnie Hacker joines 100 Thieves.

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• Shelby Church interviews Bill Gates.

• RedCircle is the one-stop-shop for podcasters looking for monetization and growth.*

• NFTs are coming to Instagram.

• Creator Clash boxing event goes live tomorrow.

• PRIME Hydration releases in the UK.

*This is sponsored advertising content.