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Good morning. Crypto investors have dived into the golf world with the investor group LinksDAO, which started last month and already has over 20,000 followers on Twitter. Last week they raised over 10 million dollars in 48 hours, and plan to buy a golf course with the earnings—any bets on where? I’m pulling for my home state of OR, but either way, it’s fascinating to see crypto communities emerging as creators.

-Hannah Doyle

In Today’s Issue 💬

• How KSI and Logan Paul’s new beverage company competes with Gatorade.

• A college student uses TikTok to earn a place on the red carpet.

• Why TikTok creators are migrating to YouTube Shorts.

KSI and Logan Paul Partner to Launch Prime Hydration

There’s a classic saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”—and creators Logan Paul and KSI seem to be living by it. 

Earlier this week, they announced the launch of their joint venture Prime Hydration, an electrolyte drink to compete with major beverage brands like Gatorade, Powerade, and Vitamin Water. 

“When I was training for the Floyd fight I was approached by a lot of beverage companies and I realized a lot of them were marketed to athletes and there wasn’t one that fit and could fuel any lifestyle,” Logan Paul said on his podcast Tuesday. 

“I brought this idea to [KSI] and said I think we have a really big opportunity to bring a great product to the world and show people what can happen when rivals come together as business partners.” The creators have a combined following of over 125 million across all platforms. 

Prime By The Numbers

540,000 → how many fans tuned into the Instagram Live announcement.

500,000 → how many followers the Prime Instagram account has gained since Tuesday, which is over half the following Gatorade has on Instagram.

3 million → how many units Paul said they’ve sold to retailers.

While the drink is currently available in Los Angeles, Paul shared on the podcast that they’ll be in stock nationwide at Walmart, Kroger, Target, GMC, CVS, and Vitamin Shoppe.

Our Take

When creators work together, their combined reach is something legacy beverage brands like Gatorade are envious of. For KSI and Logan specifically, their popularity in areas where other US beverage brands struggle, like the UK, make them a worthy competitor and could result in acquisition down the line.

Roll Out the Red Carpet

College student Emily Uribe posts TikToks pretending to be a famous celebrity, and is now well on her way to becoming one. 

After starting out as a One Direction fan account in March 2020, she found content-market fit answering questions as if they were being asked by the paparazzi and popular late night TV hosts. By November 2021, she was walking the red carpet of Eternals and West Side Story, being interviewed for real. 

Consumer and SMB Investor Justine Moore outlined Uribe’s rise in a Twitter thread. Since her red carpet appearances, Uribe has signed to Josephine Talent Agency and is filming a sci-fi movie pilot this summer.

Uribe plans, edits, and posts 2-6 videos a day while managing life as a full-time student and working a job in retail. As she nears a million followers on TikTok this year, it will be interesting to watch and see if she makes the jump to full-time creator.

Our Take

TikTok often acts as an entertainment incubator that helps creators find what content works in record time. Because of this, the next generation of celebrities won't rely on traditional paths to success, but leverage the internet to make things happen for themselves.

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Low Risk, High Reward

This week TikTok photographer Alex Stemplewski shared performance stats from one of his YouTube Shorts, which gained 15 million views over 10 days and brought in 167,000 subscribers. 

Stemplewski began reposting his TikToks to YouTube Shorts nine months ago, and has gained half a million followers in less than a month, posting daily.

Our Take

YouTube has historically been a high-lift platform that requires slow growth in order to reap big rewards. Shorts is reshaping the platform by lowering the barrier to entry for creators to grow huge followings in a short amount of time. Once they have the audience, they can monetize it with long-form videos at a scale that platforms like TikTok and Reels can’t compete with. Expect to see more TikTok transplants on YouTube this year.

🔥 In Other News

• Hype House premieres on Netflix.

• Disney is hiring content creators.

• TikTok is testing a repost button that will push videos to friends’ For You feeds. 

• Dr Disrespect’s game studio Midnight Society teases their first game.

• UK TikTok Creator Francis Bourgeois signs with talent agency YMU.

Have a great weekend. Shoutout to one of our readers, H of The Stage, who contributed to #TeamSeas last week to help them reach 30 million before the year’s end. Reply with a cool video you like from a small creator—we may feature it in an upcoming issue. 

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