Good morning. Today, after months of short-form promos and a choreographed dance number, YouTuber group Bunch of Friends is finally getting what they asked for: a meeting with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. 

Most people just email their bosses. 

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

Preston Summerrow, aka PrestonGoes, takes on DIY engineering projects on YouTube mixed with his own original songs. Today, he’s releasing the first episode of a three-part sequel to his Mini Truck Railroad series—and trying to finish what he started.

Catch up quick: Two years ago, Summerrow set out to drive a modified mini truck across an abandoned railroad. The first episode hit 1M views in less than 24 hours and the series helped his channel pass 1M subscribers, but he never made it across the railroad.

Now he’s trying again, and this time a few things are different →

Title sponsor: T-Mobile is sponsoring the series, a deal Summerrow landed after YouTube licensing company Spotter introduced them. Summerrow has been a free agent since May and told us he’s sharpened his pitch by meeting brands face-to-face at events from Spotter and Press Publish. “Pitching in-person is a huge hack,” Summerrow told us.

Monthly uploads + editor: Last time, Summerrow released episodes weekly and edited the series himself. After noticing views drop off week to week, he’s switching to monthly releases (September 25, October 25, and November 25), with Shorts in between to build anticipation. The T-Mobile sponsorship is also helping fund a full-time editor.

IRL finale: Summerrow plans to premiere the last episode with fans at a public spot in LA, similar to his first in-person event this year, where over 250 people showed up to a Santa Monica beach with three days’ notice.

Zoom out: Summerrow’s biggest lesson from the first series was to look for the story beneath the title and thumbnail. A guy driving a mini truck over an old bridge doesn’t sound like something the algorithm would surface, but viewers connected with watching someone chase a dream and fall short. So Summerrow is framing the sequel as a story about trying again.

“I’m more excited to see how people respond to the story and if people are inspired to persevere in their normal life,” Summerrow said. “That feels so much more exciting to me than big views.”

Hi everyone, Syd here. Yesterday, I attended TikTok’s third Creator Summit in LA, where 350 creators gathered alongside select brands and agencies for a day focused on monetization and brand partnerships. 

Creators have told us it can be difficult to understand what TikTok’s algorithm rewards. At the summit, TikTok execs and featured creators including Hunter Clark and Romina Gafur offered some clues about what the platform is prioritizing.

Here are four tips that stood out →

“Last year, hitting a milestone like that required intense planning around massive shopping events like Black Friday,” Pena said. “But this year, those million-dollar streams happen organically. Why? Because the trust with the community was deeper.”

Zoom out: Coming out of the summit, I wondered why TikTok’s advice to creators and brands felt broad compared to YouTube’s latest updates, which targeted more specific creator problems like dynamic thumbnails and video A/B testing. TikTok ranks no.1 in attention, dominates ecommerce, and hosts over 10K communities with over 2M views each—and the platform has only existed for less than a decade. Given TikTok’s rapid growth, the platform may still be figuring out how to best serve the brands and creators who use it.

Yesterday, food creator Jack Goldburg (aka Jack’s Dining Room) announced a 50-50 partnership with entertainment company 101 Studios, the production company behind TV show Yellowstone, to launch Yes Chef Studios.

“The goal with Yes Chef Studios is not to create a show, it's to create the next generation's Food Network,” Goldburg told us. “It’s to create the largest media food content studio the world's ever seen, and to bring in other people to do that.”

Inside the launch:

“Everyone in the world has a studio,” Goldburg said. “There's a difference between having a studio and being able to effectively deploy incredible content around the world at the highest level. With [101 Studios], we feel we can achieve that best with actual backing.”

Big picture: We’ve seen creators fund their own projects, run production studios, partner with traditional networks, and ink deals with the biggest streaming services in the world. Goldburg’s partnership with 101 Studios feels different—he’s leaning on an entertainment company with a proven track record to build out an entire network of content.

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.