One of the keys to startup success is knowing when to sell.
John Coogan and Jordi Hays, the two young founders of TBPN, a daily tech show that streams on YouTube and X, perfectly timed their exit this week, selling to OpenAI for a price in the “low hundreds of millions,” according to the FT.
The initial reaction from the industry was, “What the?!” Even inside OpenAI, some employees reportedly thought it was an April Fools’ joke. But TBPN, which stands for Technology Business Programming Network, could theoretically help OpenAI in a couple of ways.
First, it gives OpenAI access to distribution for its own marketing and communications at scale. For over a year, the company has seriously struggled with its public image, and TBPN could help—though the founders say there’s a clause in the deal terms that will allow them to maintain editorial integrity. It’s also possible that this was an acqui-hire, and that the hosts of TBPN could fill a communications and marketing void going forward for the AI giant. The chief communications officer role at OpenAI has remained vacant since Hannah Wong departed earlier this year. The TBPN acquisition was internally championed by Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, who has been overseeing its communications department. (Simo announced Friday that she’d be taking a planned medical leave for several weeks.)
AI in general has a bit of a PR problem in the United States. Optimism about the technology is considerably lower in the U.S. than in China, which some worry could prevent the United States from winning the global AI race. A more AI-positive show like TBPN could help change the broader narrative.
Finally, live video programming is arguably one of the most defensible and trustworthy forms of media in an AI-generated content world. As AI gets ever better at video and audio creation, how will anyone know what’s true and made by a human—or what’s fabricated by AI? A live broadcast can clear up a lot of those gray areas.
So, is the acquisition a smart move? For TBPN, absolutely. The founders appear to be selling their 1.5-year-old startup at a huge multiple to what they are generating—the show did roughly $5 million in revenue in 2025, and was targeting around $30 million this year. We will likely look back on this exit for creators as a parallel to the Huffington Post–AOL acquisition moment, when HuffPo’s $315 million sale convinced investors that digital media could be much more than boxer-clad bloggers in their parent’s basements.
In other news, I sat down with Delta Air Lines (No. 70) CEO Ed Bastian for the latest episode of my Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast. Bastian’s tenure at the airline is a great leadership case study on how to build a winning culture and turn around a business. As an executive at Delta for almost 30 years and CEO for the last 10, he helped resurrect the airline from bankruptcy, strengthened a long-lasting partnership with American Express (No. 58) that now produces more than 10% of Delta’s annual revenue, and has earned Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For recognition—thanks in part to a $1 billion-plus annual profit-sharing program he created for employees.
If you want to learn how the best CEOs lead and motivate their teams, Bastian is someone worth studying. Check out the episode here.
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