Investing in Passion: The TCG Approach

This chapter explores the unique investment philosophy of TCG, a firm focusing on creators and subscription streaming platforms. The speakers recount their backgrounds and pivotal relationships in media, illustrating how shared values shaped their strategic direction. They emphasize the importance of brands with passionate fan bases and the organic growth of media properties that resonate deeply with consumers.

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My guests this week are Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns, co-founders and partners at The Chernin Group, TCG, a multi-stage investment firm dedicated to building consumer businesses. Many think of TCG as some of the best media investors in the world, and in this discussion, you’ll quickly see why. In our conversation, we cover how TCG identifies creators that they can help build businesses with, how established companies should think about influencers and media today, and what innovations they are most excited for in the creator space. As I become more heavily involved in building new media properties, Jesse and Mike are always my first point of call for advice, and I’m so excited to share this with you. Please enjoy my conversation with Jesse Jacobs and Mike Kerns.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

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This episode is brought to you by MIT Investment Management Company – also known as MITIMCo, the endowment office of MIT. MITIMCo seeks to find people who are focused on achieving exceptional long-term investment returns, partner with these firms early, and stick around for the very long term. MITIMCo doesn’t care how small, new, or un-institutional your firm is if you have the potential to generate amazing results that support MIT’s pursuit of world-class education, cutting-edge research, and groundbreaking innovation.

Despite their willingness to invest early, they do not ask for GP economics, and they commit their initial capital for ten years.

Visit www.mitimco.org and their new emerging managers page to learn more.

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Show Notes

[00:03:32] - [First question] - The history of TCG

[00:04:30] - iFilm (Discontinued)

[00:07:08] - Full Screen

[00:07:13] - Crunchyroll

[00:10:46] - Uniting properties across all of TCG’s brands[00:11:14] - Barstool, MeatEater[00:12:00] - Headspace, Food 52, Hodinkee, Surfline

[00:14:03] - Accidental businesses and pre-commercial success[00:14:53] - Exploding Kittens

[00:16:05] - Evaluating the potential of a new pitch

[00:19:12] - Testing, tracking and understanding media brand conversions

[00:21:13] - The most important things happening in media in 2021[00:25:12] - Analysis of MeatEater from content to commerce

[00:27:22] - First Lite

[00:29:21] - Replacing your own sponsors with owned companies