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Of all the media outlets to have launched in the last decade, Morning Brew has had one of the most impressive growth trajectories. Not only did it build its main newsletter to millions of subscribers, but it also spun off multiple B2B niche verticals and has had enormous success on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

So it’s not surprising that when three of its early employees left to launch their own media company, there were plenty of high profile creators eager to work with them. Under the banner of Smooth Media Creative Holdings, these alums have built out an influencer marketing agency and also their own niche outlets.

In a recent interview, co-founder Josh Kaplan delved deeper into Smooth Media’s strategy, explained how it works with big YouTubers, and discussed why the company decided to acquire a 30-year-old B2B media brand.

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Food content is now a major staple on YouTube, but when baker Gemma Stafford launched her channel in 2014 there were hardly any professional chefs on the platform. This early mover advantage allowed her and her husband Kevin Kurtz to build up a massive audience that used Gemma’s tutorials in their own baking efforts. Then a few years ago they teamed up with media veteran Ronald Pruett, Jr. to launch the Bold Baking Network, a streaming platform that syndicates content from hundreds of baking creators all across the world.

In a recent interview, Kevin and Ron walked through the company’s origin story, how they monetized Gemma’s videos, and why they decided to expand beyond YouTube and build their own platform.

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The podcast company Sonoro launched in 2020 with a relatively simple thesis: that there were very few media companies geared toward the 62 million latinos within the US. Over the next four years, it built out a stable of dozens of podcasts across several formats ranging from serialized nonfiction to personality-led chat shows. In addition to the standard podcast monetization models, it also sought to further capitalize its IP by selling adaptations to Hollywood studios and developing its own merch lines. Today, the network generates over 100 million monthly downloads and works with some of the world’s biggest latino creators.

In a recent interview co-founder Joshua Weinstein explained how the company partners with talent and walked through all the ways it’s monetizing its IP.