Cheddar's Gas Station Pivot
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A story about how Cheddar, a media company, pivoted from a failed social media news strategy to finding success in gas station advertising.
"Cheddar was started by Jon Steinberg, who's a bulldog - like Ari Gold. When Facebook Live launched, he raised $40 million with this pitch: 'CNBC only has 20,000 concurrent viewers but makes $1 billion a year, and they're all on Medicare. Gen Z and millennials aren't watching CNBC - they're on social media. Now that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have live video, we're going to create CNBC for social media.'
They created a 24/7 TV show streaming business news across all social platforms. It was amazing they could pull off 24/7 content, but there was one problem - no one wanted to watch it. You don't stop and watch live video for 40 minutes on social media. It was a 10/10 hustle but 2/10 idea.
But here's the crazy part - Steinberg told me 'I'm going to start this company and in 2 years I'm probably going to sell it for $200-300 million.' He called his shot and nailed it. A cable company bought it for $200 million.
Now they've completely pivoted. If you go to gas stations, you'll see Cheddar on all their little screens. They're owning this weird market of people who want to play things like Jeopardy while pumping their gas - like Snapple facts while you're filling up. They've captured the gas station market."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.