a creator tops the app charts, the owl whisperer gets a new role, and more

Hi! I’ve been wanting to post round ups of things happening in the creator world ever since diving back in last year, and last week was such a big one, I’m putting one out. If you’re seeing this, you probably know me, but if not I’ll put some of that at the end. On to the past week…

How Hank Green hit #1 on the App Store

Focus Friend is a dead-simple, perfectly-executed, and totally delightful app that helps you turn off the distractions on your phone and get things done, built by longtime creator’s creator Hank Green and a single, brilliant developer, Bria Sullivan. There’s been plenty of talk lately about AI vibe coding and how a one-person company will be the next unicorn, but how nice is it to see a lovingly handcrafted, brilliantly conceived app with no gen AI features, all-original art and music, and no ads soar higher in the charts than ChatGPT last week?

Focus Friend is just the latest of Hank’s home runs. Often with his brother John, Hank’s been thinking deeply about building community and value in independent media his whole life: the early blog EcoGeek; the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers; Emmy-winning web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries; two of the first funded original YouTube channels, CrashCourse and SciShow; industry-defining convention Vidcon; community fundraiser Project for Awesome; and a growing stack of podcasts, shows, and NY Times bestselling novels. Of course he was going to create a chart-topping app. How fun is it, though, to see Hank realizing the app store is yet another content ecosystem, where the things creators know from growing audiences online can also work for apps:

Hank also makes a call to creators—who right now have a unique (if not the only) capacity to break through inside content ecosystems to promote (worthy) apps and products—to think like startup founders:

You can’t go to a creator and say, you should have an app—make an app—and have the app be good. But I think that creators should think about what, if you have an audience, would be the thing that you wish you had in your life and that you feel like your audience would want in theirs? What problems do you want to solve?

While it’s not true that every creator could make as useful an app as Hank has, I’m excited about the idea of more creators trying. And while it took an army of us at Duolingo to realize the power of cute characters to encourage you to make yourself better, and look sad when you don’t, Hank and Bria nailed this right out of the gate with their adorable knitting beans that you really don’t want to let down.

Huge story #2 of the week: Zaria leaves Duolingo

Speaking of that Duolingo army—after a run of the decade, where Zaria Parvez took the concept of brand-as-creator to unseen heights, she’s heading off to a new role as head of social at Doordash.

Rachel Karten scored a great interview with Zaria last week the day after the news hit, where Zaria shared thoughts about why she’s moving on and what’s next. There’s also a great interview in WSJ’s CMO Today—Zaria showing that even in leaving a job, she can create a whole news cycle.

As someone who got to work closely with Zaria and is a huge fan—Zaria’s genius wasn’t that she could be unhinged, it was that she fully understood how being unhinged could uniquely express Duolingo’s brand. As we’d seen with the memes and our early viral videos way back in 2019, there’s something really funny about an owl who will do anything to remind you to do a lesson. But after we had put the suit in mothballs during COVID, Zaria picked it up and ran with it, with no budget or team to speak of, and made Duo the most powerful influencer-mascot of all time. (She also brought attention to the channel by making Duo one the most prolific, lightning-fast, and hilarious commenters on Tiktok, but that’s a whole other essay.) This worked because matter how wild things got, she never Duo stray from his mission of wanting you to open the app, do a lesson, and try to be a better person. And that’s why she regularly got away with murder.

DoorDash will be a great place for Zaria to come up with a whole new playbook, since she always delivers. Wishing her the best in the new gig! Follow Zaria here.

Other news of note

• Mark Rober announced a deal with Netflix, joining others like Pop the Balloon to bring his videos to their library, along with a new competition series co-produced by Jimmy Kimmel, who’s had Rober on the show many times. Netflix’s YouTube envy continues (the feeling used to be more mutual)
• Beehiiv is seriously courting Substack writers with better rev shares, while Substack now has a way around Apple’s 30% cut. (The Information)
• Ten years after applying to be a Red Bull Athlete, YouTube daredevil Michelle Khare announced a partnership with Red Bull for her admirable, gonzo show “Challenge Accepted.” (via The Publish Press)
• Great read: this New Yorker profile of Kareem Rahma, of “Subway Takes” and “Keep the Meter Running” fame, by Andrew Marantz (Kareem’s movie, Or Something, with co-creator Mary Neely, is also playing at Quad Cinema right now)
• Netflix issued principles for the use of generative AI in its productions—essentially OK-ing it in certain cases for workflows, but not in final product, just over a month after YouTube updated its policies in response to mass-generated content.
• Vox cut a deal with podcast creator Bella Freud to join their network – a breakout video podcast on YouTube over the past year, amassing over 125,000 subscribers and booking a mindblowing lineup of guests (via The Information)
• Ticket sales for influencers, podcasters, and creators like Alex Cooper and Trisha Peytas are up 500% from last year, according to StubHub — lower prices than mainstream acts and more attention to overlooked markets are part of why it’s working.
• Also via The Publish Press: Colin and Samir talked with comedian Josh Johnson about his practice of uploading a new standup set every Tuesday to YouTube, gaining 1.9M subscribers to date.

Hot jobs in creator media

• Millie, a company we backed at TMV that’s redefining maternity care with state of the art clinics, is looking for a senior brand & community manager to lead Millie’s social platforms and community engagement—a chance to build the brand of a company making meaningful change.
• Electrify is hiring a head of short form to lead editorial vision and drive audience growth in social across the company’s great brands like Veritasium, Astrum, and Fern. I can put in a good word.
• AndThen, a cool new a16z-backed AI gaming startup from AI for Humans’ Kevin Pereira and Gavin Purcell that just came out of stealth, has an open role for a creator partnerships and vertical UGC lead, which is a great opportunity to work with a few of my favorite people.
• And as of last week, Duolingo has a new opening for a director of social media. A high bar on that one…

(👆Ping me if you’re interested in any of those. )

That’s all for the week—please send any interesting news, hot jobs, or pleas for help to me at tim@shey.net.

Who wrote this?

If you’re reading this, you probably know me and my story—but these days I help founders and creators build new businesses as a venture partner at the innovative early-stage firm TMV and chair of the creator-backing business Electrify. As a producer, writer, and exec, I spent six years leading content and studios at Duolingo (developing those characters who give you feelings) and seven years at YouTube launching Originals and the Creator program. I also co-founded a few companies, including Next New Networks, which became part of YouTube. If you’ve got a startup in the creator space, let me know, and I’d love to help.

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