From Morning Brew to Smooth Media: Jenny Rothenberg’s Blueprint for Scaling the Creator Economy
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
Release Date: 02/27/2025
Vanessa Larco on the Future of Consumer Tech
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
I am excited to have , who was a Partner at NEA and is now launching a fund called Premise, where she led investments in breakthrough companies like Cleo, Rocket.Chat, Mejuri, EvidentID, Greenlight Card, Feather, and Lily AI. She also served as a board observer for high-growth startups including Robinhood, Willow Pump, and OmniSci. In this episode, Vanessa Larco, ex-Partner at NEA and founding GP of Primis, shares her journey from product management at Microsoft and Box to becoming a leading early-stage VC. Vanessa dives into how AI is reshaping product roles, what makes the next wave of...
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The Sweaty Startup with Nick Huber
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
I am thrilled to have , the founder of , a serial entrepreneur, investor, and popular content creator focused on small business ownership. Nick cofounded and operates his primary business, Bolt Storage, a commercial real estate firm, which owns 1.9 million square feet of self-storage facilities across 62 locations in 11 states. He is the author of the new book, The Sweaty Startup. In this episode, Nick Huber, founder of The Sweaty Startup and Bolt Storage, shares his journey from building a “boring” service business to managing 1.9 million square feet of self-storage facilities...
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Levi Velez Reed from Twig Ventures on Disrupting VC with Inclusivity and Conscious Capital
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
Levi Velez Reed is the founder of Twig Ventures is an investment syndicate specialising in sustainable consumer products and tech startups across North America, targeting companies at the pre-seed to seed stage. In this episode, Levi Velez Reed, founder of Twig Ventures, shares his journey from bootstrapping a marketing agency in New York to launching an investment syndicate focused on sustainable consumer products and tech startups. He explains the impact of removing unconscious bias in VC funding, supporting underrepresented founders, and creating accessible accelerator programs like...
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Greg Alexander from Collective 54 on Building and Scaling Boutique Firms
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
I am thrilled to have , the founder of , the first mastermind community for thriving professional services firms. Collective 54 helps founders and leaders grow, scale and exit their firms bigger and faster. In this episode, Greg Alexander, founder of Collective 54 and author of The Boutique, shares his journey of building and scaling professional services firms. He explains the three life-cycle stages: Grow, Scale, and Exit, and the importance of moving away from trading time for money. Greg discusses the unique business model of Collective 54, monetisation strategies for boutique firms,...
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How Renan Devillieres from OSS Ventures Is Reinventing Manufacturing with SaaS and AI
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
Renan Devillieres is the CEO of OSS Ventures. Renan Devillieres is a CEO who is passionate about making a positive impact on society and the environment, and who believes in using technology to drive change. Renan has a wealth of experience in areas such as manufacturing operations, SaaS, and venture capital. Timestamps 01:00 – Renan’s unconventional path from Google search to joining McKinsey. 03:00 – Transition from factory director to building a tech startup; early failures and pivots. 05:10 – Moving to San Francisco, finding product-market fit, and exiting the company. 06:30...
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Shubham Khoker on Scaling Startups, Growth Lessons, and the Future of AI Agents
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
was the Head of Growth at . Topmate.io is a fast-growing online platform that connects freelancers and clients, he used to lead the growth strategy and execution for the company. rifa.ai founder. IIT bombay In this episode, Shubham Khoker, former Head of Growth at Topmate and founder of Rifa AI, shares his unconventional journey from UPSC preparation to the startup world, insights from scaling Topmate in India and the US, lessons from failed experiments, and the evolution of the creator economy. He discusses the future of AI in growth and operations, the difference between growth sales and...
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Palash Soni on Building Goldcast and the Future of AI Video Marketing
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
I am thrilled to have Palash Soni, the CEO of , an AI-powered B2B Video Campaign Platform that transforms marketing by putting video and events at the heart of the customer journey. In this episode, Palash Soni, CEO and Co-founder of Goldcast, shares how dropping out of Harvard Business School during the pandemic led to building an AI-powered B2B video marketing platform. Palash walks us through his early failures, the moment he saw the COVID tailwind, and how Goldcast scaled from zero to $1M ARR with Drift as an early customer. He also explains the future of AI-powered video content, why...
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How Kishore Ravichandran from Plug and Play Backs Deep Tech and the Next $100M Startups
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
Kishore Ravichandran is the investor at , the ultimate innovation platform. Over the past 15 years, PnP has brought together 35,000+ startups, 500+ world-leading corporations, and hundreds of venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies across 20+ industries In this episode, Kishore Ravichandran, Investor at Plug and Play Tech Center shares how a university program in Singapore sparked his passion for startups and led to a career in venture capital. Kishore explains Plug and Play’s global model—investing in over 2,000 startups, supporting them with a 550+ strong...
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Redefining Luxury Fintech with Hugo Gomez from Bobo
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
is the co-founder and CEO of , a fintech that caters to the unique needs of (U)HNWIs. Hugo has over 15 years of experience in traditional banking, including roles at HSBC and Banistmo In this episode, Hugo Gomez, Co-founder and CEO of Bobo Fintech, shares how his background in traditional banking led him to build a luxury fintech platform tailored for high-net-worth individuals. Hugo discusses how Bobo offers customizable financial experiences—from wearable payment devices to accounts for private staff—and why legacy banks are unprepared for the $84 trillion generational wealth...
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Ilya Drozdov from Dwelly on AI in Lettings and Building High-Margin Businesses
Lifeselfmastery's podcast I Startups I Venture Capital
the CEO at , an AI-enabled Lettings & Property Management Marketplace, that boosts 3x margins of the letting agency in 2 months only. He previously co-founded the largest tech-enabled letting company in Eastern Europe that managed 10,000+ properties and reached $50M GMV in three years. In this episode, Ilya Drozdov, former Uber GM and CEO of Dwelly shares his journey from scaling Uber Russia to building tech-enabled property management platforms. He dives into lessons from managing fierce competition with Yandex, what made Uber’s playbook effective, and how Dwelly uses AI to transform...
info_outlineJenny Rothenberg, the COO of Smooth Media, an NYC-based agency representing knowledge creators. She is the ex-director of growth at Morning Brew.
In this episode, the CEO of Smooth Media, Jenny Rothenberg shares her journey from Industry Dive and Morning Brew to founding her own media and agency powerhouse. Jenny reveals how she leveraged data-driven paid ads, referral programs, and strategic content repurposing to scale audiences and build thriving relationships with knowledge creators. She discusses pivotal lessons learned from growth experiments, from subway ad missteps to optimizing subscriber engagement and much more!
Timestamps
01:00 – 01:30
Jenny discusses her early career at Industry Dive
01:30 – 02:00
Overview of Industry Dive’s B2B media publications
05:00 – 05:30
Transition to Jenny’s move to Morning Brew
07:30 – 08:00
Morning Brew’s growth strategy is outlined
09:00 – 09:30
Deep dive into using Facebook ads as a “golden ticket” for subscriber acquisition.
11:00 – 11:30
Exploration of Morning Brew’s referral program
12:30 – 13:00
Advice for new newsletter creators in 2025 on why a heavy paid acquisition model might not be ideal.
15:00 – 15:30
Recommendation to leverage free content platforms (LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram Reels) as top‐of‐funnel strategies.
16:00 – 16:30
Story of collaborating with creators (like Colin & Samir) to launch Publish Press for the creator economy.
17:30 – 18:00
Introduction of Smooth Media’s acquisition strategy
18:30 – 19:00
Defining “knowledge creators” and why Smooth Media focuses on creators who deliver educational, insightful content.
19:00 – 19:30
Best growth decision recap
20:00 – 10:30
Insights on repurposing content across channels and how to build an effective content marketing flywheel.
30:30 – 31:00
Discussion on hiring for growth roles
Jenny’s Links
LDN– https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyrothenberg
Website – https://www.smoothmedia.co/
My Links
Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes
Newsletter: https://partner-grow.beehiiv.com/subscribe
YouTube: youtube.com/lifeselfmastery
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit857/
Agency: https://bit.ly/41YuNnx