Daniel and JB kick off what they call their most capital-intensive episode yet on ADSN. The conversation opens with SpaceX's blockbuster IPO — stock surging past $200 a share, the company now worth more than Microsoft, and the staggering stat that Elon Musk's net worth jumped by "a full Warren Buffett" in a single day. From there they unpack the $60 billion Cursor acquisition, Fox's $20 billion Roku deal, Substack's official ads launch, and Mercury's new agentic banking platform.

The episode covers a wide sweep of what's moving in tech and media right now: why frontier AI labs are about to go on an acquisition spree, how Fox is running Meta's family-of-apps playbook for television, why Sam Altman says "always make an API" saved OpenAI, and the emerging argument that tech companies will start looking more like hedge funds — tiny teams, massive AI leverage, and profit per employee through the roof. If you want to understand where the money is flowing and why, this is the episode.

Thank you to our sponsors:

AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. ⁠⁠adquick.com⁠⁠

⁠⁠Thrad.ai⁠⁠ — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. ⁠⁠thrad.ai⁠

​beehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. ⁠⁠⁠beehiiv.com⁠⁠

​The Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. ⁠thefarmllp.com ⁠

STAY CONNECTED

James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow

Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger

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Daniel and James kick off a packed ADSN rundown by celebrating hitting #1 in Namibia, then dive into Alphabet's staggering $80 billion capital raise arguing it's not just about compute buildout but a strategic move to suck capital away from soon-to-IPO competitors like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI. From there, they unpack the app distribution crisis created by agentic AI tools: everyone can build now, but the audience, budget, and creative genius to actually get discovered are nearly impossible to find.

The back half covers the Substack vs. Beehiiv battle over audience ownership, why ChatGPT is becoming the new Facebook blue app, Apple's potentially risky WWDC AI strategy, and a Northbeam stat showing just 1.4% of Meta ad accounts produce 36% of all creative. They close with a comparison of AI adoption to electricity — the real gains don't come from plugging in, they come from redesigning the entire workflow — and primary posts on the risk of founding and Snap's upcoming Specs launch.

Thank you to our sponsors:

AdQuick – Making OOH advertising as easy to plan, buy, and measure as digital. ⁠adquick.com⁠

⁠Thrad.ai⁠ — Building the advertising infrastructure for AI. ⁠thrad.ai

​beehiiv — The all-in-one platform for newsletters, websites, and every tool you need to grow and earn. ⁠⁠beehiiv.com⁠

​The Farm — Fraction commercial legal with an in-house approach to outside counsel. thefarmllp.com

STAY CONNECTED

James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow

Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger

Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Daniel and James sit down with Adam Ryan, CEO and co-founder of Workweek, the media-tech company that's home to the five largest professional communities across fintech, HR, e-commerce, marketing, and healthcare. Adam built the company on a simple insight: the people with the most professional experience are the least likely to share it publicly. So he built Workweek to solve it, pulling from his days as the first hire and president of The Hustle before its sale to HubSpot.

The conversation digs into Workweek's newly announced partner platform, which connects newsletter ad engagement signals directly back to advertiser CRMs. Adam shares that 95% of newsletter clicks today are bots, that his platform is matching 44% of Fortune 500 CRMs, and that sales teams are claiming 3-4x more credit than they deserve while marketing gets none. If you've ever wondered why proving newsletter ROI feels impossible, this episode explains exactly why and how Workweek is changing it.

Thank you to our sponsors:

​ AdQuick — ⁠adquick.com⁠

​ ⁠Thrad.ai⁠ — ⁠thrad.ai⁠

​ beehiiv — ⁠⁠beehiiv.com⁠

​ The Farm — thefarmllp.com

STAY CONNECTED

James on Twitter & LinkedIn – /jamesborow

Daniel on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok – /danieldruger

Subscribe & leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.