PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS | | | | | PRESENTED BY YOU.COM | | | Happy Wednesday, Future Party. If you've ever accidentally sent someone a few extra bucks on Venmo, this might make you feel a little better. South Korean crypto company Bithumb meant to send prize winners a total of 620,000 Korean won (about $425) — but accidentally sent 620,000 Bitcoins instead (worth roughly $40 billion). That worked out to about $120 million in crypto per winner. Bithumb quickly caught the mistake and recovered all but $9 million… but we're guessing whoever hit "send" is going to be triple-checking every transaction for the rest of their life. |
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| | | | | | The NBA Wants All The Creators This Weekend |  | In the creator court // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E |
| For this weekend's All-Star slate of games, the NBA is bringing together over 200 digital creators to cover the action. | Why It Hits: The NBA knows its youngest fans rarely watch linear TV — and that Peacock, which is exclusively streaming the games, doesn't exactly dominate the market. Media is simply too fragmented. So, by tapping a creator cohort that allegedly has a combined audience base of over a billion people, the league is making it almost impossible not to see All-Star content somewhere in your feed. | Behind The Smartphones: There will be more digital creators on the ground this weekend than actual pro basketball players. | Most of the 200+ creators — including Bree Green, Chris Staples, Ty Jackson, YPK Raye, and Cam Wilder — have already worked with the NBA in some capacity. They'll not only cover the games, but also "live broadcasts, in-arena programming, on-court competitions, and fan experiences" at both the LA Convention Center and the Intuit Dome, per the league. All the coverage will be livestreamed or posted across the creators' profiles, while the NBA will also stream creator-led programming on its app and official socials. Not every creator is being paid by the league. Instead, the NBA is acting as a connector between creators and brands, resulting in a flood of separate sponsorship deals.
| Final Score: Bob Carney, the NBA's senior VP of social and digital content, told Variety the partnership is mutually beneficial. The league gets unprecedented exposure across every major platform, while creators get epic visuals, exclusive access, and plenty of content to play with. | This marshaling of digital talent is only possible because, as Carney notes, "LA is the creator capital of the world." Take the shot when you've got it. | Next Game: The next era of sports-broadcast rights might feature exclusive deals with specific creators rather than keeping everything in-house. Who wouldn't want to be the official social ambassador for the NBA? |
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| | | | | | | When training takes a backseat, your AI programs don't stand a chance. | | One of the biggest reasons AI adoption stalls is because teams aren't properly trained. This AI Training Checklist from You.com highlights common pitfalls and guides you to build a capable, confident team that can make the most out of your AI investment. Set your AI initiatives on the right track. | Get the checklist. |
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| | | | | MrBeast's Banking Ambitions Are Shaping Up |  | Courtesy of Step |
| MrBeast's Beast Industries has made its first major acquisition in the fintech space with a deal for the banking app Step. | The Big Picture: MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is building a serious financial services and education business, launching a YouTube channel dedicated to personal finance and investing. He hopes to give young users — i.e., the majority of his 466 million subscribers — the tools to become financially literate. | Behind The App: Step's mobile-only banking platform is targeted at Gen Z and Gen Alpha, making it a fitting acquisition for MrBeast. | Step will help power Donaldson's "MrBeast Financial" by providing the creator with a regulated financial platform that already handles things like savings accounts and credit cards. That saves a lot of time and paperwork. From there, MrBeast will be able to build out his investment bank, advisory firm, and crypto exchange, per Tubefilter. For Step, it's a chance for the company with a $5 billion valuation to supercharge its customer-acquisition for basically no money. All MrBeast has to do is post a video saying, "Hey, all! Sign up!"
| Final Transaction: It's possible that Donaldson knows he won't be able to keep up his insane YouTube stunts forever (or even much longer), so he's methodically building a business that's more stable and more within his control — spanning consumer products, premium shows, and, yes, financial services. As Forbes points out, the next era of MrBeast may be all about "financial literacy as content." | The Future: MrBeast may one day switch from giving out cash in his videos to distributing loans tailored to the unique financial struggles of his followers that traditional banks overlook. Teach a fan to fish… |
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| | | | | Together with Morning Brew | | The decision is yours | | Confusing, jargon-packed, and time-consuming. Or quick, direct, and actually enjoyable. | Easy choice. | There's a reason over 4 million professionals read Morning Brew instead of traditional business media. The facts hit harder, it's built to be skimmed, and for once, business news is something you actually look forward to reading. | Try Morning Brew's newsletter for free and realize just how good business news can be. | Check it out |
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| | | | | | How do you usually manage your personal banking? | | 40.6% of you voted Love it in yesterday's poll: How do you feel about dining out solo? | "My husband does not care to experiment with food he does not know. He also considers traveling a 'waste of time.' Subsequently, I have dined alone (and traveled alone) for over 35 years. I am 75 years old and still relish a solo experience in a beautifully appointed restaurant. Until I can't make it to my car anymore, I shall continue to dine alone and enjoy every bite and sip. Oh, yes — we are still married, happily, and getting ready for 56 years of togetherness… just not in restaurants!" | "Being single, when I feel a desire to go out for dinner, I get dressed and go out to whatever restaurant and type of food I feel like eating. When I want company, I sit at the bar." | "I actually meet more new people dining out alone!" | "Eating out alone used to make me extremely self-conscious and nervous, but after years of extensive travel for work, it became second nature — there's only so much room service you can tolerate. Now I am completely comfortable asking for a table for 1 anywhere." | Let's keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers', check out cool insights, and have some fun. It's data with personality. |
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| | | | | QUICK HITS | → Entertainment / Media | 📺 The Super Bowl hit an average of 124.9 million viewers, while Bad Bunny's Halftime Show hit an average of 128.2 million. | 👀 Casey Wasserman, head of Wasserman and chair of LA28 Olympic Games, is facing backlash after his name appeared in the Epstein files — with artists reportedly leaving the agency and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy floated as a possible successor to oversee the Olympics organizing. | 🐢 Paramount plans to make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles its next multimedia franchise, with new movies, a YouTube show, a Mattel toy line, and even restaurants. | → Technology | 🤖 OpenAI is officially rolling out personalized ads in ChatGPT for select users. | 🛑 Speaking of OpenAI, it's dropping its "io" branding from its upcoming devices after facing a trademark-infringement lawsuit. | 🤳 Discord is requiring all users to verify their age to access all the features on the platform. | → Fashion / E-commerce | 🛍️ QVC — the OG 24/7 shopping channel — is facing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. | 👜 Veritas, a new startup founded by former Tesla employees, is developing a chip designed to verify the authenticity of luxury goods and combat counterfeiting. | 🙏 The Vatican Bank has launched two equity indexes aimed at guiding Catholics toward Church-approved investments. We're likely to see more of this. |
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| PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS | Today's email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar. |
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