Logan Paul Wants Your Equity, Not Your Cash

📔 Jeff’s Diary (yes, I’ll let you read it)

Preparing to raise our seed round has been incredibly helpful because it did two things I suggest you do as well:

1. Forced me to learn what investors care about and the fundraising process overall, something I’m NOT familiar with having bootstrapped my last co to exit.

2. Forced me to put on paper the vision I’ve been running in my head into a long term strategy that had timelines and funding plans to achieve.
   

For #1, what I’ve garnered from mentors is that it’s the story, that gets the meeting, that creates the human connection. Then it’s the FOMO and urgency that creates action.

Everyone says run a process, know who you’re targeting, why they’re a good investor, and bring your best self. If there’s a 100 no’s before a single yes, it’s not that you can’t be the next AirBNB, it is just the process and every no is a reason to answer the ”why not” pre-emptively in the pitch and attach the answer to the appendix.

On #2, you need a mission that people can get behind and the vision to see where the puck is going.

In my first few versions, I was explaining what we’re currently, not where I see the world in 5 years….

Where AI will create millions of new entrepreneurs, all who will be competing for attention, and all who will look to creators as co-founders and invested partners.

Where the creator gap will widen like the wealth gap, because the brand equity creators earned today before mass AI content means the face you remember is a face you trust. But like voice, if it’s not Samuel L Jackson’s, you may not care, so Eleven Labs will make voice go to $0.

Where ownership will be the next great economic driver, because when you own it, you treat it differently, and more people will understand the upside that can be had and the greater success they’ll see when they have skin in the game.

This is just some of what I’m seeing, and next week, I’ll share the deck publicly…. If you’re interested of course!

– Jeff

📆 WHAT WE WILL HIT ON THIS WEEK:

→ Every Founder Must Know: Logan Paul just became a General Partner at a VC firm. Here is why creators are moving from "promoting" products to "funding" them.

→ The Publisher Surrender: A new report shows CNN, Yahoo, and WaPo are rushing to build "Creator Networks." The legacy mastheads finally admit that people trust people, not logos.

→ The Trust Asset: While video gets flooded with AI slop, "Voice-First" creators are seeing revenue double.

♟️ Creators Are Now Capital Allocators

Logan Paul closed out 2025 with a quiet but massive career pivot: As of December, he is officially a General Partner at the venture capital firm Anti Fund.

He isn't just a "Limited Partner" (someone who passively writes a check). He is a GP. That means he is actively managing the fund, vetting startups, and leading investment rounds.

Why this matters: 

For a decade, the relationship was transactional: Founder pays Creator -> Creator posts video -> Founder gets sales. Now, the relationship is structural.

Logan Paul doesn't want your sponsorship fee anymore. He wants to own the equity before he turns on the distribution hose. By becoming a GP, he is institutionalizing the "MrBeast Model." He finds a good product, invests in it at a $10M valuation, and then uses his own media empire to drive it to a $100M valuation.

The Lesson for Founders: 

The best creators in your niche are tired of CPMs. They know they are the ones creating the enterprise value. If you want to work with top-tier talent in 2026, stop sending them a "Influencer Brief." Send them a Pitch Deck. Don't ask them to sell your product. Ask them to invest their influence in it.

But here is the hard truth: 

Most influencers aren't ready for this conversation. If you pitch equity to someone who just wants a quick $500 payout, you are wasting your time. You need to find the Operators—the creators who understand leverage, margins, and exits.

We built the tool to identify them. We track the high-signal talent in your niche who are actually looking for deal flow, not just cash flow.

🗞️ The Legacy Media "Surrender"

A massive new report from Digiday this week confirmed what we’ve been saying for two years: The "Masthead" is dead.

Major publishers including CNN, Yahoo, The Washington Post, and Future have all launched formal "Creator Networks" in the last few months. They are aggressively hiring individual creators to front their content, offering them revenue shares and creative control.

Why this matters: 

This is a capitulation. These legacy giants spent decades believing their brand was the asset. Now, they are admitting that audiences follow people, not logos.

• Yahoo is seeing 200% higher engagement on creator-led content.

• Future reports 3x higher traffic when a personality fronts the story versus a staff writer.

The Operator Take: 

If CNN—an organization with billions of dollars and global recognition—admits they need individual personalities to survive, what makes you think your startup brand is enough? 

You cannot hide behind a corporate logo anymore. You need to either become the creator (founder-led content) or hire the creators to be the face of your media arm.

🎙️ The One Asset AI Can't Kill

While video is getting flooded with synthetic media, a new report from Audacy shows that "Voice-First" creators (podcasters, radio hosts) are seeing their influence increase.

Why this matters: 

Audio is the highest-trust medium. It is intimate. You are in someone’s ear for 40 minutes, not scrolling past them for 3 seconds. The report calls them "Voice-First Influencers"—guides who build communities, not just audiences.

The OWM Play: 

If you are a founder looking for a partner, stop looking at TikTok follower counts. Consider looking at podcast retention rates.

• Video = Awareness (Broad, Shallow).

• Audio = Trust (Narrow, Deep).

• Trust converts. Awareness just costs money.

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➡️ Need 1:1 guidance? Block time with me any Friday here. No pitches, just real talk.