“Even disruptors get disrupted.”
In 2006, executives at MTV and I both saw YouTube—but we interpreted it very differently.
To me, it was a revolutionary platform that would disrupt media—an opportunity.
To them, the genie was out of the bottle—a risk.
I dove in. The rest is history.
They sat on the sidelines—and are history.
Around 2008, while traveling to build WatchMojo, I noticed something subtle but powerful:
The kids who were reading comic books in the 1980s were now running Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street.
It wasn’t just the VP of Marketing at a CPG brand or the CIO of a fund with a Batman poster in their office—my entire team had desks filled with figurines.
As someone who grew up loving movies and TV, but was even more passionate about sports and music, the layman lawyer in me recognized something else:
Film and TV rights holders were far more open-minded than their counterparts in sports and music.
So I set aside my passions—and my combative instincts—and chose the path of least resistance.
By 2010, after experimenting with both:
- fully original programming (how-tos in lifestyle, health, etc.)
- and clip-based content (biographies, profiles, Top 10 lists)
…I realized something important:
User-generated content would eventually swallow entire categories like cooking, travel, and health.
Then came Disney.
Under then-CEO Bob Iger, Disney made a series of bold acquisitions:
- Pixar (2006) — $7.4B
- Marvel (2009) — ~$4B
- Lucasfilm (2012) — ~$4.05B
This wasn’t about hoarding IP.
It was about scaling it—through development, production, and global marketing.
That’s when I told my team:
Geek culture would become pop culture.
We made four big bets:
- double down on pop culture
- produce clip-based Top 10 content
- go all-in on YouTube
- treat it as the only true, organic social platform for entertainment
The result?
10x revenue growth over the next five years.
Today, I see similar parallels:
As a writer, I have my reservations about AI.
But I also recognize this:
AI is simply the latest technology that, when combined with human creativity, expands what’s possible.
Think of it like economics—trade and specialization pushing out the efficient frontier.
So this is how I now think about AI:
- As a creative (storytelling): expanding narrative possibilities
- As an entrepreneur (opportunity): a platform shift in real time
- As an executive (innovation): a lever for speed, scale, and experimentation
- As a proprietor (disruption): an inevitable force reshaping the landscape
Bottom line:
Not man vs. machine.
Man + machine = expanded frontier.
To discuss AI in abstract is futile, so I break it down into four quadrants to translate my thinking into action for my team and partners.
Bottom Line
We don’t see AI as a replacement.
We see it as:
- a tool for creators
- a catalyst for new brands
- a bridge into new formats
- and an enabler of things that previously couldn’t exist, like SoundMojo.
But always…
balanced with human creativity, judgment, and taste.