Welcome to Make That Make Sense

Introducing the Game Show at the Intersection of Digital Media and Money

Author

Eric Traub
November 01, 2024

Who Am I?

Upon graduating college, I found myself in search of my next thing. A symptom of being 23, perhaps, but an omnipresent desire nonetheless. 

My next thing is where I’m writing you from. 

So who am I and what is “that” thing?

Well here’s the rundown. 

I graduated from the University of Southern California in May. While in college, I became fascinated with the business of money, especially the allocation of capital into transformative technologies, i.e. venture capital. 

USC Graduation Hug with my best friend and father, Pauly T.

From a young age, I’d dreamed of becoming a Sportscaster. Watching SportsCenter was basically my full time job; my mom can attest to that. However, as I got to college, my interest in media started to expand outside of sports.

I became an avid fan of media personalities like John Oliver from Last Week Tonight and Andrew Ross Sorkin, and as I got involved with business clubs on campus, I started to think about the possibility of applying my broadcast skills to the business media space.

So, kind of on a whim, I started my own venture capital podcast my sophomore year. The Trojan Venture Podcast was born. There weren’t really any college focused venture capital podcasts, so why not? 

Lots of fun. 40 some episodes. Had some great founders, operators and investors. 

How bout these folks??

With graduation creeping around the corner, my next thing was very much in the near future. Except I had no real idea what my next thing was going to be.

I had done some cool internships, but my podcast was what was making me tick and was what made me most excited. I loved all aspects of it; from sourcing guests, preparing and scripting the show, to being “live”.

So, I said screw it. Pursue my passion! Figure out how to make a living doing what I love. Create content in the business media space.

Hello Europe!

In a stroke of timing and a bit of good luck, I found a job as the content lead for a Danish investment firm in Copenhagen. 

Shortly after graduation, I moved to Copenhagen. I manage the firm’s content strategy, creating short form video content highlighting the firm’s portfolio, as well as hosting the firm’s flagship podcast. 

Great experience, for sure, but also not purely my own thing.

This was a pretty cool one ngl

Make That Make Sense

So what’s this new thing? 

In short, over the last several months, I’ve been creating a game show called Make That Make Sense. 

As a venture capital/tech focused podcaster, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the intersection of digital media and money. Specifically, the future of digital media monetization.

The strategies for monetizing digital content are rapidly evolving, which is why I've brought in the experts to help make sense of it all.

Make That Make Sense is a 15 minute, weekly Youtube show, that makes sense of one recent industry headline, deal and tweet with the industry leaders who are making it happen.

So, what topics are at the intersection of digital media and money?

Well, here are a few:

  1. Subscription Models

  2. Advertisement Revenue

  3. Private Equity and Venture Capital Investments in Digital Media

  4. Digital Media M&A

  5. Digital Media Platform Analytics

  6. Branded Content

Why I’m Building It

These days, every company is in some way becoming a digital media company. Whether it’s an education platform like Duolingo or a venture capital firm like Redpoint Ventures, we’re seeing companies of all shapes and sizes pushing out content that showcases their company’s story, people and mission. The goal; improve the bottom line!

My college focused venture capital podcast gave me a niche in business media. My role as the Content Lead for Nordic Bloom came to be because of the firm’s desire to carve out a niche for itself within the European venture ecosystem by creating digestible venture focused content.

So if every company is becoming a digital media company, it is very important for all of us to understand the financial aspects of the digital media industry.

But, another boring podcast is not the way to do it. Yah, maybe once and a while, a forty five minute podcast can be nice, but who has time for it? It’s why I’ve built Make That Make Sense to be informative, short and entertaining, combining the convenience of daily podcasts like “NYT Daily” with the entertainment and gamification of The Pitch.

On next week’s newsletter, we’ll get into the weeds about Make That Make Sense, and showcase the ways in which you can get involved in the show.

The first episode drops November 15th. 

Thanks for hopping on for the ride. 

Eric 

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