Polymathic Audio No. 14: Rafat Ali

 

Of my favorite episodes are ones where I am the student and my guest is the teacher. This is one of them. Rafat Ali is the CEO and Founder of Skift, a B2B media company and travel intelligence startup. Founded just eight years ago, Ali and the Skift team have raised just $3 million and they now employ 66 at Skift. Ali’s expressed goal is to become the Bloomberg of travel intelligence.

Joining us from Morocco, this episode is full of actionable insights. We discuss Substack, building independent media brands, and a conversation about Amazon and air travel that combined our two worlds of niche study: travel and eCommerce.

Skift is the B2B equivalent of the B2C media brands like Barstool, Hodinkee, and Goop that receive a lot of credit for their innovate revenue and community practices. It’s about time that the average consumer sees the travel intelligence company for what it is – a generational media brand in the works. This 43 minutes is a masterclass in the “zero to one” of building a media brand.

The RSS feed is here for those who prefer to listen on the go. Or you can find Polymathic Audio on Spotify.

AUDIO BY RAFAT ALI AND WEB SMITH 
CO-PRODUCED BY JOE KLOKUS AND WEB SMITH
AUDIO DESIGN BY VINCENZO LANDINO
ENGINEERING BY JOE KLOKUS
POLYMATHIC AUDIO IS A PRODUCT OF 2PM INC. 

Polymathic Audio No. 13: Joe Pompliano

 

Joe Pompliano’s slice of passion economy sits at the crossroads of sports and business – an area once served by ESPN’s Darren Rovell. The younger Pompliano brother (yes, we have featured his older brother Anthony) has taken up the mantle.

In just six months, he’s built a Twitter following from 0 to 80,000 followers and a newsletter that is now cited by mainstream  media. As recently as this week, his co-sign was featured in Newsweek:

Both boxers are set to land a major windfall from the fight, with a guaranteed return of $10 million each, according to Joe Pompliano of Huddle Up.

Yes, the former banker writes Huddle Up, a daily newsletter that provides consistent commentary on the business of sports. This episode discusses the business of consistency, how his career in finance prepared him for the rigors of media, building a Substack community, and the future of his business. And who he’d sell to, if they asked.

The RSS feed is here for those who prefer to listen on the go. Or on Spotify.

AUDIO BY Joe Pompliano AND WEB SMITH 
CO-PRODUCED BY joe klokus AND WEB SMITH
AUDIO DESIGN by Vincenzo Landino
ENGINEERING BY joe klokus
POLYMATHIC AUDIO IS A PRODUCT OF 2PM INC. 

Polymathic Audio No. 12: Grace Garcia Clarke

 

 

In a recent essay on deep thinkers and wonderful ideas-turned careers, I wrote on Clarke:

Formerly an operative at Derris, she’s now independent and highly coveted. Brands tap her for communications, industry research, and her eye for understanding what stodgy businessmen do not. An example of this is her well-researched product rundown for New York Magazine’s The Strategist where she wrangled the opinions of dozens of Generation Z TikTok users to publish one of the publication’s best converting articles. [1]

She’s a former operative at Derris PR where she built the profitable content practice from the ground up. Not only did she thrive on the agency side, she was formerly a marketer at Madewell and a journalist – first in print and then on the digital side for Conde Nast. Her experience is broad. In practice – she is the essence of the study of linear commerce. This is why many in the digital spaces are beginning to view her as a go-to thinker.

The RSS feed is here for those who prefer to listen on the go. Or on Spotify.

AUDIO BY Grace Garcia Clarke AND WEB SMITH 
CO-PRODUCED BY joe klokus AND WEB SMITH
AUDIO DESIGN by Vincenzo Landino
ENGINEERING BY joe klokus
POLYMATHIC AUDIO IS A PRODUCT OF 2PM INC.