Liyan Chen

Getting my son featured in the @nytimes is the peak of my parenting/journalism/comms career: nytimes.com/2022/11/22/din… and yes, I said it on-the-record: turkey sucks.

Money doesn’t grow on trees — but with the right tools, it can grow over time. This Financial Progress Month, we’re in Times Square highlighting how @TrumpAccounts can help families jumpstart their children’s financial future sooner. Access matters. Progress follows. trumpaccounts.gov @InvestAmerica24

@jevgenijs thank you for taking the time to share the news, Jev!

Chime $CHYM launches Chime Prime, "a new premium membership tier designed to reward members who make Chime their primary checking account."

Consumers spent 25% more on gas in March than in February, says Chime CEO Chris Britt. But he says the fintech company still sees a healthy consumer bloom.bg/4sJMvFT

Chime announced a new set of rewards–including 5% cash back on one category of spending–in a bid to boost new-user growth: forbes.com/sites/jeffkauf…

the real reason: ChatGPT sucks at generating hot takes, so @OpenAI needs @tbpn to its rescue

@AlexH_Johnson someone’s gotta fund the content, right?

It's funny that it's winding down TBPN's ads business, just as OpenAI gets into ads. x.com/tanayj/status/…

If the @tbpn folks can just stop getting Altman to say things like "humans are expensive to train" and "there's like a 5% chance this thing will kill us all" the acquisition will have been worth it.

@mikulaja it’s a joke…until it’s not! 😂

@chen_liyan (It's a joke... mostly anyway!)

In related news, I am now accepting offers to acquire Fintech Business Weekly 😂

@jyarow I vote Hard Fork

Ok, who does Anthropic buy? Odd Lots?

@sytaylor me too! I swear I thought it was April 1

Its April 2nd. I had to double check. Congratulations @tbpn

@NikMilanovic do two deals make a trend? great to see @tbpn and @twifintech both landed at incredible new launchpads!

If you know anything about @jordihays and @johncoogan it's that they just ship. Generational build - no ZIRP needed. Big congrats to the @tbpn team 👏

@OpenAI acquired @tbpn, news reported exclusively by @WSJ @Plaid acquired @twifintech, exclusive by @axios The new tech comms strategy is - acquire a content machine - break the news on traditional media - own your narrative & destiny through acquired content machine

@NikMilanovic congrats @NikMilanovic! love you and @Plaid joining forces

Excited to build together! 🚀

@typesfast @united Or you can just pay extra to United for Relax Row Plus to add a porta potty to your row

@united Now we just need to put stairs on the food/drink carts so you can climb over the top of them to get to the bathroom instead of holding it.

The entire row is alllllll yours. Welcome to United Relax Row, three adjacent United Economy seats with adjustable leg rests that can each be raised or lowered to create a cozy lie-flat space for stretching out... You'll also get a mattress pad, blanket and two pillows. If you’re traveling with kids, a plushie too! United Relax Row will be available starting next year on more than 200 of our 787s and 777s, each with up to 12 of these brand-new rows. united.com/Elevated

"There's huge demand for @TrumpAccounts, it's an incredible opportunity to give everyday consumers a piece of the growth and long-term success of our country." — @Chime CEO @chrisrbritt Thank you for the early support, it's amazing to see this incredible momentum!!🚀🇺🇸📈

Our Q4 and Full Year 2025 Financial Results are in. We yet again delivered strong top- and bottom-line growth as the primary account of choice for mainstream America. See our full results: investors.chime.com/news-releases/…

@sallyshin Big news. Congrats Sally!!

Some update from me: In every sense of the phrase, I’m coming home. I’m excited to share that I’m returning to @CNBC as EVP of Growth and Partnerships and moving back to NYC. I began my career at CNBC as an intern, then spent years as a producer on @SquawkStreet, helping launch the network’s first tech focused show, Squawk Alley, before becoming the San Francisco Bureau Chief and later Executive Editor of @NBCNews. It was a decade-plus stretch that fundamentally shaped how I understand business, storytelling, and the responsibility that comes with informing a global audience. In 2021, I left the newsroom with a desire to build. Over the past few years, I’ve founded companies, advised entrepreneurs, and invested at the intersection of media, technology, AI, and creativity. That experience reinforced a belief I hold deeply: the next generation of enduring enterprise value will be created by teams that pair technical rigor with cultural fluency and truly understand how media, trust, and technology converge. We’re at a generational inflection point for media. Audiences are fragmenting, platforms are evolving, and technology is reshaping how people discover, consume, and trust information. There has never been more competition for our minutes. And yet, this deluge of white noise also creates an unprecedented moment for a brand like CNBC, which has established a uniquely powerful platform, built on decades of credibility, trust, and global reach. This is not just a time to respond to change, but an opportunity to help define what comes next. That is why I’m excited to return. I’m deeply grateful to KC Sullivan for the opportunity to step into this newly created role, and for his leadership and vision in positioning CNBC for its next era of growth. While I had not planned to leave the startup world just yet, the opportunity to help shape this next chapter felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’m also thankful to the founders, operators, mentors, and partners I’ve learned from along the way, and to Allison Goldberg and the Comcast Ventures team for giving me a front row seat to where innovation is heading and how it translates into durable, enterprise scale impact. Having spent years working with companies navigating the collision of media, technology, and AI, I’ve seen that the teams who win do not simply adapt to change. They shape it. I’m excited to work alongside the incredible CNBC team and our partners to thoughtfully expand how the brand shows up across platforms, unlocking new growth while staying true to what makes CNBC trusted and distinctive. I joined CNBC during the GE era, built much of my career through the Comcast years, and now return as the company enters a new chapter with @VersantMedia. It is an exciting time and deeply grateful to be coming home again to the CNBC family.

@N_Sportelli 100% agreed - journalism gives us the foundational skills of asking the right questions and building narratives. So glad to see many ex-reporters interested in our first storytelling role at @ChimeNewsroom!

The hot new job at tech companies is leading "storytelling." The term doubled on LinkedIn job posts in the U.S since last year. The WSJ writes: "Compliance technology firm Vanta this month began hiring for a head of storytelling, offering a salary of up to $274,000." "Productivity app Notion recently merged its communications, social media and influencer functions into one 10-person, so-called storytelling team." "Financial technology brand Chime last month began hiring for a director of corporate editorial and storytelling—its first storyteller opening." As a former reporter and career-long content/brand leader, I have some thoughts! These examples point to a shift in internal marketing orgs that reflect a shrinking earned media landscape and an endless, growing number of distribution channels to share and own your narrative, i.e. "going direct." It's not entirely editorial, or events, or PR, or marketing. It's how all these pieces work together and how they contribute to the bigger picture - your story! I joke with my reporter friends that they are infinitely hireable if they ever left journalism. Why? Because we are trained to ask: "So what? Why should readers care? What does it mean for them?" To me, that's a big nuance in this conversation. Because... *Storytelling is a human act and it's a service.* Super interested to watch what happens here. Are you long/short on this role?

@Workday @Nasdaq @Braze By donating 1% of their equity, Pledge 1% member @Chime is ensuring future impact and resources to support financial progress through higher education. #Pledge1 #GivingTuesday #Pledge1Gives #Nasdaq @nasdaq

@jevgenijs big move! excited to keep reading

I have removed the paywall from my newsletter: popularfintech.com All write-ups are now available for free. This year, I have written about: Visa $V, PayPal $PYPL, Klarna $KLAR, Capital One $COF, American Express $AXP, Robinhood $HOOD, Coinbase $COIN, Block $XYZ, Affirm $AFRM, Wise $WISE.L, Adyen $ADYEN, Nubank $NU, Toast $TOST, Marqeta $MQ, Shift4 $FOUR, Fiserv $FI, Shopify $SHOP, Mercado Libre $MELI, Sea $SE, Coupang $CPNG, Circle $CRCL, and Chime $CHYM p.s. Huge thank you to everyone who subscribed to the premium plan🙏🏻