Will Mayer

Got to help @Polymarket bring their first brand campaign to life. 15 countries. one question each. shot on 16mm, track cleared in <24 hrs, whole thing in under a month. directed by gabriel moses. featuring @RickRubin, @future, @_PesoPluma

@claudeai Questions are everything

There’s hope in hard questions.

Build your own category. In the 1970s the average American saw ~500 hundred ads a day. Today it's over 5,000... Cutting through is more essential than ever. Thanks to @Inc for breaking down why this one worked. inc.com/victoria-watte…

Cult Holdings Co-Founder @willhmayer, who led the Rick Rubin-Polymarket ad, shares the five core tenets of how to build a brand with a cult following: "First is doctrine. Having identity before features, what is the sacred text that everybody abides by? Most brands have a tagline, but what can truly be enforced and felt by the community? @bryan_johnson's done this incredibly well. Most religions have commandments or tenets. Brands have slogans like, 'Think Different' or 'Just Do It.' You have longer forms of doctrine, like the Technological Republic by Alex Karp or Zero to One." "Second is ritual. Bryan, through the Don't Die Dinner series, did such a beautiful job. You guys have a ritual here every day, five days a week. But what are the initiations into your brand or community? It's about forming a ritual that becomes a habit that becomes identity over time." "Third is symbols and language. How can you take elements to create in-groups versus out-groups? What are the key features that signal people who are insiders versus outsiders to your brand? CrossFit doesn't call them workouts, they're WODs. With Equinox, we never said gyms, we would say clubs. The Catholic Church used stained glass windows to educate an overwhelmingly illiterate population in the 12th century to indoctrinate them into the Church." "Fourth is a charismatic leader, which, again, you have in Bryan. You have in folks like @PalmerLuckey, where you almost icon yourself with the goatee, Hawaiian shirts, flip-flops, things like that are so incredibly important." "Fifth is an enemy. Every brand needs a nemesis. A lot of people use competitors. Apple's enemy started with IBM in its 1984 campaign. But over time, it evolved to the concept of conformity. Because when you get bigger than your competition, that enemy loses power. But if it's like an overwhelming thought that can never truly be defeated, the enemy always keeps power."

Happy Wednesday. On today's show: - @benthompson (Stratechery) - @vincentweisser (Prime Intellect) - @RodrigoLiang (SambaNova) - @alanapalmedo (Paradigm) - @willhmayer (Cult Holdings) - Byron Boots (Overland AI) - Tucker Brown (CAA Evolution) See you on the stream.

@minafahmi @sandbar Can't wait for one of these

We thought we solved voice interactions, but then we started testing dictation on Stream Ring with users There was a missing detail that makes speech-to-text feel telepathic Loved sharing with Nat, DMs open for demos. Excited to share soon

@travisk Hate to see people out there living your dream.

First day at our new Austin office. Video of my 5 minute jet ski commute to work.. 😏😅😂

Shoutout to all those who made this possible Brand: Polymarket Creative Director: Daf Orlovsky Client Lead: Josh Tucker Executive Producer: Kian McHugh Executive Producer: Jordan Vernes Lead Designer: Balint Ruboczki Creative Consultant: Andreas Aresti Creative / Story: Brian Logvinsky Production Advisor: Marc Anthony Paz Creative / Story: Shayne Coplan Agency: Better Half Executive Producer + Creative: Will Mayer Strategy: Alyssa Bonanno Production Coordinator: Mia Marom Motion Designer: Hugh Kavanagh Agency: Four Four Entertainment Producer: Lauren Nadel Photo + Video: Photographer + Director: Gabriel Moses Creative, GM Studio: Katja Horvat Agent: Lindsay Cooper @ Concrete Producer: Victoria Mancisidor @ Concrete Producer: Clare Laurance @ Concrete Movement Director: Manu Loca Digital Tech: Jono Pivovar DP: Karol Jurga Story / Additional Production: Siberia

Got to help @Polymarket bring their first brand campaign to life. 15 countries. one question each. shot on 16mm, track cleared in <24 hrs, whole thing in under a month. directed by gabriel moses. featuring @RickRubin, @future, @_PesoPluma

@AlexisYellow thank you 🙏

Few things take my breath away as fast as Wim Hof can… but Polymarket did it without asking me to inhale once. - You are in the Middle of the FIFA World Cup. - Kalshi attacks. - but you are cooking. - throw Rick Rubin (anti-commercial) - Into the most trending market - that is highly commercial - sprinkle with Kanye West 10/10 for sound engineering. 8/10 for visuals. 20/10 for Rick Rubin. Closest refence point would be Larry David from Super Bowl in 2022.

It is rare for an ad to stop me these days. This one stopped me cold. Whatever your view of prediction markets -- and this is not an endorsement — the team behind this ad created something genuinely remarkable. 👏👏👏

Shoutout to all those who made this possible Brand: Polymarket Creative Director: Daf Orlovsky Client Lead: Josh Tucker Executive Producer: Kian McHugh Executive Producer: Jordan Vernes Lead Designer: Balint Ruboczki Creative Consultant: Andreas Aresti Creative / Story: Brian Logvinsky Production Advisor: Marc Anthony Paz Creative / Story: Shayne Coplan Agency: Better Half Executive Producer + Creative: Will Mayer Strategy: Alyssa Bonanno Production Coordinator: Mia Marom Motion Designer: Hugh Kavanagh Agency: Four Four Entertainment Producer: Lauren Nadel Photo + Video: Photographer + Director: Gabriel Moses Creative, GM Studio: Katja Horvat Agent: Lindsay Cooper @ Concrete Producer: Victoria Mancisidor @ Concrete Producer: Clare Laurance @ Concrete Movement Director: Manu Loca Digital Tech: Jono Pivovar DP: Karol Jurga Story / Additional Production: Siberia

@andrewrsorkin 🫡

Questions Are Everything Our first brand campaign with Polymarket. Directed by Gabriel Moses, narrated by Rick Rubin.

@Miki53688453 matterformula.com

Imagine a restaurant chain called “Macros.” You walk in, tap your target macros into a kiosk — protein, carbs, fats, calories — and choose your preferred ingredients: chicken breast, rice, potatoes, greek yogurt, eggs, vegetables, etc. The system instantly designs the optimal meal to hit your numbers exactly. Then a cook behind the counter assembles it Chipotle-style, weighing every ingredient on a scale down to the gram. Fast food for people who track their calories. @DeanTTraining why aren’t you doing this?

@elaifresh New hq for @CultHoldings

Any good cults interesting in buying this temple right across from Dolores Park? Generational cult opportunity right here don’t miss out

@ekuyda thank you

this announcement video is pure art (very dystopian too)

Last week we had the honor of helping take @enhanced_games public on the New York Stock Exchange. We built the world that brought the moment to life. The identity, the bell ring on the NYSE, the takeover of Wall Street and Times Square, the belief system at the core of all of it. Enhanced is not only a client of ours, but a portfolio company of @CultHoldings.

@antinertia @Bencera @polsia Loved working with you - team Jeddi!

got a call two months ago 9pm on a sunday "hey, we don't know each other, a friend recommended you i built polsia, it's going crazy & growth is insane wanna jam about growth?" two hours later, it was a match happy to help @Bencera & @polsia (to me, she’s a she!) with their growth journey

@thatguybg thank you - the team and I at @CultHoldings had the opportunity to bring the video to life under Ben's vision.

near perfect funding announcement video - very very original clipping style and aesthetic - incredible script (maybe the best I've seen so far) - music is so good and fits the vibe perfectly - nice and short but - the vibe verryyyy dystopian - would have introduced the founder earlier "this is my founder Ben, he mostly just hangs out because I do all the work" the big issue here is the positioning is extremely tone def - though it could have been an "any press is good press" strategy. it gives strong "AI doesn't need you any more" or even "AI is evil and taking over the world" energy with the voice modulation and graphics. AI products (especially ones that automate jobs like this) need to position around giving people time back and helping individuals achieve their dreams. people are worried about AI for good reason and even a neutral tone can be off-putting. this is why our brand leans heavily into beautiful blue skies, green fields, upbeat soul music and "organized so you don't have to be" - its happy! don't know who directed and edited this video, but absolutely amazing work nonetheless congrats ben and team

@Bencera Unreal... Kudos Ben!

Polsia just raised $30M at a $250M valuation. Approaching $10M annual run rate. One Founder + AI. Zero employees. Polsia runs companies autonomously. It also ran its own fundraising. I just showed up for signatures.