Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Heleo Wants to Make Lots of Glenn Becks, for People Who Don’t Like Glenn Beck

“The power of individuals as little media companies is rising.”

Courtesy Rufus Griscom

Let’s imagine you have a Big Idea. Great. How do you get that Big Idea to millions of people?

Books and lectures may reach a sizable audience. But a new startup called Heleo is aiming much more broadly. As CEO Rufus Griscom explained in an interview with Peter Kafka on the latest episode of “Re/code Decode,” Heleo wants to help big thinkers find a broad online audience, and get some of them to pay up.

Think Glenn Beck, Griscom says, for the TED talk set.

“Most top writers and thinkers tweet, but they don’t really use Facebook,” Griscom said. “They don’t have YouTube channels.”

Griscom first gained Web fame as the co-founder of Nerve.com, the edgy dating service. But he says the idea of building an Internet business around these Big Idea people hearkens back to one of his other startups, Babble, which sold to Disney in 2011. The top parenting bloggers with whom Babble partnered were “young Martha Stewarts” who could pull down seven figures in annual revenue just from their low-overhead writing operations, Griscom said.

“People like to follow people,” he said. “The power of individuals as little media companies is rising.”

Listen to or download the episode in the player above, or click here to subscribe to “Re/code Decode” on iTunes. Kara Swisher will be back in this space on Monday to look back on 2015’s biggest tech stories and preview CES, and Peter Kafka will be back next Thursday to talk to Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger.

And if you like this show, you should also check out “Re/code Replay,” an archive of audio content from our events and interviews by Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried and more. To subscribe to that, click right here.

You can follow @Recode on Twitter for the latest on upcoming guests.

If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and if you don’t, just tweet-strafe Kara and Peter. You can also suggest guests for the show on Twitter and we’ll do our best to nab them for a Red Chair interview.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel