An Interview With FlightStory CEO Georgie Holt: Why The Next Billion-Dollar Media Company Will Be Built On Human IP
FlightStory
"I actually believe the next billion-dollar media company will be built out of human IP—an individual, an operator. It won't come from Disney or Netflix. It'll come from someone like MrBeast or Steven Bartlett."
That's the bold prediction Georgie Holt, CEO of FlightStory, shared in our recent conversation. And it's not just a theory, but it's the foundation on which she and her team are actively building a new kind of media company.
How FlightStory Took Flight
FlightStory
FlightStory's origin began on LinkedIn. Nearly two years ago, entrepreneur and The Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett posted that he was looking to build something in podcasting. Holt and her business partner, Christiana Brenton, CRO of FlightStory, fresh off leaving Acast to start a performance media agency, reached out to pitch for investment.
When they met, Bartlett, who was recently named to the TIME100 Creators List, said, "I'm not really interested in what you're building—but I'm very interested in the two of you."
He had a vision for a podcast network built using the playbook that had scaled The Diary of a CEO: data science, constant experimentation, and a video-first strategy.
That conversation sparked the creation of FlightStory Studio, a growing network of creator-led IP and world-class production studios in London, New York, and Los Angeles. It is now part of FlightStory, the larger parent company that includes both a media operation and an investment arm, FlightStory Fund.
"We fundamentally believe we can elevate stories, build communities, and invest in visionary founders who create a healthier, happier humanity," says Holt. "Our proposition is simple: you can turn content into companies—and that content is being driven by creator entrepreneurs and their IP."
The Creator Entrepreneur
So what exactly is a creator entrepreneur? According to Holt, it's those who can transcend platforms. They can move audiences from one platform to another and generate an energized fandom around their IP.
"For me there's a distinct difference between an audience and a fandom. A fandom is very active, they lean in, they can become self-directing and they create their own momentum. What that becomes is an extraordinary community where they start to find companionship and purpose with each other, not just with the host."
Holt sees the shift to creator entrepreneurship happening when someone realizes their work has grown beyond their individual capacity.
"There are areas of my work, financial, operational, strategic, where I have limitations. But I know that in order to go beyond what I've built, I need to start hiring significant people or bring people with me on that journey."
In many ways, she sees it similar to a founder building a company.
"Building a creator-led business has the same cadence, rhythm, rigor, and blueprint as building any company. You have a founder with an idea or a dream or a product. I think they say you build for three reasons: pain, purpose, and profession. You're either professionally very good at something, solving a pain point, or driven by purpose."
Data, Not Guesswork: How FlightStory Studio Spots Rising Stars
FlightStory / From left: Christiana Brenton, Georgie Holt
When it comes to adding new talent, FlightStory Studio takes the guesswork out of it. The company uses proprietary tools like Guest Radar and Creator Radar, originally developed to find guests for The Diary of a CEO.
"Steven's built a tool called Guest Radar which essentially scans hundreds of thousands of YouTube channels and social media channels to notice if a show or channel suddenly starts to overperform versus its regular cadence. We can see if there's been a guest or conversation on a host-led format and we'll ask: who was that? What happened? What were they talking about?"
The tool has been expanded to discover creators and shows, whether it's "early contenders or people who've been around for a long time and suddenly entered the zeitgeist again."
"We then assess that on the value proposition, the audience development, growth, the globalization of that content. You know, is it brand safe? Is it something that advertisers are going to lean into, do you think? It's got an evergreen nature," she explains, referring to their internal IP framework called VIBES (Value Proposition, Influence & Engagement, Business Model, Evolution of Creator & Content, and Scalability & Distribution).
"We assess creators on whether we can take them to as many places as possible, reach as many people as we can, and monetize that journey for them, whether through brand partnerships, building products, events, e-commerce, and more."
On The Future: AI & Community
Like many forward-thinking companies, FlightStory is embracing AI as a strategic tool. They recently ran an internal 60-day AI sprint, challenging teams to build AI tools, including AI agents that could scale IP, enhance audience experience, and support creators. The result was 48 tools built from scratch, with some delivering millions in cost efficiencies.
While acknowledging concerns that AI might make early-stage career opportunities less available, Holt sees AI as something to embrace, especially for creators.
"I think that AI will allow much smaller teams and earlier-stage creators in the creator economy phase to scale much faster, to get their voice and their work into the world at a much faster rate of success than perhaps they could before. That's only a good thing in my book, and I think it's a moment for collaboration to drive innovation. I don't think it's a moment for platforms to start arguing or creators to start arguing with platforms."
She also believes that the proliferation of AI will make the human experience even more important, which benefits creator IP and explains why long-form content like podcasting will endure.
"What I believe is that we will seek out that human experience more than we ever have before because we'll be looking for trust, because we'll be in doubt states all the time. When you're in a doubt state, you're looking for that lighthouse—'I know them, I trust them, I believe them, and I will follow them and move forward with them.' That's the idea of these billion-dollar media companies being built on human IP."
This insight aligns with where Holt sees one of the biggest opportunities for creators: building real-world community.
"In terms of the future of the industry, I think it will be the people who invest in community and transcend the digital and real-world realms. We have potentially created a generation of digital ghosts—young people who live very much in the online world, less in the physical world. People who invest in bringing their audience into the real world, into the daylight, to spend time with each other, to find community, to find a cohort of people with whom they can find love, trust, friendship, and opportunities to build a life. I think that will be incredibly important."
Holt's Advice for Creators
To wrap things up, I asked Holt for her biggest advice for creators. Unsurprisingly, it aligns very much with what built Bartlett’s success and what FlightStory is building for others.
"Show up. Be curious. Experiment constantly. Watch your data obsessively. A/B test everything. Ask for feedback, and keep going."
It's the kind of rigor that built The Diary of a CEO into one of the most successful podcasts in the world. And it's the mindset she believes will define the next generation of billion-dollar media businesses.
"It's like the Warren Buffett methodology of business growth—it applies to creator growth as well. You might want to be an overnight sensation, but to sustain that overnight success is almost as difficult as finding it in the first place. So it's these people that compound like the Buffett methodology—consistency and compounding."
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