OpenAI acquiring TBPN is not a small or routine move, and there’s no clean precedent for it. They didn’t partner with the show or sponsor it or “explore content together”;They bought it outright. TBPN is one of the fastest-growing shows in tech media - a daily live talk show built around fast, informal conversations with founders, operators, and investors. It’s not trying to be traditional journalism, which is exactly why it works. It feels like being in the room while people who actually shape the industry talk to each other without overproduction or heavy filtering. It already has a real audience, real momentum, and a real business behind it - so OpenAI made a deliberate decision to acquire a platform that already has attention and access to the exact ecosystem they operate in.

Every year around this time, as the Oscar winners are announced and everyone suddenly becomes a film critic for 48 hours, I’m reminded of something we don’t talk about enough (or talk about all the time, depending on what your job is): campaigns.

Super Bowl week pulls everyone in. Even people who do not watch football tune in for the spectacle of sports, branding, and entertainment. You would expect the teams that make the Super Bowl to be the NFL’s strongest brands. Yet one team has not appeared in a Super Bowl in 29 years and still holds the league’s highest valuation: the Dallas Cowboys.

Figma’s 2025 IPO was one of the clearest demonstrations in recent memory of how to run smart, strategic communications while in the spotlight. The company had every reason to play it safe. Just two years earlier, its $20 billion acquisition by Adobe collapsed under heavy regulatory pressure, an outcome that could have cast a long shadow over its future. But instead of pulling back, Figma leaned into the moment. They used the IPO to reshape their image, proving they were not defined by a failed deal but by their own business momentum, vision, and resilience. With over 150 articles and 60+ tier 1 reporters covering it over 4 months, Figma’s comms strategy is definitely something to write home about (or at least a blog post).