I started a company! Here's why, who it's for, who I am grateful to, and who I need to join the effort

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It was August 2023. I was on vacation, and I couldn’t sleep.

I couldn’t decide what to do: stay in my dream job or leave to start the video journalism company I’d been imagining for nearly a decade.

I got out of bed to make a pros and cons list. I couldn’t find any scrap paper in the Airbnb, so I grabbed the book I was reading at the time, Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, and started scribbling on the blank pages at the back of the book.

I wrote “Launch Video Startup Now” at the top of the page and then “Pros” under that. And then I wrote…

? The journalism will be fun, creative, and important.

? Company-building will be a novel adventure.

? Can work with talented, fun people.

? Potential to make a prestigious, cool brand.

? Video is a stable and growing medium.

I went on writing for about two or three more hours, filling five white and yellow pages, the last one tucked under the dustcover flap with Kuang’s face on it.

I remember being surprised, excited, and a little scared by the obvious result. I had decided to work really hard to get everything in order at my job and then, when the time was right, leave a job I loved at a company I loved to go and start my own.

Well, here we are.

As previously reported by Ben Mullin of The New York Times, I’ve started a new video journalism company!

It’s called Dynamo.

So, what’s Dynamo?

Dynamo is for dynamos: people building careers, companies, communities, and lives. I’m a dynamo. If this post about a person starting a new company fires you up and makes you curious about the why and how… you’re a dynamo, too!

And if you are, you probably agree with us that “business explains the world.”

What I mean by that is: the buildings around us look the way they do, the roads are where they are, and even the air we breathe is made up of certain particulates because of how our economy works — and sometimes doesn’t work.

At Dynamo, we think the best answers to the most interesting questions almost always have to do with the flow of money, the creative act of company- and career-building, and entrepreneurial engineering and invention.

And while we truly believe the creative forces behind business can, and often do, change the world for the better — we are also committed to covering the way the global economy works in a truly journalistic fashion. We will verify facts. We will scrutinize claims. We will share inconvenient truths.

What will Dynamo make?

We’re going to show how business explains the world through video journalism.

Cinematic journalism, I like to call it: highly visual video stories featuring real-life people and places.

Each story will set out to answer a question about why things are the way they are.

Sometimes we’ll address an odd curiosity… like, why can’t billionaire sports team owners commission better statues than the ones made for Dwyane Wade or Cristiano Ronaldo?

Sometimes they’ll be more forward-looking, like: Why aren’t AI-powered robots doing all our yard work yet?

And we won’t shy away from the planet’s harsh realities either… Why does war, so costly in lives, so often make countries rich?

Our videos will be long and short. We’ll publish them here on LinkedIn, on YouTube, of course, and on TikTok, Instagram, and all the other platforms where you find short docs and conversational vertical videos.

Why are we doing this?

We’re, of course, doing this because we think it will be a great business for us, our brand partners, our employees, and our investors.

But one could build a lot of great businesses.

We are especially motivated to build a great journalism company.

What does great mean to us?

For me, it means we are reaching a lot of people who are spending meaningful time with us. And each time after they do, they come away with something lodged inside of them: a memorable character from a place they’ve never been, an insight into how the world works, or something they want to talk about with their friends and family later at dinner.

All of that is why we are focused on video. It is quite simply the world’s favorite storytelling medium.

A great journalism company is also one that has a brand people trust enough to let surprise them.

This is one reason why we’re so excited to explore how business explains the world. A business-focused publication can talk about all the same facts as other publications without getting immediately coded as red or blue.

We know that trust is earned slowly over time. We know that the way to earn it is to lean on the principles of journalism. We admire individual creators and are absolutely inspired by them, but we think it will actually do the world some good to have a scalable brand it can trust, focused entirely on video journalism.

Some thank yous!

I’m extremely thankful to so many people who’ve made it possible for us to get going. My wife, Anna, came up with the name of the company two summers ago. Last spring, when I told her I was about to go into a meeting to share with my old company that I planned to leave, she texted me, “Adventure time!”

Rick Heitzmann, Kathryn Weinmann, and literally everyone else at Firstmark Capital see the same giant opportunity to build a trusted video journalism company. I’m so lucky to have their advice and network at Dynamo’s disposal. (The big pile of cash is handy too!)

The best kind of investors and advisors are the ones who have done it before in the same industry. So I’m especially grateful to Jessica Lessin, the owner, founder, and CEO of The Information; Jon Steinberg, the former CEO and founder of Cheddar and former president of BuzzFeed; and Alyson Shontell, my old colleague and current EIC of Fortune.

Finally, there’s Henry Blodget. He was my boss for 15 years, and I am very lucky to say he is working with me again as a significant minority shareholder, future board member, and person with whom I am on the phone multiple times every day and texting even more than that.

Thank you also to investors Zach Coelius, Jonathan Glick, and Howard Lerman! I’m grateful for your support and wisdom.

You’re maybe not supposed to talk about the friends and family in a funding round. But I want to thank my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law for their investment. I love you, Dimity Carlson (Mom), Mark Carlson (Dad), Craig Carlson, and Katie Kulovitz.

Want to help?

Dynamo needs journalists! People who agree that “business explains the world.” They are capable of both marveling at the creative force of commerce and willing to bring the kind of scrutiny that trusted journalism requires.

They also need to believe in the power of moving pictures paired with sound, and the obvious opportunity for a company like ours to build something iconic and lasting using the best storytelling medium humans have ever created.

I’m looking for an executive producer, producers who want to be on camera and producers who never want to be on camera. I need video editors and animators who hear me say “cinematic journalism” and know exactly what I mean. We’re going to work with full-timers and freelancers. So please shout if any of this describes you. I will be posting a more specific job listing for the EP role very soon.

We’re going to build a newsroom where everyone in the chat is a total badass and we’re all learning from each other all the time.

Email me at [email protected] if you want to know more. Or follow our page on LinkedIn and look for openings.

And if you’re a CMO or CEO and Dynamo’s mission feels like your mission, email me at [email protected].