Smooth Media

The creators you follow have a secret weapon. That’s Smooth Media.

In this episode of Culture Uncovered, Jena Dunay sits down with Jenny Rothenberg, Co-founder and COO of Smooth Media, to talk about what it looks like to build a startup at the center of the fast-growing creator economy.

Jenny shares how Smooth Media was founded by former Morning Brew employees, why they chose to focus on “knowledge creators” instead of traditional influencers, and how a team of just 18 people is helping creators turn their expertise into full-fledged businesses.

They also dive into what makes this industry so different, from working with brands that are new to creator marketing to building a culture rooted in curiosity, ownership, and learning in a space where no one has a playbook.

What you’ll learn:

• What Smooth Media does and how it supports knowledge creators
• Why they focus on creators over influencers in the B2B space
• How they partner with brands new to creator marketing
• What “you go first” ownership looks like in practice
• What it takes to stand out as a candidate in a fast-moving startup

Smooth Media highlights:

• Founded: 2021
• Team Size: 18 employees
• Headquarters: New York City
• Work Model: In-office (Mon–Thurs), remote Fridays
• Culture: Curious, ambitious, collaborative, ownership-driven, learning-focused

Unique Perks & Programs:

• Strong in-office culture designed for learning and collaboration
• Early-career growth through exposure across teams and functions
• High ownership culture (“you go first” mindset)
• Opportunities to work closely with creators and brands
• Involvement in creator-led events and partnerships
• A fast-growing startup environment where you help build the playbook

To learn more about Smooth Media:

Careers Page (They’re hiring!)
Instagram Page
Jenny’s LinkedIn Profile

Transcript

Jena Dunay: Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of Culture Uncovered where we go behind the scenes each week at a different company understanding a little bit more about what the company culture is like. So today I am really excited because I have never heard of this company until a couple of weeks ago. And after talking with the team and doing a little bit more research, I think you guys are going to be really interested in this line of work that they are in.

The company is called Smooth Media. And I am here today with the co-founder and COO, Jenny Rothenberg. So Jenny, thank you so much for joining us today. I am super excited to learn more about your organization and just share what it looks like to work at a growing startup like Smooth Media.

Jenny Rothenberg: Of course, thanks so much for having me.

Jena Dunay: Awesome, well why do not you just start us off by sharing a little bit about what you guys do.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah. So Smooth Media is a talent management company for what we call knowledge creators. So these are creators on the internet, on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, newsletters, podcasts, whose content is all about a specific topic and they are really bringing their audience their expertise.

So we work with creators who are covering things like business, technology, entrepreneurship, finance, product management, design, all of these different niche topics of the internet. And it is really fun. We represent about 60 creators right now.

Jena Dunay: I love that. So this industry, I feel like is popping off in the past, I feel like three to four years it has really started growing. So when were you guys founded and tell us a little bit about the founding story.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, absolutely. So my co-founders and I were all early employees at Morning Brew, which was a media startup very newsletter focused all about business news.

And at the end of 2020, Morning Brew got acquired by Business Insider. It was super exciting. And my co-founders and I were kind of looking around thinking what is new and exciting in media. We think we had such a great experience, we learned so much.

We want to take it to what is next, where is the industry headed. And it was very clear at that time, it was COVID, everyone was on TikTok, everyone was finally realizing that YouTube is a real business area.

And we thought how do we build a business that really supports these types of independent creators. We know the business side of launching and growing a digital media startup. How do we bring that strategic and operational expertise to these independent content creators.

So that was kind of the vague thesis with which we launched Smooth back in 2021. And over the years it has really formalized into what it is now as a talent management company for these business focused knowledge creators.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, where do you see, because I think a lot of people who are used to the industry of creators think of influencers and clothing and makeup and Instagram. What made you guys think this is a real opportunity. Where do you see the future of the industry going.

Jenny Rothenberg: Definitely. I think there are so many different pockets of the spectrum from influencer to creator. We definitely use the term creator and not the term influencer, but that is because that is more in line with what they do.

The creators we are working with are not really sharing their life. That is not really what they are all about. They are serving what more traditional B2B trade media companies have provided for professional audiences for decades.

This really is not that new of a concept, B2B media. That is where I cut my teeth in media, in more traditional business journalism. And now there are all of these independent content creators who are either experts in the field and practitioners of HR or design or engineering and are really bringing that expertise to their audience through their content.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, so good. I just love the concept. I think it is so fascinating. I have been waiting for organizations to catch up to this on the B2B side. And I am just so glad that you guys exist.

So tell me who was your first creator that you worked with or first couple of creators and how many co-founders do you have.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yes, so my co-founders are Josh and Kinsey. The three of us all started at around the same time at Morning Brew. Kinsey was one of the first newsletter writers of Morning Brew and also was the host of its first podcast. And so she heads up all of the more editorial side of things at Smooth.

And then Josh was kind of a jack of all trades, running strategy, operations, product, wearing all the hats, figuring out all the different stuff around the company. And I ran the growth team.

So we all kind of had different pockets of the business that we were occupying, which has been helpful in dividing and conquering as we have grown Smooth.

But as far as the creators that we started out with, in our early days we were very open about the fact that we did not have this business knowledge focus area. We worked with some comedians who were incredible. We worked with some parenting and family creators who we love, but were ultimately not the best fit for us.

So some of the earliest creators that we still work with and have now been working with over the years, one of which is Matt Wolfe. He is a very prominent AI news YouTuber. He is incredible. We have worked with him for years and he is really seen as one of the leading, if not the go to expert in the AI space.

And then Jacklyn Dallas is based here in New York. She is a tech creator as well that we have been working with for years.

So there are some of those that we have really been working with for so long. And then over the past year we have really been able to grow our roster a lot and work with some really incredible creators.

Jena Dunay: That is awesome. That is awesome. I love that. Tell me how big is the company now.

Jenny Rothenberg: So we have 18 employees full time.

Jena Dunay: Okay, 18 employees. So tell me about the different functions. What do those people do. Obviously when you are in a startup environment like you guys are, you are truly startup mode. You are only a couple of years old. I am sure everyone wears a lot of different hats.

But what kind of roles do people have within an agency like this.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, absolutely. So we have just two distinct departments. We have our creator partnerships team that is supporting the content creators and is seen as their manager. If you have watched Entourage, that is the E department. That is how I describe it to my family.

So they are the creator’s go to person. They are their therapist. They are helping think through their content and hiring and all of that stuff and really their go to support.

So there are managers who are that for each creator and each manager owns their own roster. And then there are coordinators who are doing a lot of the operational support with ad campaigns and other logistical things to keep their business running.

So that is the creator partnerships department.

And then we have the brand partnerships department, which you would guess is working with the brands. So there is a whole team dedicated to building relationships with all of these brands, ideally in the business and tech world, helping understand their marketing goals, building proposals that resonate with them, closing the deal, and then passing it off to the creator partnerships team.

So there are those two distinct departments. There is a lot of overlap between how they operate together, but it is pretty clean and distinct that way.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I love it. So obviously you guys have been hiring a lot for being such a small organization and really being able to support those creators and the brands that you work with as well.

Where are you guys located. I know you are in New York City. Is everybody located in New York. How does that look?

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, so we do have an office in Manhattan in Chelsea. And we actually just signed a lease to get the office next door to us as well. And we get the whole floor, which is exciting. But yeah, so we are based here. We do have an in person culture where we are in the office Monday through Thursday and remote Friday. And so we are all based here in New York.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, that seems like a strategic decision to have people in person. Tell me a little bit about that.

Jenny Rothenberg: Definitely. I always joke that we got an office far earlier before it was financially responsible to get an office, especially when you consider the price of New York real estate.

But it was so core to how we learned what we learned and grew so close at Morning Brew, which was sitting in an office together. We pushed each other. We were competitive. We wanted to beat the other newsletters. We wanted to grow. We wanted to close more revenue. And it was really just fun and exciting to do that all next to each other.

And so it was really important to us to make that part of the culture, especially when we are hiring a lot of people on the team. It is either their first, second, or third job. And we think it is really important to be learning from each other, having that exposure to other departments and other teams.

You do not really get that on Zoom. And being able to learn from each other and get to know what everybody else is working on, those little things I think are so valuable to everyone’s professional development and really feeling like a team that is all trying to win together.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I definitely think that for young people, anytime that we have a recruiting side to our business and anytime we are recruiting for young folks, I am always like it is really important for you to be in office.

I know that it feels better to be remote, but I can assure you, you are going to learn so much by being next to people that are more experienced than you and you are just going to learn by osmosis.

There are things that you cannot learn in remote cultures. While I love remote and think it is beneficial for different seasons of life, like I am a mom, I need remote, for a different season of life, in person is really important too. So I love that you guys are doing that. Tell me, how would you describe the culture as it sits today.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, I mean, I think we would say that we are very ambitious and excited to be learning in our industry. You could not go to school to learn how to run a creator agency. There is no way you could have studied it.

So we very much pride ourselves on the fact that we are learning and that we are all pushing each other to make each other better and looking around at what are other people doing, what do we like that they are doing, what do we not like.

And that makes us all excited to be building what we are building because it does feel new. It does feel like the world is our oyster in how we want to structure the company, how we want to support creators, how we want to show up in our very nascent industry.

So I think everyone feels an immense sense of pride in that, that we are building it ourselves and there is so much to learn.

Jena Dunay: Yeah. Tell me a little bit about some of the fun stuff that you guys get to do together as a team. Obviously because it is in the creator space, I would imagine there are fun things and creative things that you get to do.

So tell me a little bit about how your team gets to participate in that.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, definitely. A few random things that come to mind. So one of the creators we represent and have worked with for a while, her name is Camille. She covers the space industry and spent years working at a space company.

And now we had a long term deal with her over this past year with the US Space Force, which has been really cool.

Jena Dunay: I just love that there is a niche for everything. It is so cool. I actually follow some of her content and when I was doing some research on you all, I was looking at the creators and I was like this is so specific and so cool.

I love that the internet allows people to make money doing whatever they really love. She is brilliant.

Jenny Rothenberg: Right. And she is brilliant and also has the ability to explain it in a way that I know nothing about space, but I am gripped by her video and I learn something.

And she is taking you through these very exclusive experiences that she has access to through this partnership with the Space Force. That is just so cool to see how she is educating her audience about this and the opportunities her expertise is able to create for her.

Jena Dunay: Totally. So you were mentioning that you guys get to do a partnership with her and the US Space Force. Is that what you were saying.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, so the Space Force came to us and said we think there is an absence of awareness of what the Space Force really is. And to be honest, I would be lying if I told you that I knew what the Space Force was before they came to us. And they said it is not just about being an astronaut. There are so many roles and interesting ways to be involved with the Space Force. So how can we work with Camille to help communicate that.

Jena Dunay: So it is almost like she was doing employer branding for them. That is fascinating. Okay, keep going.

Jenny Rothenberg: Exactly. That is really it. Over the course of a year, she went to all of these different locations, got access to these very exciting technologies that they are building, and went behind the scenes to explain it to her audience.

She also talked to the people in the Space Force and exposed to her audience what all of these different roles actually look like. It is such a cool example of how being so niche in your expertise unlocks all of these opportunities.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I love that. That is so interesting and also cool that your team got that exposure as well. I just love that.

Tell me, as you guys are thinking about the future of your organization, we have a lot of job seekers that obviously listen to this. Tell me what you would recommend. Who really thrives in your organization and who does not thrive in your organization.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, definitely. And I think what we have seen, I actually sat through and analyzed the backgrounds of everyone at the company because we were talking to someone to help us with recruiting.

And I was like unfortunately there is not a huge through line on actual background and experience, which I think is kind of fun.

Because what we have seen is there are a lot of different paths. For example, in one role at the company, one person was a creator himself and actually ran a coworking company. He was an entrepreneur himself and he thrives in this role.

Another worked with a YouTuber for years, which is probably the most traditionally related experience, and he crushes it in his role.

Another worked more in documentaries and production and then pivoted into event production. And now she thrives. And those three people all have the same role.

So it is really understanding that because we are building something relatively new, you cannot have fifteen years of experience in this.

But what we want is exposure to the right types of companies and the right types of people, especially because we are in such a people business.

On the creator side, you have to understand how to support them, how to resonate with them, how to earn their trust. Having that experience is significantly more valuable than saying I worked at an agency and did exactly this job.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, I would agree with that. I would say what is interesting though is there is kind of a through line in that they all have some creative adjacent experience.

And their qualities are probably very curious people. So I would feel like in order to thrive in your organization at the stage that you guys are at, curious, hungry, probably humble at the same time, understanding that we do not know everything, but being willing to jump in with both feet, be a people person, and ultimately be able to create results for the organization.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yes, one hundred percent. That is exactly what we look for in the interview process, that curiosity and that if something piqued your interest, you went after it to figure out what is the next move or how can you apply it to your life or your job or whatever you were doing.

And something we say a lot to each other and something we really try to instill as far as autonomy and ownership is our acronym YGF, which means you go first.

So whenever you are asking someone a question or asking for support, for the most part there are exceptions, but you should probably go first.

Instead of saying I got this email, it is a bad situation, I do not know what to do, we want people to say I got this email, here is what I think, here are my thoughts, what do you think.

Because showing someone that you had that thought process first is one, respectful of their time, and two, it builds that muscle yourself.

Even if you are wrong, even if you are asking someone more experienced than you, you should still be building that muscle of how to get to the right answer.

It is not about leaving you on an island or not giving you input, but it creates that culture of autonomy and responsibility.

Jena Dunay: Yeah. Tell me, I think this is kind of adjacent to this, but I would imagine people that are listening are also very curious about the space. What do you guys look for in ad partners.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, a lot of the ad partners we are working with, it is their first time working with creators because we are in this business space.

If we were a fashion influencer company, all of these fashion brands would already have influencer marketing as a core strategy. But an HR tech software company has often not worked with creators before.

So what is really valuable for us is working with brands that come to us and say we know this is where marketing is going, we know nothing about it, please help. We really take a consultative and strategic approach from the start. Other agencies might just say here are the rates, tell me what you want to buy.

But for us, we want to understand what is that brand, who are they trying to reach, what is their messaging, what product launches do they have coming up, what is going to resonate most with the creators on our roster, and how we can best communicate that.

Do they need brand awareness or conversion. Should they be doing more in person experiences. Is this a high ticket decision that requires a more intimate setting. We help them figure all of that out so that they feel comfortable and excited about creator marketing and it feels less overwhelming.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, what are some other fun ones that you have worked on with brands that have been really successful or fun.

Jenny Rothenberg: That is a good question. A lot of the vibe coding tools have worked with our creators. And so one example is having creators host full multi hour builder workshops.

It is almost like a hackathon where the creator is sharing their screen and going from zero to one hundred building an app. And the audience is building alongside them and then leaves with having used the product.

We have done that both virtually and in person. And brands get really excited seeing users engage with their product in real time and being associated with a creator that their audience looks up to.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, that is really fun. I actually was on a podcast that did something similar where we were building an HR tool together. It was really engaging.

I was curious about that. And I would imagine people who are creators are wondering how they get chosen or how they get noticed by a creator agency. You have the employees, the brands, and the creators. So tell me how that works.

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah, we have a pretty loose set of criteria. It is more about whether it feels like the right fit. We look for what we call content market fit. Someone who is creating consistently in a specific area and is seeing audience growth. We do not have strict follower or view count thresholds. We care more that it is trending in the right direction.

The second is that it is in a niche area we are excited about, either one we are already strong in or one we want to grow into.

And the third is personality and vibe. It is more fun to work with people you like working with.

One challenge is that a lot of creators are hesitant about representation in general because agencies do not always have the best reputation. So we have to show them how we are different and how we actually support them.

Jena Dunay: I feel that. I was literally just talking to an agency earlier and said I have an allergic reaction to what a lot of agencies do, so tell me how you are different.

Tell me as you think about the future, where is the company going and what does hiring look like over the next twelve months.

Jenny Rothenberg: Our goal is to continue growing and representing the best knowledge creators. We will continue hiring across both creator partnerships and brand partnerships teams.

And a big area of growth for us is events. We really believe creator led events are the future of how people want to gather. Especially in B2B, traditional trade shows have been around forever and can be pretty boring. We are asking how can we make that experience more exciting, more engaging, and centered around creators. We have already done around fifty events and want to formalize that part of the business so we can scale it across all of our creators.

It is great for creators because many of them want to host events, and it is great for brands because they love sponsoring them. So that is a big investment area for us.

Jena Dunay: That is awesome. I have really enjoyed learning more about what you guys do and what you are building.

We usually do not have companies this small on the podcast, but I really believe in this industry and think it is going to grow significantly over the next decade. So where can people learn more about Smooth Media and see what opportunities you have available.

Jenny Rothenberg: You can check out our website at smoothmedia.co. We are also trying to post more on Instagram to show our company culture, so you can follow us there as well.

Jena Dunay: Awesome. And one final question, because people always ask this, how can someone stand out in the application process?

Jenny Rothenberg: Yeah. So in all of our applications, we have just that open field of tell us about yourself or your experience relative to the role. And I think that what we really scan for is just that very human answer.

I think one, a lot of people are definitely using AI to write a lot of these answers. I think showing that you are just a human who has actually read the role and checked out the company immediately makes you stand out.

And we are really passionate and excited about the space that we are in. While we do not necessarily expect everyone to have already worked in the space, sharing that passion and excitement is definitely really important to us because we think this should be fun. That is a core value of ours too, this should be fun.

Jena Dunay: Yeah, this should be fun. I love it. Well, if you are interested in learning more about Smooth Media, check out Jenny’s LinkedIn. We are also going to have some links in the show notes to the Instagram page as well as their website so you can see what opportunities they have available and where you could potentially add value to this growing industry. So Jenny, thank you so much for joining us on another episode of Culture Uncovered.

Jenny Rothenberg: Thanks so much for having me.