Tech visionary Gary Vee joined The Burnouts Show, hosted by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, for a candid discussion. Tech visionary Gary Vee joined The Burnouts podcast, hosted by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, for a candid discussion on the future of entrepreneurship, the non-negotiable value of personal branding, and why the current era offers the "greatest opportunity" in human history for young creators. Gary Vee, who grew up as a Soviet immigrant in New Jersey and built multiple hundred-million-dollar businesses by mastering brand attention, shared his unique perspective forged by starting with nothing. He starkly contrasts his own financial milestone of feeling successful—making $100,000 a year around age 33—with the current pressure on young people who feel they "got to make $10 million a year".
During the conversation, Gary Vee told Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni that the roles of "creator and entrepreneur" are "all blending," and for anyone under 30, debating the ROI of layering personal brand equity into a business is "disrespect to your audience". He delivered a core thesis to the hosts, recalling a quote he shared with them previously: as technology continues to advance and becomes "table stakes," the only thing that’s going to matter is the personal brand. Gary Vee explained that this is because consumers, such as a girl in Brooklyn who likes to thrift or a stylish woman on the Upper East Side, will download an app like the one Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni are building because it "says something intrinsically about who you are as a person". Sophia Kianni and Phoebe Gates remarked that they were "flabbergasted" to learn that Gary Vee was able to build the muscle of consistency, continuing his weekly episodes despite only getting 30 to 50 views early on, which he credits to his complete detachment from outside validation.
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Focusing on immediate opportunities for creators, Gary Vee advised young people to concentrate on live social shopping. He noted that while there may be 5,000 listeners who won’t achieve the goal of making $500,000 or $1 million a year in brand deals, if they have the "gift of gab," depth of knowledge, and enjoy engaging with comments, they are "destined to be a remarkably financially and emotionally successful live shopping personality". This is because "people love buying in live shopping formats," a consumer behavior that all social platforms, including Meta and Google, will eventually adopt to compete. Gary Vee urged the hosts to "not to debate" incorporating a live shopping strategy into their app, FIA, because it is a "significant human behavior". Phoebe Gates noted the growing intersection of commerce and media, highlighting how YouTube Shorts has added the ability to include affiliate links to monetize content.
Discussing macro technological trends, Gary Vee affirmed that the "elimination of friction is always the right answer," emphasizing that the old adage of "convenience is king is remarkably true". He expects the emerging AI era to be the "most significant easier lack of friction era since the internet," creating "unparalleled optionality". Gary Vee stated he personally wants AI to do "absolutely everything so I could have as much time to be creative and to be with my friends and family".
For entrepreneurs building long-term companies, Gary Vee believes the retention of employees and their happiness is the "single biggest variable". He champions EQ (Emotional Quotient) over IQ in managers. This philosophy is structurally embedded in Vayner Media, where his Chief Heart Officer (Claude Silver) has "more juice and political clout and say on decisions than my chief financial officer," a dynamic Gary Vee notes is "unheard of" in business. He is leveraging this focus on people to disrupt the advertising industry, which he views as "a little fucked up" and "not very good to its people". Addressing the necessary balance between providing value and making money, Gary Vee emphasized that the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) "can't just be brand and awareness". He advised Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni to mix value-giving posts with the occasional, direct "business ask," noting that the more they give their audience, the more likely the ask will be successful. Sophia Kianni admitted that the hosts had just had an "intervention" in their office because they had been so focused on brand building and giving content that they were not "directly telling them here's what the app does".
Concluding the segment, Gary Vee stressed that the journey is a marathon versus the sprint. He emphasized that everyone listening is "literally living in the greatest era of humanity," and the opportunity created by "social at scale with AI emerging and about to hit scale at the same time is literally and actually the greatest thing that has ever happened" to those aged 15 to 35. His final advice to the hosts and their audience was to embrace self-awareness, lean into passions, and utilize the low-responsibility window between 22 and 30 for "the highest risk shit in your life".
