Dropout CEO Sam Reich on the business of subscription comedy
episodePreviously titled “CEO Sam Reich on the business of subscription comedy” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
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What unique approach does Sam Reich take in the subscription comedy business?
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world flock to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. And they spend a week trying to sell each other on the weirdest gadgets you've ever seen in your entire life. This week on The Verge Cast, we're talking all about everything happening at CES. From the TVs, to the AI gadgets, to the humanoid robots that everybody is hoping might someday do your laundry and wash your dishes. All that and much more on The Verge Cast, wherever you get podcasts. All supporting each other seamlessly. Learn more at zoom.com slash podcast and zoom ahead.
Hello and welcome to Decoder. I'm Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. We've got something special for you today. It's my friend Hank Green, longtime YouTuber, science educator, and viral TikTok star, interviewing Dropout CEO Sam Reich. Hank did this episode as a guest host over the summer while I was out with our new baby, and it's been a fan favorite, bringing together two internet personalities that have known each other for a very long time, and who have a lot of inside knowledge about how the internet, Hollywood, and entertainment all intertwine. We think it's one of the best episodes of Decoder we put out last year, and it's honestly just a really fun conversation.
Okay, here's Hank Green interviewing Dropout CEO Sam Reich.
Sam Reich, you are the founder and CEO of Dropout.
How did Dropout evolve from CollegeHumor's legacy?
Welcome to Decoder. Hi. Thank you so much for having me, Hank. I'm flattered to be here. You're doing a very interesting thing in a very different way than I think anybody else in media, which is why I think it's really going to be exciting to talk to you about this stuff and also try and figure out The whys and hows that you can do that. But to start, usually I don't really tend to go in that much for origin stories. I think they're usually mostly just like a way to sort of make people think that they could imagine that they could learn something from the very particular circumstances that one person experienced, which I think are going to be different from other people's. And also a way for people to toot their own horns.
But can you give me an origin story of Dropout from... the beginning of Dropout. So we don't need to get into like 2006 and college humor and stuff, but just hit me with like, how did Dropout end up in your hands?
Sometimes some people call me the founder of Dropout, which actually is not true. Dropout- Oh, well, I- You beg to differ. I do.
What challenges does Dropout face in the current media landscape?
Great. I'll take it. Listen, Dropout was a priority that came out of IAC, who was our corporate parent at the time.
So this was who owned CollegeHumor?
This is who owned CollegeHumor. And for years and years, IAC was trying to figure out how we would make not just a lot of money, but a lot, a lot of money. And there was always kind of a – a cynic might call it a get-rich-quick scheme of the time. And it was ad sales, and then social media took a big chomp out of ad sales. And then it was television, and it turned out television production didn't scale very effectively. And then finally, the idea was let's try going direct to audience. Right.
Yeah. Just go OTT, as they say.
As they say.
How does Sam Reich prioritize creative freedom in his business model?
And there was a collection of- I'm not sure exactly what the top we're going over is, but we're going over the top of something.
Yeah. I guess the whole system. It does feel like that phrase makes it feel like we're gambling the house. And in a way, we kind of were. Okay. There was a collection of executives who were very bullish about this within CollegeHumor. I wasn't necessarily one of them. I slowly but surely warmed up to it, imagining that if it didn't work, at least we'd get to create our own cool stuff for a while. The notion was go direct to audience. There won't be the gatekeepers that there are in Hollywood. We won't have to start over every year like we do in ad sales. That is, by the way, one of the intrinsic benefits of subscription is that you're not starting your business over every year versus ad sales where you have to go out and sell every year, start from zero.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What unique approach does Sam Reich take in the subscription comedy business?
0:03–1:48
2
How did Dropout evolve from CollegeHumor's legacy?
1:48–2:50
3
What challenges does Dropout face in the current media landscape?
2:50–3:38
4
How does Sam Reich prioritize creative freedom in his business model?
3:38–4:38
5
What strategies are used to engage Dropout's audience effectively?
4:38–5:41
6
How does Dropout differentiate itself from traditional media companies?
5:41–6:35
7
What role does social media play in Dropout's marketing strategy?
6:35–7:18
8
What future plans does Sam Reich have for Dropout's growth?
7:18–1:04:47
Speakers
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