David Sandstrom, CMO of Klarna, sits down with Uptin at Cannes Lions to explain why he thinks the credit card industry is broken, and why Klarna is coming for it.

In this episode:

• Why Sandstrom says Amex lounge perks are secretly funded by people drowning in credit card debt
• The real story behind Klarna's viral Snoop Dogg ("Smooth Dogg") campaign, and the 50/50 boardroom vote that almost killed it
• How Klarna handled going viral for the wrong reasons (yes, the $18 DoorDash memes)
• Why Gen Z trusts influencers over banks, and what that means for the future of financial advice
• How AI is changing marketing, LinkedIn, and social media as we know it
• What it's really like to build a $46 billion company, survive a brutal market correction, and IPO, and the mental toll no one talks about
• Sandstrom's blunt take: "Your self-worth and your net worth are not the same thing"

Whether you love Klarna, distrust it, or just want to understand how a "boring" fintech company became one of the most talked-about brands in the world, this conversation pulls back the curtain.

🎧 New episodes of What's Uptin every week.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has no PR team filtering his live streams, argues with his own mom about playing football, and thinks failure is the entire point of success.

On this episode of What's Uptin, we sit down with one of the strangest, most disarming CEOs in tech.

Dan Clancy went from NASA researcher to running Twitch, and along the way built a leadership style that looks nothing like Silicon Valley's usual playbook.

He explains why Twitch creators keep coming back even after leaving for YouTube, why "community" doesn't mean what most platforms think it means, and how a random Kevin Durant story reveals exactly what makes Twitch different.

We also get into:

- Why he's not worried about YouTube or Instagram going all-in on live streaming

- The real difference between a "commodity creator" and a platform star- His honest take on AI streamers (including "AI Jesus")

- Why Amazon owns Twitch, and why almost nobody notices- His NASA to Google to Twitch career path, and why he was a theater major in college

- The 3 pieces of advice he gives every new grad- Why he forces himself to fail on purpose, literally counting rejections as a weekly goal

- What actually keeps the CEO of Twitch up at night

This is a rare, unfiltered look at how one of the internet's biggest platforms is really run, by someone who insists he's just a regular guy who happens to run it.

🎥 Full interview above.

👍 If you enjoyed this episode of What's Uptin, leave a like and subscribe for more conversations with the people building the platforms we use every day.

💬 Drop a comment: what surprised you most about Dan Clancy?

Alison Lomax, Managing Director of YouTube, joins What's Uptin? to unpack how a platform once dismissed as "amateur bedroom vlogging" has become one of the most dominant forces in media and why most people are still underestimating it.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Why YouTube viewing on television sets has overtaken every other format in some markets
• How podcasts went from irrelevant to essential on YouTube in under 4 years
• The real math behind creator monetization — and why one YouTube subscriber is worth far more than a follower on other platforms
• How YouTube's multi-format strategy (Shorts, live, podcasts, long-form) is built to defend against competitors, not cannibalize itself
• What 21 years of platform evolution reveals about where attention, and advertising dollars, are headed next
• Alison's take on AI's role in content, productivity, and the future of work

Whether you're building a media business, investing in the space, or just trying to understand where audiences are actually spending their time, this is a rare look inside the strategy of one of the most influential platforms in the world.

3 billion people open Instagram every month. Someone decides what they see. This week, I sat down with that person. Tessa Lyons, VP of Product at Instagram, on the future of your feed, AI-generated reality, and why the app that knows everything about you is now coming for your TV.

We get into how Instagram went from a square photo app to consuming 60% of all time spent on social media and why that happened faster than anyone expected.

Tessa takes me inside the moment she personally launched Reels six years ago when everyone was skeptical, how they decide what gets built next, and why Gen Z is forcing the entire platform to rethink what sharing even means.

We also get into the AI problem that should concern every single person who scrolls, when photos and videos look completely real but aren't, and what Instagram is actually doing about it. Plus, Instagram is coming for your living room, and Tessa explains exactly what that means.

This one got personal. We ended up talking about the strange new world where you run into someone and realize you know everything about their life but you've never actually met. Is that a beautiful thing or a terrifying one?

• 0:00 Intro: Instagram started as a photo app. So what is it now?
• 1:03 Reels launched 6 years ago. Now video is 60% of all time on social media
• 2:12 Why Gen Z refuses to perform online and what Instagram built because of it
• 4:21 The 30 minute notification we all ignore and what Tessa says about that
• 5:24 Instagram is coming for your TV. Here's exactly what that means
• 12:51 3 billion users. Does that kind of power ever feel like too much?
• 16:42 The AI problem nobody is talking about and Instagram's plan to fix it
• 18:43 A green checkmark for real humans? Tessa's answer will surprise you
• 21:23 When you know someone but you've never met. The new reality of online connection

Oliver Yonchev spent 15 years in entrepreneurship, starting as a musician, and worked closely with Stephen Bartlett before launching Co-Created, an investment office that has incubated 14 businesses.
He breaks down what he actually looks for in founders: domain expertise, resilience, and humility over degrees or credentials, and why a business plan is basically irrelevant at day zero.

He talks about AI shrinking teams, why the UK lacks enough support for small business builders, and what he took from living in New York, namely the audacity and confidence that British entrepreneurs tend to lack. He's conflicted about Gen Z: yes the challenges are real, but the tools available to young people today are unprecedented.

The conversation touches on shiny object syndrome, when to quit, the loneliness epidemic, why real-world community businesses are massively underrated, and why human connection will never be replaced by AI, because nobody wants something "artificial."

He closes on his new company Potential, which helps people protect and monetize what they create with AI, and is heading toward a public listing on London's AIM market.

David Cox runs AI research at IBM and leads the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. He's testified to Congress twice in 60 days, built AI his entire career, and he thinks we're getting almost everything wrong.

In this episode: why 95% of AI projects fail, why China is quietly winning the open source war, why your chatbot could get your company sued, and why the real AI threat isn't Skynet ... t's poorly built software making bad decisions at scale.

GM President Mark Reuss doesn't hold back. Uptin asks about Hummer's insane electric comeback, the death of Apple CarPlay, robo-taxis, Gemini AI in your car, China's brutal price wars, Detroit's rebirth, and the one thing that keeps him up at night.

If you care about the future of American cars, this is the interview you need to watch.

Meta has 3 billion users and they're still not satisfied. I sat down with Alex Schultz, CMO of Meta, to find out what their endgame actually looks like — and his answers were more candid than I expected.

We get into why Americans still aren't using WhatsApp (and how Meta plans to change that), the real reason you have to demo the AI glasses in person, what Meta actually thinks about your kids on social media, and why he's more excited about AI in 2025 than anything else he's seen in years.

Oh — and he admitted they're basically running out of humans on the internet. So now they want you using five of their products instead of one.

Chapters:00:00 - "We're running out of people on the internet"01:18 - Why Americans don't use WhatsApp (yet)03:14 - The AI glasses you have to try in person06:04 - Is the VR headset still a priority?07:19 - The creator economy & getting paid09:10 - Facebook at 21 years old11:38 - Screen time, addiction & teen safety13:14 - Meta's new AI-only app: Vibes14:43 - Alex's marketing book & timeless principles16:49 - Detecting AI content: the cat and mouse game16:52 - What excites him most heading into 2025

Richard Teng took over Binance after a $4.3 billion US government settlement, a departing founder, and a wave of public skepticism. Two years later, the platform has gone from 170 million to nearly 300 million users and it's just getting started.

In this episode, Teng breaks down how he rebuilt trust from the inside out, why compliance is Binance's secret weapon, what Trump's crypto agenda means for the global financial order, and why the next billion users are closer than you think.

This isn't a story about surviving a scandal. It's a masterclass in leading through chaos and coming out bigger on the other side.

Just days after Uptin sold his agency, Uptin and Gary Vaynerchuk talk honestly about focus vs juggling, personal brand vs client work, and how to know when you’ve made the right move, even when there’s no “right” answer.

They get into:

• Why shiny object syndrome is actually part of the entrepreneur’s gift

• The truth behind “hustle culture” and why Gary stopped using the word

• How algorithms really work — and how to take back control of your attention

• Why managing yourself is one of the hardest skills after leaving a job

• Live streaming, live shopping, and what’s actually next for creators

• Confidence, accountability, modern parenting, and why negativity feels louder than kindness

• AI, IP, and why every creator may soon be in the character business