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Trung Phan

Co-Founder, Bearly.ai · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

authorfounderhostanalystjournalist@TrungTPhan ↗LinkedIn ↗trungtphan.com ↗

Trung Phan is the co-founder of Bearly.ai and the author of the SatPost newsletter. He previously served as a lead writer and senior analyst at The Hustle, and co-hosts the Not Investment Advice podcast.

12statements → 3claims → 2claims resolved → 3.58/5average certainty → 2.5/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated → 3said about them ↓

1 supported 0 partly supported 1 contradicted 1 not checkable as stated how the 3 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 1 assertion · 3 opinions · 6 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertion are the 3 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, and 1 names no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Trung argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Phan: Disney had a Twitter acquisition term sheet ready in 2016
“Disney actually looked at buying Twitter in 20 2016. I think they had a term sheet, everything was ready, and then Iger, like, woke up one day and was like, I don't want to deal with this fucking, I don't want to deal with the moderation bullshit that's going …”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 1:01:14 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok

Their most notable contradicted claim

Prediction Didn’t hold up
Phan: YouTube will acquire TikTok and IPO at $500B within 12 months
“I'm making a prediction. YouTube is going to buy TikTok. They're going to spin out YouTube. It's going to go public, five hundred billion dollar company. Done. Clip this. Editor, clip this for when this happens in the next 12 months.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 1:01:41 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
0% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Trung Phan on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Trung Phan said on the Startup Ideas Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Prediction Didn’t hold up
Phan: YouTube will acquire TikTok and IPO at $500B within 12 months
“I'm making a prediction. YouTube is going to buy TikTok. They're going to spin out YouTube. It's going to go public, five hundred billion dollar company. Done. Clip this. Editor, clip this for when this happens in the next 12 months.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 1:01:41 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Opinion
Phan: The US government should ban TikTok and force a sale
“I think they should ban and then force a sale.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 59:09 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Opinion
Phan: Former operators make better newsletter writers than trained journalists
“The best writers I know are not people that came up as journalists. The best writers are former industry people. Like, I mean, who's going to outright community stuff or what your expertise is, right? Like you're going to be the best about that. Like, A journa…”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 16:54 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Opinion
Phan: Solo newsletter writers rely entirely on expensive legacy media reporting
“The reality is that the actual reporting that we all riff on and write on, like that is actually extremely difficult and very like time and financially intensive, right? Even when you look at Some of the best solo newsletter writers. I mean, they're just rippi…”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 17:23 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Insight
Phan: AI models will commoditize, making UX the primary daily differentiator
“If the underlying models are going to be largely commoditized because every browser will have it, like every productivity tool will have it is People will be like, okay, well, which one will I actually use every day because it's convenient.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 31:31 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Insight
Phan: Generative AI will level the playing field for non-native English speakers
“Totally agree with you on the productivity, but I think the massive unlock is going to be even the playing field in a lot of ways for non-native English speakers.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 46:56 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Insight
Phan: The true purpose of a university is not education
“Unless you're a very clear track, I mean, everybody knows this, it's cliche, this one, but the re, the purpose of university is not the education, right? Like, you can get a better education not within the confines.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 3:02 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Insight
Phan: Top performers in any niche cannot cede Twitter ground to rivals
“The thing that I always tell people about Twitter, and I love your thoughts on this, is just the idea of, like, you'll get the top one percent of any field, right? Like, they'll just be there exchanging ideas, and, you know, as soon as you have a couple of peo…”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 6:00 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Insight
Phan: Owning products is more lucrative for creators than ad sponsorships
“And the highest value thing for somebody with a big audience and not even like, I'm not even saying to myself, it's like, you know, you own the product, right? It's like whatever Jocko does with his health products or Rogan now has a cut in like on it, right? …”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 30:30 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Phan: OpenAI and Microsoft will ultimately become AI cloud infrastructure providers
“I think the long-term economics for OpenAI and Microsoft which obviously owns about, we'll end up owning 45, 49% of it, is they're gonna have to be kind of a cloud provider. And they're going to want as many people to plug in as possible.”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 35:55 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Assertion Supported
Phan: Disney had a Twitter acquisition term sheet ready in 2016
“Disney actually looked at buying Twitter in 20 2016. I think they had a term sheet, everything was ready, and then Iger, like, woke up one day and was like, I don't want to deal with this fucking, I don't want to deal with the moderation bullshit that's going …”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 1:01:14 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok
Insight
Phan: Writing a daily newsletter without an editorial team causes burnout
“The daily stuff is truly a seven day a week job. If you're in the writer's seat, right? Because at a minimum it's six days because you got to hit all five days during the week, but you just never stop thinking about it. Cause you just wake up like, oh crap. Li…”
Trung Phan Mar 9, 2023 ▶ 14:29 Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok

The other half of the tape: Trung Phan's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 2 episodes on the Startup Ideas Podcast. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Greg Isenberg 3

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0011212022202320242025episodesmentions
0112022202320242025episodes it came up in
0010.5212022202320242025episodesmentions per episode
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2022 2 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Trung Phan on The Hustle, ChatGPT, and TikTok Mar 9, 2023 36m
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