The business of talking to young women has always been lucrative, though the venues have changed considerably since the days of Seventeen magazine and Casey Kasem's American Top 40.
Now the venue is a podcast called Call Her Daddy, and the talker is Alex Cooper, whose Unwell media company has just received a strategic investment from WTSL, the firm led by Patrick Whitesell and backed by Silver Lake. The deal values Unwell at $500 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, though the precise investment figure was not disclosed.
Ms. Cooper, who founded the company in 2023 with her husband, Matt Kaplan, said the capital would be used to expand through acquisitions. "Trust has become the ultimate distribution channel," she said, "and seventy million women a month tune into Unwell."
(Whether trust is truly a distribution channel or merely a very good thing to have is perhaps a question for the philosophers.)
This marks the first outside investment Unwell has accepted, which is notable given that the company has been profitable for three years — a span of time that, in the creator economy, qualifies as geological. The business now extends well beyond Ms. Cooper's flagship podcast to include other shows, branded merchandise, beverages, live events, and a film and television production arm responsible for projects including the documentary Call Her Alex and the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special.
The company has also entered the agency business, having launched the Unwell Creative Agency alongside a multiyear partnership with Google. Ms. Cooper separately struck a $125 million deal with SiriusXM for her podcast and network.
Mr. Whitesell, whose firm also works with Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions, praised the company's "cultural relevance" and its ability to anticipate where audiences are headed.
Recent reports in Bloomberg and Vanity Fair have described staff turnover and internal unease at Unwell, though such growing pains are not uncommon when a two-year-old company suddenly finds itself valued at half a billion dollars.
Original story published in The Hollywood Reporter: "Alex Cooper's Unwell Receives Investment From Patrick Whitesell's Firm at $500 Million Valuation"