Ex-Meta Dealmaker Behind $1B in Content: What Actually Wins

My guest today is JC Cangilla.

JC was Head of Entertainment Deals at Meta, where he led a 20-person team spending $1 billion+ per year acquiring content to power experiences across Facebook, Instagram, and Oculus

He worked with everyone from major studios to influencers to bring content like The Walking Dead, Red Table Talk, and the Simone Biles documentary onto Meta’s platforms.

Before Meta, he co-founded a digital entertainment studio that he sold to Discovery/WarnerMedia.

In our conversation, he shares:

• The top 2 things Big Tech algorithms use to decide what content wins
• The shift to engineers controlling content — and what that means for creators
• How short-form video impacts long-form content
• Why the line between tech and media has essentially disappeared
• And how AI is creating for him a new renaissance — he’s gone from ideas to live products himself in a matter of days

Oh, and a quick note — I ask JC about Moltbook, the Reddit-like social network for AI agents… Well, shortly after our interview, his former employer Meta acquired Moltbook – its 2 co-founders are now part of Meta’s Superintelligence Labs. Things sure are moving fast.

A Special thanks to creator and entrepreneur Michael Sklar for connecting me with JC.

Please enjoy my conversation with JC Cangilla.

Thx!
Rob Kelly