/Tech1d ago

Rowan Cheung, founder of The Rundown AI, secures strategic investment from creator-backing firm Electrify

Story Overview

Rowan Cheung's The Rundown AI, already reaching over 2 million readers with daily curated news and tools, now has its first strategic backer in Electrify, a firm known for supporting educational creators such as Veritasium and Fireship. The move frames the Vancouver-based newsletter-turned-education platform as shifting from bootstrapped growth toward larger-scale ambitions around practical AI literacy.

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Original post
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung#919inTech

First, the shape of the deal.

Electrify took a stake in the business, and I'm staying on as CEO with full control of editorial, content, and direction.

The Rundown stays fully independent, now with the operations, infrastructure, and advisory support of a huge media company.

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

NEWS:

The Rundown just took its first strategic investment from Electrify (behind brands like Veritasium, Fireship, and more)!

Through this partnership, we can scale significantly faster toward our mission of educating 1B people on AI.

The story below:

6:10 AM · Jun 9, 2026 · 2.6K Views
Industry Shift

Signals for creator funding trends

Electrify's involvement highlights investor appetite for AI education plays that blend newsletters, podcasts, courses, and job resources, though exact deal size, valuation, and use of funds remain undisclosed in available announcements.

Open Question

Unclear next steps on the 1-billion goal

The partnership is positioned to accelerate reach toward making AI a practical skill for a billion people, yet no specific milestones, product expansions, or timeline details have been shared beyond the high-level mission statement.

Sentiment

Many users congratulated The Rundown on securing investment from Electrify, calling it a well-deserved and brilliant move that strengthens AI education.

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36 comments with sentiment.
Cluster Engagement
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VIEWS33.1KBOOKMARKS25LIKES103RETWEETS11REPLIES37
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

NEWS:

The Rundown just took its first strategic investment from Electrify (behind brands like Veritasium, Fireship, and more)!

Through this partnership, we can scale significantly faster toward our mission of educating 1B people on AI.

The story below:

1dViews 33.1KLikes 103Bookmarks 25
The Rundown AI@TheRundownAI

Today, we're announcing our first strategic investment from Electrify.

The partnership will help us expand our content, education, and products far faster than we could alone.

Details explained by @rowancheung in the thread below:

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

NEWS:

The Rundown just took its first strategic investment from Electrify (behind brands like Veritasium, Fireship, and more)!

Through this partnership, we can scale significantly faster toward our mission of educating 1B people on AI.

The story below:

1dViews 15.4KLikes 32Bookmarks 12
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

It's a huge honor to translate the fastest-moving industry of our time for millions of people every day. My job is awesome.

Our mission is to turn AI into a practical skill for 1 billion people.

This partnership is how we get there faster, and we're just getting started 🫡

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

Crazy to think a simple daily email turned into a real business, now with real investors.

Incredibly grateful to my team for turning this vision into reality, to the millions of readers who trust us as their AI news and education source, and to our partners who support us!

1dViews 5KLikes 12Bookmarks 0
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

Three years ago, I started by posting Twitter threads into the void (back when it was called Twitter)

I had no following, no co-founder, no investors, and was working 12+ hours a day making content, writing a daily newsletter, AND testing every new AI tool.

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

First, the shape of the deal.

Electrify took a stake in the business, and I'm staying on as CEO with full control of editorial, content, and direction.

The Rundown stays fully independent, now with the operations, infrastructure, and advisory support of a huge media company.

1dViews 1.4KLikes 12Bookmarks 0
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

Sign up at http://therundown.ai and read more about the partnership here: https://www.electrify.video/news/electrify-partners-with-the-rundown

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

It's a huge honor to translate the fastest-moving industry of our time for millions of people every day. My job is awesome.

Our mission is to turn AI into a practical skill for 1 billion people.

This partnership is how we get there faster, and we're just getting started 🫡

1dViews 4.8KLikes 8Bookmarks 0
Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_

@rowancheung Congratulations, you deserve all your success. Extremely dependable and reliable news over the last few years.

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

NEWS:

The Rundown just took its first strategic investment from Electrify (behind brands like Veritasium, Fireship, and more)!

Through this partnership, we can scale significantly faster toward our mission of educating 1B people on AI.

The story below:

1dViews 1.8KLikes 7Bookmarks 0
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

But I got VERY lucky early on in two ways:

1) My content took off, which fed organic growth into the newsletter

2) I brought on two amazing people: @joeycyliu to run partnerships and @Ghost_Z12 to write the daily newsletter

1dViews 74Likes 4
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

Once the newsletter model worked, we expanded fast.

At the time, there were hundreds of other AI newsletters, so we focused on giving readers more value:

-More newsletters (Robotics and Tech) -YouTube interviews with A-list guests -A custom edTech platform for AI upskilling

1dViews 63Likes 3
Aaliya@aaliya_va

@rowancheung congrats been following u since couple of yrs n u r truly an inspiration for many of us

1dViews 14Likes 1Bookmarks 1

@rowancheung 260K→2.6M in 3 yrs with 50%+ open rates—that's rare in media. The real differentiator isn't the A-list guests but the AI training vertical. That's where newsletters are heading: content as gateway, services as moat.

1dViews 6Likes 3

@rowancheung Content-as-a-service. Most creators stay at product level; you're already at platform. That's where the real SaaS multiples come from.

1dViews 5Likes 3
Alex Volkov@altryne

@rowancheung Congrats brother!

Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

NEWS:

The Rundown just took its first strategic investment from Electrify (behind brands like Veritasium, Fireship, and more)!

Through this partnership, we can scale significantly faster toward our mission of educating 1B people on AI.

The story below:

1dViews 1KLikes 2Bookmarks 0
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

Three years later, the newsletter turned into a full ecosystem:

-2.6M active subscribers (50%+ open rates) -A-list interviews with guests like Zuck, Sama, and Satya -A social audience in the multi-millions -AI training for 63k+ professionals and companies

1dViews 63Likes 3
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

Crazy to think a simple daily email turned into a real business, now with real investors.

Incredibly grateful to my team for turning this vision into reality, to the millions of readers who trust us as their AI news and education source, and to our partners who support us!

1dViews 60Likes 3

@rowancheung The hybrid model is the future—creator autonomy paired with enterprise infrastructure. More media founders will seek this balance: independence + operational scale.

1dViews 6Likes 3

@rowancheung Congratulations, Rowan!

Incredible what you've done in such a short time.

1dViews 54Likes 1
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

@AndrewCurran_ Thanks Andrew, likewise. Pumped to be able to keep pushing the space forward

Andrew Curran@AndrewCurran_

@rowancheung Congratulations, you deserve all your success. Extremely dependable and reliable news over the last few years.

1dViews 1.4KLikes 1Bookmarks 0
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

@JeremyNguyenPhD Thanks, Jeremy!

1dViews 216Likes 1
Rowan Cheung@rowancheung

@altryne Thanks Alex!

Alex Volkov@altryne

@rowancheung Congrats brother!

1dViews 529Likes 0Bookmarks 0

@rowancheung From zero to 591K followers in 3 years—that's why AI SaaS tools for creators are exploding. The workflow revolution is real.

1dViews 1
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