Editorial platform · Brand · Film · Contextual AI

The PuckVenture Capital and Beyond

A podcast, reimagined by Auteur Studio as a media brand—a name and identity, a brand film, a living editorial website, and an intelligence trained on every word the show has aired.

For Jim Baer & CMBG AdvisorsBrand · Web · AI2024–2026

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A conversation show becomes a media brand—and then something no podcast had before: an intelligence that has heard every episode and can talk about any of them.

Auteur Studio — scope of work

The mandate

The Puck, hosted by entrepreneur and CMBG Advisors president Jim Baer, had built a serious audience through honest conversations on markets, technology, geopolitics, institutions, and culture. What it did not yet have was a brand—a face, a voice, a home, and a way for that growing archive to keep working after each episode ended.

Auteur Studio was brought in to build the whole of it. Working alongside Jim and the CMBG team, the studio shaped a name treatment and visual identity, directed and shot a brand film, designed and engineered a multi-page editorial website, and trained Ask The Puck—a contextual agent that answers only from the show’s own episodes and newsletters. The same contextual-intelligence engine runs through everything Auteur makes, in the browser and in AR.

The approach

A signature Auteur method, in clear phases

Phase 01 · Brand: Identity from the ground upThe studio and the CMBG team defined the name treatment, wordmark, circular marks, palette, and motion language—the fixed points every later phase builds on. Reviewed and signed off with Jim before production began.
Phase 02 · Film: The brand, shotAuteur directed and produced the brand film and title ident, the city “plates” that run through the site, and Jim’s portrait session—the moving-image layer that gives the brand presence.
Phase 03 · Platform: A living editorial websiteA multi-page site engineered around the show’s live feeds—episodes, watch, follow, newsletter, and contact—so new conversations, clips, and issues appear on their own. Iterated with the client at each pass.
Phase 04 · Intelligence: Ask The PuckThe full media footprint—125 podcast episodes, the video interviews and clips, 44 newsletters, and the show’s social feeds—trained into a contextual agent that explains, cites, and points listeners to the exact conversation. The differentiator at the centre of every Auteur build.

Phase 01 — The brand

A name, made unmistakable

The remit was to overhaul the brand at every level. The show arrived with an inherited identity—a red serif wordmark stacked over a night-time city photograph—that had carried it this far but didn’t read as a media brand. What replaced it pairs a clean Gotham wordmark with an editorial serif and a single amber-gold accent on deep navy: confident, financial, and warm rather than corporate. It resolved, version by version, into a full lockup carrying the host and the promise.

Before

00.

Where it started

The inherited mark and cover—red serif type over a city at night.

The origin point

The overhaul begins: the wordmark reset in gold—the fixed note everything else is tuned to.

ii.

The lockup takes shape

The host and the promise join—“with Jim Baer” above “Venture Capital and Beyond.”

Gold standard

iii.

The final lockup

“The Puck with Jim Baer” resolves into gold over “Venture Capital and Beyond” in white—the definitive, approved mark.

With Jim Baer · roundel

Venture Capital and Beyond · roundel

Phase 02 — The film

Shot for the brand

Sound off

Brand film — the title ident, produced by Auteur Studio · press play with sound to hear the theme in sync

Original theme

A theme, composed for the show

The music behind the brand film, written for The Puck. Hear the theme in full.

The Puck — Original Theme Theme · 0:50

Composed by David Van Eyssen

Honest, unfiltered conversations that treat the audience as intelligent adults—on markets, technology, geopolitics, and where the country is going.

The Puck — the founding idea

Phase 03 — The platform

A website that keeps itself current

Auteur designed and engineered the full multi-page site—home, a searchable episode library, a watch reel, follow, a newsletter archive, and contact—then built in the mechanics that make it feel alive. It runs on the show’s own feeds, so it stays current on its own between builds.

The Puck episode library — every conversation, searchable and filterable by topic.

Clips that play where you find them

Short clips autoplay muted and loop right on the page—tap one to bring up its sound, or jump straight to the full video on YouTube. The reel plays in the browser, no click-through required.

ii.

One search across everything

A single smart search spans episodes, full video, short clips, and newsletters—by keyword or by topic—and surfaces the media itself, not just a list of links.

iii.

A custom intelligence layer

A first-party, cookie-free analytics dashboard built for the show—what resonates, what people search, most-played clips, and how visitors turn into subscribers. The data stays on The Puck’s own infrastructure.

iv.

Live by default

Episodes pull from the podcast RSS, the reel from YouTube, issues from the newsletter platform. New conversations, clips, and issues appear on their own.

The Puck's custom, first-party audience analytics dashboard — visitors, engagement, most-played clips, top searches.

Audience Insights — a custom analytics dashboard, first-party and cookie-free

About — host profile & timeline

The show’s entire media footprint—125 podcast episodes, every video interview and clip, 44 newsletters, and the show’s social feeds—trained into a contextual agent. Talk to it or type: it explains a term, frames a debate, and points you to the exact conversation—or the exact clip—it came from, with every source cited. Ask out loud and it answers back in Jim’s own voice—a clone trained on his recordings. It draws strictly from The Puck’s own material, and says so when something isn’t there.

This is the piece at the centre of every Auteur build. The same contextual-media engine turns an archive into a conversation—in the browser here, and in AR elsewhere—so an audience can reach straight into the work instead of scrolling past it.

Grounded in the archive
Cites every source
Plays the exact clip
Answers in Jim’s voice
The Auteur engine · web & AR

Ask The Puck returning a curated, timestamped list of video clips with a Watch rail of playable clip thumbnails. — Ask for clips — the agent returns playable video clips, curated and timestamped

Ask The Puck opening screen — a glowing orb, 'What would you like to know?', and starter questions. — Talk or type — the opening

Ask The Puck answering with cited source-episode cards and spoken replies on — the footer reads 'voice: Jim Baer'. — Every answer cites its sources — and can speak in Jim’s own voice

Live captures from the working “Ask The Puck” build

125
Episodes in the archive: 44
Newsletter issues: 9
Editorial topics: 1
In Jim’s own voice

Venture CapitalTechnologyGeopoliticsEconomicsHealth PolicyInstitutionsCultureEntrepreneurshipLeadership

Scope of work

What Auteur delivered

Client: Jim Baer · CMBG Advisors
Brand: Name treatment, wordmark & marksLogo system, circular marks, palette, and type—the full visual identity.
Film: Brand film, ident & portraitsDirected and produced, including the city plates used across the site.
Sound: Original theme & soundtrackAn original theme composed for the show—carried through the brand film and playable across the site.
Platform: Multi-page editorial websiteHome, episodes, watch, follow, newsletter, and contact—wired to live RSS, YouTube, and newsletter feeds. Looping in-browser clips, one smart search across every content type, and a custom first-party, cookie-free analytics dashboard.
Intelligence: Ask The Puck — contextual agentThe full archive trained into a grounded, cited agent that points back to the exact episode or clip, and answers aloud in Jim’s own cloned voice—the same contextual-media engine Auteur runs across web and AR.
Live at: thepuckpodcast.com ↑

See it live

The whole brand, in motion

Visit The Puck ↗ Watch the reel