Historian, satirist and founder Receipts Podcast They are among the inaugural group for Goalhanger’s The Accelerator, a new creator-led initiative revealed exclusively by Hollywood Reporter Earlier this year.
Goalhanger, which says it is the UK’s fastest-growing private company, was co-founded by former England football star Gary Lineker and is responsible for… The rest is The podcast franchise has launched a three-month creative incubator in collaboration with social media savvy personalities.
They will each receive up to £10,000 ($13,400) in content investment to raise their production standards and experiment with short-form storytelling across entertainment, lifestyle, sports, politics, science, technology and finance.
The 2026 lineup includes Cody Dahler, a satirist and writer with more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram, who is developing Thick Thick Stupid Search, a new format designed to go beyond traditional explainership through interviews, location footage, and “in-depth comic investigation.”
Sophia Smith-Gahler, a journalist and author with more than half a million followers on TikTok, who will use The Accelerator to develop English: An alternative historya five-part short series exploring the story of pre-Empire English. “I am very happy to win a place [Goalhanger’s] “Accelerator,” Galer said. “It will give me the space and resources to create my largest social media series to date. One thing a lot of creators say is that we lack infrastructure and community, and seeing Goalhanger investing in us feels like the start of something really important.
Tom Nicholas is a politics and history video creator who will be using the Goalhanger Blueprint to upgrade and expand the production infrastructure and support the growth of… Slow news daysa series focusing on breaking news and political context. Nicholas currently has over 650,000 subscribers on YouTube. Nicholas added: “Amid a sea of misinformation, my experience shows that there is still a huge demand for inquisitive and good-faith coverage of current affairs topics, even among younger audiences that established broadcasters struggle to engage.”
Andrea Valls, the comedic actress and writer with more than 160,000 followers on Instagram, has also been selected to participate in The Accelerator, which will expand her well-known comedic characters into a weekly vertical show, as well as Dr. Eliza Philby, a historian and author of The Accelerator. Geneticswhich will expand the scope of the guest-led format called Everything is relativebound as an exploration of generational shifts, wealth, and social history.
Rounding out the creators is Tolly ‘T’ Shoneye, known as the founder of the popular game Receipts Podcastwho along with co-host Audrey Ndom announced that they would be stepping down from the pod earlier this year. Shoneye will build on the success Receipts With a 10-part mini-documentary that follows the magazine’s transformation of podcasting into a broader, multi-platform content network. She said my selection “feels like a huge vote of confidence in what I have built so far Receipts Podcast And most importantly, what I hope it becomes.”
Finalists will also have access to Goalhanger’s advertising inventory across podcast, YouTube, newsletters and paid media channels to help engage audiences with their content, as well as Goalhanger’s senior editorial, creative and business leadership, masterclasses, mentorship and strategic support across audience growth, production, brand partnerships and long-term intellectual property development.
The initiative was “very competitive,” according to MobileHanger, which received hundreds of applications — all of which were reviewed by humans. The judges spent just under 100 hours evaluating the submissions. The selection committee brought together Goalhanger’s senior leaders and external executives from across the global media and cultural industries, with backgrounds including Spotify, YouTube, Web Summit, WME, Netflix and Amazon.
“Goalhanger has always been built around powerful voices, loyal audiences, and ideas with real momentum and that’s exactly what we saw with this group,” says co-founder Jack Davenport. THR. “The Accelerator is not about handing over a check and sending people on their way, and it’s not about forcing creators to use a Goalhanger template. It’s about giving them access to the expertise, infrastructure, and business support we’ve built, while protecting the very thing that made audiences respond to them in the first place.”
“They have already done the hardest part: gaining people’s attention and trust,” he added. “Our role now is to help them build on that and turn it into something more sustainable.”
