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Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake
Sam Golbach and Colby Brock know firsthand that platforms can disappear overnight.
The two started making sketch videos on the now-defunct social video website Vine back in 2013 when "it was not cool at all" to do that sort of thing, they said. When Vine shut down in late 2016, they migrated to YouTube, and later to Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
"Ever since we started, Colby and I have said, 'We need to do this (other app)' or else we'll have to go back to Kansas and not be able to have this lifestyle'," Golbach said.
For the two self-styled ghost-hunters, both 23, each new platform posed its own challenges, but also opportunities to expand their audience. And a presence on other social sites meant they weren't tied to the fate of any single company – like, say, becoming a pawn in a trade war between two geopolitical superpowers.
Sam Golbach and Colby Brock run. the "Sam and Colby" video series on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, where they have millions of followers.Image courtesy of CAA
Their paranoia and hustle paid off. Sam and Colby's paranormal sketches now have 4.43 million subscribers on YouTube, as well as 1.2 million on Instagram and 1.4 million on TikTok. Their support team – which includes a management company (Scale Management), premier talent agency (CAA), and a fashion designer (FanJoy) – has helped them to sign a ghost-hunting book deal and launch a clothing line.
The duo's experience reflects the challenges social video stars face in building an audience on the shifting sands of social media, and how online influencer culture is changing and merging with the traditional business of celebrity.
Golbach and Brock are not worried about TikTok's potential shutdown, but plenty of their contemporaries are concerned.
"It's like you build a house and there's a hurricane coming to tear it down. It sucks," said Boman Martinez-Reid, who made his first TikTok comedy video in December 2019 and has since accumulated 1.3 million followers and representation from CAA.
Martinez-Reid is a prime example of how virtually anyone with a smartphone today can potentially reach an unlimited audience, and quickly.
"I was a media student with no plan after graduating and here I am: One of the only people I know to graduate with a job," the 22-year-old Torontonian told dot.LA.
That job comes courtesy of the growing industry of influencer marketing, which a Business Insider research report expects to exceed $15 billion by 2022, nearly doubling the $8 billion or so from 2019. This growth of brands trying to tap into individuals' online audiences has paralleled the broader shift of advertising dollars onto the internet, which just last year surpassed the cash they're putting toward TV or print.
Influencers who've made a name on one social platform are increasingly looking to build their brand on others – and to branch out into other media and beyond entertainment entirely.
Ed Simpson, chief strategy officer at L.A.-based media group Wheelhouse Entertainment, calls the confluence of tech and celebrity that has enabled the influencer business a "seismic shift" in the entertainment industry.
"What we've never had before is talent that have owned their own audience," he said.
Photo by Simon Pella
And that talent, he added, is increasingly facing an important question: 'I've got the audience. Where do I go from here?'
"Those rising to the top recognize that they have to evolve and change," Simpson said.
Not every digital influencer wants to turn themselves into something bigger, said Kyle Hjelmeseth, founder of G&B, a digital talent agency. But for those who do, online platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok have some clear limitations.
First is the grueling demand of producing regular online video content. Golbach and Brock said that because anyone can post online videos and reach an audience, competition is fierce. That increases the pressure to make fresh material to stand out. It can be hard work, and the reward isn't necessarily satisfying.
"When you do traditional media, it's more long-term," said Golbach. "For a TikTok or Instagram post, people will forget about that in 24 hours."
That may be because their audiences skew much younger, a possible shortcoming of digital platforms in general, if your aim is to build a legacy.
"We have such a youth-heavy audience," said Thomas Petrou, co-founder of Hype House, a collective of TikTok stars profiled by the New York Times earlier this year, shortly after settling in the Hollywood Hills.
"The biggest thing would be having an audience that's not just Gen Z, but having everybody know who you are," said Petrou, whose 7.2 million TikTok followers fall short of fellow Hype House member Charli D'Amelio. The Times called her the "reigning queen of TikTok" with her 83.8 million followers. Alongside other members including Chase Hudson (24 million followers) and Kouvr Annon (11.5 million), Hype House's total following exceeds 150 million users.
That big audience is one large reason Wheelhouse, founded in 2018 by "Pawn Stars" creator Brent Montgomery, recently signed a deal with Hype House to produce a behind-the-scenes reality TV show. It will unfold in much longer installments than the 15 or 60 second clips on TikTok.
To the Hype House members, the Wheelhouse deal provides legitimacy, another perceived limitation of many social video platforms.
"The reason we want to go in that direction is because it solidifies us as more mainstream celebrities," said Petrou, who considers himself the entrepreneurial brains behind his camera-ready crew's operation. "I think you will see us collaborate with Wheelhouse across television and streaming and the audio world on many different types of projects."
Martinez-Reid, who noted he'd like a show deal, said traditional media is more "official" and "real" because it can reach "people my parents' age."
"If someone had uploaded Tiger King to YouTube it wouldn't have been the sensation it was," he added.
"You wouldn't ever get put on IMDb (the Internet Movie Database) for being a TikTok star," said Brock. "Social media doesn't have the respect of traditional media."
Andrew Graham, a digital talent agent at CAA, said his clients "have several unscripted (TV shows) in the fire," and that book deals like Sam and Colby's confer a "gravitas" that can be used as a "Trojan Horse" to bigger deals in linear media like streaming, film and podcasts.
Social video creators have made money by pointing fans to sponsors. An increasingly common next step has been to point fans to businesses of their own. Some have formed beauty companies. Petrou is working on a jewelry line. Hjelmeseth said several of his clients have launched their own apps.
This blurring of content creation, sponsorship marketing and business development is the entire basis of Wheelhouse's business model.
"We're a reflection of what's happening in the marketplace today. And we're building a business that's set up to address the needs of where technology and business are going," Simpson said. "We're set up to take digital talent, create content around them, connect them with brands, and create businesses around them."
He believes the trends inspiring this approach will ultimately shift the ways the broader entertainment industry does business.
Thomas Petrou is co-founder of Hype House, a collective of TikTok stars living and working in the Hollywood Hills.Image courtesy of Baby Grande PR
"That's what we believe is what the studio of the future will and must look like," Simpson said.
One sign that his vision is sound: Just as social media stars are looking to traditional media for legitimacy, traditional media stakeholders – celebrities as well as their support teams and studios – are increasingly turning to social media to build their own audiences.
"These trends were playing out already pre-pandemic, but this has accelerated that evolution," said Graham. "There is increasing interest from non-digitally endemic clients who want to own their own distribution."
Hjelmeseth said he sees more focus on social media from traditional media as well.
"We've seen/heard that many major studios require that an actor have a social presence before putting them in leading roles," he wrote to dot.LA. "I imagine studios now are baking in that they have to have some control over the social media of the talent and benefit from the profits of their talent's social, if (they're) doing sponsored campaigns."
What it all amounts to is that the merging of technology and celebrity is blurring the lines between traditional and new media.
"I see what I do crossing over to a more traditional landscape," said Martinez-Reid. "But it's an interesting question, because how do you even look at traditional media now? Even traditional media keeps changing."
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Sam Blake mainly writes about tech + media and entertainment for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA
Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
According to a Forbes report last April, both the viewership and dollars behind women’s sports at a collegiate and professional level are growing.
In 2022, the first 32 games of the NCAA tournament had record attendance levels, breaking records set back in 2004, and largely driven by the new and rapidly growing women’s NCAA tournament. WNBA openers this year saw a 21% spike in attendance, with some teams including the LA Sparks reporting triple-digit ticket sales growth, about 121% over 2022’s total. In 2023, the average size of an LA Sparks crowd swelled to 10,396 people, up from 4,701 people.
Women make up half the population, but “also 50% of the folks that are walking into the stadium at Dodger Stadium, or your NFL fans are just about 50% women,” noted Erin Storck, a panelist and senior analyst at Los Angeles-based Elysian Park Ventures.
Storck added that in heterosexual households, women generally manage most of the family’s money, giving them huge purchasing power, a potential advantage for female-run leagues. “There's an untapped revenue opportunity,” she noted.
In the soccer world, Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team Angel City FC has put in the work to become a household name, not just in LA County but across the nation. At an LA Tech Week panel hosted by Athlete Strategies about investing in sports, Angel City head of strategy and chief of staff Kari Fleischauer said that years before launching the women’s National Women’s Soccer League team, Angel City FC was pounding the pavement letting people know about the excitement ladies soccer can bring. She noted community is key, and that fostering a sense of engagement and safety at the team’s home venue, BMO stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium), is one reason fans keep coming back.
Adding free metro rides to BMO stadium and private rooms for nursing fans to breastfeed or fans on the spectrum to avoid sensory overload, were just some of the ways ACFC tried to include its community in the concept of its stadium, Fleischauer said. She noted, though, that roughly 46% of Angel City fans are “straight white dudes hanging out with their bros.”
“Particularly [on] the woman's side, I'd like to think we do a better job of making sure that there's spaces for everyone,” Fleischauer told the audience. “One thing we realize is accessibility is a huge thing.”
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.
Here's what people are saying about the fifth day of L.A. Tech Week on social:
#LATechWeek has been on 🔥🔥🔥. Yes the events are super cool at amazing venues. But, I’m blown away by the people. I’ve met so many founders building generative AI companies from the ground up. I’m so bullish on LA right now🥳. LA is for builders #longLA
Thanks @rpnickson 📸 pic.twitter.com/B6rT2jJYIs
— Dr. Kelly O'Brien (@Kvo2013) June 8, 2023
Successful LatinxVC Avanza Summit 2023 in LA! It’s been an amazing few days near the beach w great company. Thank you to our panelists & participants.
Huge thanks to our incredible sponsors SVB, Chavez Family Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, PledgeLA, Fenwick & West, Countsy! pic.twitter.com/oVuGIgFurk
— LatinxVC (@LatinxVCs) June 9, 2023
30+ gaming startups presented at the A16z Speedrun Demo Day in LA yesterday. Great thanks to the @a16zGames team for an awesome day of events! #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/DKq8IFo5QZ
— Grace Zhou (@graceminzhou) June 9, 2023
📣🤩 What’s the buzz? It’s #LATechWeek from @TechstarsLA & @TechstarsHealth joint demo day with the #Techstar HC team where our @fyelabs founder/CEO Suvojit Ghosh mentored both cohorts! #TechStars demo day highlighted 12 amazing emerging #startups in #healthtech #innovation. 🩺 pic.twitter.com/0RXClCtfDQ
— FYELABS (@fyelabs) June 9, 2023
Another successful Coffee On Slauson in the books for #LATechWeek.
Special thanks to the good people at Pledge LA, SVB and @GundersonLaw for the ongoing support and the @findyourhilltop staff for providing the space, eats & vibes. ♻️ pic.twitter.com/51cMDoEn30
— Slauson & Co. (@SlausonAndCo) June 9, 2023
The perfect combo to start #LATechWeek Day 5: pastries, coffee, and great convos with industry founders ✨
Fireside chats with @enriquealle, @wp, and @robynpark pic.twitter.com/booYPdekVV
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) June 9, 2023
Of course @designerfund has the most amazing pastries at their event. #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/PjyWlGTQI4
— Jesse Pickard (@jessepickard) June 9, 2023
My favorite event from @Techweek_ has to be "Modern Storytelling & Business Building." Hosted by @STHoward #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/SV1eexMJ4k
— JonnyZeller (@JonnyZeller) June 9, 2023
And the finale of the night was courtesy of the one and only @zedd for an unforgettable end to the "City of Games" party! Hosted by @a16zGames and @100Thieves #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/hliI9yLKse
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) June 9, 2023
Excited to be at the @a16zGames Speedrun Demo Day! Loved the energy and excitement from the companies that pitched there. It was also great to see @Tocelot and @ndrewlee at this amazing #LATechWeek event pic.twitter.com/NfLQO5lR27
— Andy Lee | andypwlee.bit (@andypwlee) June 9, 2023
Thank you to everyone who joined the Sony Venture Fund US team at #LATechWeek for our screening of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Last summer, we started building a presence in LA. Today, it's exciting to host such an event with the @Sony family and the LA VC community. pic.twitter.com/wdDm6qtHdL
— Sony Innovation Fund (@Sony_Innov_Fund) June 9, 2023
Time to eat, connect and build while @remi_rodney provided the vibes. 🙏🏽#LATechWeek @BuildOnBase @developer_dao @WeAreRazorfish pic.twitter.com/QIPh1gjvoA
— Hola Metaverso-Blockchain & New Web Tech Events 🎪 (@holametaverso) June 9, 2023
@Lux_Capital at #LATechWeek advancing the impossible to inevitable, from..
..defense primes partnering with cutting edge defense tech startups, to..
..hardware x LLMs improving mental health.
From the rich and diverse LA ecosystem stems generational companies: pic.twitter.com/v5S5r8JtbU
— Shahin Farshchi (@Farshchi) June 9, 2023
LA Tech Week has been a blast! Met some amazing creators, founders and investors from all over the world! #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/AAh9JFELhe
— Chris Germano (@netslayer) June 9, 2023
Had such a blast at LA Tech Week and hosting events for @brexHQ
Top highlights were collabing with @pulley on an Emerging Managers / Founder mixer at the @poplco House, rooftop event in Venice, creator panel with @thechangj & proper Korean food with in KTown.
Exhausted is an… pic.twitter.com/mGQnSYGPdg
— Τyler Robinson (@TyyRob3) June 9, 2023
Did you have fun at @sophiaamoruso’s launch party for @trustfundvc? #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/gbrbXRQ9Xx
— Kay (@KaySnels) June 9, 2023
y00tilty in every city with @KaylaLor3n & @cryptochrisg813.
Welcome to the LA @y00tsNFT fam! #LATechWeek #3XP week. pic.twitter.com/6wWKlsTacx
— VanG0xH (@CryptoVanGoghs) June 9, 2023
Really enjoyed #LATechWeek. Here are some observations I made 👇
— s.personal.ai (Suman Kanuganti) (@SumanPersonalAI) June 9, 2023
Thank you @TheKofiAmpadu for including me in #demoday with the latest @a16ztxo cohort! It was a real full circle moment to witness the brilliance of both @ChrisLyons & @ZMuse_ & #PledgeLA very own. She’s why we’re #LongLA 🚀💕 #LAtechweek pic.twitter.com/itkKXMxQRb
— Qiana Qiana! (@Q_i_a_n_a) June 9, 2023
@upfrontvc Gaming Founders Podcast #iLOVELA #LATechWeek @Techweek_ @KatiaAmeri @mucker @fikavc @bonfire_vc @TenOne10 @WatertowerGroup @ganasvc @IAmRobRyan @john_at_stonks @eva_ho @dereknorton pic.twitter.com/LCbaGXCoW7
— Sean Goldfaden (@seangoldfaden) June 9, 2023
Hosts Kevin Zhang, Partner at @upfrontvc, and Eden Chen, CEO of @pragmaplatform, interviewed two special guests from @raidbaseinc Stephen Lim, Co-Founder & Product Director, and Trevor Romleski, Co-Founder & Game Director. 🎙 #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/hxHEAoELZ6
— Tech Week (@Techweek_) June 9, 2023
Kicking off @a16zGames @100Thieves City of Games party at #LATechWeek 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/zQcZedG15f
— Jon Lai (@Tocelot) June 9, 2023
Yesterday at @socinnovation I got to have this AWESOME conversation with @iamwill — musician, producer, technology entrepreneur, and Founder & CEO of https://t.co/D60y1e2JOu #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/KBxK6rXyTG
— Anna Barber (@annawbarber) June 9, 2023
I absolutely love this game. Proud moment for the team @investwithatlas. #LATechWeek pic.twitter.com/fPZvKXU7TC
— Tobias Francis (@TobiasFrancis) June 9, 2023
Had a blast at LA Tech Week this year with @brexHQ
From hosting & moderating my first creator panel featuring @BlakeMichael14, to a fun rooftop night in Venice, and to attending some amazing events such as Watertower’s emerging manager panel and a VC/founder tennis tournament pic.twitter.com/udjfmLHE0L
— Jonathan Chang (@thechangj) June 8, 2023
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
At Lowercarbon Capital’s LA Tech Week event Thursday, the synergy between the region’s aerospace industry and greentech startups was clear.
The event sponsored by Lowercarbon, Climate Draft (and the defunct Silicon Valley Bank’s Climate Technology & Sustainability team) brought together a handful of local startups in Hawthorne not far from LAX, and many of the companies shared DNA with arguably the region’s most famous tech resident: SpaceX.
Here’s a look at the greentech startups that pitched during the Tech Week event, and how they think what they’re building could help solve the climate crisis.
Arbor: Based in El Segundo, this year-old startup is working to convert organic waste into energy and fresh water. At the same time, it also uses biomass carbon removal and storage to remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in an attempt to avoid further damaging the earth’s ozone layer. At the Tech Week event Thursday, Arbor CEO Brad Hartwig told a stunned crowd that Arbor aims to remove about five billion tons of organic waste from landfills and turn that into about 6 PWh, or a quarter of the global electricity need, each year. Hartwig is an alumni of SpaceX; he was a manufacturing engineer on the Crew Dragon engines from 2016-2018 and later a flight test engineer at Kitty Hawk.
Antora: Sunnyvale-based Antora Energy was founded in 2017, making it one of the oldest companies on the pitching block during the event. Backed by investors including the National Science Foundation and Los Angeles-based Overture VC, Antora has raised roughly $57 million to date, most recently a $50 million round last February. Chief operating officer Justin Briggs said Antora’s goal is to modernize and popularize thermal energy storage using ultra-hot carbon. Massive heated carbon blocks can give off thermal energy, which Antora’s proprietary batteries then absorb and store as energy. It’s an ambitious goal, but one the world needs at scale to green its energy footprint. According to Briggs, “the biggest challenge is how can we turn back variable intermittent renewable electricity into something that's reliable and on demand, so we can use it to provide energy to everything we need.”
Arc: Hosting the panel was Arc, an electric boating company that’s gained surprising momentum, moving from design to delivering its first e-boats in just two years of existence. Founded in 2021, the company’s already 70 employees strong and has already sold some of its first e-boats to customers willing to pay the luxury price tag, CTO Ryan Cook said Thursday. Cook said that to meet the power needs of a battery-powered speedboat, the Arc team designed the vehicle around the battery pack with the goal of it being competitive with gas boats when compared to range and cost of gas. But on the pricing side, it’s not cheap. Arc’s flagship vessel, the Arc One is expected to cost roughly $300,000. During the panel, Cook compared the boat to being “like an early Tesla Roadster.” To date Arc Boats has raised just over $35 million, according to PitchBook, from investors including Kevin Durant, Will Smith and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Clarity Technology: Carbon removal startup Clarity is based in LA and was founded by Yale graduate and CEO Glen Meyerowitz last year. Clarity is working to make “gigaton solutions for gigaton problems.” Their aim? To remove up to 2,000 billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere through direct air capture, a process which uses massive fans to move chemicals that capture CO2. But the challenge, Meyerowitz noted in his speech, is doing this at scale in a way that makes an actual dent in the planet’s emissions while also efficiently using the electricity needed to do so. Meyerowitz spent nearly five years working as an engineer for SpaceX in Texas, and added he’s looking to transfer those learnings into Clarity.
Parallel Systems: Based in Downtown LA’s Arts District, this startup is building zero-emission rail vehicles that are capable of long-haul journeys otherwise done by a trucking company. The estimated $700 billion trucking industry, Parallel Systems CEO Matt Soule said, is ripe for an overhaul and could benefit from moving some of its goods off-road to electric railcars. According to Soule, Parallel’s electric battery-powered rail vehicles use 25% of the energy a semi truck uses, and at a competitive cost. Funded in part by a February 2022 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Parallel Systems has raised about $57 million to date. Its most recent venture funding round was a $49 million Series A led by Santa Monica-based VC Anthos Capital. Local VCs including Riot Ventures and Santa Monica-based Embark Ventures are also backers of Parallel.
Terra Talent: Unlike the rest of the startups pitching at the Tech Week event, Terra Talent was focused on building teams rather than technology. Founder Dolly Singh worked at SpaceX, Oculus and Citadel as a headhunter, and now runs Terra, a talent and advisory firm that helps companies recruit top talent in the greentech space. But, she said, she’s concerned that all the work these startups are doing won’t matter unless we very quickly turn around the current trendlines. “Earth will shake us off like and she will do just fine in 10,000 years,” she said. “It’s our way of living, everything we love is actually here on earth… there’s nothing I love on Mars,” adding that she’s hopeful the startups that pitched during the event will be instrumental in making sure the planet stays habitable for a little while longer.
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.