Don't Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Don't Curb Your Enthusiasm.
From making videos in our scanty student rooms in Manchester to acquiring YouTube superfans in Lesotho, Southern Africa, our journey to (somehow) becoming content creators is a funny, if not fairly encouraging one for budding creatives.
HOW IT STARTED.
Our journey began when co-Founders, Hayel and Ndu, met at their beloved University of Manchester.
"University was a surprise - a far cry from the lazy depiction of young people in contemporary media. We often found ourselves amongst friends, passionately debating the issues affecting both us and the world at large. We were young, politically engaged, motivated and aspirational."
With graduation only months away, and the pressure of navigating a career in the real world setting in, we found ourselves applying to every graduate scheme going. We were unsure of the future.
But, one thing was clear. We wanted to create content. Content that would document what we, and so many others, were feeling and experiencing.
So, off we went with what little was left of our student loans, to Curry's, for the best (cheapest) camera that would allow us to capture the voices, thoughts and feelings of students. We left with a Nikon D3100 and no idea on how to operate it.
OUR 1ST VIRAL VIDEO.
We learnt the basics of shooting and editing. We took our camera everywhere, ready to press record on any interesting discussions. With all the footage we accumulated, we couldn't help but think - why don’t we start a Youtube channel ourselves? So we did.
Our first upload to the channel was in September 2013. We were back in London, away from a campus environment, but equipped with a camera and the desire to continue exploring youth culture in the UK. We decided to build a platform that does just that. The channel quickly became the go-to platform for youth voices.
In 2014, we had our first viral moment with the release of a short film in Black History Month called "What I Wasn’t Taught In School", in collaboration with Sam King. The video addressed the subpar (to put it nicely) education around black history. The video amassed over 1 million views over the first 14 days, across different platforms. However, we were quickly taught a lesson after the video was ripped by someone in America and uploaded onto their Facebook page; it went worldwide with 40 million views. Lesson learned! To this day we still receive messages of thanks and love, from Suriname to South Africa.
WHERE WE ARE NOW.
We were awarded a Points of Light Award in 2015 and Channel 4 approached us to help them draw more young people to their news programme. We soon realised this was a pain-point for a huge number of major brands who wanted to create content for a youth demographic but struggled to get engagement. That's where we stepped in - and today is where we stand.
Fast forward to 2021 and here we are, doing the same thing as before, but now full-time, and with an amazing team! We're not only a YouTube Partner but alongside some of the biggest names in youth entertainment today. We were recognised in the #YouTubeBlack Creator Class of 2021 - a testament to our devotion to speaking to underrepresented communities.
That's it. That's how we went from the sleepless nights of student life, to the insomnia of entrepreneurship. With an audience 90% under the age of 34, we feel very lucky to work with brands and businesses to give them a place at the heart of youth culture through insight-led video content.
That’s us - we should have probably made a video about all of that given that we’re video first - but we thought we’d surprise you with our writing skills.
