Hey, how's it going? This is Craig Cannon, and you're listening. Toe y Combinator is podcast. Today's episode is with Marquez Brownlie Marquez is a youtuber. He has over eight million subscribers to his channel M k B h d. Where he reviews electronics, drives, electric vehicles and interviews people such as Kobe Bryant and Bill Gates. You can find Marquez on YouTube and on Twitter at m K B h d. Alright, here we go. All right. Marcus Brownlee. How's it going? Good.

How are you doing? Well, um, so I am curious. I've followed your channel for a while, but I definitely did not follow it in the beginning when you were viewing software on your laptop. You've been doing it for a long time. What, Would you attribute your success too? On YouTube?

Um uh, well, I do a tech videos, so I think that the obvious answer there is tech has been interesting and important for so long that just being in a text face generally for that long has has done a lot for it. Yeah, um, the channel itself. I mean, there's plenty of other of successful tech channels, but has its own unique style as a consistent voice with me for 10 years. Um, it's just if you combine all those factors consistency plus tech staying interesting, that's that's

mainly it. Was there any particular inflection point where it really

took off? No. I get asked that a lot about like, you know, can I point to a certain video or a date or month or something like what happened to go from like nothing toe where it is now from to this day, I looked back, and it's mainly just like you can look at charts. Even it's just it's sort of an upward slope from zero videos to 1000 videos. Uh, you know, it's obviously when you get to certain points like the reputable ity. Is that a word? The credibility of the channel becomes more significant, so you're more likely to subscribe to a Tech guy with a 1,000,000 subscribers talking about something you should buy, then a guy with 100 so that's helped, but I feel like it consistency

again. It's major, really, because yeah, I mean, I I follow a couple subreddit. It's on like weird YouTube channels, and there are people that have 1000 videos reviewing elevators. Simple, boring.

Well, I mean, there's there's always gonna be, like, niche stuff which people will get really into. But I think like one when it comes to something as personal as a tech product, you kind of want some sort of history to go on a sort of a reputation to look back on when it was, like, 1000 phones or $1000. Now. So, uh, yeah, I think that's that's helped being ableto have a history of stuff.

Because in the beginning, you were just doing software, right? Right. For the most part, free software. Yeah. And then did you start getting phone sent to you in, like, the early days of influencer culture?

I remember early days pretty well. It was I'd started with all this laptop stuff. So the first, uh, stuff that got sent to me was a laptop accessories, a mouse, the keyboard with that kind of stuff. Um, some some paid software I would get, like, a key for $30 off a $50 piece of software. And I could have that access. That was awesome. Phone stuff didn't happen till much later. I remember the first event I ever went to was a Samsung event in New York City, where I met a youtuber for the first time. Okay, that was probably, like, six years in. So

you're in it for a while? Yeah. You know, I grew up getting, like, Pirated keys off LimeWire, that kind of stuff. Did you ever dip into that and think like men? Maybe I should review final Cut pro on my

at one point, I definitely did a whole hacking tosh thing you did, which was definitely not, You know, kosher, I guess. But, you know, hacking Tosh world is a whole world. So I was I was curious about it, and I got into it. Um, I I was never really into, like, you know, downloading Pirated music or any of that stuff. But I could imagine that was its own world for a

long time. Yeah. Yeah, because I I was curious because as a kid, you have no money when you're starting out your channel. Yeah. And I wonder if if you grew up with that hacker ethos, like like, have you done a tear down video before or anything

like that? Really? I mean, I was I used to be much more in the building PCs on taking them apart, upgrading. I had a Mac, that one those the tower Death stop, Mac Pro. The G five. Yeah, didn't like. I was replacing the GPU and upgrading the ram and all that, And I did X p s tower had the same thing too. But I guess I never was really fully into the building process as much as I was the final result. Okay, How well that finished products would work

for you. Okay, But when I watched your videos, now you're pretty into the stats of it all. Like all those like hard metrics with the products, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it attracts

you in some way? Yes. I mean, I think if you just look it, if you take a huge step back and just look at what the videos are about, period, especially the reviews. It's like, how good is this product that this company made going to work for you? There's a whole bunch of different ways to measure that. I'm trying to measure that. So

So what are the What are those metrics? What? I've heard you talk about it. before In the context of like, this is a feature that's gonna maybe, like sparks, um, interests. And this is a feature that I'm going to use every day.

Yeah, like gimmick versus daily. Yeah. Yeah, that's one way. I mean, I kind of you can pick up a phone and use a really cool feature for two seconds. You're like, Whoa, that's amazing. But when you actually buy the phone, are you gonna use that feature? I'm trying trying to evaluate that. There's all sorts of benchmarks that things people do. Like, how fast is a storage? How much Ram doesn't have?

How fast is this chip? Um and that stuff is useful, obviously, if you have more demanding needs for your phone. But, ah, lot of it is literally just evaluating like, Is this a game maker? Is this really gonna be daily driver material?

One thing I was talking about on a recent podcasts is how it's very hard for the market. Thio Thio. Recognize how good a product's quality is like just that actual feel like when you sit when you touch an iPhone for the first time? Yeah, right. And so how do you go about quantifying that when you're making video.

I mean, it's really Sometimes I see my job is like a professional user, like I really just have to use it. And you get the briefing, obviously, and the breakdown of all the new features and what is new versus what's not new and you can compare to things you've used before. Um, but at the end of the day, like you actually have to use it to figure out if it's actually useful. Yes, there's all kinds of use cases there's They'll tell me about a new feature and tell me exactly there's some New York for you. How it like the ideal use case scenario, how it works. Well, this came up recently because I did a video with an LG phone that came out has this feature where you wave your hand over it and do these gestures to open up maps and things like that. It's called the G eight, and,

like on the surface like this is cool. This is like future type stuff, but then you actually use it, and you're like, all right, so I don't know what I have stuff on my hands. Maybe I'm cooking, but I just want to, like, open the YouTube Afro quick and search for something like now what? Like I have to still type in what I want to search like there's there's Ah, there's limits the usefulness of that. So that for me fell in the gimmick bucket just because using it actually changed my mind.

But then what about the features where you thought it was great and it didn't catch on? Other examples of that well, there's There's

lots of examples of things that our great to me that aren't a big deal other people like I'm I love high resolution, really nice screens. And you could hand you can hand me a phone with a 14 40 p Amol a great display, and you could hand me a phone with a 10 80 p. L c d display, and I'd look and I'd immediately want the better one. But to an average person, a lot of times, whatever like that, they both look fine and me is one of one of them's bigger. I like the bigger one, so sometimes there will be things that will evaluate. You got to get this cause it's got a great screen, and it won't matter to a lot of people. But at least then you can calibrate yourself toe What? I've in the past liked a lot. So in the past,

I keep saying, like, I really like these phones because of their screens and, you know, from the your past experience that screens aren't a big deal to you, then you can at least say right out. I'll discount this point because screens are my thing.

Okay? Yeah, because I've kind of wondered if we're going to reach a point of complete diminishing returns with smartphones, right? Oh, man. You know, I phoned 10 or whatever. Like this is awesome. I have won 11. Is it 100%? Better? Unlikely. Do you think we're gonna reach Peak Smartphone

ik smartphone? It's a common question. Yeah, I don't And And the only reason I don't is because I've heard that question for the past, like, five years of smartphones, and then the next year, I'm like, Well, that's new. And I think it's mostly because the trends change. Like there was a thinness trend a couple years ago where it was like we got a nine millimeters thin and then 8.9 and then 8.1 and then 7.9. Holy crap. There's a six millimeter thin phone. Have we reached peak smartphone? And then it changed to like, Okay,

now we want these specialists funds, thickness, whatever. It's it's just gonna be thin. That's just the way it is. But now, uh, can we get a 90% screen to body ratio? Can we get this notch smaller? Can we get 93%? 95? Eventually, we're gonna be like, Have we hit peak like we got the whole screen? Yeah. The next trend is gonna happen.

I don't know what that next trend is, but I feel like because of observed these cycles over the past couple years, it doesn't seem likely that it's just gonna We're gonna get this end product of, like, the perfect phone. Maybe we'll be great. Yeah, but yeah, I

know a lot of people are holding onto, you know, iphone, basically five

form. That's definitely true. Phones are better. And they last longer. Yeah, than they ever did. So in that sense, were closer toe peak smartphone. Because your iPhone, if you buy an iPhone 10 s. Now, that phone's probably gonna be good for, like, four years. Like legitimately IOS has gotten better. Um, so it's true you can hang onto an older phone longer thing you used to be able, Thio, but that's also something tech companies got to think about when

they make their next bro. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you make of these new Trent? Like the folding things, like new trends. Right now,

there's a lot of folding. One is, is one of those interesting ones because I I'm trying to imagine the future. Like why folding phones matter. Uh, this point, like generation one, folding phones, air like a proof of concept, like you can technically fold it. But there's a big ugly crease in the middle on. These bubbles are huge, and, you know, it's it's not really, uh it doesn't seem that useful yet, but that challenges to like,

Okay, go like 89 years down the road, where it's like, Oh, yeah, you can just you have a tablet and a phone and you just unfold your phone and becomes a tablet, like in that world. It was worth it. Like 2 2019 folding phones were worth it because we got to that point. So if we get to that point someday, then I think

okay would be worth it, but Okay, so then I've noticed you filmed a bunch of tests videos based on, you know, the ratio of types of content on your channel. Are you just betting electric vehicles? It is the next big trend.

Partially, Yes. And partially. I just love the thing. Um,

yeah. I mean, but that's like a cool signal, right? Like I remember people wouldn't shut up about their iPhones when they got them in. The same thing is true for the model

s. Yes. And that's a comparison I've heard like that. Tesla's the iPhone of cars again, like it's kind of just that that next way of an electric does seem like it's future. You see all these big companies like, yeah, we're gonna go electric by 2028. Great. Someday. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of the Tesla, and it's like it's kind of like a perfect Segway into me. I've always been into cars, but like I'm 25 like how into cars? Could I be really Don't drive all kinds of cars and stuff, but that Tessa was a perfect Segway into cars because it detect product has all these tech features. It's basically a tech company. So it was sort of a natural segue way into the car world

because I've just been curious, like on the performance side how much it actually matters. Because if you look around, you know, obviously the model s is nuts. Drive for it. Yeah, but then you know the Prius is Have you driven a priest before? Yeah, Not the most exciting it works. Get See there. Right. And so yeah, I've been kind of wondering where the E V market will end up going because the model three is also pretty quick. Yeah, yeah, but you know, yeah. What's your impression? Like the low end evey market, The thing about

TV is you still get like that quick torque. So even though the performance from like, you know, you're 60 to 90 might not be like high end gas card territory, most of the acceleration and like merging and quick things you do on TV, even a low and evey is still zippy like you still feel like you're in that like zippy go cart type of field, even in like I drove a Model three when it first came out, and so it was a rear wheel drive. I'm pretty sure there's There's 60 is like five and 1/2 seconds or something, which is fine. But like that, the car felt quick over like I'd step on the pedal and I felt like zippy like I was in Model ist. So even low end Devi's will have that feel, and that's attractive to people. I think a lot of people overrate how much sound matters, like the high end car market. Everyone cares how the car sounds, but for, you know,

90% of people who are interior or the actual engine

the engine sound like when I hit the pedal. I want to hear it Working for me like that's a common like resistance to the ease. So But yeah, I think for like 90% of people or taxis or just commuter vans or just basic transportation like silence is great,

huh? In terms of features within the car, they tend

to be ahead. Yeah, I think I mean, maybe I'm just cause I'm looking mostly at Tesla. But like the amount of things you know, having a smartphone controlled app where you can summon the car to you like all these these remote start stop features in gas cars are great. But when you look at the amount of Tesla's tight cos you see all

kinds of tech features and yeah, I guess I just kind of wonder, like where? Because you spend so much time reviewing products both like smart phones and cars and stuff like you kind of get an impression of the bleeding edge. But I'm wondering like where you're you're seeing it going like things that are just popping up where you're like Oh, that's That's actually a super cool feature that people aren't talking about her thinking about right now in the context of cars,

I honestly just going electric in the number. One thing you think about, it's charging already. Charge it like how fast is a charge? How long is the battery last? Things like that. Those basic questions, Um, the more like those big companies think about answering those questions like Ford and like Chevy and those big eyes. Yeah, the more you realize how, how far had tests lives. But how? How much How far there is to go toe. Actually, Maki these useful for most people. But I think you know,

the basic premise is you just going electrically. You just put a battery in it. You charging you drive it the same way a normal car drives, but I don't think there's any sort of magic sauce to it. Other than that, you just kind of toe

get so it s so it's more like on the infrastructure side, it's really important getting it on

less flashy and like, you know, magic feature that's winning the market over. But it's like that's what you have to nail toe to make a good TV.

Okay? And so, you know, now you're under 25. Yeah. So, no, you're 25. Do you feel like there's gonna be a point where you have less of a pulse on, like, the new club? So scared of that? Yeah. I'm 29 I'm like, Oh, no. Do

you feel at a 29? Like I don't know. It's I'm scared of being mad that like old guy, who's like, out of touch like, but at least at least I think that process will be slower for me because I am so immersed in it now. Like with music. Maybe I'm already there like music. New music comes out like I tried to listen to, like, the billboard 100. Okay, Like whatever the other day, and I was just like, this is objectively bad. Like I can't I can't do this. I clearly I'm out of the loop, but I guess with tech, I don't know, maybe I'm I'm a little more immersed, so that

might take longer. Yeah, we're just near and dear to your heart. So it really matters. Yeah, I'll just, uh Well, there's also

hope, because there are plenty of my much older, you know, tech journalists and tuck YouTubers. We're doing the things. I mean, if you if you stay like in that world, it's it's kind of just part of what you're

doing every day now. And I know plenty of older people who are way more into music than I am and catch things early. But it is this, like core fear as a you know, creative person where you're like, dude on my Yeah, hi. Old school

right now. am I out of it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So do you, uh, does that fear, like, motivate you to try, like, weirder YouTube stuff? Or are you, like, kind of, You know, this kind of phone? Whatever Video works, and I'm just gonna keep banging it out. I don't

know. Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely trying to diversify. Ah, the kind of the breadth of coverage in my car. I don't think that's out of fear of, like, forgetting what's popular. I think that's just cause, like, I'm interested in other things. So there's other ways to talk about them. Um, so there's the reviews and those smartphones stuff. But there's also the car videos now, which is the auto focus,

Siri's. But there's also like I'm into production naturally, because that's what I'm doing all the time. So I'm doing this. This whole, like space is serious. Where I'm I'm talking about their creators and how they use their space. Um, ideally starting a podcast pretty soon where I can just talk with people about things like this. So it is. I think that just comes from like all the other things that I've become interested in. Of course, through, you know, making

tech videos interest. So what else would be the on the podcast?

I want to talk to other creators. It's like probably in the main thing, because that's not something that is readily available to me. I think like when you get to a certain a certain place in this creative world, there is no longer like a article you can go read to figure out how to do something. Um, like when you're starting UT Beacon, figure out like, what's the best DSLR for 1000 bucks on by it and find the lens that works best with it and then start from there. But like what I'm trying to figure out, like, how do I best like, start a new Siri's, given the current up loads and, like the pace of, you know, the way things are moving like all these nuanced questions that don't necessarily have answers but that other creative people think about Thio, uh, just talk with people about that kind of stuff,

Yeah. I mean, it sounds a lot like just strategy right where, like, 10 things can simultaneously be true, but you have to pick one. Yeah, and that That can be a little intimidating, I guess. And help.

Yeah. So, like, it's less math. More just like, no, just strategy.

Yeah, strategy. And, like, creative insight. Yeah. Yeah. And so, what are you going to try and, like, innovate in your podcasts? And anyway, because I'm what I'm kind of fishing for. It's like, you know, obviously YouTube video, right? Like, what are the other mediums that you're like testing out to feel like? Maybe there's an audience here, Like maybe I can break ground here.

Yeah, I feel like video as a medium is my favorite by far. So, um, I think I don't think about new mediums as much as I think of new ways to do video a new topics, new formats within video, um, podcasting being like a sort of an auxiliary wayto also talk the Bixby. Um, that is Bixby. I've never even heard it in real life. And I've never intentionally triggered Bixby. So it's like the third or fourth time that it's thought I've been talking to it. Uh, where was I? Oh, I mean,

video. Yeah, I think I'm still trying to figure out the whole video thing. Generally, Um and that might be a battle I never win. But I feel like that's that's gonna be taking up most of my time. This is doing different types of videos.

Okay, Okay. And so have you tried 360 Have you tried? The are like, Have you tried these

new format? Have tried one. I've published 1 360 video. Okay, one that I thought was a really good idea. It was a studio tour. So it would be like, You're sort of moving around the studio, but you can also look around and see what's behind you and around usually sort of feel like you're in that space. That's a good use of E. R. And I was fun. But that was one of those things were like, I struggled to find other genuinely productive uses for it. In my in my case, um, it's awesome for games. I love it for games I love for other stuff, but for video, it's been sort of a head scratcher.

Well, it's very We did a podcast with Jessica Brill Heart is a vey our creator and in New York, and, um, it's a difficult storytelling challenge because, like with film, you're inherently like controlling the viewpoint of your audience. Yeah, and with games lose, you explore, right? Exactly. So very like natively fits in. But even just like the prep involved in, like shooting a 360 video, like, right now they're a bunch of wires dangling over place. It's no big deal

when the camera can control that. Exactly. Yeah, that's another chance. I mean, the rig we used was really cool. Like we could have. Um, basically like you. It's not like literally following me around, but it went from place to place and we had a couple set up places around the studio so that video would move between these places and you could follow me around. Um, yeah, it's like that to me was like a peak 360. Like I figured it out. This is the best use of 360 in my case, real estate.

Yeah, but outside of that yet, it's been like, maybe maybe just tours in general, like a lot of car stuff is sorry, because it's such a small space. Um, maybe getting a smaller Reagan there, we could sort of look around as if you're in the car. That's tough. Yeah, but

do you feel limited by cameras in any way at this point,

Onley slightly okay. And I feel like I'm, like, not even allowed to complain because the cameras I use are so obscene. Um, but on occasion, I wish the camera had autofocus. I wish the camera was smaller. I wish the camera's battery lasted longer, but those air like pretty minor things this far because I can still get the image I want eventually. If I work hard

enough, you don't have auto focus on all your cameras. Don't really just the lens or the actual

camera. Three. Camera. Essentially, it has a really, really poor, out of a consistent, but it's ah, it's a red camera, and no one uses autofocus for red cameras, so they don't really work on it. So it's not good. Um, so it's manual focus all the time, and that has its downsides. Obviously. Especially,

we're doing car stuff. Trying to do fix, focus, car stuff on the car moves all the time is a lot of weird things with fixed focus. But, uh, we've messed with Riggs where he can do remote follow focus stuff and all kinds of other hacks to get around it. But yeah, that's like one of those 100

things. Do you do much of your own stuff

A little bit for cars? It's funny, cause we I always wanted to do drone stuff, but for the longest time, I was mostly doing like handheld gadgets. So it felt like what I need is drawn for, like, it's just gonna fly away from me. Holding an iPad like that's not that compelling. But now that we're doing car stuff, yes, there's plenty of Easter drones.

Have you matched it? Anything to the hood? I don't like those giant Gimbels. Have you tried that? Yeah,

we've gone. We've gotten a little into that. Like we have this whole, I guess we're always trying to make you know, setups for scenarios. And I think the next scenario setup we're working on is like the chase car. How do you shoot a car from any angle you want from another car? So you can obviously go out the side because there's a window where you could get a sliding door way Shut out the back So we have the lift gate go up when you can go like holding gimbal out of the back, but shooting on the back of a car in front of us. Hard because there's a sloped windshield, so it's distorted. So do you hang out side of the finger off axis? So there's kind of a weird problem with shooting the back of a car. Okay, that's like one of those things were working on. I guess putting something on the hood would be a way to shoot a car in front of you. But then you're fixed in your height.

She can't really go low. But then there's this camera cars that have a jib on top of it. You can go all kinds of angles, so that might be fun. But as of right now,

that's pretty early. Yeah, this is this is a funny creator problem, because industry people have figured this out. Yeah. Yeah. You like, give you see, like, professional, You know, like Tesla's shoots like they got it locked out. Yeah, absolutely. But like Marquez, individual YouTube guy, like just to fly to l.

A in, like film on the PCH. The question is, how do you do that? And so that those are the kinds of questions that you're curious about, okay? Yeah. And there's not like a youtuber network where you just, like, call? Call it what

it is. I mean, there are YouTube friends that also have similar questions. Like we can talk about it all you want. I've had a couple friends who are obviously in l A. Because that's where almost everyone is. But, um, we talk about gear all the time and like, production strategy in a way, Like, how do you shoot these things? Um, we've collaborated on one of the last things he did was only interviewed you on. We did, ah, factory tour,

which was, like, How do you shoot a factory tour with, like, two people walking through it? Do you just have one person hold the camera while you're already have a person next to you know, that's like, that was the whole thing. Or you have to figure out how to do that. Um, yeah, and the industry has got it all locked

up. Yeah, but it's also, I think, what what a lot of people could get from use like storytelling techniques, because that at the core of it, like obviously the product school, right. But like you're a storyteller, too, you know? And so when you're gonna go and do an interview with Ellen and I saw most your injuries, like, 10 minutes, 15 minutes on. Yeah, right. I assume it's cut down.

Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of the offer. Also, because they're really busy people. Yeah, that's just it. All the time that we get with them and then all we have, but yeah, that's like a It's like a having medium of talking a little longer than a five minute video.

Yeah, which is a nice format for you to like. We've tried both, and I mean, I'm so impressed with broken. He's like, three. Our video people are into it. So when you think about like, Okay, I'm maybe we should do a product scenario, right? Like, how do you think about storytelling in the case of ah review

context. So what came before? It all came next to it, what it's up against, and momentum in a way. So it's a new phone comes out. You naturally compared to the phone that came before it, and you compare it to other phones around it and how much those step forward versus how much it steps forward, and I'm right there Could be in enough of an interesting story for a lot of lot of devices that come out. Remember when iPad pro came out? Yeah. That story was like I've had, was already so far ahead in tablets. And then iPad pro took a massive step forward versus the last iPad like this is obscene. How? How much like there is no other $1300 tablet I would even consider. Like that's alone in its category,

which is really fascinating. Um, so, yeah, I guess those two things, like the context of other products that exist next to it in what came before it.

Okay. And when it comes to storytelling of you as a person, like expending it like all the gross words like personal Brandon, uh, where do you like? How do you tell your story? And then how do you fit in what your future plans and hopes are? I guess

I kind of I do less of that because I considered tech the star of the show. Um, I think I do inject my own personal humor or perspective on occasions because it's it's fine and keeps it interesting, Um, and that's its own challenge. But I've always considered detect the star of the show and any way I can. I try to make that the main story

interesting and so that will just continue to drive future projects for you.

Yeah, I mean, the one string that ties everything together is it's coming from me. So it's always the same perspective. So, like when you see a new car video like it with top gear, for example, you know that guy's driven these cars before, so he's gonna think of it in the context of all those other cars. So when I do a car video, you know, I'm gonna compare it to the other 45 cars I've driven, which are electric. So, like, that's that's the difference between, you know,

a car video from me and someone else. But at the end of the day, the car is This thing was the thing like, That's what I'm talking about and sharing with food people. But I guess I'm probably underweighting how important my own personal voices. But I really try to make the tech the star of the show.

Well, I think it's the focus in your video. I appreciate the modesty. Look like they're how many 1,000,000 YouTube channels of people reviewing phones Truth. So you sit out in some way, eh? So you got, like, 100 plus questions from Twitter. So I want to answer some of them. We're gonna skip the middle initial for 10 million subscribers, of course, but there are a lot of best practices around YouTube. Uh, you may have answered these before, but Marco Castro asked what advice you have for new creators on YouTube.

New creators, uh, new creators being pretty broad cause you could be a new creator and tech or a comedy or ah, new photographer. You know, there's all kinds of new creators, but on YouTube generally, like, if I was starting over today Yeah, um, I would kind of do a lot of what I'm doing now, which is like, you take your inspiration from other places, but you always have to come back to your own voice in your own perspective. Don't try toe be something else that already exists, or there won't be any reason to watch it. It already exists.

Um, so find your own new angle. Your own new voice. You're a new way of showing or are talking about things and and then get started. And a lot of it just comes to look and saturated. Yeah, the

consistency is very important. What? When do you think you found your voice? As a creator?

I think super early, Really. I've always been like I want crispy video. I want quality. I know what I want. Like I think that came at the very beginning. Even when I was a man doing these tutorial videos,

Yeah, I watched a couple of their fun. I'm sorry. I love going like you went through puberty on Essentially.

Yeah, yeah, there's always I did all these tutorial videos, which are just screen casts its just my screen and mouse moving. I was obsessed with getting the highest frame rate possible and the smoothest motion blur of my cursor on the screen

and like, That's so stupid.

But like, I've always wanted that production to facilitate the story as, as best as possible. I want the quality to be like, as realistic as it can be so that it's not a distraction. Yeah, and that's still the way it is. Like I might put the whole almost like stick is like, overproduced, like really coming in under a lot of overly realistic. But to the point where, like if you look at this video on your screen, you'll feel the closest to actually holding it in real life, like that's the goal. So I think that I know that's my voice or just my style. But I found that to be a priority

pretty early. Well, I think it's kind of a combination, right, cause you both you have your taste, which I think the world has decided. It's good show. And yet, and then just you're like, hardened opinion that this is gonna be super high quality, right? Right. And so, did you grow up with these, like values given to you or is it a personal thing you just were born with? I guess it

must have been instilled in me in some way. I mean, I've always been in the tech, and Tech has always had a like an emphasis on, like we're the best.

We're the hard core like this is the highest quality mentality.

That's a great question, I guess. I guess it's just what I decided I wanted at some point. Um, I never really thought about that. It's It's just it seems like it would be everyone school when I think about it, like striving for the highest quality production. Ah, it was a no brainer to man. I guess it's when you end up in the position where you're able to, you know, use really high end equipment and, like you can make more of what you want because of the position you're in. It's even more of a no brainer, because the barrier is lower. But I guess, yeah, that challenge Thio make like the perfect video is, like so that air quotes for audio listeners like That's That's always probably gonna be a moving

goalpost. Yeah, you're always reaching for it, and it's always slipping away. But there's something innate in you, right? And I think in a lot of people who are maybe I wouldn't go so far is always calling people perfectionists, but to like want to do it over again and over again and over again until it's just right.

That's the thing. That's the thing that creators have to overcome and that a lot of times you don't want to like if you end up like I would consider myself borderline like perfectionists and some stuff I remember doing like, s a T stuff where it was like, Okay, you have to write this essay, you're gonna get the topic and, like, you have to write it right. Then I want to think about this for a couple of days before I actually put a pen to paper and like, you just have to spit out three pages and hopefully it's good enough, like that's kind of the way you to this, like a new phone just came out. Go like you don't get to sit on this for a while. Like you, you form the best thing you can, and if it's 95% there and it's done, that's better than 99% there and still working on it.

Ah, that's a That's a barrier for me. Like I wish I could take more time with a lot of stuff. But Texas moves fast. They just kinda have toe, evolve your production and, ideally, make the best thing you can

and you do Follow your your listeners. You follow your gut when it comes to making choices like Is there like a data driven approach to what kind of videos you're making?

Mmm. No, it's I'd say it's almost no data at all. It's you get you get, you get, you have comments of the people who are like this. Part of the video is cool. I enjoyed that. Are or like a you could have spent more time on. I wish you'd gone into this more or I was wondering about this, and I'm glad you addressed it like certain things like that. Um Where? And I guess the only data comes down to its Like I made a six minute video on this phone, but I left out these three things. I wonder if an eight minute video would have been watchable. Like knowing, Yeah,

all the other things that go into YouTube and retention and and how long people watching the attention span of the Internet? Um, I guess that's all data. But at the end of the day, I'm just like, I guess, Yeah, I probably could have included that. Or maybe I didn't have to go into that much detail about this new camera. It's almost the same as last year. Yeah, like that kind of stuff. Well, 12 minute video could have been nine minutes and said almost the same thing. Um, information density is my my like writing challenge I'm trying to fit is much structurally sound information. That's like follow a ble to most people as possible, which in tech is I don't know if that's more or less of a challenge, probably more.

Um, well, it's It's tough to decide what's most valuable

people. That's mainly it. Like I ah, lot of people will. The best comments you get really that I get are from people who've never seen the videos before. And a lot of times they'll say, Oh, you know, these air videos for, like, the mainstream, um, buyer like not for the hardcore tech person but all the information that goes into saying those top level things the way I said them came from all the depth of using the device and all the hard core stuff that I left out. So in a way, it feels like I should just include everything so that they know that I'm like, really into what I'm talking about. Yeah,

that's where, but it becomes less presentable. That way it becomes verbose that way. Like I can say the same thing. Five different ways. But the shortest, most succinct, complete way is usually the best way. Um, that's

what I've been trying to do. That's kind of a mark of someone who really knows what they're talking about to like. If you can teach it to someone who's 10 years old, Street, then you can explain it. It's also the selling point of a lot of great cos you know Apple. Absolutely almost. Uh, all right, before we go more into the U two questions, how do you deal with YouTube? Comments? Um, I think people

really hate YouTube comments, and for whatever reason, it hasn't been that bad for me. Okay, now I can't say lately, Uh, name culture has has made its appearance in my comments section far more often in the past couple months for an unnamed reason. I'll just say it's Will Smith's fault. But, um, I think the comments section is actually been pretty helpful and pretty great for me for the past couple years, Um, and whether that's because I kind of I can also separate the comments section into kind of three categories. Uh, our one of upload, which is, like,

useless. It's mainly just people saying either first or reacting to the title on thumbnail and not actually watching the video or just like getting something in tow. Hopefully get a response like that. The first hour is not really very useful. Then there's like our two through 24 which is like people watching a video and being somewhat thoughtful before leaving what I'd consider a useful comment. And then there's people who are finding it in search. So this is no longer subscribers. This is people who were looking for something about this device. I found this video, clicked it, hoping for something, and left a comment based on what they wash those air. The most useful comments, Um, so if you condemn Vied that, like,

if all your reading is the 1st 3 hours of comments were like, This is useless. I hate YouTube comments, But if you can sort of stitch those out in tow like what's coming from what audience, then it can actually be somewhat

productive, I think for huh? Yeah, I always I always struggle with the personal attacks.

Yeah, yeah, I think I think they just kind of get drowned out. And that's probably another benefit of for the channel is like people just bury that stuff. Okay, is pretty

great. That's great. Yeah. And you didn't get

it when you were a kid. I definitely did. And I ignored it. Build a thick skin from that, and and now it's just kind of it probably still exists.

Night, signore. It That's okay. So Austin writer, asked in the early hours of the channel or cast, took a several month hiatus from YouTube but then came back with a new video format and seemingly renewed drive. What happened during those months off?

That's a great, very dedicated that very few people know that that was when I was in high school, and that was my senior year. And I just had to finish get my grades up. Uh, college applications. The last year of ultimate, like, three days a week. Practices for hours like that was just like I don't have time. I want to make videos so bad. But if I if I do, I'm gonna get in that rabbit hole again, and I'm gonna try to make five videos a week, and I'm just not gonna have the time for the things that matter right now. So that was the end of high school where I was applying to colleges going thio. All these things and interviews and pre college and on all the stuff s a T is the whole deal.

Okay, The renewed drive was just excitement was like, Kelly s. I'm back five days a week. Let's go college. No schedule. I'm in it a minute. Yeah, that was That was a pretty good time.

Okay, Ready? Um, a bunch People ask the same question. Winston asked, What's your daily schedule? Because I'm particularly curious because you also maintain a level of fitness for ultimate.

Yeah. Yeah, I practiced last night. Um, my daily schedule. So I kinda I would separate into weekdays and weekends. Weekends. Weekdays, I guess, are divided again into production days or preproduction. Postproduction Day's production days, air filming, editing the meat of making videos and writing especially, um, and pre production of post direction days are more of like the inbox, the strategy that what comes next? The travel,

all that sort of stuff that comes in between the videos And then there's nights, which are either like the league's I play in or practice. Or so I play for the pro ultimate team for New York. We had practice last night on Randall's Island. It was cold, so cold, Um, and then weekends our ultimate. I don't I don't work on weekends, and that used to be a thing. I would just work in between Frisbee, but Frisbee happens on weekends s. Oh, that's traveling. That's playing that's resting. That's like disconnected

from the Internet type stuff. And so you trained by practicing? Yes, there's no like other regiment.

I don't Jim in my basement. I like esque. Ask anyone who's like around me a lot. I'm usually there at night, OK, but as far as like like playing a lot, that's kind of the best training you can get. Yeah, it's resting

a lot. So in your gym. What you doing? Squats.

What are you doing? I have a bike. I have the treadmill, but then I have a lot of free weights. I believe in free weights. I don't have that many machines, so it's mostly just yet that the dumbbells and the I don't even know that the bar is called that parallel. Merce. Now you're standing in it, and

it's just, uh to do dips and stuff to do squats or

two. D'oh! I don't know. Names of any good dead lift. Like what? Like a dead lift

that called Exa Gone? Yes, that Devon seems like, uh I'm sure it's surprising. It's called a hex bar expert. Yeah. Expired. Yeah,

sure. That someplace. So, yeah, that's that's, like, some of the time, But then eventually you just have to throw. And I don't wanna get into, like, ultimate advice, but like

I saw you, you a scar on your hand Is that ultimate

Related is ultimate related. I in college, uh, went to go lay out to get a defensive play, and I on the turf, skidded forward and snap my finger in half. So I had I got a little plate and screws in there. Now, fix that bone. Strongest bone in my body now.

Reinforced. That's great. Yeah, I got that. Screws my shoulder. I feel the same way. Yeah, All right. Ahmad Khan s Are there any problems that you see your face that you really wish engineers or developers would solve

engineers and developers, and they were kind of on it, kind on it. Um, a lot of times there's, like, the beginning of, like fooling phones, for example, like, you kind of see the beginning of, like, some potential. And I hope they go all in on that. That could be really cool. The future, but generally,

like it's all being worked on. I wish some of it was being worked on more than it is. Um, I'm reviewing a lot of phones right now. Who's cameras are just not close to the pixels camera in particular, and I know they could get closer. You know, they could put a little more into that, but they don't. And that's their own choice on their own priority. But they totally could, um, so stuff like that, That's just like things that I prefer in some devices I wish were were more of a priority. But generally, I think,

uh, we live in a pretty good world. Nothing really sucks anymore. You know, like the tech we use even at the lower end. Just kind of works pretty well.

Yeah. No, it is very so I haven't upgraded my phone for that reason you just fine. Yeah, it's great. It's like I could use a better camera, but it's okay. Yeah. Um, So one question was from a startup founder Chris Giordano. Yes. Any tips on how to engage with influencers when you're a very early stage, start up with little or no money?

Yeah. My biggest tip would be to offer something that wouldn't make It's gotta be a win win for everyone involved. So even if you're not a start up, even if you're a company who's just not into influence of marketing yet the whole idea of creators working with companies is obviously they need to the financial support. But also they want to be able to make something that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to make eso, whether they given access to something or they're given, um, behind the scenes. Look at something, something like that. You don't have to, like, always paid him a lot. But like if you congrats something like that, that suddenly their audiences really into, that's a win, too.

So if that's a win for the audience, because I got a better video, that's one for the Creator, because they could make something better that their audience now gets to see. And it's a win for the company involved. Because now you're your stuff is in front of a new audience. Um, so even if you don't have the financial means to just dive right into paying for ads, um, you can always offer something that can make a video better. And if you do like, I also notice a lot that not a lot of research is done. They kind of just have, like, this list of tech channels, and they just sort of just get carpet everyone the same email.

But if you really want to work with a certain creator for a certain reason, make that clear like that, like you've watched their videos and you notice the theme. Ah, and you think there's some potential for ah, a building on something there that's worth expounding upon?

So in addition to this kind of influence or marketing, where do you see the future of individual creators supporting themselves as business going? We have this question most often in relation to podcasts. How are people gonna monetize?

It's even shakier on YouTube, especially lately just because of where we're at, and I get it. Um, the easy answer is just just be PC and be super clean and never, never push any buttons. But like a certain point, that's not where you want to be. Kind of wanna be ableto explore and do different things, so you have to diversify your income. That's the simple answer. So at this point, I can use myself. It is as an example, Um, the channel obviously has ads on it, and that's been one version of income as independent creator.

There's also something called affiliate Income, where you you talk about products a lot. You might as well share. Oh, the availability to buy those products. So Amazon has an affiliate system. Being H has an affiliate system. Um, there's also emerge store. There's something that I ever created can do, but if you can, why not? I very recently super late got into it, but like trying to make a sort of people ask me all the time what sweatshirt I was wearing in videos, I figured I might as well offer a sweatshirt at some point. Um,

you can you can. You could turn that into sort of a fashion brand, if you will, um, and and just having different, different ways of supporting the same thing when it was all sort of point back to the same thing.

What about those paid subscriptions or even

Oh, yeah. I don't see how the Patriots so at a certain point you can ask dedicated viewers who really want to support what you do directly. If they wantto contribute more, oftentimes they won't have a problem with that. If they really like your work or if your work isn't common and make a lot of times if they feel like they can just find what you're doing somewhere else, then there's no reason for them to stick around or pay for it. But if what you do is, like, less frequent or it's really high effort or it's not something that that they're gonna find somewhere else that'll come from you working on your craft really long time, Ah, then oftentimes they'll have no problem deciding they want to help you out.

And when it comes to you, now that you're a pretty successful channel, what are those ratios look like? You know, off the top, your head.

Yeah, I would say the I'm still at a point where, like, the YouTube ads are probably 40 40 to 50%. Um, the I don't do a whole lot of sponsored stuff. If I did, that number would be much higher. But I think right now, sponsored stuff is probably about 20%. So 40 20 and then affiliate stuff being another 10. So we're like, what, 70 now? So I guess, Yeah, YouTube as is probably bigger. You too bad is probably 50% of of what the streams looked like.

So you think your biggest problem right now is a creator is like figuring out how to do these more difficult things?

Yeah, Yeah, I I'm still on that quest of production. Like I know I videos could be better. Like they're they're still always a gap between, like a great YouTube video and a movie, Of course, like everyone can tell a YouTube video from a movie and everything, but like ideally that like seamless like production, where I can tell the story I want show what I want to show, uh, and not have any barriers in the way of source production. That would be ideal. That's probably my biggest challenge. And then one of those, like, I feel like an octopus,

like chopping off one of my arms and handing it to someone. But, like having other people who can edit having other people who can do set design on DDE can contribute on things that I'm doing eight things at once. I wish someone else could take the load off me. That kind of stuff is also a challenge for me right now, but that's something

I'm working on to its interest. All right, so I guess my last question for you, then master, is Ah, your long your long term goal. Like, What do you shooting for in 10 15 years?

Well, 10 years, I'll be 35

over the hill. Yeah, man, no longer relevant. E

guess. Long term goal. As much as I I've said before, like, I don't have long term goals, but most of my my forward thinking is like 2 to 3 years out, like where I want the company to be where I want the production process to be. But I guess if you look 10 years out, that's more of like like media company type stuff, like ideally, there's a. There's a YouTube channel, maybe a second YouTube channel. There's a podcast. There's, Ah, there's a production aspect to it where you can you can assist with other channels,

things like that. Um, and I think it's nowhere near on its way there yet. I think I'm still so focused on the actual video side of it and and making that what I really want it to be that haven't really set foot in these other categories yet, But, um, maybe someday soon you're gonna make a movie. That's funny. You ask that long form stuff. Long form being like 45 minutes an hour long videos has been fascinating to me on YouTube because it's been proven to be not that unreasonable, especially lately. So the Shane Dawson of the world like, like, really hidden at home? Um, I like to make a movie. Yeah,

cool. All right, man. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. All right. Thanks for listening. So, as always, you confined the transcript and video at blogged out y Combinator dot com, and if you have a second, it would be awesome to give us a rating interview wherever you find your podcast. See you next time.