Gadgetory

San Diego which of course in Spanish means st. Diego is home to things like Navy tech biotech fish tacos and cue the founder of WorldStarHipHop not a lot of people in tech talk about this startup and yet it affects millions of people every day even the phrase world star is itself a mean this is the front page of all this stuff on the internet you won't find anywhere else and now the queue has developed this huge following I'm here to find out what are you gonna do next I'm Alexis Ohanian start-up founder and Y Combinator partner over the last year I went on a 200 event book tour and met people building small empires all across North America now I'm back with a new season revisiting some of my favorite stuff short old entrepreneurship is not typically a solo endeavor many startups are founded by duo's and even trios and even solo founders usually have experienced advisors and investors to ask for advice and give them directions the company grows however some founders like Q the creator of WorldStarHipHop choose to go it alone and brave the challenges of starting a business by themselves and that can really pay off namely when you don't have anyone's opinion to sway you in one way or another you can take big risks and create exactly the type of company you want on your terms if I got this right you started the website for like mixtapes it was a spinoff from my original website NYC fat mixtapes which I created in 2001 originally it was it was a mixtape download website how did that turn into like worldstar what was it that really kicked it off that means you realized forget mixtapes this is the future we got half that was down literally for like eight nine months no sort of packing up and then saying forget I was real imma come back and we wanted to snap videos when you were coming up in Queens did you expect to be doing this nah I thought I'll be a stand-up or definitely new acting and that was my first passion I never thought I'd be doing internet stuff instead of being in front of the camera you're the guy who's built a network that everyone wants to be on what what has inspired us I think worldstar establish yourself as a you know Internet phenomenal with its content you know no one was given that in-your-face news but I feel like it was my my duty to give awareness to everyone you know like the Ferguson situation and I felt like you know camera is great it's a positive and a negative with it but you know you have to look at the good the bad and the ugly in one page and I noticed that you know this is this is our community this is this is what this is what's going on what are the things you think people don't understand the people who don't get it what are the things that they don't understand that they should worldstar does so we like to give what's happening and our daily basis of what's going on and music entertainment sports funnies we show it all you know we're not just going to show 100% fights or 100% music videos or you know we felt like entertainment just like cable TV you got all types of entertainment it's what suits you I'll tell the people that you have the control of the remote you can either watch someone tighten or you watch someone you know picking flowers you know it's your choice to point me out just because I'm hip hop on black I think is biased you know I'm saying because I can create fight so I didn't create porn I didn't create none of this stuff which everyone seemed to blame me and point things out when you look at how far world star is coming it's a it's a phenomenon right you know I mean like you just hear you hear people say worldstar right here's a me on camera now so battlecry yeah wolf star roll star yeah well stop yeah you played a Rasta how does it make you feel like shit Minh I feel like I'm like you know it feels good it feels good that um you know that worldstar became like a battle cry you can say this and also for something funny like if you step in for our stuff so it's not just a fighting what to go down you know I feel like it's a compliment how's that for badass started I was initially you how many people are working on it now right now we have 10 staff workers still still pretty lean yeah and then where are they oh we have the most spread out the country man I mean you've been able to manage and grow this entirely remotely yea remotely no office how do you build how do you build a culture in a company how do you build accountability mentally mentally stressed you know because I can't monitor them I don't have a supervisor I'll try to find self motivators those are driven to to want to work and very passionate and I'm known for firing a lot of people don't say so I don't have a no-nonsense policy man you don't say I'll treat you like family but as soon as you disrespect the company brand you're walking into it you know to Disneyland you know we're we're already established we're already been number one five years in a row in BP hip hop so you know I just tell people to come in with great passion and really want to work hard you know whenever a video gets uploaded to a worldstar is anyone reviewing or it just goes up yeah we we have we have a staff a few guys that just look at the videos and pick and choose which one which makes sense um you know we want to constantly look at the videos because it's a lot of sick stuff out there that we don't want to put out you know I read someone fight and grab a gun you know I sure like this you know people want to complain about the fights uh fighting is not the answer but some people need to just squat it out - so don't get that aggression out I mean people love it I mean our country is built by violence we love watching violence I mean you know we love it so I just think that I'm pointing out a lot of blame because I'm black I'm hip-hop us as a culture always getting blamed and they don't want to blame the community leaders or the parents you know say like why you blaming me for I'm just the messenger you know recent American culture last 20th century now in the 21st has largely been black culture which has been exported all over the world that's still one of America's biggest most influential exports yeah but oftentimes more often than not there was someone in the middle usually a rich white person who delivered that message and profited from it what does it mean now that the creators of the culture are empowered enough to sort of control its dissemination no it's great that we are now taking control of oh you know our sound our culture you know many years you know you know we we couldn't take control singing the past and how it was it made us smarter you know sometimes it keeps you because this makes you more humble and appreciative now today of what you have the technology today you can all we can all make it you know I'm saying it's an even playing field right now worldstar gets a lot of traffic and those servers cost money most sites with lots of traffic get advertisers to pay for those servers but advertisers tend to shy away from controversial content which is exactly what worldstar is full of they've embraced it in spite of that cue and his team have somehow managed to court some really big name advertisers you know you've managed to grow a really devoted following lots of viewers yeah you you haven't shot away from sometimes controversial content and yet you've still been able to get brands like Walmart big money brands who advertise and want to partner how do you do that with the advertisers I never wanted to reach out to them I felt like if advertisers want to want to do advertising with the company they have to go by our rules notice I don't need your money you know this is who I am this is what is what I like to be entertained by and those that like it know come join and advertisers felt like you can't beat them join them he's not going to change and they can't deny the numbers so they just work around some of the you know controversial content who your mentors role in this business be honest ain't no one helped me yes there's no one you know I said during my own tough you know and I have that mentality I like to owe anyone anything so I don't like to ask for favors or actual all my knees I'm poor I'll work to get out of my person is go for my handout or playing the government or blame my parents blame blame blame blame and that's how I am I I'm just driven you know there's this whole world of tech now that everyone's talking about everyone's hyping it up tech startups but I feel like worldstar hasn't been a big part of that conversation what what do you think of peers like BuzzFeed and what do you think of worldstar not really being a part of the mainstream tech discussion oh we like that black sheet you know we're you know where we grew up fast we did it we did it differently than most we didn't go that that route that most do I like to have my action speak you know I don't really need support or others to give me the thumbs up that we're doing okay I just look at the scoreboard you know I tell them about you know but I felt like yeah we should be in topic conversation with them because you know we grew organically we didn't have no capital investors and there were no VCS ah a lot of these cloud you start up these big companies have investors and they put millions into their into their projects and I never I never took any I turned down a lot of money the most was 15 million and I'll I don't want to give me money but then they want to change world star and make it into a you know sugar-coated site and I didn't want it to sell out and we're that that's that's our attitudes like nothing controversial is fight sex this is what we are and we're real like to like to be reporters for the streets you know I mean that's what world stories reporting live from the streets you know the idea of building a brand first and a business second is not something you hear often in tech pitch meetings but there is a precedent for this entrepreneurs like jay-z Russell Simmons and Diddy all build brands for themselves first and then build businesses around them so what is next well we have a movie with Paramount right what's the circus or Simmons dancing yeah how did that happen it's been over a year process they've been talking to us about finding a good script and get put a bunch of riders in and and I wanted something to be more 80s style where you know have a good storyline what are ones in particular you mentioned there in those production meetings you're like it's got to be like I mean I said I'm fast I'm Richmond High Ferris Bueller Porky's zap and is this gonna be the story of world star no it's just one of those movies I met just mentioned anyway 2015 version got it where young kids today are on their phones and they recording and like thinking about it but doesn't work sorry what do you think it means to that generation to get a video on worldstar I mean it's like the biggest stage right now for them they they want to be on it because they know all their friends on it the audience is just it's just so it's so big you know we have a big view stage it was like a Amateur Night at the Apollo know if you can make it there you can make it anywhere and if you can survive world star comments which is brutal they're gonna haters gonna talk about you and push your buttons and you can withstand that and if you really really shine on world star you're a star that we got the hardest critics so one of your users described world star as like being back in the barber shop you know why is it important to have these online forms for people to just freely discuss like they would if they were back now you can talk about things what's happening in the hood without even being the hood so now it's like you know the hood is still there you know you can get a picture you can get a glimpse and what's happening what's going on because you know there's a lot of people that leave the hood you know they they um you know their hearts to it like my heart still hood you know I'm from the hoods of Queens and you know even though I live now and California I my heart still is still that you know I mean like I loved when I came from so so thankful to come from that from that environment so we'll start keeps me keeps me there keeps me in the loop what's happening so what was the moment you know you the site was growing yeah but at some point it became a business what was that point I was getting calls from labels and they wanted to advertise more and more and I'm getting calls from the labels as well as artists to post their exclusive videos and I started noticing that you know we were growing we need to take advantage of this so I know it was a business then I was one the first guys to tell advertisers that no net 30 no net 60 I want my money upfront and they didn't and they said okay that further like we never do that crazy where I'm like okay then I guess you don't with my business hung up but then they'll call days later and say okay what are we going to check so that's what I know that you know I I knew it's a business but again you know this is my way you know you want to come to me I don't haven't come to you guys and and I was sales team which is myself and one other guy and I was just doing business the way I wanted to mmm I say you want to be on my website pay me you know simple as that you know that's just the way it is malignant man and I mean you know the the ad manager the ad rep for Walmart probably had never heard that before mmm they don't they don't get that now I have to ask you didn't spend any money on advertising but how did you start spreading the word early on because it was I mean just you right so what did you whether any clever tricks that you used any any things you did to spread the word now key thing you know we is watermark I'm really big on that I'm saying so you know I want to first to always push that watermark you know it wasn't a hashtag you know whatever it was more like the logo or your your website in the bottom and we were the first to really push that out there and when we get these exclusive videos you know yes exclusive but someone can easily take the video and embed it and put it on his site so if you know what a market and how does how's that exclusive for us so I'll very important to me is always water market and people see that logo they you know automatically knew okay where who is this guy which was well star and they stopped coming to our site organically because we watermark our stuff you could be just about anywhere but you said it's a remote team yeah yet you're here in San Diego I love it cuz what is it is the fish tacos the weather why San Diego's a long way from Queens as peaceful you know the beach is right there you know is clean fresh air I love the city and on city city San Diego's just amazing to me know this is a lifestyle choice yeah not too far from LA and I think I'll be doing lot of stuff in LA now but now I can live away from LA and raise my children and you know they have better schooling's here and the area we live in San Diego and it's a win-win you know cuz I can work anywhere I want yeah so why not work somewhere would have better schooling and for my children so that they have a bright future social media has clearly had an impact places like Ferguson what are your thoughts I mean how do you think technology will continue to hopefully empower like marginalized communities now we could document and I really hope people accounted for now everyone has camera phones you're being watched and I'm trying to let people know with with my website it's bringing awareness to everyone that I'll be careful because everyone is watching and I'm saying you got to be careful can't go hi was back in the days you know you can't kill somebody and streets and not think about someone filming you you know it's gotta be very careful that with technology growing you can't get away with much these days and you know that's the way it should be you know we might have a better a better better future if you all kind of like just think twice now before it's doing something that you can makes you more humble and appreciative now today of what you have look at me you know say I'm a black man I did it you know I didn't have no help no banks no no family help no friends help I did it by myself you know saying so I did it I'm sure he wants to Oscar door too she was an entrepreneur unlike nearly any other I've met he was born poor in Queens was a high school dropout didn't have any kind of a network didn't have any investors or mentors maybe because of that he's been able to do business his way and as a result of the success that world star has had advertising merchandise and how even a movie deal it's clear that WorldStarHipHop is here to stay I get nervous in freely yeah camera see all right San Diego named after Saint Diego I'm sorry I won't do it oh it do it sorry let's do one what's the what how does how does will ferrell do it