How Fanbytes CEO Timothy Armoo Is Revolutionizing Influencer Marketing
In this long‑form interview, Timothy Armoo, founder and former CEO of the influencer‑marketing agency Fanbytes, shares his life story, entrepreneurial journey, and practical insights for creators and founders. He recounts growing up in Ghana and moving to London, where early experiences of discipline and academic advantage shaped his confidence. At 14 he launched Alpha Tutoring, learning sales and middle‑man tactics, and later built Entrepreneur Express, a content site that attracted Horizon Media’s attention and was sold when he was 17. This sale taught him the value of social communities over content assets, leading to the creation of Fanbytes at age 21, which grew to 70 employees and was sold for tens of millions. Armoo discusses audience‑building principles such as the "1,000 true fans" model, leveraging borrowed interest (e.g., repurposing popular quotes), and turning followers into fans through "us‑versus‑them" narratives and personal vulnerability. He warns against fluffy business advice and mismatched investors, sharing a costly experience with a small but demanding backer. For creators, he advises owning audience data, diversifying revenue streams beyond brand deals, and protecting IP when collaborating with talent. He recommends two core books—Russell Brunson’s Traffic Secrets and Chet Holmes’s The Ultimate Sales Machine—as essential reading for sales and marketing mastery. Finally, he promotes his TikTok channel as a source of actionable business lessons for young entrepreneurs.
Chapters
And one of the comments I've been getting a lot, even on the few things that I've posted, is people saying, oh my God, like, this is the most actionable video I've seen. It's like, right, this is how you get your first 100 customers. Do this exact thing. This is how we did it, right? And I think otherwise you end up, you know, being in a world of, you know, like, work hard and, you know, get lucky. With Yomu, I was the founder of a company called Fanbytes, which was an influencer marketing business. I started it when I was 21 in university, and then we in 5 years grew it to 70 people, and we just sold it for tens of millions. And I'd actually started previously, I'd started a bunch of companies before, some flopped, some did okay. Born in London, grew up for 10 years in Ghana, and then I came back to London where I discovered the crazy world of social media and business.
How did you end up in Ghana, and like, how long were you there for?
Ah, so I ended up in Ghana about 6 weeks after I was born. Um, and so my— yeah, so my— so my granny, um, she, she, she came to London and then, uh, took me back to Ghana. Uh, the reason why is actually pretty interested, which I don't think that told a lot of people, is because it was basically either go to Ghana or end up in foster care. Because my parents had actually, like, there was just a bunch of stuff going on with my parents which meant that, like, actually there wasn't directly at that point, like, a, like, a really concrete home for me to, to, to, to, to live in. And so what ended up happening was my grandma basically then came and said, right, we're going to go to Ghana, you, uh, you grow with me. And so I lived there from 6 weeks all the way to 10 years, um, and then I came back here when I was 10.
Okay, cool. Wait, so your grandmother raised you in Ghana, and like, what, what was that like? What was it like growing up there and then also transitioning to like coming back to the UK? Like, that must be jarring.
So actually living in Ghana was actually very cool because my, you know, like Ghana, uh, is, you know, quite a cool country generally. And my grandma, uh, is quite an influential person in Ghana. So like she knows the president, she knows, you know, a bunch of the people there. And so she lived in actually a pretty well-to-do area in Ghana. Uh, so I definitely think that what it did was it taught me discipline a fair bit. Um, you know, because for example, in Ghana, uh, in the schools you get caned, right? So like if you do something wrong, you get caned with a cane, like a, like a bamboo stick, right? Um, so when you have that, you have huge discipline. So one thing about the Ghanaian education system is that a lot of the things that you learn in, say, year 6 or year 7 or even year 8 and London, you'd have already learned in like year 4 and year 5. So what that ended up meaning was that even when I came here, I felt like I was always ahead of people. Uh, so we'd be learning things, I'm like, oh yeah, well, like, this is straightforward, and I just scored top marks, top marks. And now that I think about it, I think there was definitely like a reinforcing thing, which is like, because I already knew the stuff before them, I, um, I got high marks. And because I got high marks, it reinforced the idea that I was an intelligent person.. And so I just lived my life as an intelligent person because I always felt like I had that head start. And so that was a pretty profound experience. The other thing, and one of the really funny things that happened was the first day I went to school in London, I did something which was funny and I still find it kind of embarrassing, which is in Ghana, when you're asked a question, what you do is you raise your hand and you stand up.. And you don't do that in London. And so the first, literally the first day they asked some question about, I don't know, like ratios and probability. And I raised my hand and I stood up and everyone just looked at me like, who is this freaking nerd who's just come from Ghana? And it's just, and it's just geeking out over there. And I just had to keep doing that for like 6 weeks until I was just like, oh no, I'm not taking anymore. And And so the teacher then asked a question and I raised my hand and I didn't stand up and everyone was like, oh my God, like he's, he's become a gangster now. I know that stuff. Um, so, so, so, um, that was a pretty, that was a pretty interesting story about the move from Ghana to London.
That's awesome. One thing, uh, this is a bit of a tangent maybe, but like I was just reading, um, have you read Shoe Dog? I had, yeah. Yeah. Like I, I'm like about two-thirds of the way through it, but like the thing that like jumped out to me, and I feel like it's such a, like a common thing when you read about entrepreneurs, it's sort of like transition where you like move to this new space and you were like almost like learning and observing like just slight tweaks in like culture and stuff. Did that inform you becoming an entrepreneur in any way, do you think?
Yeah, so I think the idea of being an outsider and almost being far removed from people. So I could almost think about myself as like a Sims character. It was like, okay, so I'm here, I need to go here, therefore I walk here. So I was almost able to like look at myself objectively. That really helped me because I think there were two moments of transition, right? Like going from Ghana to London was a transition, but then also going from a state school which I was in a, you know, state school from, uh, pretty much like state education from 11 to 16. And then I got a scholarship to a boarding school where, like, between 16 to 18. And that was also a very profound moment for me. Like, that's when I met, like, really intelligent people, like geniuses. That's also when I met people who had, like, money, right? Because before I, before I went to boarding school I generally thought there were like two outcomes. Basically, you were either poor or you were Elon Musk. It was like there was no in-between because I didn't have any awareness or context of like money or wealth. It was like I didn't know anyone who had money because my family didn't have money, and I'd read about these people and go like, oh my God, like this guy's so rich, etc. Um, and so yes, like Even there in boarding school, I had a bit of like an outsider thing, which was almost like, oh, like, you guys are, you know, you guys are privileged, or you guys are blah blah, which isn't true at all now I've come to realize. But I think that definitely helped me to almost like get a, get a better sense of, of what I can do to compete in the world.
That's awesome. And like, what, what do you think was the biggest takeaway from like being exposed to that wealth and that different layer of society?
So I think one of the major things, and this is a story that I've told before, which is one day— so in boarding school, every 3 weeks you get to go back, uh, back home just to hang out for a bit and come back. And I remember one day when I was waiting to, you know, go back home, packing my bags, I then heard this like whirring sound going on. I thought, oh, what's going on? And it turned out that there was a helicopter which was about to pick up a kid, and it just was in the middle of the rugby field. And I was just like, the heck just happened? And I saw this kid, Jonathan Imoh, just like walk in, get picked up in the helicopter, and then just go. And I just thought, Jesus Christ, like his dad— I don't know who his dad is, I don't know whatever— or his mom I don't know who they are, but they have enough money for a helicopter. Like, they're not Elon Musk, they're not Richard Branson. So it exposed me to this idea of like, actually it is possible, you know, there is a layer of wealth which is not like billionaire status, but it's actually, you know, like, like the status underneath. So we kind of exposed me to that. The other thing is also that with Christ's Hospital, there were legit geniuses there. Like, there's, there was a guy there called Luke Stevens. Luke Stevens was super interesting because he, when he when he was like 16, or I guess no, when he was 15, he had actually finished Further Maths A Level. So for your audience, that's basically like, like kind of degree-level maths, and he'd finish it at 15. And I was just like, you are a genius. And there were several other people like that. And the moment that I came to realize that, you know, all these guys were actually just from a raw IQ perspective, they were more intelligent than me. I then basically said, I need to play in a game that I can win because I can't win the intelligence game. So then that almost like really forced me to then go deep on the business game because I thought, well, that's a game that I can win. Like that's something that I generally have a predisposition to. And so those were two ways in which going to boarding school really changed my mindset.
And, and so how did you know you had a predisposition to business? Like, what was your first sort of like foray into business?
Yes, so I started a company at 14, uh, that was my first business. It was called Alpha Tutoring. It was just a tutoring business in which I tutored people maths, but then people started to come to me for like biology, chemistry, physics, and all that stuff, which I wasn't the best at. So what I ended up doing is I'd end up going to the teachers and I'd end up asking them like, hey, in the last exam that you did, in the last test that you did, um, who scored the highest. And then I'd just go to those people there and just say, hey, like, do you want to make some money? Um, because I was charging like £15, £20 an hour, which is very cheap for tutoring. I'd take, uh, £5 or £7.50, then the kid will keep the rest. So that's my, like, my first foray into business where I was like, oh, this is interesting. Like, this is how you make money. You can basically like magic money by like solving a problem. And there I had a crash course in how to get customers and all that stuff. Like for example, my biggest customers were like the Asian kids and their parents because they were the people who really cared about education. So I'd go to them and say, hey, do you want to be better at chemistry? Do you want to be at biology? Well, connect with this guy and then I take your fee. So I think like having some degree of success in that, it was not a big success at all, but like made couple of grand or something. But then having that degree of success was then like, that's interesting. This is something that I feel like I'm better at than other people.
And was this like a website or what sort of—
how did you sort of facilitate it all? So funny enough, it was not a website, which was the reason that it didn't even go that far. And also the fact that I was 14, which therefore meant I didn't know anything. Still pretty good at 14. Oh yeah, um, it was basically just me middlemanning and like contacting parents and contacting teachers. I had a fake note, so I created a sick note which basically said like I had some form of diarrhea, which basically meant that, um, I could leave the class at any point and call up parents in the toilet. Oh my God. And so I had a sick note which basically like I just faked basically. And so it was all me just basically being the middleman of this entire game. Until what you realize about tutoring businesses is that once you've paired up like a chemistry teacher with a student, they formed a bond. So there's no reason for them to keep coming back to you anyway. And so as a consequence, you end up being cut out. And so that was a very short-lived projects. That was a very short-lived experience, but it taught me about marketing, talking about sales, taught me also about this idea of like it's almost inventing value, um, which, which for me was very profound because in all the businesses I've done, at the beginning I've just like invented the thing, um, and then, you know, in some cases like Fanbytes, I raised money and all that stuff, uh, but, uh, but, uh, yeah, that's a story.
That's awesome. And so tell me about Fanbytes. Uh, what was sort of the— how did you start that? What was the— what were the early days like? What was the inspiration?
So, so remember that I mentioned earlier that, um, that I started a company when I was in sixth form because I thought, right, you know, business is something I could win. I started a business called Entrepreneur Express, which was basically like an online publication. Literally, think about entrepreneur.com, Business Insider. That was basically it. This was 10 years ago. And I was thinking about how I grow traffic through it. I was trying Google Ads, SEO, and all those things just took long. But the thing that I realized I was good at was being able to grow Facebook accounts and Facebook pages. So I'd grow really big accounts like Tony Robbins quotes, Gary Vee quotes, and all that stuff. And what I do is I take articles from my sites and then I'll put them into these Facebook pages. And that would drive traffic to them. And so what ended up happening was that within— so yeah, that was the game, and it did very well from an editorial perspective. We got interviews with Richard Branson and a few other people. And then within 11 months, what ended up happening was that it's— I got an email from these guys at a company called Horizon Media. They're currently an agency, but before they were like Yeah, exactly. So beforehand, their whole thing was, uh, to basically build like a media house where they own very niche publications like food, gardening, you know, business, etc. So they were interested in partnering up where like I could be part of their network and then they could sell, you know, ads on my sites. So didn't know about the Facebook pages. And then they said, you know, hey, be good to get some content, send over some stats. So I then sent over, you know, the stats of my site, but I also said, oh, and also like I own all these different pages and I have this network, all these pages. And that was just me just saying, hey, like, this is what I've got. And then what ended up happening was we get on the call, and this was when Skype was a thing. So we get on the Skype call, it's a Friday, 2 AM, and they say, hey, so, you know, rather than partnering up, I was figuring like, why don't we just buy you? And I was just like, what the heck just happened? I was like, you know, I'm a 17-year-old kid living on like fourth floor council estate, like a fourth floor, you know, in the projects, right? And someone's been like, yeah, so why don't we just buy you? I'm like, what? Uh, yeah, all right, sounds cool. Um, yeah. And, and so basically what ended up happening was I ended up selling Entrepreneur Express to Horizon Media. Now, how does that feed in with Fanbytes? Um, it was then that I realized that the thing they were buying wasn't the blog, it was like the social community.. And it was like, that was the thing they were buying. And so that had me thinking of like, what if there's a way in which I could build up networks of these, et cetera. So I just kind of tossed that idea around in my head for a while. I realized the whole thing around, you know, brands wanted to reach Gen Z as well. Cause I was part of Gen Z, I was 21 then. So it was like a combination of those two things where I was like, oh, that's interesting. Like people want the social communities, brands want to engage with Gen Z. And so like bringing that all together, let's build a platform, let's build a service which is enabling people to be able to do that at scale.
And that's the story of Fanbytes. That's awesome. Now, so it's interesting because like you've done sort of like building businesses, but you built audiences too. Um, I feel like that whole side of things is fascinating. What sort of insights or lessons did you learn in building your own audiences?, for, yeah, what was it, Entrepreneur Express?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, so the biggest thing, and this is documented quite a lot, is this thing of 1,000 true fans. And I think it's so, so, so relevant, especially now in the age of social where people, people over-index on followers and not realizing that there are, you know, like 1,000 true fans that will buy everything. And even right now, as I look into the influencer space, I think the biggest opportunity is like How are people over-indexing on those 1,000 true fans and getting them to buy more and more of their stuff? I think Patreon is doing a very good job at that, but there are other ways in which you can really take advantage of this. I think OnlyFans, for example, has shown that you can actually do that also at scale, right? I know a number of OnlyFans creators and they often say that they're making a ton of money, but 80% of their money is coming from 20% of the people who are buying tips for them, who are buying subscriptions, who are buying this, who are buying that. Who are buying that. So say what you want about OnlyFans, but I think that it shows kind of like where the advancement of audiences and monetization is going.
Yeah, I completely agree. Now, having worked with creators and built your own communities, what do you think is that like differentiator in turning like followers to fans? Like, I feel like there's like this very— there's this distinction, and some creators are really good at it.
Yeah.
Um, and it's like a whole separate skill set than being able to garner attention.
What do you think that is? So I think there's a number of things that like creators can learn from cult leaders, right? Like people, like people who've built, you know, cults around a certain ideology And there's a couple of things. I think one is, for example, they stand for something where it's kind of like an us versus them. People who are able to do that in their content do very well. And additionally, those who are able to almost lift, like lift the veil on their otherwise idealized life. So what I mean by that is when you have a lot of followers, typically it's because, you know, you've put out something into the ether, into the content, and you go, right, this is someone that I would like to be like. But the moment that your content moves into being a bit more raw and personal, I think that's when it moves from like, this is someone that I'd like to be like, to rather like, this is someone that I am like. And from the moment that you have that transition, that's when it feels like the person is truly your friend. I mean, someone who's done a good job of this is Emma Chamberlain, right? With her coffee brand. She's done pretty well of almost— if you look at the type of content she puts out, it's not particularly inventive. It's just very much like, this is my best friend style content. And that's the reason why she can start a coffee brand which does insanely well. If you look at some of the other some of the other content creators, not even on YouTube, on TikTok, etc., they have very much a kind of us versus them thing, which could be in just like the way they produce their content, or they have some kind of like enemy, which is almost like, I don't know, like the big bad corporate world or the 9-to-5 world. Like everyone kind of invents some kind of enemy, which therefore gives you a sense that we're all in this together. And I think like that's the transition that people go from when they're going from, from, uh, from, uh, followers to fans.
I think that's so well articulated. And the, the like that side of like the sharing your personality side, it's like, um, that piece, uh, is like something— so, you know, um, we were texting about like, you're starting TikTok, I've been doing TikTok for a while. Like, I— it's like, as an introvert, it's like incredibly hard just to do TikTok anyways. Like, I will like procrastinate for hours to like film. It's like, I have it and it's just like, I will come up with any reason to not get in front of the camera. So like 99% of the time, it's like, I'm filming at night before I go to bed because I'm just like, I can't fucking do it. I can't fucking do it. Yeah. And then so now I'm like trying to transition like, okay, like I sort of have a rhythm with content. It's still hard, but it's almost like working out where it's like, you know, you start to like chip away. It's like, all right, how do I add more weight on? And now it's like, I know rationally that the key is like develop that emotional connection and sharing a window into my own life. And it's the hardest fucking thing to do.
It is so hard. Yeah, I think the reason why it's hard is because you think that you can't control the outcome. So if you knew you could create content and every single person would love it, you would just create content every single time because it's just like, well, I know every single person will love it, but because you can't figure out, okay, is this going to bomb? Is this going to get the views? Am I going to look silly? Are people going to think that the thing I'm saying is stupid. I think that's the barrier that people go through, which is like almost inventing a set of things that could potentially happen and then having that stop them.
Dude, that's really well put. That is like such a perfect TikTok. I feel like it's so true. It's like they've done those psychological studies where people would rather sit in an uncomfortable situation but know the outcome for certain versus like uncertainty. So even if you're in like a bad position, people will pick that over uncertainty, which is like, that's, that's the struggle is like a creator. Now, how, uh, how are you liking TikTok so far?
So you just started an account. Yeah. So I started the account because I thought, A, I wanted to be part of the kind of what I call the TikTok revolution. But also personally, I wanted to give a lot back to people who I thought would really benefit from this. I think the story of being a young guy, and I think often people talk about race and I don't really care too much, but if we're to add that as a caveat or add that, it's like the story of being like, a young Black guy who grew up in South London with no real handouts or anything and like built a company, raised money, and then sold the company for tens of millions. It's like, that's a story I would have wanted to know if I was 19. And like, that's the person I would have wanted to look up to or at least learn from who didn't make it in like sports or music or, you know, entertainment. So a part of that, even if you look at a TikTok, it's not stylized. It's just like, right, cool. So this is what I learned about this thing and this is how you should do it. All right, cool. See you. So I think it's a combination of both. It's kind of like I want to be part of the market opportunity, but then also like personally I think is the best vehicle for giving back. And then probably the third thing is I understand the optionality that an audience gives you.
And I want to be part of that. Now, what do you think your us versus them dynamic is for you? Are you like, do you feel like there are other people out there who are maybe giving poor advice, or are you not thinking about that stuff right now?
So I think there are a lot of people, I guess, in the, in the general, I guess, business space who are giving very fluffy advice, and it's not practically actionable. And one of the comments I've been getting a lot, even on the few things that I've posted, is people saying, oh my God, like, this is the most actionable video I've seen. It's like, right, this is how you get your first 100 customers. Do this exact thing. This is how we did it, right? And I think otherwise you end up, you know, being in a world of, you know, like, work hard and, you know, get lucky. And it's like, right, cool. But if I was 19 and someone told me to just keep working hard, I just go, right, Well, that's nice, but tell me how you did what you did. So I think that my them is probably fluffy business advice. That's my them. And my us is tactical, actionable things that can help you to do that. I think probably another them is what I call the tech crunchification of business, which I think is required. Like, you know, I built my business and the exit was, you know, mid-eight figures, tens of millions. It wasn't hundreds of millions. And I think for a lot of people, if they're successful in their business, that's the outcome they're going to get. Like, the $100 million and the billions are actually outliers. That's why they get like so many of the headlines, because they're outliers. And I think the more people can think of business is actually like, you don't need to be a rockstar to be able to, you know, sell a business for $10 million or $30 million. Yeah, you need to have good market timing and stay in the game enough and a bit of luck, but like, it is achievable. Uh, whereas I think people often get enamored with, oh my God, like, how does this scale to a billion? And I think that's my—
them as well. I love that. Also, for the record, tens of millions is a massive win.
Yeah, but you know, when you read like TechCrunch and all that stuff, it's like, yeah, so for a billion, or like, they've raised $500— it's like What the fuck?
Like other people do their thing, you know?
Yeah. Yeah.
It's like, uh, not everyone needs to be Elon Musk. He can do his thing. I think I'd be happier. I think I'm happier not being Elon Musk. Like, yes.
Yeah.
There's like, yeah. Um, dude, this is dope. Uh, I know like we have questions here. Um, let's see. Were there any questions in particular that you wanted to prioritize? This was sort of like just a brain dump. Otherwise I can sort of keep rattling stuff off.
Yeah, I mean, to be honest, let's go through them all because I reckon I can give short answers to go through them all.
I don't mind. Cool, cool, cool. And like, I love this sort of meandering kind of thing, like, because like I think that's like some like nugget eventually comes up. So, um, so what was like the first dollar you made online?
So the first dollar I made online is very different to the first dollar that I made. So the first dollar I made was that tutoring business. The first dollar that I ever made online was in Entrepreneur Express when I started selling ad deals and I plugged into a few of these like programmatic ad networks which paid me based on the traffic that I drove to the sites. That was the first dollar that I made. And I do remember thinking, oh my God, I've just magicked this thing. Because it was programmatic, I didn't know who paid, right? It was like some real-time bidding system showed an ad on my site.. And I just thought, wow. And my PayPal has just shown another $2. Like, oh my God, this is amazing. So that was the first dollar that I made in life.
That's awesome. One thing also, just circling back that I think might be worth emphasizing is you talked about how when you started the pages, a lot of it was sort of like taking high-profile entrepreneurs and Essentially taking quotes from them and repurposing their content. I think like that is such a great hack. It's like when you're starting out, like leveraging kind of the borrowed interest.
Yes.
It's such a good way to get that initial like audience into the funnel and then you can start to pepper in your own content and original ideas, but like the, the like People will like pause at something they recognize. If it's like you're a total stranger just spouting out like, you know, business advice or whatever, it's much harder to get them to take that split second and not just keep swiping or scrolling or whatever. One thing that took me a long time to learn is that like there's expensive money to be paid. Like sometimes it's like not worth taking on. A project. And like, I would love to hear from you what's like the most expensive money you ever made or any sort of like lessons you learned in terms of like saying no.
So I'll tell you, the most expensive money that I ever made was when we raised money from the wrong investor. So we in Fanbytes raised about $2 million for our business. And I remember there was a specific investor who I went to meet And he just came across as very obnoxious. But I thought, hey, he's just that type of guy, et cetera. And then we took on his money and it wasn't even a lot. It was like $10,000, $15,000 or something. In the grand scheme of things, that's not a lot. But then what ended up happening was he'd email me a lot. He'd ask me about things and I'm like, dude, you gave $10,000, $15,000. I can just give that back to you if you want. And I think that I just had to send an email and say, look, you invested in us because we get this thing. You don't get this thing. So leave us alone. And there was a bit of headache around that because I wasn't sure if that would be the best outcome and all that stuff. So I think the most expensive money that I've ever made was because I took it from the wrong people or I engaged with the wrong people. For example, if you have a business and you're serving customers, the most expensive is when you have a customer who's very anal.— let's not say anal, but when you have a customer who is a shitty customer, that's funny. It went from anal to shitty. And so I think it's really about who you take the money from rather than the actual experience, because there were several other people who gave us a bunch of money and they were completely fine.
Yeah. $10,000 to $15,000 and being on your ass is crazy.
It's ridiculous. And now I come to realize that I think the reason why he did that was because, like, he was trying to kind of come across as if he was this big-time investor. But I think $10,000 to $15,000 was actually, like, a pretty sizable portion of his, like, disposable income. And so he was very much like— so now that I think about it, now that I get to know more about him and his background, I go, actually, what you wanted to do was, like, give off the impression that you're an investor, and actually this meant a lot to you.
Yeah. Interesting. That's nice that you can empathize now after he was a pain in the ass. What advice would you give to creators?
So I think right now we're in this space where it's become acceptable for creators to really become businesses by themselves. Perhaps about 4 or 5 years ago, there was a lot of conversation around, oh my God, this influencer is promoting a brand. You're a sellout, blah, blah, blah. Now I think that audiences have just come to accept that. And so that provides a lot of opportunity for you to use your audience to create a lot of different revenue streams. And I think for a lot of creators, they're perhaps too hinged on a platform. And the best thing you can do is two things. You can own your own audience. That means getting emails and phone numbers. And the second thing you can do is build a lot of revenue optionality into your business. Because over, over a long enough time, probably in the next 5 years, brand revenue— in fact, I put it in the next probably like 3, 4 years— brand revenue is going to become increasingly less and less as influencer and creator marketing becomes like part of the overall marketing plan.
And you would therefore need to be able to go direct to consumer at some point. Yeah, it's interesting. I feel like the savviest creators I know, it's like like, you know, 10, 10+ years ago, it was like the, the amount of revenue that was coming from brands, it was like 95%. Like maybe they had like a little merch or something. Now for like so many creators, it's like the inverse where it's like, like, you know, uh, 5, 10, 15, 20% is from brands and everything else is like charging their audience directly, which Honestly, it's like, as somebody who works in advertising and deals with influencers, it's like, that would be so much, like, I recognize like why you would want to do that because brands are work. Like you're accountable to them once you sign that contract. Whereas if you're creating content or product for your audience, your audience is basically paying you to be more of you. So like, it's, it's, you're not having to adjust anything. It's just like be more of what you want to be. And that dynamic is so, so drastically different. And, uh, what in your mind makes a creator worth working with? Like, you know, you're doing an influencer marketing campaign.
So I think the most important thing, and fundamentally the reason why brands use influencers, use creators, really is their ability to sell product, right? And so for me, it's like, can you sell product? It's not so much can you get likes, can you get engagement, can you sell product? And this goes back to the thing that I talk about, which is really for a creator, you want to be able to cultivate your 1,000 true fans who you know you can bet on to do whatever action that you want. Even myself, as someone who creates a lot of stuff on LinkedIn and Instagram, et cetera, I have a group of probably like 150 people who I know if I literally brought out a merch line right now, they will buy it. They are my 1,000 true fans. They get other people to follow me. They engage with every single one of my posts. And even now on TikTok, even though I've only posted like 6 times, as I post more, I've started to see like there's a few people. In fact, there's I think 10 people who I've identified who have basically posted on every single— they've commented on every single post that I've done. And I go, okay, interesting. There's something about you 10, which is quite similar. There's something there.
How can I get more of you 10? Yeah. Now, Uh, oh gosh, what was he gonna say? Oh yeah, yeah.
So Fanbytes, you guys launched a merch line, right? Uh, so we launched a TikTok house called the Byte Squad and Byte House, and then what we ended up doing was them— like, that house, that group ended up launching a merch line.
We did very well. And so was that like a merch line that was like owned and operated by them, or was that by us.
By us. Cool. So we owned and operated everything.
We just used them as the distribution.
And, um, any lessons from like growing that house and then growing that merch business? Yes. Um, when working with creators, if you are like in the agency space or whatever, make sure that you own the IP and make sure the IP is not too intrinsically linked with with the talent. We ended up doing a good job of this, but at the beginning, I think what ended up happening was the concept of the house became too synonymous with them. So eventually we had to go forward with more of a format-led thing, which meant we could easily move people in or out if we needed to.
First, best, worst, who are your favorite business and entrepreneurial creators?
So the first ever creator that inspired me was actually someone who I met a month ago, and it's Salman Khan. Salman Khan was the founder of Khan Academy and I met him. And to me he's like the OG YouTube creator because he was just there creating stuff on blackboards and just scribbles. And I met him actually at a conference and I said, dude, thank you so much for getting me through A-levels. And we ended up doing some content together, which was kind of a pinch-me moment for me. Oh my God, that's so amazing. The best creator, the best creator that I've actually seen is actually not so much an individual, it's a type of format and it's called Modern MBA. And what it does is that it like breaks down specific concepts about business, about individuals, about people in a very fun and lighthearted way. And I really like the way that he takes like dense topics and makes them pretty pretty lighthearted. The worst creators for me are those who just look in the camera and just talk. I feel like right now, especially with YouTube and Instagram and all these things, they become the new form of TV. And you wouldn't watch TV where someone just looks at the screen and just talks about their day. I'm not a big fan of that. Maybe it's my general personality. I also want to give a special shout out, I think, to— everyone talks about this guy a lot, but MrBeast. And the reason why I do that is because I think what they've created at Night Media is just so much optionality in an audience. I think it's, I think it's quite inspiring to be able to, you know, launch, uh, Beast Burgers and then to do this and then to do that and to do that, like localize the channel and all that stuff. We're just taking the exact same audience, or rather the exact same content, and just like figuring out different ways to monetize it.
It's really, it's really impressive. All right, for somebody who's starting out, wants to be an entrepreneur, what books should they read? Or we could broaden it, what resources would you direct them to?
So I think for anyone wanting to become an entrepreneur, I think the key here is not to focus on becoming an entrepreneur. I think it's actually to acquire the skills required, which that makes you an entrepreneur. And I think especially at the beginning, the number one skill that you need to be able to master is like sales and marketing. That for me is like the most critical skill in whatever business that you have. So I recommend that you read more sales and marketing books. And for me, there's like two main books which I love. I've probably read them about 10 times. One of them is Traffic Secrets by a guy called Russell Brunson. He was the founder of ClickFunnels. I think it's an incredible book, just understanding marketing and, and just the way you should maneuver when you're trying to get people to go from point A to point B, which fundamentally is what marketing is all about. And then the final one, or the second one, is The Ultimate Sales Machine. It's written by a guy called Chet Holmes. I think he was a person who basically led all the magazine sales for Charlie Munger, had a like portfolio of magazines. And the way he just systemized sales and made it such a great thing where like he brought in people to to him, and he used competitive tension and all that stuff. Those two books for me, one on marketing, one on sales, are the books that I recommend for all aspiring entrepreneurs. Because rather than thinking about becoming the entrepreneur and the big business and all that stuff, actually focusing on like the skills that you need to go from like zero to one is probably the most important thing.
That's awesome. I know we're running out of time. Any big parting thoughts, something we didn't cover that you want to share? Follow me on TikTok.
But, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, where can people find you? So I think especially with aspiring entrepreneurs or aspiring content creators, it's very important to know that when you look at, I guess, end destinations, like the end goal of the business or the big business or the big creator, it's important to know like they just didn't go from zero to being there. And so it's very important to understand that like, yes, it's good to have that person in the background or that company in the background,, but it's baby steps that you take together and just like focus on the input. Because if all you do is focus on the output, you get disappointed, you get stressed, you get distressed. You focus on the inputs, which is, you know, the reps that you have to do every day, which is the content that you have to put out, the sales calls that you have to do, all the things that you can control, uh, over a long enough time span, you will go, oh my God, I can't believe that I'm here. At Fanbytes, we started the company when I was in university at 21. And I remember in at the end of 2021, early 2022, looking and thinking, oh my God, this company has 70 people in this. And look at all these brands that we're working with. And it was just because we just kept doing the reps. Yeah, we kept failing, but we kept doing the reps and we just kept doing it and doing and doing it. And I think that is a very important kind of taking a long-term view on the game of business is something which I think in this new world of, you know, social media and get-rich-quick people are forgetting.
Awesome. And, um, I know you got to bounce to a meeting. Where, where do you want— how can people find you online?
Where should they follow you? You should all follow me on TikTok now, because now on TikTok I just post a bunch of interesting business advice and business thoughts around everything I've learned from from growing, scaling, and selling a business in the tens of millions at 27. I think there's a lot of actionable stuff and stuff which I wish that I had learned when I was 19.
Awesome. And your, your LinkedIn and, uh, is amazing as well. I gotta give that a shout out. Yeah, well, dude, thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. Cool. All right, awesome, man.
Thanks, man.
Peace. Bye.
