Brownlee is social media's gadget guru. Nearly 21 million folks subscribe to his YouTube channel to watch his reviews on all things tech: the latest iPhone, Tesla, or VW's new electric bus. The New Jersey native began making YouTube videos in high school and now attracts 750 million views annually. "It was steady growth. I think it's a good thing that no one video propelled the whole thing. I think going viral is overrated. It's the best thing that never happened to me."
0:00 Intro
0:40 Before MKBHD
1:45 Marques’ First Review Video
3:35 The First Viral Video
5:20 A Hobby Or A Career?
6:18 When Being A Creator Became A Full-Time Job
9:44 MKBHD’s Operation Today
10:48 A Day In The Life Of MKBHD
11:30 How MKBHD Creates A Video
15:42 How Do You Make Money?
17:22 How Do You Decide What Products To Review?
18:50 Advice You’d Give Your Younger Self
19:50 On Trends And Metrics
20:45 What Product Surprised You The Most?
22:22 On Marques’ App
24:53 What’s Next For MKBHD
25:50 What’s Next In Tech
27:42 Marques’ Take On The Creator Economy
29:38 Is The Marques On Camera The Same Off Camera?
30:40 What Gadget’s Changed Your Life The Most?
31:53 Tech Predictions
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0:00 Intro
0:40 Before MKBHD
1:45 Marques’ First Review Video
3:35 The First Viral Video
5:20 A Hobby Or A Career?
6:18 When Being A Creator Became A Full-Time Job
9:44 MKBHD’s Operation Today
10:48 A Day In The Life Of MKBHD
11:30 How MKBHD Creates A Video
15:42 How Do You Make Money?
17:22 How Do You Decide What Products To Review?
18:50 Advice You’d Give Your Younger Self
19:50 On Trends And Metrics
20:45 What Product Surprised You The Most?
22:22 On Marques’ App
24:53 What’s Next For MKBHD
25:50 What’s Next In Tech
27:42 Marques’ Take On The Creator Economy
29:38 Is The Marques On Camera The Same Off Camera?
30:40 What Gadget’s Changed Your Life The Most?
31:53 Tech Predictions
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00I think it's a good thing that no one video propelled the whole thing.
00:04Gotcha.
00:04I think that's something that is maybe a little bit overrated, having something go viral.
00:08I think that's the best thing that never happened to me.
00:14Hey everybody, welcome to Forbes Top Creators.
00:16I'm editor Steve Bertone here with Marques Brownlee,
00:20who is a Forbes Top Creator, a Forbes Under 30 alumni, and just a tech gear gadget expert.
00:26Marques, thanks for joining us.
00:27Thanks for having me.
00:28I want to start, I'm going to go way back because I know you've been doing this.
00:32You're a young guy, but you've been doing this for a long time.
00:34Go ahead.
00:35What did you do before you were a creator?
00:39And this might be probably, you were probably in high school, but tell me about that.
00:42Yes.
00:43Okay.
00:43So this was middle of high school before I started a YouTube channel.
00:46I was into tech already, but I was just kind of, I was playing Ultimate Frisbee and I was just kind
00:52of like watching tech videos and then ingesting as much tech media as I could.
00:57That's kind of like where I lived.
00:59So it felt natural when I started making videos, kind of jump into that world.
01:01But I've always been into videos as well.
01:04What kind of tech were you into back in the day?
01:06Were you an early coder or was it more gadgets?
01:08No.
01:09Yeah.
01:09Computers.
01:11I wasn't coding.
01:11I was like playing game, PC games basically.
01:15So at that point you get really into the gear.
01:16Like what GPU do I need to satisfy the requirements for this game?
01:19That sort of thing.
01:21And then camera stuff, which is like, it was tape cameras at the time, which I wasn't bringing
01:26that onto a computer to edit, but I was shooting stuff and editing it in camera by cutting it
01:32as I was shooting.
01:33So that was really fun.
01:34Very cool.
01:35And when I talk about, when I talk to creators, they always say authenticity, authenticity,
01:38authenticity.
01:39And I went deep into YouTube this week, getting ready for this interview.
01:43And I found one of your first videos on YouTube 15 years ago.
01:46You were very young and cute back in the day.
01:49What happened?
01:49And to give all the viewers, your first review I found was of a remote control
01:56that came with an HP computer.
01:58Yes.
01:59So you've been doing this forever.
02:00So what was, take me to that, like your first review.
02:04What made you want to do the remote?
02:06And it's so funny because you're like, oh, this operates the DVD player.
02:09Most people don't even know what that is anymore.
02:10For sure.
02:11Yeah, that's true.
02:12Okay.
02:12So this was, I was, again, in high school, I wanted to buy a laptop to like do all my
02:16schoolwork.
02:17And so this was like my precious allowance money that I was going to spend.
02:20And I just wanted to make sure I had made the exact right choice because 500 bucks at
02:25the time, a ton of money for a high school kid.
02:27So I basically watched every YouTube video that ever exists about any laptop that I could
02:31possibly afford from top to bottom.
02:34And I ended up landing on the HP Pavilion DV7T.
02:37I said, all right, mom, dad, to the T yeah.
02:40And I said, this is the one I want to get.
02:42And they said, all right, it's your money.
02:43You've earned it.
02:44Go ahead.
02:45So I got the laptop.
02:47It shows up in the mail.
02:48And yeah, one of the first things I noticed about it is there's a little media center
02:53remote in the PCI slot at the front of the laptop that I didn't see in any of the videos
02:57that I watched.
02:58So like my natural reaction was, okay, let me just, uh, just make a video so that the
03:04next person who's me, who's going to go buy a laptop also has that video to, to know about
03:09it.
03:09So that's the first tech video.
03:10I just was like, Hey, in case you didn't know, this comes with this laptop in this media
03:14center remote slot.
03:15Here's what it does.
03:16Uploaded that from the webcam and that was it.
03:19And that was the first tech one.
03:21Then there was, you know, one more about the cooler and one more about the mouse.
03:25And then it kind of was this tiny little community.
03:27And that's basically how it started.
03:29Wow.
03:30So you totally were like enamored with this.
03:32It was like you're buying your first house, your first computer, every feature you were
03:34enamored with everything.
03:36When did this start going from that review?
03:40When did this start taking off?
03:41Like, do you remember your first video or piece of content that really got a lot of
03:45traction?
03:45Yeah.
03:46I, you know, looking back, it's always been a pretty smooth growth, but I did have one
03:51light bulb moment somewhere in the first year I was making these free software tutorials.
03:55So I would like, I do a screen recording and like walk people through software.
04:00And when Safari, the browser came to windows for the first time, uh, it was kind of a big
04:05deal.
04:05It's like everyone uses Firefox and Chrome and like there's a new browser.
04:08So I made a video on how to download it, install it and get it set up, uploaded that.
04:13And the next morning I think it had like a thousand views.
04:17And to me that was like, Whoa, that's a major deal.
04:20Cause I only had like a hundred subscribers or whatever, where these people come from
04:23and this is an old school YouTube.
04:25Yeah.
04:25OG YouTube.
04:26And I think that light bulb moment was that people cared about timely, useful information
04:32and that I could be a valuable source for that, which is really interesting.
04:35So that, that was a little new impetus of like, Oh, anytime something's like happening,
04:40I can be useful there.
04:41Do you remember when you first started making money from these?
04:44Yeah.
04:44Years later, many years later.
04:46Yeah.
04:46There was no partner program or anything that was something that later got introduced by
04:49YouTube.
04:50And then it was like, you had to apply and be approved.
04:54I remember I applied and was rejected.
04:56And once you got rejected, you had to wait like a six month cool down period before you
05:00could apply again.
05:01And then I applied again and got rejected again and then applied again and got rejected
05:05again.
05:05So I was not making any money for a while, but eventually, yes, it became a thing that
05:11sort of drove the future of the platform.
05:13For sure.
05:13You said you're into videos, you're into tech.
05:15So this all came together really well.
05:17Were you doing this out of like a hobby is something you'd like, or were you thinking
05:20like, you know what?
05:20I actually see this as a career as a business down the line.
05:24No, it wasn't that until like many years later.
05:26So this was a hobby.
05:27I just was like, if this is a cool thing I can do and have fun with it, you know, other
05:31kids have other hobbies.
05:32This is mine.
05:33Great.
05:35I think basically when I graduated college is when I realized that this could actually
05:39be a full-time job.
05:40Gotcha.
05:40Cause you're, you're a Jersey guy.
05:42I'm a Jersey guy.
05:42You went to Stevens Tech right in Hoboken.
05:45What did you study in college and what kind of stuff were you doing like for fun then?
05:49Uh, so I studied business.
05:51That's my major.
05:52I had a bunch of sort of surrounding concentrations as they call them, uh, marketing including.
05:58But, uh, yeah, I was playing ultimate Frisbee.
06:00I was, I was kind of into coding a little bit with it and information systems.
06:05So there was a mix of stuff in there.
06:07And I think as I was going through college, I am more and more realized that I wanted
06:11to focus on making videos.
06:13And that was the thing that I wanted to sort of carve my education around.
06:17Gotcha.
06:17Yeah.
06:18And when did this, when did this start taking off?
06:20And did you have, did you, after college, did you have a day job while you were doing
06:24this or was this something you dove into?
06:25No, I had other jobs on the way to graduating college, but the day I graduated was the day
06:30it became my job.
06:32Um, it, it always, like I said, it was like a study growth.
06:35There were lots of interesting, like inflection points along the way, but yeah, I, I think
06:42it's a good thing that no one video propelled the whole thing.
06:46Gotcha.
06:46I think that's something that is maybe a little bit overrated and having something go viral.
06:50I think that's the best thing that never happened to me.
06:52What years are we talking here?
06:53When you first became pro at this?
06:552015.
06:562015.
06:57That's still pretty early in the, in the kind of the evolution of all this.
07:00Yeah.
07:00Since it's been a while since then.
07:01Yeah.
07:02What did your, when you graduated college, what did your friends and family say when
07:06you said like, I'm going to be a YouTube creator?
07:09It's funny.
07:09I don't think I ever said that to them, but if I did, they probably would have been like,
07:15yeah, that makes sense.
07:16I mean, there was, there was maybe a couple million subscribers by that point.
07:20Um, I had started to make a bigger variety of videos.
07:24So it was, it was reviews, but it was also going to tech events now and covering things
07:29as almost like a news source for people.
07:31So there was a little bit more going on by then.
07:34So I think it was, it was an actual job by then.
07:37Cause back in the beginning when there was no AdSense and there was no partner program,
07:40if you told someone, I'm going to be a professional YouTuber, they'd be like,
07:43what is that?
07:44That's not a real thing.
07:46So I think by then it had actually evolved to be a, a reasonable expectation.
07:51It's fascinating too.
07:51Cause I've been at Forbes for awhile and we were just, we had a, the magazine was separate
07:55than the.com was separate.
07:56They kept it, kept it all apart.
07:58And I remember Facebook came out and we started, we're going to hire like a social media editor
08:02and everyone was joking, saying like, oh, is that person just going to play on Facebook
08:05all day?
08:05And it's just amazing how much your social media has changed, you know, everything from
08:10you know, day-to-day journalism to what you guys are doing.
08:12Like when did this really start taking off?
08:16Um, I think it would be fair to say when I started putting full-time hours in, I think
08:21the quantity of videos went up and the quality continued to improve.
08:25So I didn't have school all day.
08:27I didn't have homework to do.
08:28So I just poured those hours into the, into the video.
08:30So it was like 2015.
08:33And then I think this, the next big evolution was getting a space dedicated for it.
08:38Cause this was like in my dorm room.
08:40It was like roll out of bed.
08:41There's the office right there.
08:44So getting a dedicated space for it and then starting to get help and build a team around
08:47it.
08:48Wow.
08:48Were companies sending you like samples and trial, trial, sorry, demos.
08:52Did they send you demo stuff all the time?
08:54Yeah.
08:55Yeah.
08:55Was your dorm room just full of, full of gear?
08:57Um, no, because you always sent it back.
09:01But yeah, so there was, I probably got more packages than anyone.
09:03Yeah.
09:03Um, yeah, I think that, that was one of the things that started surprisingly early.
09:07There were some media focused companies, even in like 2010, 2012, that would send a product
09:16to a YouTube channel and get a video out of it.
09:19And that was the way that they used to get videos out about their product.
09:22I think that was one of the first videos is I did a video about a keyboard and a mouse.
09:27So things like that were fun to see early.
09:30I even imagine like magazines have to think about like, okay, we have this magazine, we
09:33have this website, but we also want to be media forward and think about video too.
09:38So that's just something that you find that early adopters just get into super early.
09:42Gotcha.
09:42Now let's fast forward to today.
09:44This is 2015.
09:46Now it's 2024.
09:48What is your operation like today?
09:51Uh, today the operation is, I think that's a good word for it.
09:54It's a full on team effort for...
09:56How many folks you have working full time for you?
09:58Uh, about a dozen and a half.
10:00Okay.
10:01And it's a, it's a network of channels that are all sort of intertwined, but in different
10:08segments of the tech world, there's a car channel.
10:10There's the main like tech channel, the MKBHD channel.
10:12And there's a tech podcast chat show as well, a studio channel for behind the scenes stuff.
10:17So, uh, we have a studio space that we all work out of and build sets and content in,
10:23shoot around, and it's just kind of our hub.
10:26That sounds fun.
10:26I want to give like a big warehouse space.
10:28It feels like it's a PB's playhouse attack.
10:31Like it sounds very cool.
10:32It is.
10:32It is super fun.
10:33And it's a very unique space, I would say.
10:36And it kind of started off as a warehouse, but now it's kind of like half office because
10:40everyone's got a computer and has to like edit and make stuff, but then half playground,
10:44like tech warehouse type of thing.
10:46I love that.
10:46I think I'll have to go and check it out.
10:48Yeah.
10:49What is like a day in your life?
10:52There are several.
10:54Well, there's several days.
10:54Several types of days.
10:56Several types of days.
10:57I mean, weekdays, we have, I guess what I break up into pre-production days and then
11:02production days.
11:04Pre-production day might just be like half the day is brainstorming and chatting and
11:07writing and like building video ideas with the team.
11:09And then there's production days, which is we're shooting this thing all day and then
11:13bringing in media and starting to edit things.
11:16And then there's weekends.
11:19And I happen to play a sport and like have a totally different weekend job.
11:23You still play Ultimate Frisbee?
11:24Ultimate Frisbee.
11:25Exactly.
11:26And then it's right back at it on Monday.
11:28So yeah, very different types of days, but we have a bunch of days.
11:31How do you guys come up with your content and your ideas?
11:35So the main driver is what do we want to watch?
11:38Okay.
11:38Literally make what we want to exist in the world.
11:41And for me, like content strategy is a little combination of that.
11:45And like, what do we see the audience asking for?
11:47Sometimes it's very obvious.
11:48Like this device just got announced and everyone has something to say about it.
11:52Let's get our hands on it.
11:53Let's figure out if it's good or not.
11:54That's super obvious.
11:56But then there are sort of, there's background trends and interesting things
12:00happening in the industry across multiple events.
12:03And we can kind of be creative with our ideas there.
12:07But yeah, chances are, if you think it's a good video idea and you can package it
12:10well, it's probably a good video.
12:12You've been doing this for more than a decade and you've really, you know, built
12:15up this clout of, you know, you can make and break the launch of a gadget sometimes.
12:20Maybe a little bit.
12:21Yeah.
12:21Maybe a little bit.
12:22When you're reviewing these things, it's obviously a lot of responsibility.
12:24I'm sure you have a lot of pressure on both sides.
12:26When you review it, do you review it as like, I am a super expert or do you kind
12:31of put on the hat of like, I'm just the average user, like I'm going for like,
12:35I guess my question is, is it more analytical or is it feel like gut?
12:38Like how is this product gadget app make me feel?
12:41That's a really good question.
12:42It is actually now a combination of both very intentionally.
12:46And that's the challenge is actually speaking to both groups of people.
12:50The group of people that's casually kind of surfing and finding this thing for the
12:54first time, kind of stumbling into it as a beginner.
12:57A lot of that is feel and just like general functionality.
13:00But then also in the same video, talking to people who have already watched 10
13:04videos about this thing already think they know everything about it and are just
13:08looking for the 1% more information that no one else has talked about.
13:11Gotcha.
13:13All of that in one video is a super challenge.
13:15And if you just think of a basic video, like, okay, the new iPhone comes out.
13:18You want to review this?
13:20Um, how do you talk to a subscriber?
13:22Who's like, I'm not going to buy this, but I just kind of want to watch a fun video
13:26and also talk to, I wonder if the geek bench results that he gets for CPU are going to be
13:31the same ones that match up with what CNET got.
13:33Like those two groups are super different audiences and the challenge is to talk to
13:37them both.
13:37Yeah.
13:37You have the obsessive fans and then people just want, Hey, I want a phone that works.
13:41So you got to talk to both.
13:42So do you storyboard all these like a review, which sounds simple, but like, do you kind of
13:47have, it's almost a pattern these days?
13:49Yeah, I have a writing process.
13:50Like we have a, we have like a dot, a notion page, like a template for every video where
13:54we go through this process for everything.
13:55And most of what I'm doing is writing and dumping all of my notes of things that I must
14:00say in the video.
14:01And then trying to organize them in a way that flows in some sort of structure, some
14:06story, something that helps people get from beginning to end.
14:09How long will like review take from beginning to end of filming?
14:14I think it's down to a science now, probably from the moment the product shows up in the
14:19door, test that product for one to two weeks.
14:22And then we go, all right, we've got enough notes, time to make the video.
14:25That video could be done in four days.
14:26Gotcha.
14:27Yeah.
14:28Yeah.
14:28But that's incredible that it's still like, and these are 10 minute long videos.
14:32Yeah.
14:32We've, they've gotten longer over the years.
14:34If you look back, some of the early reviews, they're like three, four or five minutes long.
14:38And then a long video would be like eight minutes long.
14:41Like, dang, you made an eight minute video.
14:43That's crazy.
14:43Now it's like a short video is seven, eight, nine minutes.
14:46And the longer reviews are 30, 40, 45 minutes long.
14:51So it has evolved.
14:52It's a real production now.
14:54Yeah.
14:54Why the, I mean, I think I know the answer, but the idea of length, what makes you want
14:58to go longer?
14:59It kind of was unintentional at first.
15:01I think we just kind of had more to say and we're getting better at drawing together more
15:06compelling stories that happened to be longer.
15:08But there's also the YouTube meta of like, here's what people algorithmically seem to
15:12actually be watching.
15:13Here's what's being rewarded on the platform.
15:16And also it's fun to make feature length videos.
15:20And it's like, we have this obsession with like video gear and making cool films.
15:24And I think that also sort of fed into it.
15:26And it's good for business, right?
15:27Because the longer videos are, the more ads they can serve, you probably make more money.
15:30Potentially.
15:31Yeah.
15:31If you, if you make a 45 minute video, people have no problem sitting and watching an occasional
15:37mid-roll.
15:38If there's like a lot of good content coming after that.
15:40Yeah.
15:41Talking about that, tell me about your business.
15:42How do you make money?
15:44Yes.
15:44So like I said, the partner program, which didn't exist years ago is now sort of the
15:50core of a lot of YouTube businesses.
15:53Explain to me how that works.
15:54Yeah.
15:54YouTube.
15:54So YouTube has a monetization program where let's say I'm, I'm gonna make up, I'm Samsung.
16:01Okay.
16:02Samsung is like, I want to get my ad in front of as many tech people as possible.
16:06So I'm going to go to YouTube and say, here's my ad, put it on all the tech videos.
16:10Gotcha.
16:11YouTube goes, okay.
16:12They take that check and they take that ad and they put it on all these tech videos and
16:16they split that 55, 45 with the creators of those videos.
16:19Okay.
16:20So if I'm MKBHD and I made a tech video, boom, Samsung ad shows up in front cause YouTube
16:26sold it there and I get part of the money from that.
16:28So that's great.
16:29That's basically how the partner program works.
16:31That at this point is maybe 30% of our business.
16:34It used to be only, it used to be our only income.
16:37But now we can direct sell ads as well that are marked more well integrated into content.
16:43So again, if you're a Samsung, for example, you're like, I want my ad in front of MKBHD's
16:48next video.
16:49Okay.
16:50That's a very specific audience, but you can pay for that audience and you can get an even
16:53more specific ad for that audience.
16:56And we do those as well.
16:57Not Samsung specifically, but we'll do ads directly with companies.
17:00Do you have a sales team, internal sales team?
17:02Team of one, but yes.
17:03Team of one.
17:04Is it you or somebody else?
17:06No, something I used to do that is now.
17:07So everything that everyone does at the studio is something that I did at one point and now
17:11they handle it full time.
17:12That's terrific.
17:14How do you decide whether, cause I'm sure you're getting pitched on, I can't imagine
17:18how many pitches you get on review this, do this, do this.
17:22How do you decide whether you're going to give people that your attention and your time?
17:27That is such a specific challenge to this position that I am in.
17:32It's mainly what do we find interesting and what do we think the audience will find interesting
17:36and useful?
17:38I did do a video not too long ago, you might've even seen this, where for a month I said yes
17:43to everything in my inbox.
17:44Okay.
17:45And we ended up with a crazy assortment of everything from phone cases to headphones
17:50that didn't work to a casket.
17:53And I did a video showing all of it as a sort of.
17:55You reviewed a casket?
17:56I reviewed a casket.
17:57In fact, the intro is me popping out of the casket naturally.
18:00Was it a high tech casket or just a casket?
18:02It was just a casket.
18:03I mean, their innovation was sort of the way they sold direct to consumer instead of to
18:07general homes.
18:07But like I said, I get a lot of emails.
18:10It's the Warby Parker of caskets.
18:11Exactly.
18:12There you go.
18:12So our challenge is like, okay, you're going to get emails like that all the time.
18:16Okay.
18:17The decision is which one out of every hundred is a fun, interesting, informative, entertaining
18:24video.
18:25How'd the casket arrive?
18:25I'm kind of fascinated by this.
18:27Did it come in like a giant box?
18:28It was.
18:29Like a box?
18:30A box in a box?
18:30Hand delivered out of a crate.
18:33Yeah.
18:33It just showed up like with like styrofoam around it.
18:36Yeah.
18:36It was weird.
18:37It's kind of like you get two caskets.
18:38You get the crate and the casket.
18:39It's like two for one.
18:40It was super weird.
18:40And then we had it there for like the rest of the month while we gathered the rest of
18:43the stuff.
18:44So everyone got very used to a casket being in the middle of the studio.
18:47That's amazing.
18:47Pretty weird.
18:48What if you were going to go, if you could go back in time right now and you're going
18:53to talk to yourself, you just graduated from Stevens.
18:56You're like, I'm going to do this full time.
18:58What advice would the future you give the past you?
19:04The one thing I would say to me is set the treadmill at the right speed because there's
19:09a such thing as burnout.
19:11And I've pretty luckily avoided this because the video subject isn't me.
19:14It's the thing that I'm pointing the camera at.
19:17But it's so easy to just start cranking out tons of videos and trying to make like at
19:24one point in the platform, daily videos was the meta.
19:26Yeah.
19:26If you made daily videos and you could give YouTube enough of a corpus to serve everyone,
19:32everything all the time.
19:34And my advice would be, don't fall for it.
19:37Don't turn up the speed that high, set it at a pace that you can hold for a long time
19:41because you want to hold it for a long time.
19:43So yeah, we would definitely pass on a lot of videos and try to focus on quality over
19:49quantity.
19:49Speaking of that meta, do you watch trends?
19:51And I talked to some creators that they're so metrics algorithm focused.
19:56You said you also make videos that you want to see.
19:58Yeah.
19:58Do you do a little bit of both?
19:59Do you say, you know, I'm going to ignore the trends and just do what I feel is right?
20:02Or is the other side, and there's no wrong in that.
20:03Or the other side is I'm looking at the trends at the metrics and I want to kind of game
20:07the algo here.
20:08A little bit of both.
20:09Especially lately.
20:10Like there's slower times of the year where there's not as much tech coming out.
20:14Yeah.
20:14Like we don't have to do that at all in September because there will be tech companies
20:17just throwing stuff at our door.
20:19Like, please review our stuff.
20:20No problem.
20:21We'll find stuff to make videos about.
20:23But February.
20:24Yeah.
20:25Nothing's coming out in February.
20:26So we get a little creative and we look at some of the trends and we try to figure, okay,
20:29this, this might have something to it.
20:31Let's try something here.
20:33So we kind of play a little bit of both.
20:35We've found success with some of the quieter times of year, having like bigger projects
20:39that are not device reviews, but there will always be reviews.
20:43That's just the thing that will always be happening.
20:45What product surprised you the most?
20:46Was there one device or app or anything that you were like, I'm gonna review it.
20:50And it just totally blew your mind and kind of just blew away any expectation.
20:55This feels like a positive type of blow my mind.
20:57Yes.
20:57I want both.
20:58Give me, give me positive and negative.
20:59Yeah.
21:02A positive.
21:03So I, I reviewed the Rivian R1T a couple years ago.
21:08Is that the pickup truck?
21:08Or is that the pickup truck?
21:09Yeah.
21:09The EV pickup truck.
21:10And we got it here and it sat in the parking lot for a day and I just stared at it and I
21:14was like, is this like a, does anyone want an electric pickup truck?
21:19Like I really, I don't see those worlds of electric car buyers and pickup trucks overlapping
21:24at all.
21:25And then I drove it and I was like, oh, I see.
21:28I get it.
21:29This thing is incredible.
21:30And I loved it.
21:31That thing blew my mind.
21:33Is that your ride?
21:33So much that I bought one.
21:34Yeah.
21:34It's parked outside.
21:35I love that thing.
21:37Plenty of things.
21:38The weird thing is most products that make it to the store shelf are at least okay.
21:44Like they're a six out of 10.
21:45They're fine.
21:47And you get a rare nine or 10 out of 10.
21:48And that's a fun video.
21:50It is so rare to find a one or two out of 10 actually make it to the shelf.
21:56That's probably good for consumers.
21:57It's great.
21:57Yes.
21:58You can't really go wrong, like buying a phone these days, but like some of the AI products
22:02that came out that were like this, this new trend of we'll ship the features later, but
22:07here's the sort of MVP product.
22:09That's not quite done yet.
22:11Those products are kind of bad when they come out.
22:14They're like half baked.
22:15They kind of rush them to market.
22:17Yeah.
22:17So I don't love that.
22:18I don't love rushing to the market, but that's been something that's kind of been a weird
22:21trend with all this AI stuff lately.
22:23I have to ask, you recently came up with your own app and product and you kind of flipped
22:27from being a reviewer to someone reviewed.
22:30A hundred percent.
22:31And I saw your video and you actually, it was interesting.
22:33Like the lessons you learned and what was good and bad.
22:35How was, what was that process like?
22:36And tell me about the product.
22:38Yeah.
22:38Well, the product was a wallpaper app.
22:39So it was this kind of a special thing that I think the core of our audience has been
22:43asking for for a long time.
22:45And so we'd worked on it for over a year.
22:47And essentially the goal was to just give people one hub to find like the cool images
22:53that we've been using as wallpapers for years now.
22:57And yeah, we learned a lot, which is obviously the main thing is like, you got to have a
23:02lot of really good wallpapers for people to actually download an app for it because 99%
23:05of people aren't going to download an app for it.
23:07But even if it is good, then there's all sorts of preferences people have within using an
23:11app and like how they want to sort through things and find things.
23:13And we've evolved a lot of how search works in our app on the background.
23:18I'm learning on app development and like how the publishing and review process goes with
23:23both the Google play store and the Apple app store and like how code bases can shift and
23:27change between the two.
23:28So it's just been a massive learning process, getting sort of on the horse and like making
23:33this thing go.
23:35But yeah, it's going great now, which is really exciting.
23:37Yeah.
23:37It's funny to flip it because it's different, but obviously I'm a journalist.
23:40So I usually interview people, but there are times when people interview me.
23:43Yeah.
23:43So it's like it flipped.
23:44Yeah.
23:44And it kind of freaks me out a little bit, a little bit.
23:47What was it like again, going, you're like this, you know, king maker of a reviewer.
23:52And then suddenly you're jumping into that arena and getting reviewed yourself.
23:56Did you, what was the biggest surprise of that process?
23:58Well, it is exciting.
23:59I think my biggest learning was that I think I make a lot of reviews without as much like
24:08reaching out to the company who makes the thing for clarification on why they made a
24:13decision or how a feature came to be or why it's not done yet.
24:18And I think it was really interesting seeing reviews come out and seeing people make
24:22assertions about the product or the motivations behind it that were totally not true.
24:26And they just kind of like, it just flew out there.
24:28Like that was just what people believed at the time.
24:31So I was like, okay, that isn't a learning for me as the reviewer now is I want to double
24:36down and make sure like everything I'm saying, I'm getting the reasons behind it, right.
24:40And I'm getting the stories behind them actually correct.
24:43Because that's interesting.
24:44So it's changing the way you're reviewing.
24:45It is exactly.
24:46And I think that's a good thing.
24:47Yeah.
24:47Like you kind of, if you're on both sides of the fence, you know more about both sides
24:50of the fence and you can do both sides better.
24:52What are you excited about now?
24:54Like, and what is, you said you have like nearly 20 employees.
24:57You have a whole, a whole studio.
24:59Like what is your future kind of goals?
25:01Like you want to obviously keep on doing this and keep on evolving.
25:04Do you have other grand plans evolved?
25:07More products, more media.
25:08What's kind of like your, on your, your wishlist?
25:11I think my, my main wishlist is more better.
25:15We want to make more videos and make them better.
25:19And to make products that are in that universe, which is I think the most exciting thing.
25:25We actually have the opportunity to, to work with companies and to build products that
25:31go out and live in the real world instead of just reviewing products that other people
25:34make, which is maybe the most impactful thing we can do.
25:38And you're obviously, you have your pulse on the cutting edge of tech.
25:42What is like the state of the tech market?
25:44What are you excited about?
25:46And, you know, obviously you mentioned AI, like what's your, I'm asking you like 10
25:49questions in a row here and what's like your take on like the AI hype.
25:53But first of all, what are you excited about in tech right now?
25:55What's coming?
25:55What's going to blow our minds the next year?
25:57Well, I think it ties in.
25:58I think I get excited about like every, every tech goes through like this curve, right?
26:02Where it's like a really steep at the early adopter phase and things are getting really,
26:06really good, really fast.
26:07And then it sort of flattens out into this sort of stable, usable, mature product.
26:11Okay.
26:12And we saw that with like smartphones, for example, we got this crazy arc and then now
26:17iPhone 15 versus 16 is like, yeah, it's just almost, it's just flat.
26:20It's like they're adding, they're adding more cameras, but there's not.
26:22Exactly.
26:22A couple more neural cores.
26:24Great.
26:25That's what I get excited about is when new tech pops up and starts doing that again.
26:28So I think we're there with electric cars.
26:31I think a lot of EVs are starting this really steep curve where it's like 250 miles of range
26:36and a four second zero to 60 and being relatively heavy was normal.
26:42And then suddenly it's like the fastest cars on the planet are approaching the weight of gas cars
26:48and also have 400 miles of range and do a two seconds or 60.
26:51It's like, well, this is an awesome rate of improvement.
26:54I love looking at that, but AI is in the same place where we don't know where the.
26:59The plateau is, we just see it going crazy right now, like at the very beginning.
27:03So everyone's trying to productize it.
27:04Everyone's trying to take advantage and jump on the train, which makes perfect
27:07sense if you're a product maker, but yeah, we're trying to figure out what it's actually
27:11useful for and how high that plateau actually is, which is cool.
27:16AI wise, what's your favorite, like in the market product now?
27:19Honestly, it's the basic stuff.
27:21It's like Gemini when I like circle to search on my phone, I have like an image and I circle
27:25it and it just Googles the image for me, like basic stuff like that.
27:28So useful.
27:29Like I don't do the chat bot thing as much.
27:32It's fun sometimes for brainstorming at best, but like, yeah, the one or two like background
27:36removal in a photo features on my phone.
27:39That's, that's where I'm at.
27:40What is kind of what's your take right now on like the creator economy?
27:44What do you see it going?
27:45Like, where do you think we're at right now?
27:47It has been, it has been really fun to watch the constant growth and maturity of the creator
27:53economy.
27:53I think a lot of people saw it as a sort of a background noise and it never really looked
28:00like a threat to any other industries.
28:02And then suddenly it's, it kind of is one of the biggest industries in the world and
28:07something people have to take seriously, which I think is exciting.
28:12So, yeah, I think I try to open as many doors as possible.
28:15I think there's a lot of, a lot of creators, a lot of tech creators, a lot of YouTubers
28:19that are all trying to make their best stuff.
28:21And if I can open some doors for them by connecting to companies or starting new projects or just
28:28taking risks on things, then ideally, uh, rising tide lifts all ships and everything
28:33gets better.
28:33And now like a self-serving question for me, obviously Forbes, traditional media, also
28:38cutting edge.
28:39What should traditional media be doing?
28:41Watching, evolving in this ever expanding media space where there's no more gatekeepers
28:48and, but brands don't matter.
28:50Yeah.
28:50Uh, I think so Forbes and brands like that have this unique brand cachet that you obviously
28:56want to capitalize on.
28:58But on the other hand, like audiences are driven to people and personalities.
29:02And the more that you can highlight that, the more I think people will latch onto that
29:08in association with the brand.
29:09So there's a lot of, a lot of brands who've been doing it successfully.
29:12They'll sort of connect brand to person and that can be latched onto by audiences.
29:17I think a lot of them make a mistake of having like 10 faces and then no one knows who to
29:22latch onto.
29:23And then it kind of gets diluted that way.
29:25So I think having strong characters and, and sort of connecting them to the brand is a,
29:31is a great way to take advantage of that.
29:33There's a lot of competition in the newsroom then Marques.
29:35For sure.
29:35It's true.
29:36Speaking of characters, are you, is the Marques on camera the same as the Marques on the ultimate
29:40Frisbee field or at home?
29:42Oh, kind of yourself or do you kind of put on a persona on, on film?
29:46I, I would say I'm lucky enough that I, I turn up maybe 10 or 20% on film, which is,
29:53it's nice.
29:54I don't have, I think a lot of people are like the subject of the video.
29:57So they have to turn up like 200% on film and I see that difference and that looks exhausting
30:01to me.
30:02Yeah.
30:02You come up, you come across chill, even keeled, kind of like you are now.
30:05So it's not like you're yourself.
30:07Right.
30:07And I think it would be kind of tiring in videos to be 250% of that.
30:13So, um, yeah, we, the focus is, is the gadgets.
30:16They're the star of the show.
30:17They're the ones that have the pressure to turn up and be exciting.
30:20Um, but then yeah, total switch flip on the, on the field, on the, on the ultimate stuff.
30:27It's like, that's, I turn off that half of my brain and I wake up the other half, the
30:30competitive half of my brain.
30:31So that's a, that's a different person entirely, but yeah, I think it's, it's thankfully not
30:37some huge exaggeration.
30:38All right.
30:39Two more bonus questions.
30:40What gadget in your life has changed your life the most?
30:47One single gadget has changed my life the most.
30:50I mean, it's hard not to say my smartphone, but I'm trying to give a more interesting
30:54answer than my phone.
30:56Um, one that's stuck with me a lot, and this might be a super niche answer, but I'm gonna
31:02say it anyway, is the lens that I've been using in the longest.
31:06Okay.
31:06Which is the Sigma 24 to 35.
31:10And it's like an SLR camera or a video camera?
31:12This is a lens that attaches to the camera and it is a particularly wide angle zoom with
31:17a fast aperture.
31:19And that has been the lens that I have used for like first person video, uh, talking head
31:24videos for a lot, for years at this point.
31:28And there's still nothing else quite like it.
31:30The fact that I can have the camera and arms length away, but still have a wide enough
31:34that you can see everything, see me.
31:36And it's an F1.8 lens.
31:37So you can sort of open up and get a blurry background.
31:41Something about that combo.
31:42I've just, I'm such a fan of that Sigma wide angle lens that I, I've used it for years.
31:47I think that's something.
31:48You really are a photo geek.
31:49That's really, really cool.
31:50Yeah.
31:50And my last question is if you and I are sitting here together in two years, we're talking
31:56tech, we're talking gadgets.
31:57What is top of mind?
31:59What are we, what is going to be dominating kind of the world?
32:01Two years.
32:02I'm bad at predicting the future, but I can try just because of how strong this AI push
32:09has been.
32:10Maybe in two years, we finally landed on a couple key.
32:15Like killer apps, basically like features that are AI driven that people actually use
32:21out in the real world.
32:22Because it feels like that's what everyone's trying to find and throwing everything at
32:26the wall and seeing what sticks.
32:28So maybe in two years, we found that.
32:29Wow.
32:29Perfect.
32:30Yeah.
32:30Well, Marques Brownlee, thanks for joining us on top creators.
32:33Thanks for having me.