Y Combinator Startup Podcast - #118 - Marques Brownlee

Episode Date: March 21, 2019

Marques Brownlee is a YouTuber. He has over 8 million subscribers to his channel MKBHD where he reviews electronics, drives electric vehicles, and interviews people such as Kobe Bryant and Bill Gates.You can find Marques on YouTube and on Twitter at @MKBHD.The YC Podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.***Topics00:00 - Intro00:26 - What does Marques attribute his channel's success to?2:41 - The early days5:11 - How does he go about evaluating a product?7:31 - Features that Marques thought were great that didn't catch on8:41 - Peak smartphone?10:31 - Folding phones and new trends11:26 - Tesla and the EV market15:46 - Getting older and staying relevant17:06 - New kinds of videos and podcasting22:26 - Does Marques feel limited by gear?26:11 - Storytelling techniques28:16 - Tech vs Marques as the star of the show29:56 - Marco Castro asks - What advice do you have for new creators on YouTube?30:56 - When did Marques find his voice as a creator?33:56 - Overcoming perfectionism 34:56 - Gut instinct vs data37:26 - YouTube comments39:31 - Austin Ryder asks - In the early years of his channel, Marques took a several month hiatus from YouTube, but then came back with a new video format and seemingly renewed drive. What happened during those months off that led to the channel becoming what it is today?40:41 - Winston asks - What’s your daily schedule?43:06 - Ultimate frisbee injuries43:26 - Amad Khan asks - Are there any problems that you see or face that you really wish engineers/developers would solve?44:51 - Christian Giordano asks - Any tips on how to engage/work with influencers when you are a very early stage startup with little or no money?46:41 - The future of creators supporting themselves financially49:31 - His biggest challenge as a creator50:31 - Long-term goals

Hey, how's it going? This is Craig Cannon, and you're listening to Y Combinators podcast. Today's episode is with Marquez Brownlee. Marquez is a YouTuber. He has over 8 million subscribers to his channel, MKBHD, where he reviews electronics, drives electric vehicles, and interviews people such as Kobe Bryant and Bill Gates. You can find Marquez on YouTube and on Twitter at MKBHD. All right, here we go. All right, Marquez Brownlee. How's it going? Good. How are you? Doing well. So I'm curious. I followed your channel for a while, but I definitely did not follow it in the beginning when you were reviewing software on your laptop. You've been doing it for a long time. What would you attribute your success to on YouTube? Well, I do tech videos. So I think the obvious answer there is tech has been interesting and important for so long that just being in a tech space generally for that long has.

has done a lot for it. Yeah. The channel itself, I mean, there's plenty of other successful tech channels, but it has its own unique style. It has a consistent voice. It's been me for 10 years. Yeah. So I guess just if you combine all those factors, consistency plus tech staying interesting,

that's mainly it. Hmm. Was there any particular inflection point where it really took off? No, I get asked that a lot about like, you know, can I point to a certain video or a date or month or something? Like what happened to go from like nothing to where it is now? But I've from to this day I look back and it's mainly just like a you can look at charts even. It's just a sort of an upward slope from zero videos to a thousand videos.

You know, it's obviously when you get to certain points like the reputability is that a word? The reputability of the channel becomes more significant. So you're more likely to subscribe to a tech guy with a million subscribers talking about something you should buy. then a guy with 100. So that's helped. But I feel like a consistency again is major. Really? Because, yeah, I mean, I follow a couple subredits on like weird YouTube channels.

And there are people that have a thousand videos reviewing elevators, like simple boring shit. Well, I mean, there's always going to be like niche stuff, which people will get really into. But I think like when it comes to something as personal as a tech product, you kind of want some sort of history to go on or sort of a reputation. to look back on when it's like a thousand phones are $1,000 now. So, yeah, I think that's helped being able to have a history of stuff. Hmm. And because in the beginning, you were just doing software, right? Right.

For the most part. Free software. Yeah. And then did you start getting phones sent to you in like the early days of influencer culture? I remember early days pretty well. It was, I'd started with all this laptop stuff. So the first stuff that got sent to me was, laptop accessories.

Okay. A mouse, a keyboard, that kind of stuff. Some paid software. I would get like a key for $30 off a $50 piece of software and I could have that access. So that was awesome. Okay. Phone stuff didn't happen until much later. I remember the first event I ever went to was a Samsung event in New York City where I met a

YouTuber for the first time. Okay. That was probably like six years in. So it took a while. You were in it for a while. Yeah. You know, I grew up getting like pirated keys off lime wire and all that kind of stuff. Did you ever dip into that and think like, man, maybe I should review Final Cut Pro on my channel?

Oh, man. At one point I definitely did a whole Hackintosh thing. Oh, you did. Which was definitely not, you know, kosher, I guess. But, you know, Hackintosh world is a whole world. So I was curious about it and I got into it. I don't, I was never really into like, you know, downloading pirated music. or any of that stuff, but I could imagine that was its own world for a long time.

Yeah, yeah, because I was curious, because as a kid, you have no money when you're starting out your channel. Yeah. And I wonder if you grew up with that hacker ethos, like, have you done a teardown video before or anything like that? Not really. I mean, I used to be much more into building PCs and taking them apart and upgrading them. I had a Mac, one of those, the Tower, desktop Mac Pro. The G5? Yeah, I did, like, I was replacing the GPU and, and, and upgrade. the RAM and all that and I had an XPS tower that I had the same thing to. But I guess I never was really fully into the building process as much as I was the final result, how well that finished product would work for you. Okay. But when I watch your videos now, you're pretty

into the stats of it all. Like all those like hard metrics with the products, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it attracts you in some way. Yes. I mean, I think if you just look at, if you take a huge step back and just look at what the videos are about, period. Especially with the reviews, it's like how good is this product that this company made going to work for you? And there's a whole bunch of different ways to measure that. I'm trying to measure that. So what are those metrics?

I've heard you talk about it before in the context of like this is a feature that's going to maybe like spark some interests and this is a feature that I'm going to use every day. Yeah, like gimmick versus daily. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's one way. I mean, I kind of, you can pick up a phone and use a really cool feature for two seconds.

You're like, whoa, that's amazing. But when you actually buy the phone, are you going to use that feature? I'm trying to evaluate that. There's all sorts of benchmarks and things people do, like how fast is the storage, how much RAM does it have? How fast is this chip? And that stuff is useful, obviously, if you have more demanding needs for your phone. But a lot of it is literally just evaluating, like, is this a gimmick or is this really going to be daily driver material? One thing I was talking about on a recent podcast is how it's very hard for the market to recognize how good a product's quality is.

Like, just that actual feel. Like when you touch an iPhone for the first time. Yeah. Right. And so, like, how do you go about quantifying that when you're making video? I mean, it's really, sometimes I see my job as, like, a professional user. I really just have to use it and you get the briefing obviously

and the breakdown of all the new features and what is new versus what's not new and you can compare it to things you've used before but at the end of the day you actually have to use it to figure out if it's actually useful. So yeah there's all kinds of use cases they'll tell me about a new feature

and they'll tell me exactly there's some New York for you how it like the ideal use case scenario how it works well. This came up recently because I did a video with an LG phone that came out. It has this feature where you wave your hand over it and do these gestures to open up apps and things like that. It's called the G8.

Okay. And like on the surface, like this is cool. This is like future type stuff. But then you actually use it and you're like, all right. So I don't know what I have stuff on my hands. Maybe I'm cooking. But I just want to like open the YouTube app real quick and search for something like, now what?

Like I have to still type in what I want to search. Like there's, there's limits to the usefulness of that. So that, for me, fell in the gimmick bucket just because using it actually changed my mind. But then what about the features where you thought it was great and it didn't catch on? Are there examples of that? Well, there's lots of examples of things that are great to me that aren't a big deal to other people. Like, I love high resolution, really nice screens. Okay.

And you can hand me a phone with a 1440p. Amelad, great display. and you could hand me a phone with a 1080p LCD display, and I'd look and I'd immediately want the better one. Yeah. But to an average person, a lot of times, whatever, like they both look fine to me. One of them's bigger. I like the bigger one.

So sometimes there will be things that I'll evaluate. I'll be like, you've got to get this because it's got a great screen, and it won't matter to a lot of people. Yeah. But at least then you can calibrate yourself to what I've in the past liked a lot. So in the past, if I keep saying, like, I really like. like these phones because of their screens, and you know from your past experience that screens aren't a big deal to you, then you can at least say, right, I'll discount this point because

screens aren't my thing. Okay. Yeah, because I've kind of wondered if we're going to reach a point of complete diminishing returns with smartphones, right? You're like, oh, man, you know, iPhone 10 or whatever. Like, this is awesome. iPhone 11, is it 100% better? Unlikely.

Right? Yeah. So, like, do you think we're going to reach peak smart? phone? Peak smartphone. It's a common question. Yeah. I don't.

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

And then it changed to like, okay, now we want. these bezelist phones. So thickness, whatever, it's just going to be thin. That's just the way it is. But now can we get a 90% screen to body ratio? Can we get this notch smaller? Can we get 93% 95? Eventually we're going to be like, have we hit peak?

Like we got the whole screen. Yeah. And then the next trend is going to happen. I don't know what that next trend is, but I feel like because of I've observed these cycles over the past couple years, it doesn't seem likely that it's just going to, we're going to get this end product of like the perfect phone. I mean, maybe we will. that would be great.

Yeah. But yeah, I don't see that. I mean, I know a lot of people are holding on to, you know, iPhone basically five form factor. Well, that's definitely true. Yeah. Phones are better and they last longer. Yeah. Than they ever did.

So in that sense, we're closer to peak smartphone because your iPhone, if you buy an iPhone 10S now, that phone's probably going to be good for like four years. Like legitimately, iOS has gotten better. So it's true. You can hang on to an older phone longer thing you used to be able to. Yeah. But that's also. something tech companies got to think about when they make their next product.

Yeah. Yeah. So what do you make of these new trend, like folding things, like new trends right now? There's a lot of folding one is one of those interesting ones because I'm trying to imagine the future of like why folding phones matter. At this point, like Generation 1 folding phones are like, all right, proof of concept. Like you can technically fold it, but there's a big ugly crease in the middle on these bezzzles are huge and you know it's it's not really uh it doesn't seem that useful yet okay

but that challenge is to like okay go like eight nine years down the road where it's like oh yeah you can just you have a tablet and a phone and you just unfold your phone and becomes a tablet like in that world it was worth it like two 2019 folding phones were worth it because we got to that point yeah so if we get to that point someday then I think okay it'd be worth it but okay so so then I've not notice you filmed a bunch of Tesla videos, right? Based on, you know, the ratio of types of content on your channel, are you just betting electric vehicles is the next big trend? Partially, yes, and partially, I just love the thing. Yeah, I mean, but that's like a cool

signal, right? Like, I remember people wouldn't shut up about their iPhones when they got them. And the same thing is true for the Model S. Yes, and that's a comparison. I've heard, like, the Tesla is the iPhone of cars again. Like, it's kind of just that, that next wave and electric does seem like it's future. You see all these big companies like, yeah, we're going to go electric by 2028. I'm like, great, someday. Yeah, no, I'm a huge fan of the Tesla and it's like, it's kind of like a perfect segue into me.

I've always been into cars, but like I'm 25. Like, how into cars could I be really? I don't drive all kinds of cars and stuff. But the Tesla was a perfect segue into cars because it's a tech product. Yeah. It has all these tech features. It's basically a tech company. So it was sort of a natural segue into the car world.

Yeah, because I was a perfect segue into the car world. I've just been curious, like, on the performance side, how much it actually matters. Because if you look around, you know, obviously the model has nuts to drive, right? Yeah. But then, you know, the Prius is, have you driven a Prius before? Yeah. It's not the most exciting. It works.

It gets you there. Right. And so, yeah, I've been kind of wondering where the EV market will end up going because the Model 3 is also pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, yeah. What's your impression of, like, the low-end EV market?

The thing about EV is you still get like that quick torque. So even though the performance from like, you know, your 60 to 90 might not be like high-end gas car territory, most of the acceleration and like merging and quick things you do on an EV, even a low-end EV is still like zippy. Like you still feel like you're in that like zippy go-kart type of feel. Even in like I drove a model three when it first came out and so it was rear wheel drive. I'm pretty sure the zero to 60 is like five and a half seconds or something, which is fine. but like that car felt quick. Okay.

Like I'd step on the pedal and I felt like zippy like I was in modelist. So even low end EVs will have that feel and that's attractive to people. I think a lot of people overrate how much sound matters. Like in the high end car market, everyone cares how their car sounds. But for, you know, 90% of people who are just like... Do you mean interior or the actual engine sound? Yeah, the engine sound. Okay.

Like when I hit the pedal, I want to hear it working for me. Like, that's a common, like, resistance to the EVs. So, but, yeah, I think for, like, 90% of people or taxis or just commuter vans or just basic transportation, like, silence is great. Huh. And in terms of features within the car? They tend to be ahead, I think. I mean, maybe I'm just because I'm looking mostly at Tesla, but, like, the amount of things, you know, having a smartphone-controlled app where you can summon the car to you, like, all these, these are. Remote start, stop features in gas cars are great, but when you look at the amount of, I mean, Tesla's a tech company, so you see all kinds of tech features in the car.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I guess I just kind of wonder, like, where, because you spend so much time reviewing products, both like smartphones and cars and stuff. Like, you kind of get an impression of the bleeding edge, but I'm wondering, like, where you're seeing it going, like, things that are just popping up where you're like, oh, that's actually a super cool feature that people aren't talking about or thinking about right now in the context of cars. I mean, honestly, just going electric and the number one thing you think about is charging. Where do you charge it? Like, how fast does it charge? How long does the battery last? Things like that. Those basic questions.

The more, like, those big companies think about answering those questions, like Ford and, like, Chevy and those big guys. Yeah. The more you realize how far ahead Tesla is, but how far there is to go to actually make a EVs useful for most people. But I think, you know, the basic premise is you're just going electric. Like, you just put a battery in it, you charge it, and you drive it the same way a normal car drives. But I don't think there's any sort of magic sauce to it other than that.

You just kind of have to get to. So it's more like on the infrastructure side. It's really important getting it on. Yeah, obviously. Which is less flashy and like, you know, magic feature that's winning the market over. But it's like that's what you have to nail to make a good EV. Mm, okay. And so, you know, now you're, you said you're 24.

Yeah, so now that you're 25, do you feel like there's going to be a point where you have less of a pulse on like the new cool stuff? Oh, I'm so scared of that. Yeah. Dude, I'm 29 and I'm like, oh, no. Do you feel out of 29? Like, I don't know, it's, I'm scared of being that, that, like, old guy who's, like, out of touch. Like, but at least, at least I think that process will be slower for me because I'm so immersed in it now. Yeah.

Like, with music, maybe I'm already there. Like, music, new music comes out of that, like, the, I tried to listen to. to like the Billboard 100, like whatever the other day. And I was just like, this is objectively bad. Like, I can't. I can't do this. I clearly am out of the loop. But I guess with tech, I don't know, maybe I'm a little more immersed so that might

take longer. Yeah. Or it's just near and dear to your heart. So it really matters. Yeah. Well, there's also hope because there are plenty of much older, you know, tech journalists and tech YouTubers who are doing their things. I mean, if you stay like in that world.

it's kind of just part of what you're doing every day. No, and I know plenty of older people who are way more into music than I am and like catch things early. Yeah. But it is this like core fear as a, you know, creative person where you're like, dude, am I my old school right now? Am I out of it? Am I out of it?

Yeah. Yeah. So do you, uh, does that fear like motivate you to try like weirder YouTube stuff? Or are you like kind of, you know, this kind of phone, whatever? video works and I'm just going to keep banging it out. I don't know if, yeah, I mean, I'm definitely trying to diversify the breadth of coverage, you might call it. I don't think that's out of fear of like forgetting what's popular.

I think that's just because like I'm interested in other things. So there's other ways to talk about them. So there's the reviews and there's smartphone stuff, but there's also the car videos now, which is the autofocus series. But there's also like, I'm meant to put. production naturally because that's what I'm doing all the time. So I'm doing this whole like spaces series where I'm talking to other creators and how they use their space.

I'm ideally starting a podcast pretty soon where I can just talk with people about things like this. So there's, I think that just comes from like all the other things that I've become interested in. Of course. Through, you know, making tech videos. Interesting. So what else would be on the podcast?

I want to talk to other creators. That's like probably in the, the main thing because that's not something that is readily available to me. I think like when you get to a certain place in this creative world, there's no longer like an article you can go read to figure out how to do something. Like when you're starting YouTube, you can figure out like what's the best DSLR for a thousand bucks and then buy it and find the lens that works best with it and then start from there.

But like when I'm trying to figure out like, hmm, how do I best like start a new series given the current uploads and like the pace of, you know, the way things are moving, like all these nuanced questions that don't necessarily have answers, but that other creative people think about to just talk with people about that kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean, it sounds a lot like just strategy, right? Where like two things can simultaneously be true, but you have to pick one. Yeah. And that that can be a little intimidating, I guess, and helpful.

Yeah. So like, yeah, it's less math, more just like, I don't know, it's just strategy. Yeah, strategy and like creative insight. Yeah. Yeah. And so what are you going to try and like innovate in your podcast in any way? Because what I'm kind of fishing for is like, you know, obviously YouTube video, right? Like what are the other mediums that you're like testing out to feel like, oh, maybe there's an audience here?

Like maybe I can break ground here. Yeah. I feel like video as a medium is my favorite by far. So I think. I don't think about new mediums as much as I think of new ways to do video, new topics, new formats within video. Podcasting being like a sort of an auxiliary way to also talk. Is that Bixby? I don't know.

That is Bixby. I've never even heard it in real life. And I've never intentionally triggered Bixby. So that's like the third or fourth time that it's thought I've been talking to it. where was I? Oh, I mean, video, yeah. I think I'm still trying to figure out the whole video thing generally. And that might be a battle I never win, but I feel like that's, that's going to be taking up most of my time is doing different types of videos. Okay. Okay. And so have you tried 360? Have you tried VR? Like, have you tried these new formats? I have. I've tried one. I've

published one 360 video. Okay. And it was one that I thought was a really good idea. It was a studio tour. So it would be like you're sort of moving around the studio, but you can also look around and see what's behind you and around you. So you sort of feel like you're in that space. That's a good use of VR. And that was fun. But that was one of those things where like I struggled to find other genuinely productive

uses for it in my case. Yeah. It's awesome for games. I love it for games. I love it for other stuff. But for video, it's been sort of a head scratcher. Well, it's very, we did a podcast with Jessica Brillhart, who's a VR creator. in New York.

And it's a difficult storytelling challenge because with film, you're inherently controlling the viewpoint of your audience. Yeah. And with games, you lose that. You explore.

Right, exactly. So very, like, natively fits in. But even just, like, the prep involved in, like, shooting a 360 video. Like, right now, a bunch of, like,

wires and shit dangling all over the place. It's no big deal when the camera can control that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's another challenge. I mean, the rig we use was really cool. Like, we could have,

Yeah, basically like you, it's not like literally following me around, but it went from place to place. And we had a couple of set up places around the studio. So the video would move between these places and you could follow me around. But yeah, that's like that to me was like peak 360. Like I figured it out. This is the best use of 360 in my case. Real estate. Yeah.

But outside of that, yeah, it's been like maybe a car, maybe just tours in general. Like a lot of car stuff is hard because it's such a. small space. Maybe getting a smaller rig in there where you can sort of look around as if you're in the car. That's tough. Yeah. But do you feel limited by cameras in any way at this point?

Only slightly. Okay. And I feel like I'm like not even allowed to complain because the cameras I use are so obscene. But on occasion, I wish the camera had autofocus. I wish the camera was smaller. I wish the camera's battery lasted longer. But those are like pretty minor things. as far as, because I can still get the image I want eventually if I work hard enough.

You don't have autofocus on all your cameras? I don't. Really? Is it just the lens or the actual camera? The camera essentially, it has a really, really poor auto focus system, but it's a red camera and no one uses autofocus for red cameras, so they don't really work on it. So it's not good. So it's manual focus all the time.

And that has its downsides, obviously, especially when we're doing car stuff, trying to do fixed focus car stuff when the car moves all the time. It's tricky. There's a lot of weird things with fixed focus. But we've messed with rigs where we can do remote follow focus stuff and all kinds of other hacks to get around it. Okay. But yeah, that's like one of those weird things.

Do you do much drone stuff? A little bit for cars. It's funny because I always wanted to do drone stuff, but for the longest time I was mostly doing like handheld gadgets. So it felt like, what do I need a drone for? Like it's just going to fly away from me holding an iPad. Like, that's not that compelling. But now that we're doing car stuff, yes, there's plenty of use for drones.

Okay. Have you mounted anything to the hood? I don't know. Like those giant gimbals, have you tried that out yet? We've gone, we've gotten a little into that. Like, we have this whole, I guess we're always trying to make, you know, set-ups for scenarios. Yeah. And I think the next scenario setup we're working on is like the chase car.

How do you shoot a car from any angle you want from another car? So you can obviously go out the side because there's a window where you can get a sliding door. We shot out the back. So we have the lift gate go up and you can go like hold a gimbal out of the back. But shooting the back of a car in front of you is hard because there's a sloped windshield. So it's distorted. So do you hang out the side, but then you're off axis. So there's kind of a weird problem with shooting the back of a car.

Okay. That's like one of those things we're working on. I guess putting something on the hood would be a way to shoot a car in front of you. but then you're fixed in your height, so you can't really go low. But then there's those camera cars that have a jib on top of it, and you can go all kinds of angles. So that might be fun. But as of right now, that's pretty early.

Yeah, this is a funny creator problem because industry people have figured this out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like if you see like professional, you know, like Tesla shoots, like they got it locked down. Yeah, absolutely. But like Marquez, individual YouTube guy, like just to fly to L.A. And like film on the PCH, like the question. it's like how do you do that and so that those are the kinds of questions that you're curious about yep

okay yeah and there's not like a youtube or network where you just like call call up whatever there's i mean there are youtube friends that also have similar questions like we can talk about it all we want i've had a couple friends who are obviously in la because that's where almost everyone is but um and we talk about gear all the time and like production strategy in a way like how do you shoot these things yeah um we've collaborated on one of the last things we did was when we interviewed Elon, we did a factory tour. Yeah. Which was like, how do you shoot a factory tour with like two people walking through it?

Do you just have one person hold the camera while you're out? Or do you have a person next to it? You know, that's like that was a whole thing where we had to figure out how to do that. But yeah, and the industry has got it all locked up. Yeah. But it's also, I think what a lot of people could get from you is like storytelling techniques. Because that at the core of it, like obviously the product. the cool, right? But like, you're a storyteller too, right? And so when you're going to go and do an

interview with Elon, and I saw most of your interviews are like 10 minutes, 15 minutes long, right? I assume it's cut down to. Yeah, yeah. And a lot of it also is because they're really busy people. Yeah. And that's just all the time that we get with them and then all we have. But yeah, it's like a, it's like a happy medium of talking a little longer than a five minute video. Yeah, which is a nice format for YouTube. Like we've tried both. And I mean, I'm so impressed with Rogan. He's like three video. Yeah. People are into it.

Yeah. He's amazing. So when you think about like, okay, I'm, maybe we should do a product scenario, right? Like, how do you think about storytelling in the case of a review? Context. So what came before it, what came next to it, what it's up against. And momentum in a way. So let's like a new phone comes out.

You naturally compare it to the phone that came before it. And then you compare it to other phones. around it and how much those stepped forward versus how much it stepped forward. And that right there can be enough of an interesting story for a lot of devices that come out. I remember when iPad Pro came out. Yeah. That story was like iPad was already so far ahead in tablets. And then iPad Pro took a massive step forward versus the last iPad.

Like this is obscene how much like there is no other $1,300 tablet I would even consider. Like that's alone in its category, which is really fascinating. So yeah, I guess those two things. Like the context of other products that exist next to it and what came before it. Okay. And when it comes to storytelling of you as a person, like expanding it, like all the gross words, like personal brand and all that stuff. Where do you go? Like how do you tell your story and then how do you fit in what your future plans and hopes are?

I guess I kind of, I do less of that because I consider tech the star of the show. Okay. I think I do inject my own personal humor or perspective on occasion just because it's fun, keeps it interesting. And that's its own challenge. But I've always considered tech the star of the show. And any way I can, I try to make that the main story. Interesting.

And so that will just continue to drive future projects for you. Yeah. I mean, the one string that ties everything together is it's coming from me. So it's always the same perspective. So like when you see a new car video, like with Top Gear, for example, you know that guy has driven these cars before. So he's going to think of it in the context of all those other cars. Okay. So when I do a car video, you know I'm going to compare it to the other four or five cars I've driven, which are electric.

So, like, that's the difference between, you know, a car video from me and someone else. But at the end of the day, the car is the thing. Is the thing. Like, that's what I'm talking about and sharing with people. But I guess I'm probably underweighting how important my own personal voice is, but I really try to make the tech the star of the show. Well, I think it's the focus in your video. I appreciate the modesty.

But, like, there are how many million YouTube channels of people reviewing phones. True, true. Very true. So you've stood out in some way. So you got like 100 plus questions from Twitter. Sure. I want to answer some of them. We're going to skip the middle initial for 10 million subscribers.

Yes, yes, yes, of course. But there are a lot of best practices around YouTube. You may have answered these before. But Marco Castro asked, what advice do you have for new creators on YouTube? New creators. new creators being pretty broad because you can be a new creator in tech or a comedy or a new photographer. You know, there's all kinds of new creators. But on YouTube generally, like if I was starting over today, I would kind of do a lot of what I'm doing now, which is like you take your inspiration from other places, but you always have to come back to your own voice and your own perspective.

Don't try to be something else that already exists, or there won't be any reason to watch it. It already exists. So find your own new angle, your own new voice, your own new way of showing or talking about things. And then get started. And a lot of it just comes to luck, and YouTube's kind of saturated.

Yeah, the consistency is very important. When do you think you found your voice as a creator? I think super early. Really? I've always been like, I want Krispy, video, I want high quality, I know what I want. Like, I think that came at the very beginning. Even when I was, oh man, doing these tutorial videos. Yeah, I watched a couple of their fun. Oh, God. Yeah, I'm sorry. No, it's, I love going. Like, you went through puberty on YouTube. Essentially, yeah. Yeah, there's all

these, I did all these tutorial videos, which are just screencasts. So it's just my screen and a mouse moving. And I was obsessed with getting the highest frame rate possible and the smoothest motion blur of my cursor on the screen. It's so stupid, but like, I've always wanted that production to facilitate the story as best as possible. I want the quality to be, like, as realistic as it can be so that it's not a distraction. Yeah. And that's still the way it is.

Like, I, my product, the whole almost like schick is like overproduced, like, really filming it under a real. It's a lot. Exactly, yeah, overly realistic. But to the point where, like, if you look at this video on your screen, you'll feel the closest to actually holding it in real life. Like, that's the goal. So I think that, I don't know if that's my voice or just my style, but I found that to be

a priority pretty early. Well, I think it's kind of a combination, right? Because you both, you have your taste, which I think the world has decided is good. Sure. And, yeah, and then just your, like, hardened opinion that this is going to be super high quality. Right. Right. And so did you grow up with these, like, values given to you, or is it a personal thing?

you just were born with? I guess it must have been instilled in me in some way. I mean, I've always been into tech, and tech has always had a, like, an emphasis on, like, we're the best, we're the highest quality. But they're, like, hardcore, like, this is the highest quality mentality. That's a great question. I guess it's just what I decided I wanted at some point.

I never really thought about that. It's just, it seems like it would be every, one's goal when I think about it. Like, striving for the highest quality production, it was a no-brainer to me. And I guess it's when you end up in the position where you're able to, you know, use really high-end equipment and, like, you can make more of what you want because of the position you're in. Yeah.

It's even more of a no-brainer because the barrier is lower. But I guess, yeah, that challenge to make. like the perfect video is like so the air quotes for audio listeners like that's that's always probably going to be a moving goal post yeah you're always reaching for it and it's always slipping away but there's something innate in you right and i think in a lot of people who are maybe i wouldn't go so far as always calling people perfectionists but to like want to do it over again and over again and over again until it's just right that's a thing that's a thing that creators have to overcome and that a lot of times you don't want to like if you end up like I would consider myself

borderline like perfectionist and some stuff I remember doing like SAT stuff where it was like okay you have to write this essay you're going to get the topic and like you have to write it right then like I want to think about this for a couple days before I actually put a pen to paper and like you just have to spit out three pages and hopefully it's good enough like that's kind of the way YouTube is like a new phone just came out go like you don't get to sit on this for a while. Like you, you form the best thing you can. And if it's 95% there and it's done, that's better than 99% there and still working on it. That's a, that's a barrier for me. Like, I wish I could take more time with a lot of stuff. But tech just moves fast. So you just

kind of have to evolve your, your production and ideally make the best thing you can. And do you, do you follow your listeners? Do you follow your gut when it comes to making choices? Like, is there, like, a data-driven approach to what kind of videos? you're making? No, I'd say it's almost no data at all. It's, I mean, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get, yeah, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get, you get the, yeah, you get, you get the, you're, or, like, you, you could have spent more time on, I wish you'd gone into this more, or, uh, I was wondering about this, and I'm glad you addressed it, like, certain things like that. Okay. Um, were, and I guess the only data comes down to is like, I made a six minute video on this phone, but I left out these three things. I wonder if an eight-minute video would have been watchable. Like, knowing all the other things that go into YouTube and retention and how long people watch and the attention span of the internet, I guess that's all data, but at the end of the day, I'm just like,

I guess, yeah, I probably could have included that. Or maybe I didn't have to go into that much detail about this new camera. It's almost the same as last year. Yeah. Like that kind of stuff. Wow, a 12-minute video could have been nine minutes and said almost the same thing. information density is my writing challenge. I'm trying to fit as much structurally sound information

that's like followable to most people as possible, which in tech is, I don't know if that's more or less of a challenge, probably more. Well, it's tough to decide what's most valuable to people. That's mainly it. Like I, a lot of people will, the best comments you get, really or that I get are from people who have never seen the videos before. And a lot of times they'll say, oh, you know, these are videos for like the mainstream buyer, like not for the

hardcore tech person. But all the information that goes into saying those top level things, the way I said them, came from all the depth of using the device and all the hardcore stuff that I left out. So in a way, it feels like, oh, I should just include everything so that they know that I'm like really into what I'm talking about. Yeah, I'm legit, guys, I swear. But it becomes less presentable that way. It becomes verbose that way. Like I can say the same thing, five different ways.

But the shortest, most succinct, complete way is usually the best way. So that's what I've been trying to do. That's kind of the mark of someone who really knows what they're talking about, too. Like, if you can teach it to someone who's 10 years old, then you can explain it. And it's also the selling point of a lot of great companies, you know, Apple being... Absolutely. For most. All right.

Before we go more into the YouTube questions, dude, how do you deal with YouTube comments? I've, I think people really hate YouTube comments, and for whatever reason, it hasn't been that bad for me. Now, I can say lately, meme culture has made its appearance

in my comments section far more often in the past couple months for an unnamed reason. Yeah. I'll just say it's Will Smith's fault. But I think the comments section has actually been pretty helpful and pretty great for me for the past couple years. And whether that's like, because I kind of, I can also separate the comment section into kind of three categories. Hour one of upload, which is like useless. It's mainly just people saying either first or reacting to the title and thumbnail and not actually watching the video or just like getting something in to hopefully get a response.

Like the first hour is not really very useful. Then there's like hour two through 24, which is like people watching the video and being somewhat thoughtful before leaving what I'd consider a useful comment. And then there's people who are finding it in search. So this is no longer subscribers. This is people who were looking for something about this device, found this video, clicked it hoping for something and left a comment based on what they watch. Those are the most useful comments. So if you can divide that, like if all you're reading is the first three hours of comments, you're like, this is useless, I hate YouTube comments.

Yeah. But if you can sort of stitch those out into like what's coming from what audience, then it can actually be somewhat productive, I think, for me. Yeah, I always struggle with the personal attacks. Yeah. Yeah. I think they just kind of get drowned out. And that's probably another benefit of where the channel is.

Yeah. Yeah. People just bury that stuff, which is pretty great. That's great. Yeah, and you didn't get it when you were a kid? I definitely did, and I ignored it. Good for you, man. And I think I built a thick skin from that, and now it's just kind of,

it probably still exists and I just ignore it. That's fucking awesome. Okay, so Austin Ryder asks, in the early years of the channel, Marquez took a several month hiatus from YouTube, but then came back with a new video format and seemingly renewed drive. What happened during those months off? That's great. Very dedicated.

I know. Very few people know that. That was when I was in high school and that was my senior year and I just had to finish, get my grades up, college applications, the last year of ultimate, like, three days a week practices for hours. Like that was just like, I don't have time. I want to make videos so bad. But if I do, I'm going to get in that rabbit hole again and I'm going to try to make five videos

a week and I'm just not going to have the time for the things that matter. right now. So that was the end of high school where I was applying to colleges, going to all these things and interviews and pre-college and all this stuff. S-A-T is the whole deal. Okay. And the renewed drive was just excitement to be back. The new drive was like, hell yes, I'm back. Five days a week. Let's go. College, no schedule. I'm in it. I'm in it. Yeah. That was a pretty good time. Okay. Right on. A bunch of people asked the same question. Winston asked, what's your daily schedule? Because I'm particularly curious, Because you also maintain a level of fitness for Ultimate.

Yeah. Yeah, I practiced last night. My daily schedule. So I kind of, I would separate into weekdays and weekends. Okay. Weekdays, I guess, are divided again into production days or pre-production, post-production days. Production days are filming, editing, the meat of making videos and writing, especially.

Um, and pre-production or post-production days are more of like the inbox, um, the strategy, the what comes next, the travel, all that sort of stuff that comes in between the videos. And then there's nights, which are either like the leagues I play in or practice or so I play for the pro ultimate team for New York. We had practiced last night on Randas Island. It was cold. So cold. Um, and then weekends are our ultimate.

I don't work on weekends. And that used to be a thing. I would just work in between Frisbee. But Frisbee happens on weekends. So that's traveling, that's playing, that's resting, that's, like, disconnected from the internet type stuff. And so you train by practicing? Yes. There's no, like, other regiment involved.

I have a gym in my basement. I, like, ask anyone who's, like, around me a lot. I'm usually there at night. Okay. But as far as, like, like, playing a lot, that's kind of the best training you can get. So that's where I spend a lot of time. And so in your gym, what are you doing? Squats.

What are you doing? I have a bike. I have the treadmill, but then I have a lot of free weights. I believe in free weights. I don't have that many machines. So it's mostly just, yeah, the dumbbells and the, I don't even know the bar is called. Oh, parallel bars? No, you're standing in it.

And it's just, I don't know. To do dips and stuff? To do squats or to do, dang, I don't know the names of any of these things. Like a deadlift? Like one of those? Yeah, like a deadlift. Oh, that's called. Exagon thing.

Yes, that thing. You have a name. So it's like a dead. I'm sure it does. It probably has a name. It's called a hex bar. Hex bar. Yeah, you got a hex bar.

Yeah, sure. Got some plates. So, yeah, that's like some of the time. But then eventually you just have to throw. And I don't know when I get into like ultimate advice, but like. I said you just play a lot. You have a scar on your hand. Is that ultimate related?

That is ultimate related. I, in college, went to go layout to get a defensive play. And I, on the turf, skid. forward and snapped my finger in half. So I had, I got a little plate and screws in there now, fix that bone. Strongest bone in my body now. Reinforced. That's great. Yeah, I got a screws in my shoulder. I feel the same way. Yeah, yeah. All right. Amad Khan asked, are there any problems that you see your face that you really wish engineers or developers would solve? Hmm. Engineers or developers. I mean, we're kind of on it. They're kind of on it. A lot of

there's like the beginning, like folding phones, for example, like you kind of see the beginning of like some potential and you're like, oh, I hope they go all in on that. That could be really cool in the future. But generally, like, it's all being worked on. I wish some of it was being worked on more than it is. I'm reviewing a lot of phones right now whose cameras are just not close to the pixels camera in particular. And I know they could get closer. I know they could put a little more into that, but they don't. And that's their own choice and their own priority. Yeah. But they totally could.

So stuff like that, that's just like things that I prefer in some devices I wish were more of a priority. But generally, I think we live in a pretty good world. Nothing really sucks anymore, you know? Like the tech we use, even at the lower end, just kind of works pretty well. Yeah. No, it's very solid. I haven't upgraded my phone for that reason.

Yeah. Which is fine. Yeah, which is great. It's like, could use a better camera, but it's okay. Yeah. So one question was from a startup founder, Chris Giordano. He asks, any tips on how to engage with influencers when you're a very early stage startup with little or no money? Yeah.

My biggest tip would be to offer something that would make it. It's got to be a win-win for everyone involved. So even if you're not a startup, even if you're like a company who's just not, into influencer marketing yet. The whole idea of creators working with companies is obviously they need to the financial support, but also they want to be able to make something that they wouldn't have otherwise been able to make. So whether they're given access to something or they're given a behind the scenes look at

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

But if you really want to work with a certain creator for a certain reason, make that clear. Like that, like you've watched their videos and you notice a theme and you think there's some potential for a building on something there that's worth expounding upon. So in addition to this kind of influencer marketing, where do you see the future of individual creators supporting themselves as business going? We have this question most often in relation to podcasts. Like, how are people going to monetize? It's even shakier on YouTube, especially lately, just sort of because of where we're at. And I get it. The easy answer is just be PC and be super clean and never push any buttons.

But at a certain point, that's not where you want to be. You kind of want to be able to explore and do different things. Yeah. So you have to diversify your income. That's the simple answer. So at this point, I can use myself as an example. The channel obviously has ads on it, and that's been one version of income as an independent creator.

There's also something called affiliate income, where you talk about products a lot. You might as well share the availability to buy those products. So Amazon has an affiliate system. B&H has an affiliate system. There's also a merch store. This is something not every creator can do, but if you can, why not? I very recently super late got into it, but like trying to make a sort of, people ask me

all the time what sweatshirt I was wearing in videos, so I figured I might as well offer a sweatshirt at some point. You can, you can, you can turn that into sort of a fashion brand, if you will, and just having different, different ways of supporting the same thing, when they all sort of point back to the same thing. What about those paid subscriptions or even? Oh yeah. Yeah, the Patreon. So at a certain point, you can ask dedicated viewers who really want to support what you do directly if they want to contribute more. Oftentimes they won't have a problem with that. If they really like your work or if your work isn't common, I think a lot of times if they feel like

they can just find what you're doing somewhere else, then there's no reason for them to stick around or pay for it. But if what you do is less frequent or it's really high effort or it's not something that they're going to find somewhere else and that'll come from you working on your craft for a really long time, then oftentimes they'll have no problem deciding they want to help you out. Cool. And when it comes to you now that you're a pretty successful channel, what do those ratios look like?

Do you know off the top of your head? Yeah, I would say the, I'm still at a point where like the YouTube ads are probably 40 to 50 percent. The, I don't do a whole lot of sponsored stuff. If I did, that number would be much higher. But I think right now sponsored stuff is probably about 20 percent. So 40, 20 and then affiliate stuff being another 10. So we're at like, what, 70 now?

So I guess, yeah, YouTube ads is probably bigger. YouTube ads is probably 50% of what the streams look like. So you think you're like? biggest problem right now as a creator is like figuring out how to do these more difficult things. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm still on that quest of production. Like, I know my videos can be better. Like there, there's still always a gap between like a great YouTube video and a movie. Of course. Like everyone can tell a YouTube video from a movie and everything. But like, ideally that like seamless like production where I can tell the story I want, show what I want to show. and not have any barriers in the way as far as production, that would be ideal.

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

All right. So I guess my last question for you then, man. Sure. Is your long-term goal. Like, what are you shooting for in 10, 15 years? Well, 10 years. I'll be 35. Over the Hill.

Yeah, man. Wow. No longer relevant. I guess long-term goal, as much as I've said before, like, I don't have long-term goals. But most of my forward thinking is like two to three years out. like where I want the company to be, where I want the production process to be. But I guess if you look 10 years out, that's more of like media company type stuff. Like ideally there's a YouTube channel, maybe a second YouTube channel, there's a podcast,

there's a production aspect to it where you can assist with other channels, things like that. and I think it's nowhere near on its way there yet. I think I'm still so focused on the actual video side of it and making that what I really want it to be that haven't really set foot in these other categories yet, but maybe someday soon. Are you going to make a movie? It's funny you asked that.

Like long-form stuff, long-form being like 45-minute-an-hour-long videos, has been fascinating to me on YouTube because it's been proven to be not that unreasonable, especially lately. So the Shane Dawson's of the world like really hitting it home. I like to make a movie. Yeah. Cool.

Yeah. All right, man. Thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. All right. Thanks for listening. So as always, you can find the transcript and the video at blog. Dot Ycombinator.com.

And if you have a second, it would be awesome to give us a rating and review wherever you find your podcast. See you next time. Thank you.