This week I had the chance to ask Timothy Armoo, co founder of Fanbytes. The young entrepreneur has already had success as an entrepreneur and is now fast growing his latest startup Fanbytes. I wanted to learn more about the young entrepreneur's journey and his advice for other young entrepreneurs. Here's the full interview:
Can you give me a bit of background to yourself?
I’m Timothy Armoo, I’m 21 and I’m CEO of Fanbytes, Prior to this I had sold a media company and been a tinkerer with entrepreneurship for a little while.
What is your startup?
Fanbytes is the leading social video platform helping brands such as Disney, Adidas, New Look and some of the UK’s best startups such as Grabble reach a millennial audience through social influencers across YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
What was the inspiration behind it?
We realized first hand that the youth audience and how they were being marketed to was fundamentally changing. We live in a time in which the conventional methods of marketing no longer work when reaching millennials. As millennials ourselves –my cofounder and I started this company when we were 19- we were more than aware of the change in this world. Brands needed new ways to engage with millennial audiences, the 16-30 audience, and there is no better way than through social influencers, people with large audiences across social media platforms.
How have you funded it so far?
We've been through a number of rounds of angel funding.
What has been the biggest challenge in starting your business?
Probably explaining what we were trying to do. In our industry, there are some companies who are really giving the industry a bad name by doing influencer marketing wrong and making it seem like a very complex art. We’ve made it as simple as buying an ad on Google or on Facebook. This manual dark art which was reserved for the big boys, through clever software, we’ve made it available for the masses. Most times when a brand hears about us, it seems like it’s too good to be true.
How have you overcome this challenge?
It’s been a bit of education on our part but also just having them on-board onto our platform in a simple way which they are used to on other advertising platforms.
Startups are full of ups and downs, what gets you through those downs?
The fact that we’re “redefining how brands market to millennials” Forbes’s words not mine :)
What have been your biggest milestones/achievements since you launched your business?
Wow, where do I start. We recently did a campaign with Ronaldinho! To be able to meet and work with a world class footballer, my hero when growing up was a dream come true.
Most importantly, we’ve helped a lot of mobile apps climb up and trend in the app store – to be able to get a lot of emails from CEO’s and Marketers during campaigns saying how amazing it’s been for them.
We also recently created a Guiness World Record for a lip syncing app – we created the most lip synced music video ever through “all I want for Christmas is you” .
We’ve also made quite a few things trend on Twitter which has been pleasing. It’s very pleasing that through our influencers we’re able to be behind some of the largest moments and hashtags on social media. We’re keen to get use this influence in the political world.
How do you differentiate from the competition?
We make it as easy as buying an ad on Google or Facebook. Our industry is filled with a lot of manual companies who simply hold massive excel databases and do a ton of manual outreach. That’s not really adding any value. We’ve built powerful technology which helps brands to track, measure and optimize influencer marketing campaigns.
What advice would you give any entrepreneurs just starting out?
Everyone is making up as they go along. When you get that into your head, you realize that there is no need for the perfect plan or anything perfect.
What’s next?
Win.
Good way to sign off. Look forward to following your progress. For more, check out Fanbytes.
