Marques Brownlee, better known as “MKBHD” is one of the most prominent figures in the tech industry. Marques found success in the late 2000s on YouTube when he was just in High School. MKBHD has almost 20 million subscribers who review the newest tech products and is regarded as one of the best at his job. Brownless’s Carrer has grown offline too, as he is also a professional Ultimate Frisbee player. Brownlee started to take off in the mid-2010s. Brownlee has seen most of his success when the new technology of the year comes out, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Recently MKBHD has seen a lot of growth in its channel through the rise of AI. In recent years, content creators have transitioned from making videos to creating podcasts. Marques created his very own podcast named Waveform. Like his YouTube videos, he talks about tech and gadgets. MKBHD also gained a lot of respect for his knowledge of electric cars. He was on the wave of electric cars way before anyone else was. Outside of the camera, he has interviewed many pristine individuals. He has interviewed Elon Musk, Kobe Bryant, and even Mark Zuckerburg. I chose to write about MKBHD because I have been following him since around 2015 and always look to him for opinions on the newest tech. also, I loved watching him interview these people and seeing the “behind the scenes” of their ideas. Marques is still making videos to this day and still has his edge on most creators. As you can see, MKBHD developed his brand from a young age into something much greater than that.

Who would have ever thought that simple backyard trick shots could turn into a 9-figure business, well Dude Perfect did just that and their story is quite fascinating. The story starts with 5 buddies who roomed at Texas A&M and loved sports. In 2009, the group decided to make a video on YouTube of trick shots that they had made, and they immediately realized they had something special. The video had over 100,000 views by the time they woke up the next morning, so they continued what they were doing and they never looked back. Now, Dude Perfect has over 450 videos and over 60 million subscribers. One thing that caught my eye about the groups is their view of family-friendly entertainment. When you think of your typical college kids making YouTube videos, I bet you don’t think of family-friendly. Something I found interesting was back when they first started, one of the first major companies to try and work with the group was Budweiser. The group turned down, what was probably a big chunk of change, just so that they could stay family-friendly.  The group is now turning their brand from the internet to real products. A fund named Highmount Capital reportedly invested between 100-300 million dollars into the group for their expansion.  They plan on expanding into a retail store, a streaming service, toys, games, and even its own theme park. The group continues to grow to this day, and I believe this is just the start for the guys and this business they have created will be like the next Disney.

Alina Morse who was just 7 years old at the time came up with the great idea of Zollipops. It all started when Alina and her father were at a bank when the teller offered her a lollipop, and when she was excited to accept her, her father immediately reminded her that candy was horrible for her teeth and that is when the light bulb struck. Zollipop started a market of their own, before the there was never a “healthy” candy. Their product consists of all-natural ingredients that are way better for your teeth than the artificial ingredients in your typical bag of candy. I actually have a personal experience with this product. My aunt is an orthodontist and would always carry zollipops with her. Anytime we would see her she would give us these “sugar-filled” lollipops not knowing they were good for our teeth. We later found out about this scam when we were around 13 years old. Zoli Candy has a great slogan that is an attention grabber, cavity prevention. When you think of candy the last thing you think of is cavity prevention, so when you see that slogan with candy you’re bound to stop and look at it. Zoli Candy originally started with lollipops, but they have expanded to just about every candy you could think of. Taffy, caramel, gummies, chocolate, they have found a way to make these good for your teeth. The science behind Zoli is pretty crazy though. They claim that eating one of their products will balance the pH levels and your mouth and balance the acidity, ultimately preventing cavities. As you can see, even at the young age of 7 Alina Morse was able to create a product that has never been on the market before, and it just continues to grow more and more every year.