Finding Founders

Disheartened by the 37 rejection letters in his back pocket, Daniel was shocked when a hasty bar-pitch landed him with a $40,000 publishing deal. After all, he was still relatively unknown…and his children’s story was odd to say the least. What kind of kid would want to read a faux (FOE) gothic novel about three orphans with a bloodthirsty relative out for their inheritance”? If this plot is sounding familiar…you may have heard of Daniel Handler before—or should we say…Lemony Snicket. Despite Daniel’s slow start in the publishing industry, he has since sold over 70 million copies of his books and become a household name. His literary work has also spawned countless film and tv spin offs, most recently the 2017 award-winning Netflix show “A Series of Unfortunate Events” starring Neil Patrick Harris. But before Count Olaf ever entered the picture, before he spent months writing in a dusty college basement, Daniel started like many other writers do: with a book in his hand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now, we know Irvine Welsh for his enormously popular novels such as Trainspotting, The Acid House, Filth, Porn, Glue and Skagboys. His first work has since been adapted into the cult classic 1996 film Trainspotting, consistently ranked as one of the top 10 British films of all time and recently followed by its 2017 sequel T2 Trainspotting. Whether Irvine is switching between the punk and disco subcultures of 1980s London, releasing the most shoplifted novel in British publishing history, or learning the difference between Bay area and Appalachian meth, his writing journey has been anything but traditional. But before he transformed Scotland's literary scene, and before he got on and off heroin, Irvine was a little kid with a rebellious streak, moving from one tenement flat to another… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all start somewhere…and for christian, that start was a best-selling, chart-topping, fart-themed ringtone. Now, with over 1.7 billion views on YouTube, 6 million subscribers, and 3 million monthly Spotify listeners, Christian-better known as TheFatRat- has outgrown this early legacy and made an extraordinary impact on the electronic music scene. But how did this German artist get his start? Before composing for Dota 2 and Rocket League and before producing the best selling CD in France, Christian surprisingly discovered music through classical piano training. To learn how his early interest in musical improv and Chopin turned into a love for glitch hop, let’s go back to his childhood…all the way to when he first earned his elementary school nickname…‘the rat’“Also The Fat Rat has recently released his new single “Out Of The Rain.” The irresistibly hopeful new single features vocals from breakout alternative electronic singer-songwriter Shiah Maisel and culminates with an exciting brass-filled ending.https://lnk.site/out-of-the-rain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Only a year after joining social media, Joanne Molinaro would become a New York Times bestseller for “The Korean Vegan Cookbook”— but when she was crying in her car, stressed about her job, her divorce, and future, this eventual reality seemed like a fantasy. Now, Joanne is one of leading voices in the cooking world with 3 million followers on tiktok, nearly 1 million Youtube subscribers, and more than 600,000 instagram followers. Under her slogan ‘I veganize Korean Food. I koreanize everything else’, Joanne explains how to make vegan kimchi and un-fuck-up-able pho, all while sharing her intersectional identity as a Korean American woman and her family’s refugee experience. But let’s take this back… before she became a successful blogger, content creator, writer, and attorney.. Let’s start this story generations before in North Korea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seeing his and his friend’s faces plastered on billboards and newspapers around London, it seemed that Sorted had finally made it. If YouTube recognized their content’s worth, then surely hundreds of thousands of followers would be quick to follow—or so Ben Ebrell thought. Instead, what Ben has found through his many years of experience is that there is no making it on YouTube, no closing the fridge door for good and saying the hard part’s over. With over 2.6 million subscribers on YouTube, his cooking channel Sorted Food has grown massively since its start in 2010. But before reaching mainstream success in the UK, Ben had to make his way through 1500 bottles of free beer, sell the 5000 college cookbooks in his garage, and create countless baked goods out of thin air. And before all of that, Ben was a little kid, picking fresh vegetables in the garden at eight years old and wondering how to bake his first fish pie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You just heard from Kelsi Davies as she describes how her haunted doll Lola changed her TikTok career forever. If you haven’t heard this name before, Kelsi is a social media superstar with 5 million followers on tiktok and more than 800,000 YouTube subscribers. As a creator, psychic, and medium, Kelsi has brought us some of the most haunted content on the web, posting vlogs from enchanted forests and fields, cursed ocean liners, and the infamous Cecil Hotel. From first discovering her psychic ability in elementary school to juggling influencer politics and mental health, Kelsi’s story mixes her unique supernatural perspective alongside her relatable struggles with interpersonal relationships. Working as a professional medium can be isolating, and Kelsi realized a crucial fact early on in her life: psychics get scared too sometimes… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adorian had dabbled in Youtube fame before, but it wasn’t until he checked his phone after school to 40,000 new followers that he realized the true potential and speed of the online world. I mean imagine…in 2009, twitter was only 3 years old and the hashtag was even younger. Amidst working on high school homework and filming SMOSH-inspired videos, Adorian had somehow stumbled on the opportunity of a lifetime— he’d be one of twitter’s first non-celebrity creators. Now at 3.5 million followers on TikTok and more than 90,000 YouTube subs, Adorian is a seasoned internet veteran and self-proclaimed ‘facts guy’. You may have seen his multi-million view videos on your feed before, as he teaches followers how to escape bee attacks and what came first: sharks or saturn’s rings? But it wasn’t all fun edits and trivia questions. In his journey through the early internet landscape, Adorian ran into swindlers, lawsuits, and even an early case of cancel culture. Growing up as one of the first ‘chronically online’ species, he started small, far away from the sophisticated algorithms of tiktok + instagram today, in the land of role-play edits… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You just heard from internet sensation Tati Bruening, as she recalls how a one-off joke set an entire viral instagram movement into motion. Known by her instagram handle ‘illumitati’ or her tiktok ‘illumitatiana’, you might have seen some of Tati’s distinctive photography or celebrity shoots on your for you page, as she has gained a following of 323,000 and 2.6 million followers in only the past few years. Through reinventing what could come up on your TikTok feed to reshaping the Instagram algorithm, her behind-the-scenes efforts have fundamentally changed the landscape of social media as we know it. Still, Tati did not always foresee herself in this career or entertainment itself. Along with the rest of her 6’ family, it always seemed she was headed for the land of D1 athletics… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You just heard Ali describing one of her breaking points, where a battle for a copyright claim over one of her creations caused her to file a lawsuit. Now, Ali Spagnola, musician, comedian, and artist, has proved herself to be a creator you can’t look away from. With her eccentric dedication to living “outrageous”, Ali has won over 1.4 million tiktok followers and more than 400k subscribers on YouTube with her bubbly enthusiasm and boundless creativity. From turning her car into a chia pet to fighting for the world’s right to party, Ali’s career has been anything but mundane. Yet before music parodies and unusual crafts became her way of life, Ali had already fallen in love with the piano, plunking out melodies on her family’s baby grand… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Watching as he racked up tens of thousands of new fans over the course of the day, Sean Sotaridona let out a sigh of relief he didn’t even know he was holding. This success, this new and unexpected online stage, was what he had been looking for all his life. It only took him 16 years to find it. Going by the username SeanDoesMagic, Sean’s masterful magic tricks have garnered more than 21 million followers on TikTok and 5.44 million followers on YouTube. From networking with meme accounts over Instagram dms to performing tricks for Addison Rae and Dixie D’amelio, Sean’s unparalleled tenacity and drive have taken him on a wild journey. However, before his trips to vidcon and tryouts for America’s Got Talent, before Sean was even born, his roots grew far away from the beaches of Los Angeles and Florida…across the Pacific in the Philippines… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices