my story

I graduated as an Economics and Italian major and knew upon graduation that I didn’t want to pursue either as a career. I got a job working full time at a hotel to pay my rent. It was during this time that I bought a DSLR camera off of craigslist and began teaching myself how to film and edit. I released a trailer for a web series about the lacrosse team that I’d played for in college. The video got the attention of a small startup in Los Angeles called The Lacrosse Network(TLN).

After distributing my web series on TLN, I moved to LA and became their Creative Director. I was responsible for producing original programming for the network and was an on-camera host. By 2014 TLN had grown significantly on social platforms and we secured partnerships with major brands like Nike and Marriott. The network was acquired by a media company in New York called Whistle. For the next two years we built out their LA office, pitched and executed branded content campaigns for Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and Gatorade among others. We worked closely with professional athletes to build their brands.

My business partner Samir and I left Whistle Sports in 2016 to pursue independent client-work and develop content for our personal brand. In the past 3 years we’ve worked extensively with New Balance developing original content series. We’ve grown our personal brand “Colin and Samir” to over 100k subscribers on YouTube and been featured by Anchor/Spotify as one of their top rising Podcasters. Most recently in 2019 I was a consultant to YouTube working with them on their outward facing brand and how they communicate across social platforms to their creator community. I also was a part of a content-incubator program with Instagram + Buzzfeed to explore the future of vertical video. Wrote, Produced and distributed two independent films on YouTube -- both w/ over X number views and one that was distributed as pay what’s fair model and saw high six figure returns. We consulted the PLL to sell their media rights..ultimately landing with NBC...developed and produced an original program for TV that aired on NBC Sports.