Meet Raghu Alla of PopShift Media

Today we’d like to introduce you to Raghu Alla.

Hi Raghu, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My career really started through creating, even before I realized that could be a career.

In college, I started a hip-hop blog called **TooBadItsGood**, where I interviewed artists like Big Sean, Mac Miller, and Kendrick Lamar very early in their careers. At the same time, I was organizing events, involved in campus communities, and constantly filming things on my parents’ video camera.

After college, one of the biggest learning experiences for me came through **BFunk — a dance company founded by Shivani Bhagwan and Chaya Kumar**. I was involved in certain parts of the business side and helped develop the **BFunk Tutorials** platform. At the beginning, I was basically pretending to be a manager while simultaneously learning what being a manager actually meant.

That tutorials business eventually grew into a six-figure business, and that period taught me a lot about digital audiences, production, partnerships, monetization, and how a creative idea can become a real business.

All of those experiences eventually led me to PopShift.

PopShift actually started as an events company. I was producing events in Los Angeles and San Francisco, bringing together South Asian artists, creators, and audiences in real life.

Eventually, I produced a huge event at **Terminal 5 in New York featuring 17 South Asian artists**, and I also created **PopShift Sessions in collaboration with Toyota**.

The momentum at that point felt crazy. About three months later, I quit my job because I felt like there was something real here and I wanted to give PopShift everything I had.

Then COVID hit.

Almost overnight, the entire business model disappeared.

That forced me to rethink what PopShift was, and I pivoted heavily into digital media and content. Over time, PopShift evolved from an events company into a media and production company.

Today, with my small team, we produce original shows, interviews, documentaries, branded entertainment, and scripted and unscripted content through PopShift. One of our biggest original formats has been **Desi Me Dating**, and we’ve continued expanding through projects like **Tastemakers** and **Third Wheel**, including a branded series with Toyota.

We’ve now built an audience of more than 750,000 followers across multiple social platforms and have worked with brands including Toyota, Meta, Uber, JBL, and many others.

But I still feel like I’m in the middle of the journey. The next chapter for me and for PopShift is really about building original IP — shows, films, scripted stories, documentaries, and formats that can live beyond just social media.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely not been a smooth ride.

I think one of the biggest reasons PopShift is still alive today is because we’ve been willing to pivot constantly. Building a media company has taught me that it’s really difficult to follow one path or one strategy for too long because things are unpredictable.

You can think you have the business figured out, and then a platform changes, an algorithm changes, audience behavior changes, the economy changes, or something completely outside of your control happens. There have been plenty of moments where I thought I knew exactly what direction we should be going in, only to realize we needed to adjust again.

We’ve gone from events to digital media, from editorial content to original entertainment, and now increasingly toward building our own IP, formats, and brands. Some things I’ve been convinced would work haven’t worked. Other things we tried almost as experiments ended up becoming some of our biggest opportunities.

I think one of the hardest parts of entrepreneurship is getting comfortable with that uncertainty. You have to stay committed to the larger vision while being willing to constantly change the strategy.

For us, the mission has stayed pretty consistent — building culture, telling stories, creating opportunities, and making work for a generation of South Asians that feels current and authentic.

My larger goal is to grow PopShift into a **multi-channel media company** that creates across different formats and platforms — from social media and YouTube to streaming, movie theaters, live experiences, and eventually products and brands of our own.

I don’t want PopShift to be defined by one platform or one type of content. The way people consume media is constantly changing, and I think the company has to be built to evolve with it. That unpredictability can be challenging, but learning how to adapt to it has probably been one of the most important parts of the journey.

We’ve been impressed with PopShift Media, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
PopShift is a multi-channel media company creating original entertainment, editorial content, branded storytelling, live experiences, and original IP across social media, YouTube, streaming, film, and emerging platforms.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was always pretty curious and creative growing up. I was into a lot of different things — film, music, pop culture, business, and anything that involved creating something from scratch. I don’t think I necessarily knew what the career path was going to be, but I always had that instinct to make things and bring people together around an idea.

Growing up as a South Asian American also shaped a lot of how I looked at media. I was consuming American pop culture while also growing up around Indian culture, and for a long time those two worlds felt pretty separate. I didn’t see a lot of people or stories that reflected that experience in a way that felt modern or authentic.

I think that combination of curiosity, creativity and constantly navigating between cultures eventually became a big part of the work I do today.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popshift
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/popshift.tv
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/popshift