Today we’d like to introduce you to Joey Chowaiki.
Joey, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2012, one of my best friends Alex Dahan approached me with a concept after meeting two individuals with 30k followers each, which was massive at the time. He wanted to put his own product on one of the guys he had met in exchange for a “shoutout” (language at the time). After we saw the post go live we studied everyone’s reactions mainly saying “where can I buy” “omg so cool” “need now” the list goes on. Alex and I sat back and said “what if we got hundreds of these individuals to promote brands creating the new age of interactive billboards. Sure enough we grouped up about ten influencers that collectively had a reach of a million and brought along Alex’s older brother Eric Dahan and Friend Felix Sullivan. That’s how our story began, from working in a kitchen to now over 80 employees and over ten offices worldwide.
Has it been a smooth road?
Smooth overall but the main struggle was being the pioneers to a completely new space. We always called it the Wild Wild West. Everyday things were changing. We always had to be on the forefront of the space.
I must say though, bringing our idea to many individuals changed their lives. Some never knew that by posting what they love and being themselves can generate revenue. I’d like to say we had a huge impact on bringing this space to life.
I’ll never forget some early conversations with influencers. We would offer $30 for a post and they would freak out by saying “NO WAY, I CAN GET PAID TO POST?” makes me smile & laugh when you see where the industry is now.
Please tell us about Open Influence.
Our mission is to bring the human element back to advertising by empowering individuals to create and share. Our mission is to scale the storytelling process through efficiency, quality, and transparency for both advertisers and storytellers.
In the beginning, I wore multiple hats, as we scaled I ran the community, planned strategic events and worked a lot with the talent on a personal level.
I am proud to say that we have turned an idea into reality and that everyone who works with us is happy with our service and our staff is happy at the company.
I am not apart of the day to day operations as much right now as I am trying to launch something new in the digital publishing space. It is a very exciting project and can’t wait to share it with you all! Stay tuned!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
YES, my only flaw with LA is the timezone. The fact that when everyone gets to work here, everyone in NYC is already eating lunch.
LA is a great place for business in all industries. The connections here are endless. If you tackle branding right, and your brand, product and company pops off in Los Angeles, I’m pretty sure the rest of the country will hear/see what’s going on. All eyes on LA.
Contact Info:
- Website: OpenInfluence.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openinfluence/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/openinfluence/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/openinfluence
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