Meet Matt Dajer of Yes Theory

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Dajer.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
When I was 19 I read Richard Branson’s autobiography ‘Losing My Virginity’ and it changed my life. After reading it, I knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur. So, I started 4 different businesses in 4 years which all failed. When I was 23 and living in Montreal, Canada, I co-created Yes Theory with 3 other guys I had just met.

We had all just met and clicked right away. Together, we wanted to have the most incredible summer possible. So we decided to do 30 things in 30 days we’d never done before and film, edit and upload a video on our experience each day. Our audience grew and we got some media attention so after the 30 days we decided to move in together and keep the project going.

After 6 months, Snapchat found our videos and asked if we wanted to move out to Venice California to keep making videos and travel the world. We said yes. We came out to California. We worked with Snapchat for a year and a half and have since transitioned full-time into YouTube as well as new platforms like a growing newsletter, Facebook page, and live experiences.

Has it been a smooth road?
There’s no such thing as a smooth road. Whether it’s in life or in business. Every day there’s a new problem to solve and a new challenge to overcome. Having a YouTube channel financially support a team of 6 people seems pretty daunting. And for the six months after we started the project, money was a constant stress.

The reason for this is that our success largely depends on the size and engagement of our audience. And we’ve had phases where the content we were making wasn’t very good. And our engagement and growth dipped. And therefore our finances dipped.

It’s so easy to get down on yourself in those moments, and I’m not gonna lie, we did. But each time, we kept going, kept iterating, and solving the problem as we saw fit and each time we’ve made it through stronger and better.

More bumps will come but we’ve learned to expect to prepare for those bumps as we’ve gone on.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Yes Theory – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Yes Theory believes that life can be as authentic and fulfilling as you wish so long as you’re willing to seek discomfort.

All the content we make revolves around this idea…that life begins at the end of your comfort zone. We try to stay away from the drama or negative content that tends to take over social media and instead focus on being positive and collaborative.

We’re most proud of the audience we’ve built. They inspire US. They’re entrepreneurs, creatives, writers, photographers, you name it. They’re incredible, and the fact that they believe in us and our content shows that we must be doing something right.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
The best part of the city: The ocean and the sunshine! It still feels like a dream that the beach is a 10-minute walk away. We go surfing nearly every morning and it’s just awesome.

The worst part of the city: The homelessness and the traffic. For a city with so much space and resources, I hope that we can come up with solutions to alleviate both of these glaring issues.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yestheory.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/yestheory
• Facebook: facebook.com/yestheory
• Twitter: twitter.com/yestheory
• Other: youtube.com/yestheory

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