John Shahidi

John Shahidi
Nationality American
Occupation Software developer, CEO
Years active 2009–present
Known for Shots Studios
Website shots.com

John Shahidi is a businessperson, software developer, manager and producer. Shahidi started Shots Studios, a management company which produces content and are creative directors for musicians and artists including Anitta, Alesso, Rudy Mancuso, Lele Pons, Hannah Stocking and Anwar Jibawi.

In 2009, he and his brother Sam Shahidi started the video game studio company RockLive, where they created mobile games. In 2016, RockLive became Shots Studios.

Early life

John Shahidi was born to an Iranian Kurdish family in Los Angeles, CA. [1]

He and his younger brother Sam Shahidi grew up in Southern California. They were raised by their mother and grandmother.[2].[3]

Career

RockLive

John and Sam Shahidi started developing iOS apps in 2009[4] and started out as a video game development company called Rock Software, later renamed RockLive.[5] Their first commercial app was RunPee. Their childhood friend Jordan Palmer introduced the Shahidi brothers to former Cincinnati Bengals team member Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson. RockLive developed two apps for Ochocinco, Chad Ochocinco Experience,[6] and its follow-up, MadChad.[3]

This exposure led to more apps being developed between 2009 and 2012, for Usain Bolt, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mike Tyson.[3][7][8][9][10]

In 2013, the Shahidis were done with video game development.[2]

Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather and Shahidi met through mutual friends. When Mayweather learned more about the vision Shahidi and his brother, Sam had, he asked to be the companies first investor by investing $500,000 into RockLive.

Shahidi was hired by Mayweather to be his creative director and help create The Money Team brand, which was launched in 2012.

Mike Tyson

In 2010, Shahidi met Mike Tyson, who was interested in Shahidi's digital strategy.[11]

RockLive developed their first chart-topping iPhone game with Tyson, Main Event. It was a #1 game in the App Store charts for three consecutive months.[12]

in 2017, Tyson launched his first YouTube channel together with Shots Studios.

Justin Bieber

After learning about the games RockLive was developing, Justin Bieber was interested in meeting the Shahidi brothers, and later invested $1M into RockLive to help build more digital content including games, content and the Shots social app.

Bieber and Shahidi became friends during this period. As the Shots app began to plateau, Bieber and the Shahidis decided to focus on creating digital content via internet stars.[13]

Shots app

RockLive released Shots,[10] a selfie photo sharing app, in November 2013. It was intended as an anti-bullying social media network.[2]

The inspiration for the app came after Facebook was forced to take down a page that attracted cyberbullying.[14] Shahidi, who had been bullied as an overweight child, said "I don't want any kid or adult to have to feel inadequate like I did".[4] Photos had to be taken real-time, without the use of filters or other editing material, and users could not comment on pictures or see how many "likes" other people received.[4] "We never want our users hurt, harmed or bullied by what they read about themselves on social media — it's about signaling what you're feeling inside", Shahidi said about the app.[15]

Shots had a user base of 10 million people.[5] At one point, Twitter was in talks to buy Shots for US$150 million.[16][17]

Due to the strong competition from other photo and video sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat, the number of users dropped from 7 million in March 2016 to 2.5 million in October 2016.[18]

Notable users of the app included Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O'Neal,[10] and future Shots Studios artists Rudy Mancuso and Lele Pons.[5]

Shots featured original videos, including "Awkward Puppets", which became more popular outside of Shots.[18]

Shots Studios

After raising $12.1 million in funding in 2015 and with the number of the Shots app users dropping, Shahidi changed focus from software to content. RockLive rebranded to Shots Studios, a talent agency and production studio for social media personalities, predominantly on YouTube.[17][18][19] Investors included boxer Floyd Mayweather[10] and singer Justin Bieber.[8][3]

Rudy Mancuso, Lele Pons and Anwar Jibawi

In 2015, Shahidi moved from San Francisco back to Los Angeles, where he met digital creators Rudy Mancuso, Lele Pons, Anwar Jibawi and King Bach. As Sam Shahidi remained in San Francisco to work run the Shots Studios tech and data office, John helped develop these creators outside of the Shots app and the Vine app.

During this time, Shahidi and Bieber created a series of online videos on Vine, Instagram and YouTube to learn the online video space.[20]

Lele Pons was Instagram's largest producer of stories in 2017.[21]

Also in 2017, Mancuso opened for Justin Bieber on the Purpose Tour, and went intro production for his first produced movie.[22]

Shahidi also helped discover comedian-creator Hannah Stocking. [23] [24]

Anitta

On March 2017, Shahidi met Brazilian singer Anitta in Los Angeles, California. They shared their frustrations about Brazil being disregarded by the world. Shahidi offered to manage Anitta, bring her into the Shots Studios family, and introduce her to producers Poo Bear and Josh Gudwin, as well as to J Balvin, Marshmello and Alesso.[25]

Bieber met Anitta in Rio de Janeiro later that month while on the Purpose Tour and agreed that Anitta would be a great fit for Shots Studios.[26]

Alesso

In 2017, Shahidi was approached by Alesso to help him grow outside of the EDM world.

Shahidi and Alesso were friends for years, and Alesso was impressed by Shahidi's pivot into content and music.

Alesso joined Shots Studios in September 2017.[27] In December 2017, he had three songs in the global top 50 chart. He has one of the fastest growing electronic music YouTube channels.[28]

Other endeavors

Shahidi is known for his presence on the social media network Twitter, with Recode calling him the "King of Twitter" in 2014 and calling the phenomenon of receiving a large number of retweets "getting Shahidi'd".[29]

Shahidi was listed number one in Medium's list of 20 Digital Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter.[30]

Shahidi has turned down "seven-figure offers" from brands asking him to endorse their products.[31]

Shahidi's work approach is used as a test case example of agency, management and communication in The Agency of Organizing: Perspectives and Case Studies, released in September 2017.[32]

References

  1. ↑ http://beta.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-shots-celebrates-one-year-20141114-story.html
  2. 1 2 3 Wagner, Kurt (April 13, 2014). "A-List Investors, 1 Million Downloads: Is Selfie App 'Shots' For Real?". Mashable.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Laird, Sam (February 24, 2015). "How Floyd Mayweather and Justin Bieber bonded over an app". Mashable.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Parker, Ryan (November 17, 2014). "Shots celebrates 1-year anniversary; photo app has millions of users". LATimes.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Armstrong, Megan (November 1, 2017). "How Shots Studios Plans to Take Over the Music Industry". Billboard. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  6. ↑ Parr, Ben (October 13, 2009). "Ochocinco on iPhone: Twitter's Loudest NFL Star Launches App". Mashable.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Meet the Makers: Q&A with John Shahidi of Rock Software". Appolicious.com. August 11, 2010. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Kantrowitz, Alex (October 5, 2016). "Justin Bieber-Backed Shots Prioritizes Making Video For Other Platforms". Buzzfeed.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  9. ↑ Walker, James (November 6, 2009). "Fitzgerald, T.O. following Ocho". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Roberts, Daniel (June 17, 2014). "Money Mayweather's $1 million tech punch". Fortune.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Mike Tyson, App Maker: "I Don't Want To Be A Dinosaur"". 13 May 2011.
  12. ↑ Bilton, Nick. "Boxing Mike Tyson on an iPhone, and in Real Life".
  13. ↑ Laird, Sam. "How Floyd Mayweather and Justin Bieber bonded over an app".
  14. ↑ Revensencio, Jonha (August 16, 2015). "John Shahidi: The King of Twitter and CEO of Shots". HuffPost.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  15. ↑ Matney, Lucas (September 8, 2015). "Shots Raises Another $4M As It Strives To Reclaim The Selfie". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  16. ↑ Trotman, Andrew; Davidson, Lauren (November 26, 2014). "Twitter 'held talks' with Justin Bieber-backed app Shots". Telegraph.com. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  17. 1 2 Constine, John; Roof, Katie (October 5, 2016). "Shots Studios rebrands from selfie app to social star video factory". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  18. 1 2 3 Wagner, Kurt (October 30, 2016). "Justin Bieber-backed photo app Shots gave up on selfies and now manages internet stars". Recode.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  19. ↑ Constine, John; Roof, Katie (March 3, 2016). "Bieber-backed Shots goes beyond selfies with links and comedy". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Justin Bieber's Camcorder App Videos, Ranked By Greatness".
  21. ↑ "Meet Lele Pons, Instagram Stories' Most-Watched Producer of 2017 & Music's Next Star".
  22. ↑ "YouTube Star Rudy Mancuso to Tour with Justin Bieber: Inside Their 'Close Friendship' and How He'll Start the Show".
  23. ↑ https://wwd.com/eye/people/lele-pons-hannah-stocking-inanna-sarkis-shots-studios-youtube-stars-11085345/
  24. ↑ https://www.tubefilter.com/2018/08/28/shots-studios-youtube-vertical-video/
  25. ↑ "Brazilian Singer Anitta Signs With Shots Studios for Management: Exclusive".
  26. ↑ "Anitta fala de pedido de Justin Bieber para conhecê-la: 'Não é verdade'".
  27. ↑ "Swedish Star Alesso Signs With Shots Studios for Management: Exclusive".
  28. ↑ "Alesso Reveals the Key to Being a Good DJ". Amp`d Up.
  29. ↑ Primack, Dan (June 24, 2016). "Twitter's strangest trend: Getting Shahidi'd". Fortune.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  30. ↑ Kim, Larry (December 16, 2015). "20 Digital Marketing Experts to Follow on Twitter". Medium.com. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
  31. ↑ Wagner, Kurt (November 4, 2014). "John Shahidi Rules Twitter -- And That's Good for Business". Recode.com. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  32. ↑ Brummans, Boris H.J.M. (September 13, 2017). The Agency of Organizing: Perspectives and Case Studies. Routledge. ISBN 9781317223238.
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