May 14, 2014

Freddie Wong: Crowdfunding Records & Video Game High School

22 minutes

Filmmaker Freddie Wong is guest # 8 on the "The Influencer Economy." You may know Freddie for his popular web series "Video Game High School, which has reached over 65 million views online. To state it simply, it's "Harry Potter for video games."

In early 2014, he shattered an online video crowdfunding record for Video Game High School, raising over $900,000 for his IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign. He is also the filmmaker behind the popular YouTube Channle /FreddieW which features video game / sic-fi / and special effects heavy content. The Channel has over 7 million subscribers, and has an amazingly loyal online following.

We had a funny and enlightening conversation, Freddie and I met at his RocketJump Studios, where his team is creating VGHS. We chatted about the real definition of crowdfunding, what it's like being famous on YouTube, and why it's smart to build a community before you launch your film or project. He's a super funny and intelligent guy, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

The Influencer Economy is also on Stitcher and on iTunes

In this episode you'll learn:

How Freddie created his crowdfunding perks for Video Game High School

How to build a community around your video content

What it's like getting recognized if you're a YouTube creator and how accessible YouTube creators are versus celebrities

How Freddie as victim to inversed digits, and kept getting wrong number calls

How Crowdfunding really evolved from bands like Radiohead and musicians like Trent Reznor

What is the real definition of crowdfunding

Why it's important to build an online community before you launch a film or any media-driven project

Find Freddie on Twitter https://twitter.com/fwong

Find Freddie on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew

Find Freddie at Rocketjump http://www.rocketjump.com