My first company at age of 18 and how it became a success.

I am Liam Seys, a 23 years old developer and entrepreneur from Ostend, Belgium. When I was 15 years old I started getting interest in the business side of YouTube which quickly shifted into the urge to start my own company.

How it started
In the early days of YouTube, Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) played an important role if you wanted to make money with your channel. Without one it was close to impossible to get accepted into YouTube’s Partner Program.

I started my research on YouTube MCNs and quickly landed on a company called Zoomin.TV based in The Netherlands. Zoomin was one of the very few MCNs that offered a sub-network program at that time, which are now not allowed anymore.

I applied for a sub-network under the Zoomin umbrella and got accepted into their program. For 2 years long I recruited channels under their MCN where I received a percentage of each channel’s revenue that I brought aboard. I also got YouTube Certified in Audience Growth and Digital Rights Management.

My first company
In the summer of 2015 I decided to drop out of school to pursue my goal, to start my own YouTube MCN. The day I turned 18 I went to the company registration office to register my first company called Alveum.

Alveum was a YouTube Certified talent & rights management agency that provided creators and brands with outstanding technology and support to improve their online presence on social media as YouTube.

Over 70 premium creators decided to join Alveum, totalling up to 7 million subscribers, 40.000 videos and 1.7 billion total views, resulting in an annual €1,5 million turnover.

Invited to YouTube’s Headquarters
I also started helping and providing support to users on the YouTube platform through their Product Forums and flagging content that violated YouTube’s Community Guidelines. YouTube invited me to join their Top Contributor and Trusted Flagger program as a reward for my valuable contributions to the platform. Back then I was the youngest member of the program.

Late 2015 YouTube invited me and flew me over to their headquarters in San Bruno in California for the Google Top Contributor Summit. So I solely stept on a plane and flew to the other side of the world to attend this amazing event where I was able to connect with my fellow Top Contributors and YouTube employees.

Picture I took of the YouTube Headquarters in San Bruno, California

Present
I’m currently working on building MrPackage together with my good friend Maxime Hinnekens, it is becoming a new Amazon-like e-commerce platform with a focus on customer experience. This will be released in 2022.

Next to that we are also preparing to launch AdFrame, an international agency managing digital talents and influencers on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat. We are specialised in growth strategies, copyright management and operational support.

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You can find me on Twitter, Github, LinkedIn and Instagram. If you need to reach me directly, you can also shoot me an e-mail.

Thanks for reading!
-Liam