DTC POD - #237 - Allegra Shaw & Shirin Soltani - Uncle Studios: Building A Creator Led Brand 101

DTC POD #237 - Allegra Shaw & Shirin Soltani - Uncle Studios: Building A Creator Led Brand 101

Blaine Bolus 00:00:06 - 00:00:46

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Blaine Bolus 00:00:51 - 00:01:28

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Blaine Bolus 00:01:33 - 00:01:47

What's up, Dtcpod? Today we're joined by Allegra Shaw and Sharin Sultani, who are the founders of Uncle Studios. So, guys, I'll let you guys kick us off. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourselves, your background, and what you're building with Uncle Studios.

Allegra Shaw 00:01:47 - 00:02:19

Sure. I'm allegra shaw. I am a full time content creator and the co founder of Uncle Studios. I make YouTube videos, I do TikTok, I do Instagram, I do all the things. And we co founded Uncle Studios at the end of 2017, which we'll obviously get into. But Shirt and I have been friends for, oh, my God, like, over ten years now. And, yeah, we started the brand together. So I'll let Sharon introduce herself.

Shirin Soltani 00:02:19 - 00:02:49

Hi, guys. I'm Sharon. I'm also one of the co founders of Uncle Studios. And like Allegra spoke, we started this thing about five years ago. And building a business with a friend has had its challenges, especially in the content creator realm. But it's been a lot of fun, and we're really excited about what we're building, and it's really community focused, and we've been learning a lot on our journey. So we're happy to be on the channel today and kind of shed some light on what we're doing here.

Blaine Bolus 00:02:49 - 00:03:14

No, that's amazing. And I think maybe what we can do is we can start off we can kind of set context in terms of allegra maybe how you got started as a creator and then moving from that into saying, like, oh, I want to start a business with one of my friends who I've known and trusted for a while and then being able to start Uncle Studios. So why don't you take us back a little bit before? How did you get your start as a creator? What platforms were you creating on and what did growth look like for what you were doing?

Allegra Shaw 00:03:14 - 00:03:55

Sure, yeah. So I actually started making YouTube videos back in 2011. I was definitely one of the not like, first creators, but on YouTube there wasn't a lot going on. I started YouTube pretty much because I was like, I mean, as most of us do, not having the best time in high school. And I was just finishing high school and I just couldn't really find my place. I saw people, some people making these fashion and beauty videos, and I was just like, okay, I think I can do this. I like fashion, I like beauty. I'm just going to do it.

Allegra Shaw 00:03:55 - 00:04:30

So I started and then I did it as a hobby for a long time, well into university and even past university. And then when I came out of university, I was like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I have a history degree. What's my job going to be? And I was like, okay, I think I could do this full time. My mom gave me, like, a year to sort it out and to live at home. And she's like, okay, but in a year you need to get your shit together and move out. And if this doesn't work out for you, you need to actually find a job. I was like, all right, I can do this in a year.