Today we interview Stutrepreneur Ben Smajlovic: A fourth-year Computer Science major at Queen's University and founder of Promos.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms, especially for influencers and artists trying to get discovered. It only takes one viral video on the For You page to completely change someone’s life! Today we have the pleasure of interviewing Ben Smajlovic, a fourth-year Computer Science major at Queen’s University and founder of Promos (promos.io) to take us behind the scenes of TikTok promotions.
Question: “What is Promos, and why did you end up starting this company?”
Answer: “I got into the world of entrepreneurship when I was younger through things like drop-shipping, cryptocurrencies, running social media pages—I’ve pretty much taken a part in any popular side-hustle. I became more interested in the influencer marketing, TikTok, and music sector, so we decided to start Promos.”
Promos is an influencer marketing platform that connects emerging artists to TikTok celebrities to grow their music and/or personal brand. Eventually, Ben and his team want to expand onto other social media platforms, as well as work with companies rather than just artists.
“We initially did it as a side-hustle to make some money during quarantine, but it eventually grew so we decided to focus on it much more; we also noticed how much TikTok as a platform was blowing up, and how so many smaller artists’ music was growing in popularity through being in highly viewed TikTok videos—saw much opportunity.”
Question: “What is something that you learned about the industry that you are now working in?”
Answer: “I didn’t realize how much artists are willing to pay well-known TikTok influencers to play their songs in their TikToks. For example, some TikTok influencers can charge thousands of dollars to simply play an artist’s song for 10 seconds in their video—it’s crazy to me how much people are willing to pay for promoting music, even simply through a social media platform.”
Question: “Where is Promos now in terms of traction and team size?”
Answer: “We currently have 2 full-time employees, this is something that we want to grow over the foreseeable future—we never felt a need to have anyone on board until very recently.”
Since launching in August 2020, Promios has grown to have over 450 artists on the platform! With such success in only a short period of time, Ben and his team believe their company has immense growth potential.
Question: “What does a typical day look like for you balancing school and work?”
Answer: “It’s not easy balancing both school and work, but both of us Promos founders are based in Kingston, so we rent out a shared office co-working space. We wake up at 8:30am and will go to the office to do work for the company when we don’t have class, but will also take breaks to do school work when we have time. There is no set daily schedule, as it all depends if we are busier with Promos or with school stuff. Even if it’s a really busy school day, we’ll try to get a minimum of 1-2 hours of entrepreneurial work done just to get some stuff knocked out of the way.”
Question: “How do you manage your time effectively with so much going on?”
Answer: “One thing that has helped me is having a co-founder working on the venture with you, as it helps hold each other accountable for balancing school/work and also getting things done for the company. I also talk about what I am going to do the next day before, setting a schedule and planning for what important tasks need to get done; keeping track of this schedule through Google calendar, Apple calendar, or Outlook is extremely important.”
Question: “What is the biggest challenge you faced with your startup, and how did you overcome this?”
Answer: “Before we launched our product it was hard to stay motivated since we had no sales and there was no money going into it, same with not having any true venture funding backing us. It was tough to make the decision between getting a formal computer science internship vs. putting my full effort into the entrepreneurial venture but we ended up pushing each other to make the decision to power through and work on Promos, and we have now generated income through the platform.”
Question: “If you could give any advice to an aspiring student entrepreneur, what would it be?”
Answer: “One thing we didn’t do was reach out to customers with our idea before actually building it, to see if there was a market for it; takes a lot of risk potential off of the table—even though our idea fortunately worked out.”
Ben reiterates that even if you think an idea makes sense, the best course of action is to reach out to your network to truly figure out if it could be a viable/good business option.
Question: “Where will we see you in 5 years?”
Answer: “Both of our co-founders are planning on working on Promos full-time after graduating, meaning we will be putting much more time and effort into the venture. If we grow sales, marketing, and overall reach, we hope to sell the business at some point and would then use this capital to begin a new entrepreneurial venture as we’re still extremely interested in the startup space.”
Concluding Question: “Any other last words for aspiring student entrepreneurs?”
Answer: “Networking, networking, networking—it’s the most important aspect of entrepreneurship and growing your business. Also surround yourself with motivated people who are willing to give you constructive criticism, especially if your most important goal is to be successful. Try to make friends with other entrepreneurs, even if they work in a completely different industry. I don’t think I would have Promos if I didn’t have other motivated, like-minded entrepreneurial friends that I met during my time in university.”
Key Takeaways
It is evident that starting a company in school is no easy task as we hear from Ben firsthand. Here is a summary of the key takeaways for those who are looking to start a company as a student or to get inspired:
Must take risks to achieve goals
Sacrifice otherwise free time to dedicate to school and working full-time hours
Look into an office or workspace to maximize efficiency
Conduct market research and understand the needs of your user or customers
Networking - LinkdeIn, school, Twitter, startup groups
Keep a tight circle and be picky when choosing founders
Focus on growth before trying to raise capital
All of these takeaways can help aspiring founders make smarter decisions and become the best possible founder.
If you have any questions regarding this interview or are looking to speak with Ben directly, feel free to fill out the contact form on our “Contact Us” page or email us at stutrepreneurs@gmail.com.
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