FORMER leisure attendants from Kenilworth are taking on YouTube after travelling across the world on a ‘rollercoaster journey’ with their tech business.
James Sadler and Scott Willson met five years ago while working at Castle Farm Recreational Centre.
During their teenage years they developed a business teaching young children a first aid course which was sold to St John Ambulance. They then developed interactive learning games teaching young people to be financially responsible which was sold to the Gibraltar government.
And after raising more than half a million pounds in start-up capital and armed with their funds from selling their previous businesses they developed video streaming app Wotch.
The duo, both age 23, embarked on a series of adventures as they set about making their vision a reality. It saw them form a partnership with Channel 4 to stream content.
They built a prototype of the app from their office in Scott’s parents Kenilworth garden.
After a week it was trending at number three on the app store – and the pair expect the finished product to be even more popular.
After launching the prototype they decided to fly to the largest video conference in the world, Vidcon, based in LA, and found themselves partying with TikTok stars Charlie and Dixie D’Amelio – who between them have racked up 8billion likes on the platform.
On the same trip former Kenilworth School pupil James and North Leamington School pupil Scott also ended up at the after-party of the Black Entertainment Television Awards, mixing with the likes of Chris Brown and Ty Dolla Sign.
A visit to New York then saw the pair attend the Shorty Awards, a blockbuster ceremony honouring the best talent in social media.
On returning to the UK the duo flew some of Brazil’s biggest creators to London to pitch them Wotch and film content.
The influencers loved the concept and set up interviews for Wotch in Sao Paulo with television networks and other content creators.
After being treated to a helicopter tour of the city and a lavish night on the town in Brazil’s exclusive venues, the duo flew to Las Vegas where they met potential investors.
Most recently the business founders became finalists at a tech competition in Berlin as one of twelve revolutionary startups from across the continent, and were chosen to take part in ‘Best British Tech Pioneer’ in London.
And James and Scott are hoping their good luck continues as they gear up to launch next year.
Wotch aims to transform the creator, content and fan experience for Gen Z and has already signed up a host of influencers, with a combined following of over 100million, to the platform.
In return, Wotch is promising creators ownership and the chance to earn if they produce exclusive content, a fairer distribution of the subscription revenue and financial support to fund and facilitate their best ideas for content.
The streaming platform is looking to resolve frustrations around existing platforms like YouTube by taking a stand against hate with constant mental health support available.
James, who lives in Warwick, said: “Authentic influencer content is more popular with Gen Z than big-budget Hollywood productions – we want to be the platform that supplies this demand with fresh, relevant and innovative content that fans will love.
“We see ourselves as somewhere between YouTube and Netflix and want to deliver the best of both. We really believe in order to build a business for the next generation, it needs to be led by the next generation.”
Scott, who now lives in Leamington, added: “It’s a bit of a David meets Goliath scenario at the moment and we have a healthy respect for our competition as we are well aware who we are up against.
“All our research indicates fans are loyal to the creator and not the platform and so far influencers have been very excited by what we’ve had to say.
“We have spoken to some of the top influencers from the UK, North America, and Brazil and the feedback we get from them is just amazing – they felt really left out of the conversation and concerned by YouTube’s recent problems.”
