John Shahidi is the President of

Shots Podcast Network Shots Podcast Network is a podcasting company founded by brothers John Shahidi and Sam Shahidi. The company was originally founded as a software development company named Rock Software in 2009, creating mobile games along with YouTube channel ...

and Happy Dad Hard Seltzer. Also, a partner of the popular YouTube group, Nelk Boys. On October 28, 2022, Shahidi became an investor and advisor to Twitter and

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...

. With his brother Sam Shahidi, the two started

, a YouTube podcast network for top internet brands and talent including Full Send Podcast, Mike Tyson, The Pivot Podcast and

Lele Pons Eleonora Pons Maronese (born June 25, 1996), better known as Lele Pons, is a Venezuelan YouTuber, actress, and singer who holds both Venezuelan and American citizenship. Pons came to prominence on Vine before the platform shut down in 2017 w ...

Show. Shahidi has also created multiple successful NFTs, including the Full Send Metacard and Full Send x Alien Frens.

Early life

John Shahidi was born to an Iranian Kurdish family in Los Angeles, California and grew up in Orange County, California. He and his younger brother Sam Shahidi grew up in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. They were raised by their mother and grandmother.

Career

Justin Bieber Partnership

John and Sam Shahidi started developing

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

apps in 2009 and started out as a

video game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. Development of traditional commercial PC ...

company called Rock Software, later renamed RockLive. Their first commercial app was ''RunPee''. Their childhood friend

Jordan Palmer Jordan William Palmer (born May 30, 1984) is a former American football quarterback and the current director of quarterback development for the XFL. He was selected by the Washington Redskins in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played ...

introduced the Shahidi brothers to former Cincinnati Bengals team member Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson. RockLive developed two apps for Ochocinco, ''Chad Ochocinco Experience'', and its follow-up, ''MadChad''. This exposure led to more apps being developed between 2009 and 2012, for

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight-ti ...

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

and Mike Tyson. RockLive released Shots, a

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as ...

photo sharing app, in November 2013. It was launched with Justin Bieber & Floyd Mayweather as partners. The inspiration for the app came after Facebook was forced to take down a page that attracted

cyberbullying Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital ...

. Shahidi, who had been bullied as an overweight child, said "I don't want any kid or adult to have to feel inadequate like I did". Photos had to be taken real-time, without the use of filters or other editing material, and users could not comment on pictures or see how many "likes" other people received. Shots grew to a user base of 7 million users in March 2016, but dropped to 2.5 million in October 2016. At one point, Twitter was in talks to buy Shots for

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

150 million. Many notable creators were a part of the app before moving to Instagram including Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O'Neal, and Vine creators

King Bach Andrew Byron Bachelor (born June 26, 1988), also known as King Bach is a Canadian-American Internet personality and actor who rose to fame on the now-defunct video sharing service Vine, where he had 16.2 million followers, making him the most fol ...

Jake Paul Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American media personality and professional boxer. He initially rose to fame on Vine, before playing the role of Dirk Mann on the Disney Channel series ''Bizaardvark'' for two seasons. Throughout ...

, Rudy Mancuso and

Shots Studios & YouTube Network

After raising $12.1 million in funding in 2015 and with the number of the Shots app users dropping, the company pivoted from software to content. RockLive

rebranded Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...

to Shots Studios, a talent agency and production studio for social media personalities, predominantly on YouTube. Investors included boxer

Floyd Mayweather Floyd may refer to: As a name * Floyd (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Floyd (surname), a list of people and fictional characters Places in the United States * Floyd, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Floyd, I ...

and singer Justin Bieber. In February 2018, Shahidi was a featured panelist at Upfront Summit where they spoke about topics impacting digital creation and social media. Both Shahidi brothers were honored by ''Billboard'' as Latin Power Players for their success in developing the Latin American music careers of Brazilian singer Anitta and Venezuelan-Italian artist Lele Pons. Shahidi executive produced ''

Vai Anitta ''Vai Anitta'' (English: ''Go Anitta'') is a biographical docu-series produced by Shots Studios and released on Netflix. Synopsis The six-episode first season follows Brazilian artist Anitta as she steps into the international spotlight, going ...

'', a

Shots Studios Shots Podcast Network is a podcasting company founded by brothers John Shahidi and Sam Shahidi. The company was originally founded as a software development company named Rock Software in 2009, creating mobile games along with YouTube channels ...

-produced Netflix original docu-series centered around the Brazilian superstar. Shahidi joined Kurt Wagner on his ''Recode'' podcast to speak about the way Shots Studios connects with platforms like Netflix and YouTube, creating content that is catered to a specific audience, all the way down to the type of devices that they use. In 2020, Shahidi teamed up with YouTube Originals and executive produced ''

The Secret Life of Lele Pons ''The Secret Life of Lele Pons'' is a biographical docuseries about YouTube star Lele Pons, produced by Shots Studios, directed by Emmy-award winner Alicia Zubikowski. The first episode was released on Pons' YouTube channel on May 19, 2020. Syno ...

'', a

-produced

YouTube Originals YouTube Premium, formerly known as YouTube Red, is a subscription service that provides advertising-free streaming of all videos hosted by YouTube, offline play and background playback of videos on mobile devices, access to advertising-free mus ...

docuseries focused on Pons' private struggles with mental health and fame.

Nelk & Full Send

In late 2020, Shots Studios partnered with YouTube creators, The Nelk Boys to help their YouTube channels and Shahidi became President of their brand, Full Send. On May 31, Nelk announced a new venture with Shahidi called Happy Dad Hard Seltzer's. Since running the Nelk operations, the company has begun launching and optimizing its own products and brought over $70M USD in revenue in 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shahidi, John 21st-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from California American chairpersons of corporations American people of Kurdish descent American people of Iranian descent Living people Year of birth missing (living people)