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 with celebrities. The first iPhone game and YouTube channel was created in partnership with

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1985 and 2024. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "the Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson i ...

. With the support of a team of investors including Justin Bieber, podcasts under the Shots Podcast Network include Full Send Podcast, The Pivot and Hotboxin with Mike Tyson.

Podcast Network and YouTube

In November 2019,

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

announced a suite of podcasts and included a partnership with Shots Podcast Network for a podcast hosted by

Lele Pons Eleonora "Lele" Pons Maronese ( ; born 25 June 1996) is an American and Venezuelan YouTuber, actress and singer. Pons came to prominence on Vine before the platform was shut down in 2016 where she was the most followed woman and the third most ...

. " Best Kept Secrets with Lele Pons" debuted exclusively on Spotify on August 19, 2020. In 2020, Shots released 2 podcasts, I Am Athlete with Brandon Marshall and Hotboxin with Mike Tyson. In 2021, Shots released Full Send Podcast with the Nelk Boys. In 2022, after parting ways with I Am Athlete, Shots released The Pivot Podcast.

Shots & Consumer Goods

Shots Podcast Network has expanded to consumer goods and merchandise. In August 2020, Shots became a retailer of

NRG Esports NRG Esports (or simply NRG) is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in ''League of Legends'', ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'', ''Rocket League'', ''Valorant'', ''Counter-Strike 2'', ''Apex Legen ...

merchandise after forming a partnership with the gaming company. On April 3, 2020, WWD announced a partnership between Shots Podcast Network and Syllable, a beauty product company, to create Loops Beauty, a line of sustainable face masks. Shots Studios creators model and promote the product. In June 2021, Shots helped launch Happy Dad Hard Seltzer with the Nelk Boys.

Company History

Rock Software: 2009 - 2011

The company launched as Rock Software in 2009 by brothers John and Sam Shahidi in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. They started as a mobile gaming company focused on

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android apps, with its first commercial release being RunPee, an app which gives users the best time to use the restroom during a movie. The app was featured on ''The Today Show''. Through a mutual friend on the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

, the Shahidi brothers met star

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

Chad Ochocinco which led to a partnership and creation of two apps, the Chad Ochocinco Experience and MadChad.

RockLive: 2011 - 2013

During this time the company continued to grow and rebranded as RockLive. They expanded their focus on mobile gaming apps and created apps for celebrities and athletes including

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt (; born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who is widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time. He is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, ...

, and

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

. In 2011, the company launched a mobile game called ''

's Main Event''. Across their various platforms, RockLive saw more than 3 million active users.

Shots App: 2013 - 2017

In 2013 the company began moving away from mobile games and working on a new social media app. With a large investment from

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

earlier that year, they released the Shots app on November 12, 2013. The app was a selfie picture sharing app with a focus on anti-bullying. Other investors include

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 ...

, King Bach,

Marlon Wayans Marlon Lamont Wayans (born July 23, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for his work with his brother Shawn Wayans on The WB sitcom ''The Wayans Bros.'' (1995–1999) and the comedy films ''Don't Be a M ...

Omar Epps Omar Hashim Epps (born July 20, 1973) is an American actor, rapper, and producer. Epps's film roles include ''Juice (1992 film), Juice'', ''Higher Learning'', ''The Wood'', ''In Too Deep (1999 film), In Too Deep'', and ''Love & Basketball''. His ...

Shervin Pishevar Shervin Kordary Pishevar (; born March 24, 1974) is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, super angel investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Hyperloop One and a co-founder and managing ...

Ben Parr Ben Parr (born February 12, 1985) is an American journalist, author, venture capitalist and entrepreneur. He is the author of ''Captivology: The Science of Capturing People's Attention'', a book on the science and psychology of attention and ho ...

, WI Harper,

Upfront Ventures Upfront Ventures, formerly known as GRP Partners, is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. It is one of the largest venture capital firms in Los Angeles, with $2 billion in total raised funds. ...

and DCM Ventures. This led to the move of the company headquarters to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. After Twitter CEO Anthony Noto accidentally tweeted a message about an acquisition for Twitter, a source close to the company confirmed that Twitter was looking to acquire Shots for $150 million. CEO John Shahidi stated to

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

that the company was not for sale at the time. By 2015 the Shots app had over 7 million active users. During this time, the company began partnering with digital content creators including

Rudy Mancuso Rodolfo Mancuso (born 1992) is an American Internet personality, musician, writer, filmmaker, and actor. He is known for making comedy skits with his friends on YouTube and Vine as well as for being behind many voices in the YouTube channel ''A ...

to explore delivering original content to its users. This led to the development of the Awkward Puppets series. In 2017, the Shots mobile app was removed from the

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

as the company shifted focus towards producing original content for

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and other social platforms.

Shots Studios: 2013 - 2020

The Shots app launched Shots Studios and became a full-time digital studio in 2016. After the companies transition to digital entertainment, the Shots app was removed from the

App Store (iOS) The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be downlo ...

in 2016. Shots Studios channels have tens of millions of followers combined, tapping into an increasingly digital world with online comedy, music, and other video content. The company has landed partnerships with companies such as

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, and many

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...

brands for branded content. In addition to its core YouTube channels, Shots Studios has since launched a music division, a kid-friendly "

edutainment Educational entertainment, also referred to by the portmanteau edutainment, is media designed to education, educate through entertainment. The term has been used as early as 1933. Most often it includes content intended to teach but has inciden ...

" channel, an apparel line, and beauty products. Shots Studios creators have partnered with companies such as

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

Tarte Cosmetics Tarte Cosmetics is an American cosmetics company headquartered in New York City. It was founded by Maureen Kelly in 1999; her first product was a cheek stain that was used the following year for the cover of ''Self'' magazine. Also in 2000, Tar ...

AXE An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, a brand of Belgian company AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. Budweiser is a filte ...

COVERGIRL CoverGirl is an American cosmetics brand founded in Maryland, United States, by the Noxzema Chemical Company. It was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1989, and later acquired by Coty, Inc. in 2016. The Noxell Company advertised this cosmetics l ...

, and many others to produce branded content. In October 2015, Shots Studios launched Awkward Puppets, an original series created by

, thus launching the recently re-branded company's first foray into content production. In 2016, Shots Studios partnered with Mike Tyson to launch a YouTube channel for the boxer to share sketch comedy on. The company began to manage other creators, assembling a roster of Rudy Mancuso, Lele Pons, Anwar Jibawi, Hannah Stocking and Jake Paul, in order to produce content on their own YouTube channels. Shots Studios previously partnered and collaborated with other entertainers such as

Alesso Alessandro Renato Rodolfo Lindblad (born 7 July 1991), better known by his stage name Alesso (), is a Swedish DJ and record producer. He has worked with numerous artists, including Tove Lo, Theo Hutchcraft, Ryan Tedder, Hailee Steinfeld, Ca ...

, Anitta,

, Inanna Sarkis, and

Loren Gray Loren Gray Beech (born April 19, 2002) is an American social media personality, singer, and songwriter. Gray rose to prominence in 2015 on the video sharing app, Musical.ly. In 2018, she released her debut single "My Story" under Virgin Recor ...

. In July 2017, Shots Studios signed Brazilian megastar Anitta. On September 3, Anitta released her first English-language single, a collaboration with Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter

Poo Bear Jason Paul Douglas Boyd, known professionally as Poo Bear, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his songwriting work for Canadian singer Justin Bieber, having been credited on each of his albums since hi ...

titled "Will I See You." The video earned over 10 million views in its first two days on YouTube. On October 7, 2017, Mancuso released his first single titled “Black & White” with Poo Bear. On November 19, 2017, Anitta released "

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

," a Spanish-language collaboration with Colombian singer

J Balvin José Álvaro Osorio Balvín (born 7 May 1985), known professionally as J Balvin, is a Colombian singer. He is one of the best-selling Latin artists, with 35 million records sold worldwide. Balvin was born in Medellín. At age 17, he moved to th ...

. The song was nominated for "Best Urban Song" at the Latin GRAMMYs. Shots Studios also produced music videos for Grammy Award nominated Swedish producer Alesso, including the visuals for 2017's “ Is That For Me” with Brazilian star Anitta, 2018's Mancuso-directed “

Remedy Remedy, Remedies, The Remedy or Remediation may refer to: Computing and gaming * Remedy Corp, an American software company * Remedy Entertainment, a Finnish video game developer Law, politics, and society * Environmental remediation, the remov ...

” with

Conor Maynard Conor Paul Maynard (born 21 November 1992) is an English singer. Born and raised in Brighton, he signed a recording contract with Warner Music Group in 2011. Maynard rose to fame in 2012 when he was nominated for, and subsequently won, MTV's ' ...

, and 2019's “ Sad Song” with Tini. In September 2017, Alesso and American artist

Hailee Steinfeld Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She had her breakthrough with the western film ''True Grit (2010 film), True Grit'' (2010), which earned her List of awards and nominations received by H ...

released " Let Me Go" featuring

Florida Georgia Line Florida Georgia Line was an American country music duo founded in 2010 by vocalists and songwriters Tyler Hubbard of Georgia and Brian Kelley of Florida. Their 2012 debut single " Cruise" broke two major sales records: it was downloaded over ...

and

Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

. The record was certified Platinum and amassed over 1 billion streams across streaming platforms. In July 2018, ''Variety'' announced that Shots Studios partnered with

to produce a six-episode

docuseries Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

that followed the life of Brazilian pop star Anitta. The series, titled '' Vai Anitta'', was exclusively released on Netflix on November 16, 2018. In March 2018, Billboard named Shots Studios one of Dance music's "Internationalists," a company that is "leading dance music's global expansion." John and Sam Shahidi were named to Billboard's Latin Power Players list for their and their artists' success in the Spanish-speaking market in November 2018. In late November 2018, Alesso released "Tilted Towers," a collaborative project with ''

Fortnite ''Fortnite'' is an online video game and game platform developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in seven distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: '' Fortnite Battle Roy ...

'' streamer and YouTuber

Ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

, which debuted live on the gamer's Twitch stream. The song appeared on Ninja's first music endeavor, a compilation project titled " Ninjawerks (Vol. 1). In August 2018, Shots Studios Music was formed in partnership with

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

and Lele Pons released her first solo single, “ Celoso.” Pons would perform the record at the

Latin American Music Awards The Latin American Music Awards (Latin AMAs) is an annual American music awards show produced by TelevisaUnivision. It is the Spanish-language counterpart of the American Music Awards (AMAs). As with AMAs, the Latin AMAs are determined by a poll ...

after it was certified 3× Platinum. On March 13, 2019, ''

Tubefilter Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California, that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. It publishes Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, producers, influenc ...

'' announced that Shots Studios would join a handful of other creative studios and content creators to produce new original programming for

Facebook Watch Facebook Watch (currently rebranding to Facebook Video) is a video on demand service operated by American company Meta Platforms (previously named Facebook, Inc.). The company announced the service in August 2017 and it was available to all U.S. ...

. Shots Studios’ slate of programs was headlined by projects from Rudy Mancuso, Juanpa Zurita and Lele Pons. On June 12, 2019, Shots Studios released a series of Mancuso-written and directed shorts titled "Stories From Our Future" in collaboration with Netflix's

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

winning series ''

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology series, anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Most episodes are set in near-future dystopias containing Science fiction, sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction. The series i ...

''. On August 14, 2020, it was announced that social media superstar

Jake Paul Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American Professional boxing, professional boxer, influencer and actor. He began his career posting videos on Vine (service), Vine in September 2013 and had amassed 5.3 million followers and 2 bi ...

signed with Shots Studios. On April 22, 2020, ''Variety'' announced Shots Studios’ YouTube Original docuseries titled '' The Secret Life of Lele Pons''. The first episode of the five-part docuseries premiered on May 19, 2020, on Lele Pons’ YouTube channel. On August 24, ''Tubefilter'' announced that Shots Studios had entered a new partnership with

for content production, social strategy, and apparel.

References

External links

Shots Podcast Network
on YouTube
Shots Podcast Network
on Twitter
Shots Podcast Network
on Instagram {{Authority control Mobile social software American record labels Entertainment-related YouTube channels