An epic moment with Darren Morenstein

We had the great honour of hosting an event for members of the Montreal Chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization. The guest of honor was a wildly popular Montréal entrepreneur, Darren Morenstein, Co-founder of NextTime Productions which produces the very popular YouTube channel Epic Meal Time.

Richter team members with Darren Morenstein

Darren Morenstein began his career as a substitute teacher but, along with his brother, he saw the power of YouTube and social media early on. What started with just one video about a bad pizza grew into a media empire. Epic Meal Time now has over 7 million subscribers amassed so far. He co-built a brand and a business by being one of the first YouTube entrepreneurs to monetize a product beyond the traditional revenue model. Epic Meal Time’s extensive social reach has led to a cookbook deal, merchandise, producing content for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, and recently, Next Time Productions has launched its consumer food brand, Super Snack Time.

During the EO event, Darren shared his insights about his explosive YouTube career, gave precious advices and lessons learned along the way and inspired an amazed audience with his journey.

The chat was moderated by our Partner, Scott Binns. Here are our favorite quotes of advice and take aways from Darren:

On teamwork: “It’s not always about the best deal but working with the best people. It’s all about relationships.”
On finding success in social media: “The message we wanted to give was to be authentic. That’s how you succeed in social media. If you are trying to be original but you are not authentic about it, people notice.”
On social trends: “There is no such thing as a social media expert. Nobody has a clue where everyone is about to go next. Look at Vine, it disappeared in one day.”
On growth: “It takes time. Try different things and test different things.”
Key takeaway: “All these great opportunities came from the relationships we were able to build.”

Our thanks to Darren for being so generous with his time and lending his insights to our EO guests.