One night in early 2019, at a rager inside an unfurnished Los Angeles mansion, a DJ changed Ursus Magana's life. An ardent metalhead and community college dropout, the 25-year-old Magana was out seeking escape from his lucrative yet unfulfilling existence as a digital strategist for the likes of Telemundo and Ubisoft. Out on the dance floor, he was mystified when everyone went bonkers upon hearing the DJ spin a song that was unfamiliar to him. A fellow partygoer informed him that the crowd favorite was called "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X, and that it was a megahit on a burgeoning platform known as TikTok. In that instant, Magana knew how he would flee the dreariness of the corporate realm. He sliced through the mob of revelers and found his close friend and coworker, Andrew Alvarado, whom he excitedly shook by the shoulders. "We're gonna start a new company!" he yelled over the deafening music. "And it's gonna be based on TikTok!" Nearly five years later, Magana has more than made good on that mission statement. He and Alvarado are cofounders of 25/7 Media, a talent management startup that's building careers for creators rooted in some of the internet's stranger subcultures. Among their prominent clients are Emma Langevin, an egirl TikTokker who posts videos about anxiety and soup, and Lumi Athena, a Mexican musician at the center of a musical genre called "krushklub." Part algorithmic guru and part old-fashioned hustler, Magana has helped turn more than a few eccentric teenagers into millionaires. My year-in-the-making story centers on his journey from undocumented immigrant to Hollywood force, but it's also about the ways in which technology is mutating how we absorb art and culture. —Brendan I. Koerner | Contributing Editor |
