@bangerooo was part of the Chem Eng Sci Class of 2018 at Queen's University. On top of that she founded a venture at the Queen's innovation study centre, where she won the grand prize of $30,000 in a pitch competition for a hardware start-up. Now a days, she's hopping around the continent, making art and making money doing it. Her style is her own and if you check her out- you'll be able to easily see what I mean. She has over 85,000 followers on Instagram, has over 1.7 billion views of her GIFS and has her own animation company which she runs entirely by herself. I hope you enjoy reading about a truly interesting entrepreneur!
Can you tell me about yourself?
I’m an engineering chemistry graduate of Sci’ 2018. I started making art when I got a Samsung tablet for school in third year. I started drawing for fun and then posted on Instagram. Now I make everything on an iPad Pro with an apple pencil and I animate on photoshop on a computer. At the beginning of my journey I was just making art for personal pleasure and wasn’t really motivated by likes and follows; however, it was something that I obviously wanted. One of my goals was to become Instagram famous. I really envied the lifestyle that some of the people I followed had. In the back of my mind, I thought that the account could possibly be a means to a lifestyle that I thought was attractive.
Hopefully one day, I’ll have a start-up that is science based and more closely associated with my degree. I love chemistry and thinking about potential solutions to problems and I really want to make a positive impact in the world one day.
On a side note - I think that one of the biggest barriers to becoming an entrepreneur is the feeling of “how am I going to eat and how am I going to pay rent?” So, I’m lucky that I have that already figured out, in addition to having free time to pursue other ideas and revenue streams. One of the best parts about this journey is being able to explore whatever I want, doing different things and failing. Taking a job feels like I’m just selling my life to someone. One of my goals for 2020 is to get to the point where I’m making as much money as a junior engineer, which I think is totally attainable.
What have you been up to recently and for next couple of months?
I just came back from living in B.C and California for the past few months. For the next few months- I’ll probably spend some time at home, continuing to work on my animation business and Bangerooo.
So, I’ll start with what you were up to in B.C and Cali?
My best friend is working in Victoria with the Navy and lived there for about a month and a half. I mean I work online so I really don’t have to be anywhere. I was actually going to be in B.C for two months, but decided to go to Cali for a little less than a month. It was getting a little cold in B.C and I thought hey why not.
I’ve been unemployed and out of school for the last year. The whole experience has been a journey. I feel like the best way to learn as an entrepreneur is to throw yourself into it fully.
I was never really motivated by money and still say I’m not. I don’t know, as I’m going through this journey, I’m starting to think about it more.
Being an entrepreneur and moving to B.C was a big change. I consider that a really lonely experience. When I was in Kingston, I’d go to the innovation centre and work on my business. And even though I was working on it by myself- I’d still see people and friends at night. In Victoria, my only friend was someone that had a 9-5 job and I was only there for 6 weeks - so meeting new people wasn’t my priority. Digital relationships became the norm and that was an adjustment I had to endure.
Especially coming from a situation like university- where I studied Engineering which has a huge emphasis on working with other people in group projects and being involved in extra curriculars. I went from having a ton of social interaction in a day to not that much. Motivating myself was a huge part of what I did for the last 3 months.
That’s one of the things I don’t really love. I can see social aspects of a job to be a real positive over starting out by yourself as an entrepreneur.
Is that something you struggle with or have you learned to be more comfortable by yourself or have you learned something through experience that?
I think that’s something that you must accept. I mean, with the more that I grow and the bigger my network becomes- the more calls I have during the day. More of my interactions are digital now. I learned from that experience that maybe it’s not a great idea to move to a different city and only spend a few weeks there. If I did, I’d want to spend a little more time to gain a social network, make friends and allow myself to become a little better adjusted.
I’ve heard that people that really put it all on themselves begin to understand the relationship of input vs output. I mean is that terrifying or is it also rewarding when you see some of your goals come to reality?
It’s been terrifying from different aspects of my life. As you know, I started my entrepreneurial journey with a hardware start-up, something completely different to what I’m doing now. At that time, I was just posting on Instagram as a hobby. Then my instagram took off and the hardware start-up was kind of falling apart, so Bangerooo really became my full-time job. I’ve had that experience of everything being on me, but it really came at the end of the hardware start-up where my team of four wasn’t as heavily involved in the venture as I was.
Right now, I’m really working on my passion. I almost always love making art and am growing as an artist every day. So the pressure doesn’t seem as intense as it was when I had secured $30,000’s for my other venture and didn’t have all the skills to make it a successful product/company. With what I’m doing now, I have the skills to do almost everything.
You’ve said that making 10x more than your fellow engineering grad isn’t what’s most important to you.
Well I wouldn’t say that. I mean I truly think that there is something for everyone that can give them that potential. I mean one day I’d love to have a ton of money. I really don’t see there being a way to truly impact the world without it- which is probably what I really want most in life. I want to leave my mark in a certain way- and I do think I’ll need $1,000,000’s to do that. So I am motivated by money to a certain extent. But I do know people that are very motivated by money and don’t care about anything else. I don’t identify with those people and don’t think I ever will.
So, when did you first experience virality or real growth?
It took about a year for my account to get to 1,000 followers. This happened in early 2017. When I went to study at the Bader in England last year for the Fall semester, I hit 10,000 followers and things really started to speed up after that. Growth was consistent and today I’m almost at 100,000.
Can you tell me about your Animation business?
Ya for sure, so I have an animation company as well. Which isn’t super attached to Bangerooo. They know me as a person/ first name basis and know that it’s Bangerooo doing the art for them.
So, my animation company is my main source of income. Additionally, I drop ship all sorts of things like shirts, posters, tapestries etc. Drop shipping is great especially when I’m travelling. As of now, I can do everything I do anywhere in the world.
Do you have any hobbies outside of your business?
Well, making content for my Instagram used to be a hobby and now it’s my job. So- a lot of my day really revolves around that. I think I’m lucky to be able to have job really be my hobby/passion.
Do you have some short-term and long-term aspirations that you think will be critical to grow your business and you as a person?
I think my business is sort of me as a person. In terms of growing - a lot of my goals revolve around myself. Right now I have a lot of free-time, so I want to learn as much as possible. Whether that be improving my style or even learning to code, improving myself is what I think will pay dividends in the future.
One of my goals is to make an app. It’s something I didn’t get to focus on at school and it’s always been on my mind.
One of my long-term goals, I really want to create a brand for myself. And something that I’ve been naturally gravitating towards is marketing. I find social media marketing incredibly interesting and would love to be able to create a brand for a product and drop ship it around the world. On a financial note, I’d love to be able to get enough savings to invest- so that I have something to fall back on. I mean even though my business is about me putting in the work- you never know what can happen. I’ve always been an advocate for taking risks- and I think that’s one of the reasons why people are hesitant to dive into entrepreneurship.
Do you have any role models that you look up to?
I mean, as an artist, I think its hard to really pick someone that you idolize. Obviously, there are accounts that I follow that I look up to and appreciate what they’re doing. Especially when I was smaller, I’d try to replicate some of the things that they did. But, I take things from a bunch of different places. I know when Herb and love.watts reposted my work that was huge moment for me (accounts with a couple million followers).
I’d say someone like Elon Musk or maybe even Drake, but I really wouldn’t say they’re my role models. They are definitely not in my industry or anything like that.
Could you describe your niche?
At this point, a lot of people would associate me with drugs, sex, fan art and especially aliens. I mean who doesn’t in some way relate with an alien. I noticed when I started drawing with these characteristics more that I got some more traction and people seemed to like it a lot more. If you were to look at a picture of someone staring up to the sky you don’t really feel anything. If you were to look at a picture of someone doing the same thing with a joint in their hand, a lot more people can get something from and relate to that image.
Is there anything you’d want fellow artists to look out for when they’re starting up?
One thing in particular stands out to me. Early on, some accounts would actually post my work on their page and not tag me. When I noticed this happening- I’d reach out to all the other accounts that I know and see if I could get some sort of credit (I mean it’s something I created). I’d get really emotional when this happened because there really wasn’t anything I could do. They only cared about their following and how it made their accounts look.
That’s really too bad. On a lighter note, what’s your favourite movie you’ve watched in the last couple of months?
Ex Machina really blew my mind.
I can’t believe you only watched that now.
Hey I’m busy, I got some other stuff to do. LOOOOOLLLLL
Would you rather fight 100 duck-sized horses or 1 horse-sized duck?
Ok so, I have a really different take than a lot of people when they answer this question. I feel like 99% of people don’t approach it in the same way. So I’m going to clarify it for you and everyone else.
I’m glad ‘cause I need some clarification
Don’t worry it’s not just you, everyone needs clarification. So this is a fight to the death. These things want to kill you, and won’t stop until they kill you, or you kill them. 100 duck-sized horses are adorable, but you can’t play with them. You literally need to snap 100 necks or die. I look at this question from the view of how many necks do you have to snap? It’s either 100 necks you need to snap or 1 neck- so I choose the horse-sized duck.
But a horse-sized duck! Have you not seen a duck. They have like massive beaks. Imagine a small Canadian goose. They can **** you up with one of them- and there small.
Ya, but I don’t want to kill 100 duck-sized horses.
Like do you think you’re going to win no matter what?
Ya, of course, I would win regardless of what I’m fighting. I’m breaking it down into how many things I need to kill.
So you’re worried about how much energy your wasting?
Umm no, I’m coming at it from a moral perspective. I mean maybe you can’t identify with that because you’re heartless.
Nice
But I’d rather kill 1 thing than 100 things. So that’s my answer.
LOL
Thanks Bangerooo for the interview and if you want to check out any of her amazing work check out @bangerooo on instagram or her GIFS @ https://giphy.com/bangerooo
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