A conversation with Marques Brownlee

Stevens student Marques Brownlee, perhaps better known as “MKBHD” on YouTube, has had a hugely successful multi-year run with videos he shoots and produces himself from his apartment in Hoboken, culminating to a subscriber base today of nearly 2 million viewers. Topically, his videos range from gadget reviews to analyses of news and trends in the tech world, to the occasional interview with a Motorola CEO or test drive of a Tesla Model S. I met with Marques at America’s Cup to discuss his beginnings, favorite devices, and aspirations for the future of his channel.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

How’s the hand coming? I remember you broke it last month from playing Ultimate.

It’s actually going really well, I just can’t shake hands and stuff.

I see you’ve overcome the initial difficulty of one-handedness.

Yeah, I mean, I can move a mouse now. I was editing left-handed on a trackpad for like the last three weeks, which was not fun, but now that I can use this hand again it’s getting better.

You mentioned in a video that you wanted people who live their lives with only one hand to give you tips, did you get a lot?

[sighs] Well, no. I got mostly jokes, but when you only have one hand, you realize how many things were built for two hands, like tying my shoes. Or opening bottles. Zip-loc bags. That was an experience.

What is your major and year?

Business & Technology, senior year.

What interests you about Business & Technology?

Just technology in general. I’ve been interested in marketing for a while, and I’ve been talking to marketing managers constantly, so that interests me anyway. These companies have to make good products to do well, [but] they also have to get the word out about their products. I’m always talking to people about that.

How do you balance YouTube and school?

A lot of calendar tasks, delegating… there’s not really any secrets other than just managing time well enough to get some sleep eventually.

How much sleep do you get every night?

[laughs] I’d say I get about six hours of sleep every night. It’s enough for me.

What was your original motivation for doing YouTube videos?

Originally, it was just curiosity and fun, just because I wanted something else to do. I’d just gotten this new laptop and I was wondering what I could do with it. So the purchase process before I’d gotten it was watching YouTube videos and other reviews for which laptop to buy, and then when I finally got it, I decided to add to that, in case someone else was in my scenario as well and wanted to figure out what to buy. I just figured I’d add to that and throw [the videos] out there.

Did you ever picture the channel getting as big as it’s gotten, with almost 2 million subscribers?

No.

What was your original plan?

I don’t know, I didn’t have any goals, I just kind of started sharing stuff and then some people would would comment, “Oh, can you also talk about/make a video about this?” And I’d be like, “Okay,” to some guy I don’t know on the Internet, “and I’ll also make a video about that for you.” I just talked to the same small group of people, so it was… just something to do with this community of people. It was just stuff to make.

Do companies send you devices to review, or do you buy them?

Most of the stuff I show in videos I’ve probably bought, but occasionally a company [whose product] I would’ve bought anyway will reach out to me, or I’ll reach out to them, and they’ll send me a product for review. So that does happen.

When did it start happening?

It happened somewhere in the second year that I was doing videos. [The companies] like to get something out of it, so they would like to see that you have a large enough audience that would get them exposure from sending it to you, which would make it worth it [for them]. So, I was at a couple thousand subscribers when it started, and reviewing free software, so I didn’t need companies to send anything. It was only after several hundred videos that I reviewed a keyboard or mouse that was sent from a company.

When did you first realize your channel was blowing up?

I don’t know if there was a single point or event, but there’s tons of little things you could point to, like the first time that someone I watched commented on my video or something like that. There was the first time a video was viewed more times than the number of subscribers I had, which meant people were sharing the video. That was important.

Who was an important person to you who commented on your videos?

I don’t know if I remember the first one. It was probably Mark from “SoldierKnowsBest” like five years ago, and it probably made my day. But it’s hard to point to one. It’s been kind of a constant upward slope.

Out of all the phones that you’ve reviewed this year, which one is your favorite?

There’s a lot of really good ones. I used the HTC One M8 Google Play Edition —

The correct edition.

[laughs] Yeah, I used it for the longest time during this year, like a couple months. I usually don’t use one phone for more than a couple weeks, but that one I used for several months. So that’s probably the number one on my list.

Are you a big tablet guy?

Yeah, I use my iPad mini every day and my Nexus 10 every week. But that’s about to change, there’s new tablets out now. Like, this month.

Like the Nexus 9?

Yeah, yeah. I should have one sooner or later. That’s probably going to replace my Nexus 10.

Are you into smartwatches at all?

Yeah, I wasn’t into them until really late. Like, a lot of early adopters were into Pebble a long time ago and I didn’t use one for a while, but this year I started using the Pebble, then immediately hopped onto the Moto 360, and now I’m into smartwatches. So yeah. I like them now.

Which one is your favorite?

I still like the Moto 360 more than any other one that I’ve used so far.

Have you tried the LG G Watch R?

I have. I’m partial to the no-bezel thing [on the Moto 360] even though people who wear watches already might disagree. But [the Moto 360] feels pretty comfortable.

Out of all the opportunities you’ve gotten from your videos, like interviewing the Motorola CEO, or shooting a video at The Verge’s studio, or getting invited by Tesla to review the Model S, which one has been the most exciting?

The most exciting was Tesla.

Yeah?

By far. Not only is their product fun; they’re an awesome company, very open and easy to work with, and every time I work with them the people there are awesome. And then the car’s really badass. That helps.

I’m a little envious about that.

Yeah, every time I do anything with Tesla it’s awesome.

You mentioned in a tweet recently that you got invited to Beats.

I got an email from them after I did a video called “The Truth About Beats by Dre!,” and I’ve talked about Beats before, but I just did a video where I talked about how I feel about them, why people like them, and what they’re really for.

I feel like that was a pretty fair video.

Yeah, I tried to be pretty fair, and then a couple days later I got an email from someone who works at Beats saying, “Hey, hello from Beats, we saw the video, and we want to set up a chat.” So I replied, “Sure, I’m down. We should find a time when we can both chat, because I have class so obviously I can’t just talk anytime. So let me know a time and we’ll do it.” Then I tweeted that I got an email from Beats, and after that, radio silence. So I looked it up later and realized [the woman who emailed me] runs PR for a couple big companies, so she probably saw the tweet and was like, “Yeah, never mind.”

So in the future you’ll probably be more careful about that kind of stuff?

Yeah, I don’t know, it’s not like I’m revealing anything. It’s weird.

Where do you see the channel going?

[pauses] More videos, better videos, and hopefully reaching more people are kind of the end goals. Obviously there are plenty of people watching them now, which not only has the benefit of them sharing with everybody, but I get immediate feedback on anything I change or anything different that I do. So, if I try something new with the format or the equipment, setup, lighting, or anything like that, there’s super-fast feedback about it. That helps me improve the quality of the videos. So I guess the future I see is better videos and [a wider variety] of topics. I like to say anything with an “on” button is fair game.

What do you think you might reach out to besides phones?

I guess headphones don’t have an “on” button, so anything I consider consumer electronics is something I’d be willing to check out, because it’s something I’m interested in. So, like, cars I’ve never done until this year, and Tesla happened to be the perfect introduction to them; it’s very high-tech. But I’m open to basically anything.

Would you ever do more videos on electric vehicles?

Yeah, I’ve been talking to BMW, because they have an i8, that’s kind of similar to the stuff with Tesla, so I’m figuring out a way to collaborate with them on that. Electric vehicles, electric anything, seems good to me.

Outside of YouTube, or maybe inside of YouTube, what are your career aspirations in general?

[long pause] It’s a question mark again, because I don’t know. I know I’ll keep making videos, and I get asked, “Are you going to add staff?” or have people help me out or something. But every time I think about that, it’s like, everything I’ve done up to this point has been a hundred percent made by me. It feels like a sort of portfolio, so to bring other people on to make stuff too seems like a step back rather than a step forward. So whatever my “career” ends up being, I just want it to be as fun as this, and hopefully help as many people as this has helped.

Do you think adding more people might cheapen the brand?

Possibly, yeah. I mean, a lot of it is the fact that [the channel] is just one person giving a personal recommendation, maybe about something you’re going to buy. So yeah, I feel like if it becomes several people, suddenly it’s a different experience.

Do you have any advice for freshmen?

I know there’s not a lot of class choices for freshmen, but try to experiment with things you might be interested in, even if you’re not 100% sure. Just dive in headfirst and maybe it’ll be awesome. That’s it I guess. Just have an open mind.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell people who might be reading this?

[Making videos] is a lot of fun. Anyone can make YouTube videos. If you spot something you wish was on YouTube, a niche you’d like to see that doesn’t exist, just go out and start making it. And hopefully it’ll be awesome.