Uproxx: Building a Cultural Powerhouse from the Ground Up
Storytelling Systems at Scale
Context
In the early 2010s, digital media was shifting fast. Social platforms were exploding, attention spans were shrinking, and “content” had become the dominant language of culture. Uproxx wasn’t just trying to keep up. We wanted to lead. But how do you make the greatest content repeatable and turnkey?
Back then, Uproxx owned some of the largest websites for young millennials (Brobible, Dime, The Chive, The Hundreds, etc) - but its content “studio” was a scrappy, four-person production outfit. When I joined, we had a single edit bay, no formal content strategy, and no real infrastructure. Within a few years, we scaled to a 40+ person storytelling engine that would become one of the most awarded digital studios of the decade, culminating in a successful acquisition by Warner Music Group.
Insight
What’s the last piece of content you shared with a friend? What did it say about you? We understood that people don’t just watch content. They share it like language as a way of expressing identity. That means content has to do more than inform, it has to make your audience feel seen.
To do that consistently, you need more than creative ideas. You need a system. You need voice, infrastructure, talent pipelines, strategic processes, and creative hunger. You also need a whole lot of agility and awareness to brace the ever-changing algorithms of every platform your audience consumes.
Solution
Over the six years I spent at Uproxx, I helped architect the full creative ecosystem that powered Uproxx’s rise:
Built production infrastructure: soundstage, edit bays, shoot kits, live streaming capability
Scaled team & systems: from 4 to 40+ creatives, including an untold amount of contractors, producers, talent and influencers.
Developed the brand voice: helped codify "The Culture of Now": a lens that asked “Why is this meaningful right now?”
Created storytelling frameworks: trained teams and contractors (many with film/TV backgrounds) on how to tell platform-native stories without losing depth
Launched talent department: sourced rising creatives, artists, and inventors to feature across original and branded formats
Directed & oversaw original series: including Coors Banquet’s Warriors of the West and Intel’s CRE8 campaigns, and oversaw hundreds of other productions, including first-ever Facebook-branded video (“Luminaries”), and hit shows like F-That with Vince Staples, The People’s Party with Talib Kweli, and The Core for horror superfans
Impact
30M+ monthly uniques, serving global brands across entertainment, tech, auto, lifestyle
Publisher of the Year – Digiday
Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Hollywood – Fast Company
Work featured and awarded by Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, Webby, OMMA, AdAge, Digiday
Warner Music acquisition (2018)
Became a creative hub for the culture, a stop-in spot for musicians, creators, and thinkers shaping the moment
Brand Voice: “The Culture of Now”
We designed a brand lens rooted in cultural fluency that aligned hundreds of Uproxx staff, contractors and partners.
Every story had to:
Increase our audience’s cultural IQ
Celebrate creativity, relevance, and individuality
Ask: “Why is this meaningful right now?”
Our voice was intelligent, youthful, anti-snark, and pro-human. That POV shaped all content, from docuseries to headlines to social snippets. This was the bible we created a world-class programming slate.
Internal motto: “Content is Language”
Just as an emjoi is used to simply express a feeling, our content captures complex ideas our audience feels and needs to share.
Art by Uproxx contributor Yung Jake.
Infrastructure & Systems
We built from the ground up:
Full production studio in Culver City for flexible and turnkey content creation
16 edit bays
Mobile “creator kits” to empower distributed teams
Workflow systems for branded content, original programming, social, and editorial
Contractor onboarding processes that taught our storytelling frameworks quickly, helping Sundance-winning directors transition to branded verticals
Guidelines for pacing, narrative arc, tone, and platform optimization
My Role
Working across hundreds of stories taught me the most important creative rule: your stories must serve the audience or else it won’t land. And if you don’t understand the platform’s unique characteristics, then you inherently don’t understand your audience.
Over my six years at Uproxx:
Started as Head of Post Production, overseeing edit workflows and content delivery
Promoted to Studio Creative Director, leading creative on original and branded IP
Trained dozens of editors, producers, writers and shooters
Built storytelling decks, responded to RFPs, pitched brands
Personally directed and edited flagship pieces for Intel, Toyota, and Coors and more.
Operated as a creative translator between brand objectives and platform-native storytelling
Original Programming Highlights
We developed Uproxx into a culture-generating machine. Hundreds of stories, billions of views, and a scalable system to serve some of the top brands in the world. We told real stories about disruptors, innovators and creative thinkers shaping culture.
A few flagship projects:
BACKSTAGE (Honda)
A music docuseries spotlighting rising artists on the verge of breakthrough. Produced in partnership with Honda, iHeart, and Vevo, it ran across YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook — combining cinematic storytelling with brand purpose.US AGAINST THE WORLD (Comcast Watchable)
A 10-part docuseries about a Kentucky high school basketball team confronting racism, identity, and systemic backlash. Emotional, urgent, and nationally discussed — it turned a local story into a lens on America. Synopsis TV award winner.HUMAN (Toyota)
A branded series profiling everyday people doing extraordinary things. We told deeply personal stories to elevate Toyota’s message without ever sounding like an ad.HUMAN LIMITS (Coors Light)
Stories of people testing the edge of physical and mental endurance. Gritty, inspiring, and D&AD–winning, it aligned perfectly with Coors Light’s “Climb On” ethos.
Awards & Recognition
