Solis is quoted with words of encouragement and advice at the end of a San Diego Union-Tribune article about Rob Whitehair and Alex Finden, founders of a startup called Mammalz, an online social hub for seasoned filmmakers and other wildlife content creators. The site will be a social media like platform where artists can livestream nature content from wild locales, share creative short films, air podcasts or upload tiny snapshots of their adventures.

After a discussion of the changes in traditional wildlife program audiences and the resulting problems career filmmakers in this space have in generating major revenue, article author Brittany Meiling discussed the challenges of such a venture succeeding. Solis, referred to as “a tech analyst at San Francisco’s Altimeter Group, says “Community building is the challenge for any new marketplace. You have to build the community at scale where both sides feel valued.”

Like the multi-billion dollar hub Twitch, whose founders Solis knows, he believes that Mammalz will probably have a tough road ahead when it comes to growing their audience fast enough. But niche communities are hot right now, he says, as many people are turning away from “broad, all-purpose” social media platforms. Solis ends with, “Nothing is impossible. The best and worst ideas sound equally ridiculous in the beginning.”

Read the entire article here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/technology/story/2019-05-14/animal-planet-was-so-last-decade-this-san-diego-startup-takes-a-millennial-spin-on-nature-content