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I started these interview series to get a chance to interview people that I respect, look up to and want to learn from. Over the next few months, I plan to interview friends, colleagues and industry leaders alike to pick their brain and draw from their experiences.
Today, I wanted to interview Dave Liebowitz, the executive editor at Everipedia, one of the companies I invested in. He is a very active writer on his personal blog as well as a viral content creator. What’s his story? Let’s find out.
Hey Dave, thanks for coming. Why don’t you tell us a bit about your story?
I was born and raised in North Jersey playing football most of my life. I attended college at UMass Amherst and studied political science, history, and philosophy. It was in college that I cultivated my writing skills to the point where I felt confident releasing my work to the wider public Frequency of the Unknown.
Currently, I am an Executive Editor at Everipedia, a company that is set to revolutionize how knowledge is created and distributed. When I am not writing, you can find me lifting weights in the John Wooden Center, catching up with friends and family, or planning where I am going to wander next.
Did you always want to move to California?
It’s funny to think about how in high school and college, several of my peers would romanticize California as sort of chill dreamland to escape from the hectic northeast. I never viewed California in that respect, but I knew I did not want to spend my entire life living in the northeast. When I saw the opportunity at Everipedia I jumped on it; more so because I saw the company as a good fit for me rather than their location being based in Los Angeles.
How did you hear about Everipedia?
I first heard of Everipedia through being friends with Maboo on Facebook. I always saw him posting Everipedia Pages about trending topics in the news and I found the platform to be useful for really getting to know the story. After graduating college, I saw Maboo post a status on Facebook looking for “interns” so I sent him the message expressing my interest. Early on, I saw the immense potential Everipedia has to take over the internet, so I made a decision to commit myself 150% to the cause. Two months later they offered me a full time position in Los Angeles.
How is it working at Everipedia? What is unique about that team?
There is something truly special happening at Everipedia, and anyone who has ever come to visit HQ can make a testament to that. We all bring something to the table and we all eat, sleep, and breath Everipedia;
Everyone is committed to making the site blow up beyond the stratosphere.
Sam Kazemian is a visionary, straight up. He had the foresight to build an accessible crowdsourced knowledge aggregator for everyone and now he is manifesting his idea into reality.
Mahbod already was apart of building a unicorn at Genius, so his experience and insight is invaluable.
Travis is a master coder, I do not know what he does in detail but I always see him hustling making the site better everyday.
We have OG Christian working on the IOS app and making incredible pages.
Then you have Navin, Angel, and I as Executive Editors, which basically means we are ambassadors of the Everipedia brand; creating original content and preaching the Everipedia gospel to the masses.
You are really good at promoting and making things go viral. Is there a recipe for this? What is one tip or trick we can implement to increase the reach of our posts?
I like to compare getting hits go viral to surfing; you have to be at a trend at the beginning if you want to catch the wave. The closer your creation is to the time an original viral meme is created, the better chance your work will be associated with newer posts. The next thing I would add is to offer exclusive content; something substantial enough for people not only share your work, but cite it too. I go into more detail about this in the article.
You have a very active blog where you discuss different themes from politics to entrepreneurship and everything in between. Is there an underlying theme for Frequency of the Unknown? Who is your ideal reader?
The underlying theme of my blog is to unmask the buzzwords and ideas repeated by many media outlets and offer a new perspective on politics, philosophy, and life. Several philosophers and writers have influenced my writing, including Plato, Machiavelli, Carl Jung, Slavoj Žižek, and Terence Mckenna. For anyone who is a dedicated reader to my blog, they can see repeated like the body politic and allegory of the cave. My blog is a combination of both political commentary, personal reflection, and intriguing interviews; As being a content source of substance, Frequency of the Unknown strives to be a refreshing alternative to the constant clickbait that is spread on social media.
I want to borrow this question from Peter Thiel, What do you know is true that no one else agrees upon?
Zero to One is one of my favorite books and I am happy that you asked that question. Social media is blurring the line between cyberspace and physical reality. People complain about Millennials and Generation Z being anti-social for looking down at their phones, but it’s actually the opposite case; the truth is that we are more social than ever, it is just that our interactions happening through a different medium.
Social media does not compete with reality but rather greatly supplements it. What you display, whether its Facebook, Instagram, Tinder etc. is an extension of ourselves; It is comparable the same way Indigenous tribes wear paint on their bodies. In the future, social media will be so immersive that our children will not recognize the difference between that and the physical world.
What are your dreams and goals? How do you plan to get there?
First and foremost is to make Everipedia a massive success, that is where my attention is right now. Ideally one day, I would like to become an established writer and have the freedom to be able to wander where I please. As for my plan to get there, I will just keep networking with people (online and offline) and keep writing consistently. Those have been the two proven ways that I have advanced in life, so I am going to keep doing what works.
When it’s all over, how do you want to be remembered?
I want to be remembered as someone who had a really good time living life.
Any last remarks that you would want to make?
Don’t be afraid to jump into the unknown because it will be the greatest decision you will ever make.
If you would like to be interviewed, hit me up on twitter: @RiojaAlejandro
Baus interview by two bauses!
Dave makes an interesting point about millennials; it seems like everyone talks about people post-Generation X nowadays. I just watched a video by Simon Sinek a couple days ago where he talked specifically about how millennials are the product of an environment that has failed to lead them. He believes there are four reasons to why this is:
1) Parenting
2) Technology
3) Impatience
4) Environment
Definitely worth checking out. Watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU