Switch from Engineering to Entertainment
I’m currently a senior manager in Hardware Tech at Apple. Recently, on the side, my wife & I have been developing a TV show concept to get girls interested in STEM. All of the feedback on the concept / pilot script has been encouraging & I’m wondering if this is worth pursuing full time… If so, should I attempt to do this internally through Apple (via Apple TV+) or externally with someone like Netflix, Amazon, or NBC? I don’t have much insight into this area, so hoping Blind can help point me in the right direction. Current TC ~$450k #media #entertainment #tech #engineering
Unless Apple shows that they will let you keep the IP, I think it is smart to do this through an external entity - whoever the highest bidder is. Unrelated: I'm always interested in people who develop products separate from their core competencies - how'd you end up looking into making a TV show?
I always enjoyed making movies as a kid and taught myself art & animation growing up. However, when I got to college I took the “safe” route and went with engineering. My wife & I are both in the tech industry, and recently had a daughter. We soon realized there were no TV shows / cartoons targeted at getting young girls interested in STEM. So I dusted off those skills and started putting some concepts together.
That’s not entirely true. Blaze and monster machine is a kids cartoon that incorporates STEM into the storyline . How do I know this? I have a toddler 😆
Ex-Disney on the TV side. Definitely agree with dingleberr, but I’ll also note that Apple TV+ is focusing on premium content for general audiences vs kid’s content. Why not produce for YouTube / TikTok? That’s where all the kids are anyway!
YouTube / Ticktok is a good idea - and one my wife has been pushing. I anticipate a lot of work involved going from a concept to a full show & I was hoping to get some assurance / validation before committing myself to all that effort (especially if I’m keeping my day job)
One benefit with publishing on YouTube is you don't have to develop at major label TV quality. Tiktok's barrier of entry is even lower. You can use those platforms to test it out before quitting your job.
Lmao. TV show
Good luck hope you hit it big time. Meanwhile can I dm you to get your insight on infrastructure manager roles vs hardware manager roles?
Tiktok 👌
It’s best to hire a manager/agent to help with this. Otherwise you risk getting squeezed out with no representation.
Lmao you can’t just hire a manager or agent.
I work in entertainment in strategy with a focus on kids content, so I might be helpful. You're going to need to execute on the concept likely in order to drive demand - even if you provide the concept to Apple TV, you may not actually get support or a payout unless theres a production co. on your side. Seeding interest among bidders will be beneficial. Good news is, kids content is incredibly important to SVOD services moving forward as services are looking to acquire parent subs and reduce churn. Feel free to DM me and I can walk through things that might be helpful with you. As a starting point, YT isnt a bad place to start and wont limit your ability to monetize across platforms down the line (e.g., Ryan's World, JoJo Siwa, Cocomelon)
Honest question - why do you want to push girls into STEM? Nothing is stopping girls from getting into STEM currently, so why do you think they need a TV show to tell them to do something most of them aren’t interested in doing?
Nothing is stopping you from buying an iPhone, why would you need some form of short video displayed every day on TV telling you to get one?
I think best channel might be going on YouTube/Facebook. If you work with actual media companies like Disney/Netflix/WB/etc, who knows if apple wants to slap an conflict of interest because of appleTV. It's probably easier to get an attention & cheaper to get the feet wet into the industry through YT and Tiktok. My significant other also says there are a lot of career advice people on tiktok and young people are interested in those.
Honestly I wouldn't take advice from anyone on blind about this. Find someone experienced in this field to ask. I think it's a wonderful concept but if you want to give up your career for this, you need to do it properly
Thanks for the feedback - I have reached out to the few people I know in this space separately. Just attempting to cast a wide net incase it helps somehow
Agreed, reading through the comments and a lot of people on here have no idea what they’re talking about. A good lawyer, if they like what you’re doing, can act as an invaluable business partner and can provide a shortcut by extending their network to you and providing introductions to the connections you need to get this done (manager, producer, etc) so I’d start there if you are starting without any existing network. Good luck!