This episode features Evan Britton, the founder of Famous Birthdays, a platform often described as the IMDb or Wikipedia for creators. Britton discusses the inception of Famous Birthdays in 2012, noting the growing importance of mobile platforms for content consumption and the lack of mobile-friendly experiences on existing platforms like IMDb and Wikipedia. He explains that Famous Birthdays initially aimed to provide condensed biographical information about celebrities and creators, serving as a quick reference guide.
The platform’s evolution came when it started receiving searches for creators who weren’t featured on Wikipedia or IMDb but had substantial followings. This led to the realization that there was a significant opportunity to become a comprehensive database for emerging creators. Famous Birthdays began manually collecting data with a team of over 50 people, watching videos, interacting with creators, and verifying user-submitted updates.
The popularity ranking on Famous Birthdays is based on user activity, providing real-time insights into trending creators across various platforms. Britton shares anecdotes about identifying rising creators before they reached mainstream attention, showcasing the platform’s predictive capabilities.
Famous Birthdays has evolved to offer a Pro product catering to talent agencies, social platforms, and brands. The Pro product provides deeper insights and analytics, leveraging the platform’s extensive data. Despite monetization opportunities, Famous Birthdays prioritizes user experience and aims to remain ad-free while offering valuable services to its users and clients.
Britton emphasizes the importance of accuracy in data collection and verification, highlighting the manual efforts involved in maintaining the platform’s integrity. He discusses Famous Birthdays’ criteria for adding emerging creators to the platform, typically requiring a minimum threshold of 100,000 followers.
Looking ahead, Famous Birthdays plans to expand its language support and enhance its pro product with an API for seamless integration with client platforms. Britton acknowledges the challenges creators face in managing multiple short-form platforms for content distribution and predicts increased workload as creators strive for diversification.
