Former UTA and FaZe Clan leaders aim to shape representation for digital-native stars Gaming and digital media veterans Mike Lee and Darren Yan have joined together to launch ISO, a talent management firm that specializes in representing the hottest commodities in marketing and media these days: creators and livestreaming personalities. Based in Los Angeles, Lee and Yan have quietly been building ISO’s operations for about a year, with financial backing from Influence Media Partners, an investment banner that also focuses on digital-native content. The launch of the firm draws on Lee and Yan’s breadth of experience working across gaming, sponsorship and branding and artist development.
The pair have also built extensive partnership and distribution connections for entertainment and media platforms across Asia including in China. Lee, who was most recently head of gaming and livestreaming for UTA’s creators division, serves as co-founder and CEO of ISO. Yan, former chief talent officer at esports lifestyle firm FaZe Clan, serves as co-founder and head of music.
ISO (which stands for In Search Of) at present has about 24 employees spread between Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta. The roster includes more than 90 livestreamers, gamers, artists, VTubers (aka livestreamers who use animated avatars) and lifestyle creators active in beauty, food and other highly engaged content verticals. Matt Alsberg, an alum of Sony’s PlayStation, Twitch and UTA, has signed on as ISO’s head of talent.
Both founders have experience working at UTA and large-scale firms that are harnessing the heat of the next-generation stars of the attention economy. ISO was born out of Lee and Yan’s belief that talent representation firms have to operate very differently to support digital-native talent than they have for the past century in traditional film, TV and music. ISO’s roster at launch includes about 90 clients, including notable digital stars such as PlaqueBoyMax, Jasontheween, Ironmouse, Lacy, Vanillamace, Kyedae, jessechrisss, Angelo Marasigan, RDCWorld and more.
ISO and its clients are alredy doing business with top-tier brands Electronic Arts, Discord, Underdog and Icenova, the ice cream brand known for its out-there shapes and flavors such as fried chicken. We kept thinking, what if we were to actually blow everything up and we didn’t have an office and we weren’t spending millions of dollars on rent and theaters and showcases? Because our clients aren’t asking us for that,” Lee says.
The gatekeepers are just the algorithms that feed your timelines. That’s what’s so incredible about working in this space.” Yan adds the pair’s proximity to explosive youth culture across Asia and in China, which has been an elusive market for so many U.S. firms, is a huge benefit to strategizing on where media and Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumption habits are headed. And it’s crucial for effective talent representation of digital dynamos.
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