Mike Lee and Darren Yan Unveil ISO, a Next-Generation Management Firm Specializing in Creators, Live Streamers, Gaming and Music

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 Entertainment) 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.

“What we’re trying to build is something that is dedicated to the digital creator,” Lee tells Variety.

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.

“If we really believe the next household name is going to come from the internet, then why aren’t all of our services optimized toward that internet star? 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. “There are no gatekeepers when it comes to digital media. It’s not four networks. It’s not seven channels. 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.

“For this generation, how they think and how they behave are not things are conditioned like a TV film actor or a sports athlete or even a music artist where they had to follow this specific pathway to success,” Yan tells Variety.

“All of our clients are like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna break some eggs the way that we’re going to do it, and if you guys want to ride with us then you’re going to ride with us.’ That’s always been what we’ve always attached ourselves to. What they want when they look for partners or representation is who’s going to be able to move with us and say to our crazy ideas ‘This is possible.’ Because the talent that we work with will say, ‘Well, if it’s not you guys, then we’re going to do it ourselves. We don’t need a label, we don’t need a studio, we don’t need any of that. We have the money, we have the ingenuity, and whether or not you’re going to support us, we’re still going to build it and we’re going to win.’ ”

Lee and Yan previously worked together at esports talent and marketing agencies Press X and Everyday Influencers, which were acquired by UTA in 2018. Lee and Yan then joined UTA. Yan exited UTA several years ago and was doing some consulting for Live Nation when he realized the opportunity to take popular live streamers on global tours, including in China. Yan and Lee have long-established relationships with local distribution partners that will go a long way toward helping talent make inroads in the world’s most populous country.

Influence Media Partners is based in New York and specializes in developing and acquiring premium music and entertainment IP. Influence is supported by strategic partnerships with funds and accounts managed by private equity giant BlackRock. The interest in the digital native arena by one of the world’s biggest private equity firms is a sign of the times that Lee and Yan intend to capitalize on.

“At Influence, we look to invest in partners who bring an innovative approach to the business of culture and entertainment. Mike, Darren and the team at ISO are reimagining talent representation for a creator
economy that has fundamentally transformed how audiences are built, culture is shaped and revenue is generated,” said Lylette Pizarro, founder and co-managing partner of Influence Media Partners. “ISO’s playbook directly aligns with our values and investment philosophy, and we’re excited to
support their growth.”

The ISO founders see enormous opportunity ahead as the creator economy becomes more mainstream as a marketing and branding vehicle for the biggest brands (hence the interest in the arena from BlackRock).

“We really have three pillars main pillars of the business: Talent driven by Mike’s team, our brand business and our music practice, which is artist management consulting,” Yan says.

“With our digital native talent and with digital native advertising, we’re going to be able to bridge that gap [for marketers] and be able to drive and show more value. We were in the Twitch space 15 years ago. We’ve been fighting for experimental media budgets our entire careers,” Yan says.

ISO has been established with what Lee and Yan call a policy of being “radically transparent” with their employees. The pair have developed a system of bonusing employees for success on a year-round basis, rather than doling out bonus coin once a year, with staffers receiving little information as to how the spoils were divided. The ISO founders also vow that in the effort to encourage collaboration and brainstorming among staffers, they have a formula for recognizing those contributions with bonus coin that comes out of the firm’s share of profits, not from the pool that goes to the primary representative.

“The way we think about it is, every six months there is a new defecting faction out of some talent agency starting their own management company. And largely it is for very common reasons. The way we looked at it was, how do we prevent that from happening? How do we retain great talent, not just on our roster but our employees,” Lee says. “We don’t want to get to a point where we’re building this business with them, and then four or five years later they’re going to feel exactly how we felt, that we could own our own book of business and go somewhere else and make you know a lot more money that way. For us, we want to create an environment where [employees] feel like they can do that with a group of people that they trust. They’ll have stability but be making multiples of what they could make anywhere else.”

(Pictured: ISO founders Darren Yan and Mike Lee)