Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Beck Versace and you may know me from The Verge's YouTube channel or theverge.com
00:05But as of today, I no longer work there and I'm gonna tell you why I left and I can't wait to tell you about
00:11Where I'm going, but first I want to tell you why I stayed. So I started at The Verge in June of 2017.
00:20I was 23 years old and there was so much I didn't know
00:25Including how to edit video and when I started The Verge was like chock-full of
00:30Creative ambitious folks who had every resource they could imagine at their fingertips and no one to tell them
00:37No, what's up, everyone? Here I am next to a shiny red car and we're gonna take for a spin
00:42So let's go and this is the environment where I learned to take big risks
00:47Try pretty much anything I wanted to and of course nerd the F out
00:55Sick
00:57But it wasn't just the boundless creativity and freedom that made The Verge so special
01:03It was the people. I met some of my best friends and greatest mentors within the first week of being there and
01:11Within a few months. I was traveling the world with them
01:15Like there was this time that Alex and I had 24 hours between having to be at CES and having to be at an auto show
01:21So we jetted off to Death Valley and just ran down the sand dunes
01:25Or when we got to go to the middle of nowhere Sweden to film at the very first IKEA
01:30We got to ride electric scooters in London
01:33Go to baseball games in San Francisco get lost on a hike in Yosemite
01:37Drive brand new EVs all around New York have heart-filling conversations over dinner in Copenhagen
01:43But most importantly we spent endless hours at our desks like into the wee hours of the night
01:50Making silly tech YouTube videos
01:53Because we cared and we just wanted to make the absolute best thing that we could
01:58Together and it's you that gave me the confidence to start being on camera
02:04This is the first video I hosted for The Verge. Oh
02:09Man I was so nervous
02:13Yeah
02:16You got and that's Phil Esposito who's directing me I would later win an Emmy with him I
02:25Becca
02:26Be back and I had to come down the first few years
02:29I was hosting videos my very best friends were behind the camera giving me notes and guidance
02:34Don't try to sit all upright because that's not how you were sitting
02:38I'm trying to look good Mel
02:40It looks fine. Do one that's like but check this map out like a tiny bit slower
02:47They really are the reason I am any good at being in front of the camera at all
02:52Perfect. Beautiful. That was the best. That was literally your best take without a doubt
02:58And then when COVID happened
03:01everything changed
03:04Instead of making videos with my friends. I was alone in my home and instead of every take ending with a laugh
03:13There was just silence
03:20For me The Verge lost so much of what made it special
03:24When it lost its people and by lost its people
03:29I mean everybody went indoors and they stayed indoors
03:34For example, I am someone who is about the places I work. I like to get to know people. I say hi
03:39I like to make videos with them and now I
03:43Maybe know 70% of the staff at The Verge. I mean, I'll see by lines and like I I've never heard of that person
03:52Because we don't get together anymore or I should say we didn't get together anymore
03:57It was just faces and names on Slack and when that happens, it's hard to
04:05Feel a connection for me at least. So that was a huge problem and
04:11Without being able to make stuff with my friends. I just didn't feel as creative
04:16So I bought an a7c and I decided I was gonna start making videos for myself. Hi buds
04:23How are you? It's really good to see you here. Welcome to my channel
04:27more on that later
04:28The more on that later actually refers to now now is actually later and I'm still using the a7c. I love this camera
04:36It's so incredible. It's so small
04:40But as soon as I posted that video I
04:42Got pulled into a meeting at The Verge and I was told that at any point in time they could make me take down
04:49Any videos they wanted and that I shouldn't even be sure that I owned anything
04:54That was on any of my social media channels
04:57And that really scared me because that point in time I was not looking to jump
05:03I was also not looking to compete with The Verge. I signed a non-compete when I started at The Verge
05:09But I didn't feel that what I was doing was competing
05:13Yet every time I posted a video
05:15I lived in fear of being called into a meeting and being told that I couldn't do that and in a weird way
05:21It made me feel like The Verge owned me and that fear stayed with me for I mean
05:28It's still sort of with me truthfully
05:31But even when I announced to them that I was leaving around three weeks ago. I
05:36thought for sure I
05:39Don't know that they were gonna tell me that I couldn't I don't know what I thought
05:42I was scared even more so than the fear that it stoked in me. I
05:47Knew for a fact that there was other folks at The Verge who were posting videos to YouTube or I don't know any sort of
05:53Tech content to their social channels that didn't get the same talking to that I did and that's just not fair
05:59Because if there's going to be a policy it has to exist for everybody and I didn't see that happening
06:05The other reason I'm leaving is because everything I made for The Verge is theirs and I'm taking nothing with me
06:13I owned nothing and
06:15A lot of what was preached to us was that The Verge is great because it's its own website
06:21So it's not tied to any of these social platforms that could change at any time and that's true
06:25The Verge is a great place to host your work
06:29but The Verge also owns all of your work and
06:34That's tough. That's really tough to leave behind
06:37So I'm excited to build something that's mine
06:39Because the other thing that happens to your content at The Verge is that it has a Verge logo on it
06:44And I really love The Verge it does great work
06:47But there's lots of folks that have lots of opinions about The Verge and as long as I was making content there that logo
06:53was going to be in front of my work and it was going to have an effect on how
06:58Someone watching my work felt about me for better or for worse and of course careful what you wish for
07:03But I'm ready to build something that's mine. And if you don't like it, that's okay
07:07But it's because of me and if you like it, that's amazing. And I hope it's because of me
07:13And again
07:16Careful to wish for but I never try I'll never know and I want to try
07:21the other thing about The Verge is that it's a website and
07:24It is full of the written word and I am NOT a writer
07:29I was always the kid in class that was like hey instead of writing the paper
07:32Can I make the video and at The Verge I had to make the video and write the paper?
07:36It was such a chore at times and I got a lot better and I'm I am grateful for that
07:42But the other thing about not being a writer is that no matter how long I was there
07:47I was never gonna get the big written reviews because again, I don't write
07:53so when big products came out flagship products
07:56I knew that there was always going to be someone else in front of me and
08:00A lot of times that was because they had more experience which totally fair. I understand that hierarchy
08:06But there was many products that I knew really well. I
08:10Know really well, and I'm excited to have a place where I get to review them and I don't have to wait in line or
08:18Put my name in the hat and hope that someone's on vacation or doesn't feel up to doing it
08:24The Verge is a great place full of incredible journalists and media at large is going through a very rough period
08:31I think it's perpetually going through a rough period if we're being honest
08:34And I am grateful that I am in a place where I feel like I can take a step outside of that
08:40I'm taking a big risk and I'm really hoping it works
08:43And if you want to support me right now, the best way is to just show up
08:48I appreciate you so much for doing just that. There's more to come there
08:52I'm hoping to launch some sort of patreon or a subscription service where you can support me more directly and we can interact
08:58In a more even more meaningful way, I should say
09:02So look look forward to something like that
09:05But for now what you can expect is that I'm going to keep making the videos I was making at the Verge
09:10But I'm gonna put more of me in them because it's this is my thing now not it doesn't belong to a big media company
09:18But more so than that you can trust that we're taking tech outside
09:22The way we use devices is not in a studio or in this case my bedroom under a giant light
09:28It's out in the world
09:30and so I'm taking tech out there and I'm trying it where it will be used and I'm gonna show my work and
09:37Just know that every time you tune in we're going on an adventure together
09:44I'm so excited about that. Oh, I'm so excited
09:47And if you liked the thousand photos series, we're gonna keep doing that in some way
09:51And if you liked my full-frame series, well full-frame really just meant that it was a Becca video on the Verge
09:55So it kind of had to be branded. So like every video is a full-frame video now. I'm Becca Versace
10:01It's like Versace but far away
10:03This is my youtube channel
10:06You
10:08Here goes nothing
10:12Here goes nothing
10:15Appreciate you