Maya Sabagian felt restless after attending online classes from her home in Irvine.
Sabaghian, a post-secondary graduate in business administration, channeled her boredom into securing an internship, directing LinkedIn to Forbes 30 Under 30 Classes of 2020.
“It wasn’t just about keeping busy,” Sabaghian said. “It was doing something with which I see a future and I’m learning something.”
One of the people Sabaghian reached out to was 22-year-old Jacob Pace, CEO and founder of Flighthouse, one of the biggest entertainment brands on TikTok.
Flighthouse garnered a lot of media attention at the time for driving the virality of several TikTok hits such as “Roxanne” by the Arizona Zervs. A subsidiary of Create Music Group, the media company designates records with viral potential, then packages and promotes them with various influencers such as Charlie D’Amelio and Addison Rae.
“Within a day, he got back to me on a call,” Sabaghian said. “So we started talking, and he offered me an internship on the spot.”
Sabagian’s extreme entrepreneurial streak influenced Pace, particularly how Sabagian secured his rent to live in Los Angeles by managing the social media of jewelry businesses.
“I needed a way to earn money because I didn’t want to ask my parents for it when it wasn’t necessary to move out of here,” Sabaghian said. “So I just asked hundreds of jewelry businesses to do my social media on Instagram, and two of them said yes, and it covered my entire rental.”
At the start of his internship, Paes took Sabaghian under his wing to mentor him and immediately “thrown him in.”
Sabaghian said, “He took me everywhere to meet all these people in the industry…” I guess it didn’t matter, because, more than anything, he took a chance on my work ethic and This is something that has been a theme throughout my experience over the past year.”
Now Sabaghian is the head of content licensing at Flighthouse, a division she founded herself.
The division generates over 130 million TopSnap views per month at a $9-$16 average CPM – Dollars per thousand views.
Ash Stahl, the current CEO of Flighthouse, said, “She came in as an intern and built an entire division that’s been driving a substantial portion of our revenue in less than a year.” “He just took it upon himself to … find a way to make himself valuable to the company, and I would trust him completely.”
Sabaghian’s age may be shocking in a corporate environment, but it’s no anomaly in Flighthouse. Actually, the average age of employees in Sabaghiyan division is around 20 years.
“It’s the company ethos of taking a chance on young, passionate, hard-working people, and it’s paid off more than anything else,” Sabaghian said.
While Flighthouse Main develops unique short-form content on TikTok, where influencers participate in skits, interviews and game shows, Sabaghian’s division primarily syndicates content from YouTube creators to Snapchat Discover.
“At some point during the internship, we discovered this business model that allows us to generate passive revenue for creators by repackaging their content from one platform to another,” Sabaghian said. “So we started with the first one, Psych2Go, and in the first month, they blew up and made a lot of revenue from four videos.”
Sabaghian saw the potential in the scalability of the business model and knew immediately that she wanted to not only be part of the project, but to lead it.
“I told them … I wanted to own this project, and I wanted to be here and build this division,” Sabbaghian said. “That was when I was hired full-time… and then, after the next month, Psych2Go generated revenue from four more videos, seven times the original revenue.”
However, Sabaghian’s ambition to pursue his career in the flighthouse was fraught with doubt. She knew she wanted to stay in school, but found it extremely difficult to complete her schoolwork with a full-time job and find time for her social life.
She reached out to her professor and mentor, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Michael Napolilo, as she transitioned from her role as a digital content intern to an executive position.
“I remember clearly that, ‘I hate the word ‘balance’ because there’s no balance in life. Just go in, get your hands dirty and do it instead of letting the fear stop,” Sabaghian said. “He was a person I think of more than anyone, really opened up to the belief that I could do it.”
Napoli was impressed by Sabaghian’s immense potential ever since he enrolled in his class; Sabagian persuaded her to let him in despite the fact that she would be the only freshman in the room.
“That level of ambition stood out to me, the willingness to take a leap,” Napolilo said. “She said, ‘I know I’m not fully qualified, but I’m willing to risk it, if that’s okay with you.’ And my response was, ‘People who are willing to take risks are always inspiring.
Sabaghian finally decided to take the offer in the end. Now she leads a team of 15 people who dig into the analysis of channels to develop a content strategy based on the content that is performing well. They scour YouTube for creators who have the potential to be successful on Snapchat as a secondary platform.
Her clients never doubted the executive despite her youth, but she recognizes and accepts the apprehension that others may feel. However, Sabaghian feels that her age actually makes her a more dominant voice.
“We’re all young, we’re all learning, but we’re legit and we’re making real revenue for these creators… making a difference in their lives and also in the lives of the people who watch it,” Sabaghian said. said . “Never use your age as an excuse for why you can’t do something great.”
