ABOUT ME
WHO IS
MAX ZAHARENKOV
MAX ZAHARENKOV
I’m a British-Russian-born digital entrepreneur based in London. Well, that’s the short answer anyway.
If we’re being a little more specific, you could add eco and social activist, filmmaker, world traveller, podcaster, and regular keynote speaker to the list too. I believe we should never limit ourselves to being just one thing. I follow wherever my creativity takes me – and it’s always an adventure.
In February 2014 I hit the ‘upload’ button on Vine for the very first time and gained a million views almost overnight. I knew that my success wasn’t just dumb luck and there had to be a formula – one that combined my love of both content creation and marketing. And that’s what led me to the path I’m on today.
Since then, my audience has grown to over 3 million people around the world, who check in for everything from travel content and marketing tips, to my viral ‘digital sleight of hand’ videos.
But my mission has been the same from the very start: to create, motivate, and inspire.
If we’re being a little more specific, you could add eco and social activist, filmmaker, world traveller, podcaster, and regular keynote speaker to the list too. I believe we should never limit ourselves to being just one thing. I follow wherever my creativity takes me – and it’s always an adventure.
In February 2014 I hit the ‘upload’ button on Vine for the very first time and gained a million views almost overnight. I knew that my success wasn’t just dumb luck and there had to be a formula – one that combined my love of both content creation and marketing. And that’s what led me to the path I’m on today.
Since then, my audience has grown to over 3 million people around the world, who check in for everything from travel content and marketing tips, to my viral ‘digital sleight of hand’ videos.
But my mission has been the same from the very start: to create, motivate, and inspire.
MY HISTORY
2021
Founded ZAHARE Media
2010
Moved
to the UK
to the UK
2011
Made a leap into video-making
2014
Started making Vines
2015
Jumped into SMM
2017
Went viral on TikTok
My first piece of public content was posted on Vine in 2014, but when I think back, I’ve always been a content creator – I was just waiting for the internet to play catch-up.
I was 11 years old when I got my first camera. I’d asked my parents for one after returning home from a family holiday, frustrated that I couldn’t relive the happy memories we’d made. After the toy camera they gave me didn’t quite cut it, they eventually relented and got me a real one, which quickly became an extension of my arm as I began to capture the world around me. I soon learned how to channel my creative ideas through the lens and started to make films for my audience – who back then, were my parents and classmates. You could say they were my very first followers.
I was 11 years old when I got my first camera. I’d asked my parents for one after returning home from a family holiday, frustrated that I couldn’t relive the happy memories we’d made. After the toy camera they gave me didn’t quite cut it, they eventually relented and got me a real one, which quickly became an extension of my arm as I began to capture the world around me. I soon learned how to channel my creative ideas through the lens and started to make films for my audience – who back then, were my parents and classmates. You could say they were my very first followers.
Back Story.
As I got older, my little hobby became a full-time passion. I experimented with concepts, taught myself how to edit, and began making slicker, more professional-looking videos – always driven by the same, curious question: how does it work? The internet was now a thing, but since there was no YouTube, TikTok or even Myspace yet, there wasn’t anywhere for me to showcase my work. So, I learned how to build my own website. It was just the creative outlet I needed.
Fast-forward a few years. I grew up, went to university and earned a degree in business administration. Everything changed when I took a summer intern job at Accenture, the Fortune Global 500 technology company. There I worked alongside people at the top of their game, which taught me a great deal and was instrumental in shaping how I thought about digital marketing and media.
From these building blocks – an innate need to create and a sharp understanding of marketing – I had the foundations in place to follow my dreams. The internet was changing: content, crypto, and technology were creating a space and new challenges for people like me. In March of 2016, I knew it was time. I quit working for other people and became the creative director of my own company. My TikTok video went viral, and things started happening.
Since setting off on this adventure I’ve been able to travel the world, do what I love, and inspire others to follow their dreams too. While a lot has changed, both for me and the internet, a few things stay the same. I still find myself asking the very same question that led me here in the first place: how does it work?
The VISION.
THe CREATIVITY.
THe obsession.
THe focus.
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