YouTube’s biggest stars can generate millions of views with the right editor, yet many struggle to find qualified talent. That gap has given rise to YT Jobs.

Founded in 2022, YT Jobs serves as a specialized marketplace connecting premium YouTube channels with high-caliber professionals who work behind the scenes. The Vancouver-based platform now hosts over half a million registered users and counts major content creators, including MrBeast and Mark Rober, as well as enterprise clients such as Warner Media, among its partners.

“Our mission is to connect the right talent to the right opportunity to make the best videos,” says Sina Sahami, co-founder and CEO of YT Jobs. “We wanted to create an environment that brings together the highest-quality creative talent in the world.” 

Sina and his team established the platform after recognizing that while the creator economy was growing, the infrastructure for finding and verifying top-tier production talent remained woefully inadequate, particularly for YouTube, where production quality directly impacts revenue.

With a background in engineering from the University of British Columbia, Sina previously co-founded MinaCore Industrial Group, developing IoT [Internet of Things] and SaaS [Software as a service] solutions for enterprise customers in the mining and oil industries. He later became a partner in a marketing agency that grew to 140 employees, specializing in helping influencers launch digital courses.

“Through these influencer relationships, hiring was always an issue, especially for top creative talent,” Sina recalls. The idea for YT Jobs originated from conversations with Paddy Galloway, a friend and well-known figure in the creator economy who teaches and collaborates with brands such as Red Bull and NFL teams on expanding their social media presence.

“I told Paddy, ‘Why don’t you do something about it?’” Sina says. “I have a friend, Mohammadreza Khalaj, who could put a team together to build a site.” What began as a side project gradually developed as they found product-market fit, eventually leading Sina to sell his interest in his previous company and focus fully on YT Jobs.

The Talent Multiplier Effect

The foundation of YT Jobs’ business model stems from Sina’s observation about the exponential value of exceptional talent in creative fields. “A great video editor isn’t just twice as good,” Sina explains. “Their clips might do 10 million views, while an average editor’s would get 10,000.”

This dynamic mirrors what Sina had seen in software engineering. “A top software engineer isn’t two or five times better; it’s a hundred or a thousand times,” he cites Steve Jobs. This recognition of the dramatic impact that premium talent can have on content performance became central to YT Jobs’ focus on quality over quantity.

The stakes are particularly high on YouTube, compared to other platforms. “A million followers on TikTok or Instagram may not make much money. A million engaged followers on YouTube makes real money,” Sina points out. 

This economic reality creates urgency in finding the right talent, as success translates directly to significant revenue; therefore, investing in premium creative professionals becomes essential rather than optional, according to Sina.

The Strategic Focus on YouTube

While many platforms attempt to serve multiple social networks, YT Jobs made a deliberate decision to focus exclusively on YouTube talent. “Our mission from day one was to build an environment with the best creative talent,” Sina explains. “The best talent is all on YouTube. It’s harder, but more valuable.”

This focus enables YT Jobs to develop deeper expertise in the specific requirements of YouTube content creation, rather than spreading itself too thin across multiple platforms with different needs and talent ecosystems. As Sina puts it, “The more you focus, the easier it is to grow. But you also uncover problems you’d never see with a broad scope.”

Verification: The Trust Foundation

Perhaps YT Jobs’ most significant feature is its verification system, which addresses a trust issue in the creative hiring process. “We’re the only place online where you can verify if someone actually worked for a channel or on a video,” Sina states.

Verification badge system

The platform recently expanded this verification capability, allowing professionals to transfer their IMDb credentials to YT Jobs profiles, bridging traditional media and the creator economy. “It’s live, but still in beta,” Sina notes.

This verification system has become the foundation upon which YT Jobs builds trust in the marketplace. As Sina explains, it enables channels to hire based on verified experience rather than claims, and provides talented professionals with a way to showcase their legitimate work history.

Meeting Enterprise Demand

As YT Jobs has grown, it has increasingly attracted enterprise-level clients beyond individual creators. “We see more enterprise customers coming to us,” Sina says, mentioning tech companies and Hollywood studios such as WarnerMedia.

According to internal data Sina shares, video editors consistently rank as the most sought-after professionals on the platform. “Number one is always video editors,” he explains. “Then thumbnail designers, script writers, YouTube strategists, channel managers, and others.” He notes that job titles often undersell the actual responsibilities: “People say they want a video editor, but really they need a production coordinator.”

To serve enterprise clients, YT Jobs has developed a “white-glove recruitment” service that provides higher-touch recruitment assistance. “If you’re a channel hiring, you pay a higher price and we take care of it,” Sina explains. This includes posting the job, approaching qualified candidates already working in similar roles, and managing much of the recruitment process.

This service is reserved for larger positions – typically roles that pay at least $50,000 annually and have employment terms of six months or longer. “It’s not something we advertise to everyone,” Sina says. “You have to qualify. It’s for higher-quality jobs, usually in-person.”

The Value Beyond Personal Networks

Many creators and brands initially rely on their personal networks to find talent, but Sina argues this approach has significant limitations. “When you use in-house networks, you tap out quickly,” he points out. More importantly, relying solely on personal networks limits creative diversity.

“If you only use your network, you silo your creative ideas,” Sina explains. A specialized marketplace can introduce “outlier ideas” and “new ways of doing things” that might never emerge from within an established team.

Paradoxically, he notes that public job postings on a creator’s own channel often attract too much interest from unqualified applicants. “You create so much noise that it’s impossible to find quality talent,” says Sina. 

YT Jobs solves this by pre-filtering for qualified professionals, reducing the noise-to-signal ratio in the hiring process. While the platform began as a job matching service, it is developing into what Sina describes as “LinkedIn for this industry, or a hybrid of IMDb and LinkedIn for high-caliber video creators.”

It now offers a “Discover and Hire” feature, similar to LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator, which allows employers to search for and directly message talent with specific skill sets or experience. “Channels can go in and message talent directly,” Sina explains. “You can say, ‘I’m looking for this person,’ and either message them or invite them to apply.”

Discover and Hire page

Economic Impact and Future Vision

One of the most meaningful aspects for Sina is the economic opportunity it creates for creative professionals. “One of the most rewarding things is hearing users say, ‘I owe this house to you,’” he says. “They got connected through our platform, worked for years, and bought a home.”

Sina sees parallels between the current creator economy and the software development boom. “I remember when people realized they could be software engineers, work for themselves, travel, and make good money,” he recalls. “The same is happening with behind-the-scenes creative roles.”

This vision extends to how YT Jobs fits into the broader media transformation currently underway. “With the exception of live sports, linear TV will cease to exist,” Sina predicts. “Capital and effort will shift to the on-demand content and creator economy.”

By building specialized infrastructure for talent acquisition and verification, YT Jobs has positioned itself at a critical juncture in this transition, helping traditional media entities access the talent they need to succeed in digital spaces while providing premium opportunities for creative professionals who power the most successful content in the creator economy.

As Sina looks to the future, he sees YT Jobs continuing to change with the industry. “We don’t know what the future will be,” he admits. “We’re exploring.”

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