How Andy Treys Used Kobe Bryant's Mamba Mentality To Overcome Obstacles
Sep. 17 2021, Published 10:30 p.m. ET
According to Forbes, about 90% of startups fail, giving entrepreneurs statistically only a 10% chance of achieving success. In business, any entrepreneur can expect to go through a rollercoaster of emotional and financial ups and downs, and having the correct mentality to navigate when you hit rock bottom is crucial to being successful in unknown territory. Andy Treys, an Armenian-American serial entrepreneur since the age of 13, isn’t phased by the statistics and is working on five different startups - simultaneously.
Andy Treys started his love for internet entrepreneurship when he started growing his very own niche social media communities using Ning. At the age of 13, Andy mastered the art of growth hacking. A growth hacker is defined as “someone who uses creative, low-cost strategies to help businesses acquire and retain customers”, and has been a lucrative method for marketers for many years.
While balancing a successful high school basketball career filled with exciting moments, including a full court buzzer beater that was featured on ESPN Sportscenter, Andy went on to create multiple successful projects during his adolescent years, from Android apps on the Google Play store generating thousands of dollars a month, to partnering with YouTube and ESPN as he launched KobeCamp2009 after attending Kobe Basketball Academy and filming viral moments of Bryant speaking on the controversial video of Jordan Crawford dunking on Lebron James.
After graduating high school and bouncing around California Lutheran University and University of La Verne to pursue his dream of playing college basketball, Andy dropped out of college to focus full time on his newly discovered but still at home passion - social media viral marketing.
“The decision to drop out of college was not easy, everyone told me it’ll be the biggest mistake of my life, and I would be considered a failure” Andy explains “But I noticed how limited my time was because of school, I had to attend important meetings in New York, but I couldn’t go because I had Calculus class. I needed to decide if I want to be a student athlete or get a head start on creating a social media empire”
The decision of dropping out of college ended up working in Andy’s favor. In 2016, Andy had grown his social media empire to a combined 300 million followers across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, forming his social media agency getmefamous. Through his powerful network, Andy was able to get anything and anyone to go viral, generating millions of downloads for apps, driving millions of clicks to articles, and getting numerous artists multi-million dollar record deals. Andy was notably part of the initial marketing team that brought Bryson Tiller and Khalid to light, opening his network’s power free of charge. Andy explains that he “discovered Tiller’s music on Soundcloud one day before the general public knew about him, and I immediately reached out to his team. His team was shocked when I told them I don’t want to be compensated for my services.”
Getmefamous continued to grow tremendously and Andy’s network grew even larger building lucrative relationships with influencers, athletes, and celebrities. Andy even launched multiple successful ecommerce and viral content sites through his network, essentially costing him nothing to generate traffic. However in 2018, Andy woke up to a Twitter announcement that would cost him millions of dollars. “Twitter made strict changes on their policies, banning anyone who were using network of accounts to boost tweets” Andy explains that he “had grown over 200 accounts providing entertaining content ranging from comedy to music, and would be able to push millions of impressions within seconds, and that kind of power can be dangerous if it was in the wrong hands” Andy, unfortunately, fell in the crossfire of a political issue that was bigger than his marketing agency - United States presidential election interference.
“There were alot of concerns during the 2016 election that still had not been figured out, and viral marketers paid the price. I lost everything I had and was low on funds. It was my first company and I had made the mistake of not diversifying. I was obsessed with reinvesting into growing my Twitter network’s capacity. Some of the accounts I grew myself, but others I acquired for up to 6 figures each.”
Andy was relentless and he quickly flipped the switch, immediately recovering from his loss by rebuilding getmefamous from the ground up. Andy started a new viral network on Snapchat, building new technology to automate tasks for his accounts to minimize labor expenses. But this time, Andy learned from his mistakes, and didn’t put all his eggs in one basket. Instead, Andy primarily put his focus on creating new monetization methods with influencers he built relationships with overtime, and also launching SaaS platforms for other marketers, record labels, and independent artists to grow and build new fan bases in record times. Andy simultaneously grew the traditional client/agency side to getmefamous, focusing on building websites, content, and managing social media growth and strategy for celebrity clients across multiple industries. Andy also went on to launch successful projects with Alissa Violet and Bella Thorne in 2019, and eventually took over Thorne’s music and OnlyFans agency marketing.
In 2020, Andy launched a muscle recovery and wellness lounge with his business partner Vatche Ourishian, who was also one of his closest friends for over 15 years. Vatche was a performance specialist and had built a loyal fan base who trusted him. With Andy’s marketing power and resources, and Vatche’s knowledge in the health and wellness space, they took Muscle Lab to heights they could’ve never imagined. Muscle Lab is now considered a celebrity hotspot and one of the most famous wellness lounges in the industry - offering Cryotherapy, Infrared Sauna, IV Therapy, and many other recovery and wellness services. Muscle Lab, which is positioned to be the “Soho House” of recovery, has a large list of frequently visited celebrities, platinum artists, and professional athletes such as Zedd, ASAP Ferg, DJ Mustard, Carnage, Ben Simmons, Harry Jowsey, Jake Paul, and Oscar De La Hoya. Within months of launching, Andy and Vatche, with the help of KJ Smith, Andre Chavilliar, and Ian Smith formed a partnership with Sierra Canyon High School’s Basketball team, exclusively providing recovery services to some of the top high school athletes in the country.
However, Andy didn’t stop there. While growing Getmefamous and Muscle Lab, Andy invested his earnings into the booming AirBnb and exotic car rental market in Los Angeles, purchasing multiple homes and luxury vehicles. Within months Andy grew Accommodations to include over a dozen homes and exotic vehicles including multiple Lamborghini Urus and Mercedes G-63. Andy explained that Accommodations is currently in beta, but isn’t just offering vacation rentals, but also focusing on offering exclusive concierge services unlike any other.
Andy continued his diversification into the competitive business world and launching Shlooz with his business partner and close friend Sako Waves. Shlooz is an online liquor store, shipping alcohol to almost every state, and is slowly disrupting the online liquor delivery market. But Shlooz wasn’t the first time Andy and Sako paired up on a project; the duo for many years collaborated on multiple successful projects together, while still managing their own separate agencies. As projects started pouring in and became overwhelming, the pair recently decided to combine their clientele,team, resources, and knowledge to form one marketing superhouse. Thanks to that decision, we may just get one of the biggest NFT drops in history.
Last week, a mysterious Kobe Bryant NFT project was announced on Kobe Bryant’s former official website, promising to donate 100% of the revenue generated to the Mamba and Mambacita Foundation. The team behind the project remained anonymous until a recent LA Weekly article confirmed that Andy, Sako, and their team, alongside with their business partners are the masterminds behind one of the most anticipated NFT drops to date.
“Kobe Bryant meant the world to me, anyone that knows me can tell you that. I mimicked his work ethic and his desire to be great, whether it was on the court or off the court”
“The day we lost Kobe was one of the worst days of my life, and I’ll never forget how I felt. I was devastated for weeks, it would have been for months but the pandemic really took over every ones headspace”
The Kobe Bryant inspired KB24 NFT is positioned to sell out within seconds of launch, with already overcommitted presale reservation requests. If the KB24 NFT does actually sell out, Andy and Sako would successfully raise nearly $3M for the foundation, and reports claim the secondary market residual revenue can blow that number away. Andy says they owe it all to the Black Mamba himself.
“Mamba Mentality is the secret recipe to life, outwork everyone, be and think different, work smarter and work harder, and everything will come to you”
“To be able to work on the KB24 NFT means the world to me. We’re doing something out of this world and fully benefiting the Mamba and Mambacita foundation for years to come. The team is excited, everyone is zoned in and focused, we have Mamba Mentality mode on full force right now.”
So what’s next for Andy? “I need a break,” says Andy. “I just recently got engaged to my high school sweetheart, and want to push all of these projects forward so they can be sustainable on their own. I want to spend time with my friends and family again, and maybe even get some sleep.”