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The sun is going down on a sub-freezing afternoon in New York City.The 21-year-old media executive Rowan Winch is bundled up alongside a gaggle of 20-somethings shooting a TikTok in Washington Square Park.
"I try not to get too involved," Winch told me, as he stood out of the frame of the shot.His favorite part on set? Watching the production unfold."Even if I'm not directly filming it, I can see how this is going to work," Winch said.Winch's company, Fallen Media, launched in 2020, just as short-form video content was taking off. The creator economy was nascent, and Winch was only 15.Fallen Media has become known for its serialized shows like "What's Poppin? With Davis!" , where content creator Davis Burleson interviews people on the street. The company's slate of nearly a dozen shows also includes "Street Hearts" , in which creator Tiff Baira hosts blind dates.Fallen Media's vertical video talk show format has carved out a niche for creators and turned many corners of New York City — particularly Washington Square Park — into a stage.As chief social officer and cofounder, Winch is often brainstorming social media strategies and booking talent for Fallen Media's shows. But he isn't sitting in an office every day. Instead, he's usually filming out and about in New York with creators twice a week.On set, Winch's role is to keep things in order — and pitch in on tasks like moving equipment or taking photos of the crew. Winch, who is about the same age as the people who usually star in Fallen Media's content, has to strike a balance as an executive and resident fun chaperone."I'm here just as a resource," Winch told me while I watched him and the team film an episode of the Fallen show "15 Second Film."Fallen's "15 Second Film," a fast-paced video series where the show casts "random" people from the street to spontaneously direct a short film, is one of the newer shows in the media company's repertoire. Like many of Fallen's shows, there is an opportunity to cast a celebrity, such as cult director Kevin Smith, or notable influencers.Winch isn't the only executive running Fallen Media. Sol Betesh, Winch's cofounder and Fallen Media's CEO, oversees areas like the company's advertising and business partnerships.Fallen Media has become one of the leading short-form era media startups, laying the bricks for an entire genre of entertainment. Beyond Fallen, the ecosystem of short-form studios includes the likes of Gymnasium and Mad Realities .These social-media native shows have become a regular stop on celebrity press tours, proving that Hollywood has taken notice.In 2025, Fallen Media brought in revenue in the seven figures , adding that it saw 43% year-over-year growth.Betesh first reached out to Winch in 2019 to discuss starting a company when Winch was still in high school. Betesh learned about Winch after the journalist Taylor Lorenz profiled him and his budding career in meme content in The New York Times.At first, their joint venture was purely a "meme company," Winch said. However, that evolved into doing more short-form video content with the rise of TikTok.He described his early career as a mix of "unorthodox" and "lucky."As a teenager, though, adapting to the hustle of a media career wasn't easy, and he had to learn how to fit in."I don't have college experience or even traditional career experience," Winch reflected. "I was just kind of thrown into my role."Playing the part sometimes means shifting how Winch presents himself."I've always presented myself as older," he said. "Even when I first met my girlfriend online, she thought I was three or four years older than I was. I grew up with a lot of followers, and I kind of knew the responsibility I had. I can't take advantage of that. I can't act like a kid."Winch said Fallen Media wants to "elevate" its content and reputation beyond TikTok videos."One of my personal big goals for the company is for people to start seeing Fallen Media as a studio," Winch said. He added that the company is sometimes mistaken for a talent management company representing creator talent.Fallen plans to submit its shows to more traditional film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, which launched creator-focused programming under its Tribeca X arm.The startup now has 20 full-time staffers in New York, which includes multiple salaried "showrunners" who lead Fallen Media's catalog of digital series. The company is continuing to grow its head count.Most of the company's revenue comes from brand partnerships, though platform monetization programs also make up a good portion, Winch said. YouTube's AdSense program still pays the most, with Facebook's video monetization tools outperforming Instagram and TikTok, he said."Facebook and long-form YouTube content are our two biggest goals for the future, along with launching new shows," Winch said.
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