itiswhatitis.fm
itiswhatitis.fm is a company.
Active
Updated: Ā·
Financial History
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Leadership Team
Key people at itiswhatitis.fm.
itiswhatitis.fm is a company.
Key people at itiswhatitis.fm.
itiswhatitis.fm is a collective or organization founded by a group of young technologists of color in Silicon Valley, initially known for launching a viral meme campaign in 2020[2]. Rather than operating as a traditional company with a conventional business model, itiswhatitis.fm functions as a creative and social-impact-focused entity. The organization gained prominence by leveraging exclusivity and secrecy to generate hype within tech communities, then redirecting that attention toward charitable causes supporting racial justice and the Black community[2].
The organization demonstrates a unique approach to activism and community engagement: it identifies how Silicon Valley's attraction to exclusive, invite-only experiences can be weaponized for social good. This philosophyāmanufacturing hype through scarcity and then channeling it toward meaningful causesāsets it apart from conventional tech ventures that pursue growth and monetization as primary objectives[2].
itiswhatitis.fm emerged in June 2020 as a grassroots project among a group of young people of color working in tech, including engineer Regynald Augustin from Twitter[2]. The project began organically as a meme shared among friendsāthe now-iconic ššš emojiāthat unexpectedly went viral across Twitter and Silicon Valley[2].
What started as an inside joke quickly spiraled into a phenomenon that captured the tech community's attention. Rather than letting the momentum dissipate, the team made a deliberate decision: they would redirect the hype they had generated toward a critical social need[2]. Within a day and a half of the meme's launch, the group had raised more than $200,000 for charities supporting Black trans people and the Black Lives Matter movement, directing donations to organizations including the Loveland Foundation, The Innocence Project, and The Okra Project[2].
itiswhatitis.fm represents a growing counternarrative within tech: the use of insider knowledge and cultural fluency to critique and redirect the industry's own mechanisms. The project exposed how Silicon Valley's hunger for exclusivity and mysteryāthe same forces that drove Clubhouse to a $100 million valuation with just 5,000 usersācan be harnessed for purposes beyond venture capital returns[2].
The organization sits at the intersection of meme culture, social activism, and tech criticism, demonstrating that young technologists of color possess both the cultural capital and strategic thinking to shape narratives within their own industry. This challenges the traditional power structures of tech entrepreneurship and investment.
itiswhatitis.fm's initial campaign proved that viral moments in tech can be deliberately engineered and repurposed for social impact. The organization's evolution from a one-off meme to an ongoing entityāevidenced by current staff listings showing a "Director of Memes" position[1]āsuggests the team is formalizing its approach to culture-making and activism.
The future likely involves itiswhatitis.fm continuing to operate at the intersection of tech culture and social justice, potentially launching additional campaigns that leverage insider access and cultural understanding. As tech communities become increasingly scrutinized for diversity and social responsibility, organizations like itiswhatitis.fm that combine authentic community representation with strategic communication may become more influential in shaping how the industry perceives itself and its obligations to society.
Key people at itiswhatitis.fm.
