Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victor Aragon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Victor , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
Gil Noreiga and Victor Aragon met while working at a calendar shop in 2013.. While working, they would come up with ideas of ways to share their love of geek culture to others, be it YouTube videos or comic books. The two men were also going to be dads and were excited about sharing these geeky fandoms with their kids. One morning, Gil texted the word “Fandads” to Victor, and he responded, “What is ‘Fandads’?” Gil stated that since they both were “fanboys” but were now going to have kids, they should start a blog called “Fandads”.
Fandads.com started as a Dad blog where Gil and Victor wrote about raising their kids amongst geek fandom. Dad bloggers were a niche category, and they were able to connect with a network of other Dad Bloggers on Facebook, thanks to a group started by Oren Miller (RIP). They would share their favorite moments on Instagram and Facebook. Due to this, the Fandads started getting invited to local city events and movie screenings. With these relationships, the Fandads started doing giveaways on their website and hosting movie screenings through Facebook. Every December, the Fandads host a “10 Days of Fandads” on their Facebook page where they give away prizes to their readers for 10 days.
Victor started writing movie reviews, which he called “Quick reviews for busy parents,” and that has led to interviewing talent from movies and television shows. The Fandads have pivoted to an entertainment website that shares movie reviews and information about local events on their YouTube channel.
The Fandads have become an outlet that others trust about what movies and shows are good for families to watch together. They take pride in being real and honest with their readers and are always looking for ways to improve themselves.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Gil and Victor started Fandads because they wanted to share their experience of being geeky fathers with other geeky fathers out there. They were aware that being a dad blogger was a niche market, but they had a strong support group with other dad bloggers throughout the country. Everything they did was from a dad’s perspective and it was new for audiences and brands that they soon started taking notice. When they were hired for their first campaign they leaned into their fatherhood ways and used that to promote the items from the brand.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
During Covid invitations to in-person events faded and we started focusing more on movie reviews. This led to our site leaning more on reviews and interviews than talking about parenthood. While we still incorporate our kids in our reviews, we are trying to return to writing about our families and daily life. I think that at this time people need to see more content that they can relate to.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
We have been ourselves from day one and are very appreciative of the opportunities we get. Whenever we get invited to press junkets we come prepared and make sure to abide by the notes we are given. For example, not bringing up certain subjects that do not have anything to do with the current project the talent is representing and just being professional.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fandads.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fandads
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fandads
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victor-aragon-jr-7a4aa85b
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/fandads
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/fandads
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@fandads
Image Credits
All photos courtesy of Fandads