Combining MTM pathways of marketing and media with entrepreneurship, MTM Alum Justin Fong (Class of 2024) identified his talents, refined them in the program, and built Twin Athletics LA, one of the fastest growing and dominant social media brands in the world of track and field.
Twin Athletics’ track and field content blends engaging race and challenge-based storylines with personality; alongside his twin brother Brendan, Justin not only handles creative direction, content strategy, brand partnerships, and growth for the brand, but he also competes and appears in the content as one of the lead athletes. Through its presence on multiple platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube, Twin Athletics has grown its audience base to over 300,000 followers with an impressive 450 million total views–and growing.
Building on a background in sociology, social media savvy, and his experience as a Division I track and field athlete at UCSB, Fong entered the MTM program with a strong set of skills that he was looking to sharpen.
“Even before I went to UCSB, I knew that social media was always one of the things that I was really good at, growing different brands and personal pages,” recounts Fong, now a full-time content creator through his work with Twin Athletics. “So [Twin Athletics] really encompasses all my strengths into one thing.”
To develop Twin Athletics as one of the most dominant track and field media brands in just around a year, Fong was forced to pivot from previous challenges and rely solely on the strength of the content to grow the brand: “Our initial goal was to make our track and field media brand a coaching business,” says Fong. “We built it from basically scratch. We didn't have any accounts beforehand that had tens or hundreds of thousands of followers; we started from zero subscribers, zero followers. Within the past year and a couple months, we've gotten 450 million views across all of our videos, short-form and long-form. And that's without ad spend. It’s all organic.”
Fong credits a large part of the brands success to early adoption of new technology with untapped potential in the track and field content space: AI glasses.
“We didn't know what our brand would become when we initially got the glasses and started recording our races. We were scrolling on our For You page one day, and then we saw a video of someone running in a race with [AI glasses] and it went completely viral. 2 million views–something crazy like that. And then we're like, okay, wait, the barrier of entry to do this is extremely low–you can buy Meta AI glasses for like $300-$500 and we immediately jumped on that opportunity. And we definitely had first-movers advantage within this space–we were practically the first player that started using the glasses.”
With many accounts subsequently utilizing the AI-glasses format perfected by Twin Athletics, Fong attributes his prior social media experience and fast production pace (thanks to the duo of him and Brendan at the helm), that allowed Twin Athletics to quickly rise above and stay ahead of the competition.
But there’s more than just the technological expertise at play: the solid foundation of business and social media fundamentals Fong gained during his time in the MTM program provided him with the tools to succeed in content creation.
While earning his Master of Technology Management, Fong was introduced to new tools, such as AI software, and gained real-world work experience through his MTM field project, acting as a Product and Project Management Consultant at Teledyne FLIR.
“Something about the MTM program that stood out was that they really emphasize using AI as a tool to work more efficiently,” says Fong. “It really fast-tracked my mindset on how I can incorporate AI across my businesses: finding new revenue sources, increasing retention on viral videos, streamlining operations, and strategizing our brand positioning within our niche.
“Beyond AI tooling, MTM laid the groundwork for me to work more efficiently and manage the different videos I have to put out, making a schedule for what I need to do…Honestly, the most important skill I learned was how to execute on deliverables.
“My experience in our field project was an amazing experience, and I was able to really work within a group. If you didn't execute on the deliverables that you had to do, then you would basically be letting down your whole group and not be advancing in the ways that you're supposed to. The program gives you the tools and the mindset to accomplish those goals and it has helped me tremendously within my current business.”
Beyond MTM, his five years as a track and field athlete developed his ability to thrive in his current business.
“Track has taught me persistence and competitiveness. As a sprinter, I'm always trying to get better and get faster–by 0.01 of a second, by 0.02, like a blink of an eye. That slow progression has taught me to just keep trying no matter what.
“While I was at UCSB, I wasn't that fast–I was basically a moderate Division I sprinter across my five years at UCSB. But I'm faster now postcollegiately than I have ever been before. Track has taught me to really never give up and stay the course because eventually, there will be fruition for hard work. And that same persistence has pushed me within a business perspective, too.”
Twin Athletics has already proven to be a major player in the track and field social media space–but it’s only the beginning for Fong and his team. With major expansions and partnerships planned for the future, Twin Athletics is looking to diversify their content output, both in the length and focus of their videos.
“We’re expanding beyond strictly track and field into broader running and sports markets,” says Fong. “Track and field is an easy niche to dominate because there’s so little competition, but monetization within the niche and sprinting in general isn't great.” We’re touching on adjacent markets that are far more lucrative, like cross country, road races, mile races, run clubs…there's a lot more monetization in those niches than just sprinting. Those types of videos and those types of content appeal to a much broader audience than 100 meter sprint, and so we really want to touch into those markets.”
Thanks to his business savvy and experience founding Twin Athletics, Fong is also delving into more personal social media-related projects.
“I'm also quietly building a second venture correlated to this expansion using the experience that I've earned from Twin Athletics called Utopia LA, a full service creative production company that sources talent, develops creatives, films, edits, and delivers finished brand campaigns. So basically, I make ads for companies, and I source the talent and edit and film it myself. We have a clear runway to scale our monthly revenue, and then, hopefully, we can get my brother to do this full time.”
On the advice he would give to current and future MTM students, Fong says that identifying your niche in skills is a crucial step towards success. “I knew I was good at social media, marketing, brand positioning, and branding,” notes Fong, regarding his own niches. “And so that directly played into Twin Athletics, and looking at markets through that lens.”
“So, if you're good at coding, if you're good at different project management skills…look at markets through that lens, and then figure out your specific skill sets that let you excel and look for a hole in that niche or those markets that you want to go into.”
Like in track and field, persistence also remains an important virtue in developing your career, according to Fong: “There's always an emerging hole somewhere–you just have to find it. You have to be patient, don't rush it, just keep looking, and you'll eventually find a hole that you can really excel in. Track and field was mine. And the skill is learning to spot it before everyone else does. Especially within social media, you have to be able to identify that hole before other people take advantage of that hole and oversaturate that idea or topic before everyone else does. And then you have to pair that with actually executing once you find it; you have to be able to execute your vision. So also maintaining that persistence and that drive to succeed, which the MTM program really instills in all of its students.”
🔗 Connect with Justin Fong here.
🌐 Learn more about the Master of Technology Management program at tmp.ucsb.edu/mtm