Written by Skye Slatcher
As the summer break draws to a close, evenings get darker, rain gets heavier, and LinkedIn becomes a lively hub of LSE students who are all thrilled, humbled, and excited to announce that they have received return offers from their summer internships. Such is the path of an LSE student, it seems. We have no doubt all seen it. Bankers, consultants, corporate lawyers – LSE’s main export.
In the midst of all that, one thing that has been growing this summer is Buzz Social – LSE alum James Frost’s app. Many of you have likely seen at least one post about it over the last few months. It aims to connect people with events across fashion, music, and art in London. It collates all of the most exciting things happening around the city, making them more easily discoverable for everyone. Being so deeply involved in the creative industry is not exactly the typical MO of an LSE student, much less an Econ and Politics graduate.
As the app reaches new milestones, I was lucky enough to chat with James about his journey from LSE into this entrepreneurial career in the creative space.
James is a SW-Londoner and went to school there. Discussing his choice to attend LSE, he said this: “I kind of want to go into finance. Wanting to go down the finance route and make lots of money, I knew that LSE would probably be the best route to do that.” Undoubtedly, a sentiment that many of us can relate to. Despite his creative drive, James did not quite escape the corporate path of LSE, at least initially. Surrounded, as we all are, by people applying to internships in finance, FinTech, AI, etc., he interned with a climate-focused venture capital fund and an AI company.
It was also at LSE, while living in Bankside, that James met his best friend. He lived down the corridor and also studied economics. Together, they developed the first iteration of the Buzz app. James explained the birth of the app to me, and it is perhaps best understood in his words:
“We came up with this idea for an app that capitalised on the COVID restrictions being removed, right? Because while we were in Freshers, it was COVID times and all the pubs were closed and all the clubs were closed… So we wanted to make an app that basically capitalised on those restrictions being taken out. We started building and then pitched it to a bunch of developers and then built a team… We developed everything ourselves and then we launched it and we got to like 10,000 users. The first version of the app was basically focused on organising events. You could host parties, you can generate your codes, you could then scan the QR codes on the door if you’re the host. You can invite plus ones, you can see all the people who are coming, and this was great, right? It meant that, if we were hosting a party on the Friday, all that week, everyone at LSE would be like, ‘oh, who’s going to this party?’ You click a tick or a cross, so then people were obviously looking to see whether their friends were going or their crush was going.”
Things took off pretty quickly for them. With their 10,000users, they managed to organise a party in collaboration with some major events and brands. They collaborated with Levi’s, Sainte (a London rapper), and London Fashion Week (LFW). It was clearly a format that worked. I was curious as to how those partnerships happened. James reflected on his second-year self, being at a Burberry show in the morning and in a seminar that afternoon. Through juggling both of those facets of his life, he developed some strong connections. He had written for New Wave Magazine, through which he connected with Levi’s.
After graduation, they both took a step back. James went to gain some more concrete experience in the creative industry across fashion and music. He worked for an agency on projects with clients like Adidas and Jäegermeister, and attended Fashion Week events for Complex, Hype Beast, and other major outlets. In that year or so, he learnt the ropes of how the industry works. It was with all of that experience under his belt that he developed the idea for what Buzz is now.
Buzz has moved away from generic events and uni party hosting and instead caters to people who want to go to creative events, from pop-ups to listening parties to brand activations. It is increasingly clear that clubbing culture is not so enjoyable when one double vodka lemonade might set you back £12 or more. It is also clear that brands are funnelling more money into these types of activation events than ever, with Nike and Migos being two examples James mentioned in our conversation.
Buzz is there to connect those two realities. Instead of having to follow the brand on Instagram or know someone who is going to the event already, you download Buzz. It is almost like a modern TimeOut magazine.
Buzz is clearly making an impact. Most recently, it hit number six of all Lifestyle apps on the App Store. 113th out of every free app in the world – an undeniably immense achievement.
James made a point of shouting out his developer, Jon: “He is like one of the best developers I’ve ever worked with. He is so easy to work with.” The app is the product – there is no success without a good, clean app.
He also emphasised the value of distribution and social media in getting Buzz out there. James currently does all the marketing and social media himself, but is garnering huge traffic, with millions of views per month. His latest campaign featured a longer video, featuring actors and animation. I thought it was brilliant (you should go watch it, if you haven’t yet!). After seeing the actor, Max Mckenzie, in the Mango Habanero milkshake ad for Wingstop, and having previously connected with him, James decided he wanted to film something with him. The video highlights parts of London culture, even getting a view from Chunkz and a follow from SchoonerScorer.
Alongside Buzz, James runs a mentorship programme which covers building up portfolios, finding inspiration, outreach, and all the skills needed for a successful creative career. Through this scheme, he has helped over a thousand people from all around the world.. Any aspiring creatives should definitely check it out.
I couldn’t end my call with James without asking for some advice for LSE students wanting to break out of the corporate conveyor belt and move into a creative space: “I’d say make the most of the fact that you’re in one of the greatest cities in the world… Go to the events, meet people, and speak to people who are doing similar things outside of LSE. You don’t have to limit yourself socially to just LSE… I feel like there is an LSE bubble where people hang out with just LSE people, and you kind of forget that the outside world exists… It does get a bit overwhelming if you’re just surrounded by people doing spring weeks the whole time. Obviously, I’ve had people being like, ‘Why is he doing this fashion stuff? It’s stupid?’ But honestly, who cares?… It’s just about chasing what you care about. As cringey as that sounds, it’s true.” I think that is advice for us all to listen to.
I asked what events James was looking forward to, and he mentioned London Fashion Week. When this article is published, LFW will have already happened. I was fortunate enough to attend my first LFW event this year, enjoying the work of four Taiwanese designers. I heeded James’ advice from our conversation – just go.
Personally, I can’t wait to see what James does next and how Buzz will continue to grow. Perhaps one (or a number) of the people reading this article has also met their best friend in their first year halls and will hatch an idea together that will become their focus for a number of years. A future Flipside editor might DM you on Instagram asking for an interview, too. For now, I’ll keep checking Buzz and seeing what fun events are going on around London.
