Scooter Braun found Justin Bieber "by mistake on YouTube".

Scooter Braun

Scooter Braun

The 37-year-old music manager - whose roster includes Justin, 'Sweetener' hitmaker Ariana Grande and Carly Rae Jepsen, among others - used social media to find artists when he started his business and admits he just instantly "blown away" when he accidentally discovered the 'Sorry' hitmaker.

Speaking to 'The Daily Goalcast', Scooter said: "I started my business in freshman year. I did that for three-and-a-half years and I had all these ideas about social media and no one was listening to me. Music artists were at their biggest when there was a feeling of self-discovery. For these kids it was social media. By starting my own record label and management company, I signed a kid off MySpace named Asher Roth, then after finding Asher, I went on YouTube and saw by mistake, a kid singing who had 60,000 views in his church in Canada and I was blown away with what I saw. I knew I could make this kid one of the biggest artists in the world, I just knew instantly. That was Justin Bieber, a 12 year old singing in a church, and I called every school district in that part of Ontario until his mum called to get rid of me and I convinced her to get on the first plane she and he had ever been on."

Scooter was "slowly going broke" whilst trying "to build" his company and launch Justin but just as he was fearful he was going to flop a phone call from his father gave him the confidence to carry on.

Scooter added: "I had saved money for about 13 to 14 months before I knew I was going broke and this was probably month 11. I ordered a pizza and I had to get out $11 in change from a bucket of change I kept dropping every time I came to my house because I had no money. I had Justin and his mother, I was paying their food bills, their electric bills, I was paying everything and I was trying to build this company.

"My dad just called me to say, 'Hey what's up?' and one thing led to another and I just broke down hysterically crying on the phone. I said, 'Dad, I'm going to be a failure, I'm a joke. No one knows and everyone's going to find out.' And my dad said, 'You came this far, see it through.'

Scooter brush with financial ruin made him realise that "success and failure" are "next door to each other" and the margins are very fine.

He said: "The next day Asher Roth came to my house and played me a song called 'I Love College', and I instantly knew what to do. Within a month I was able to get us a publishing deal for a million dollars commission, it saved my company. That was the first time I really understood that tomorrow comes. That the homes and successes and failure are next door to each other. If I'd have given up in that moment I would have never known that success was waiting for me next door."

Tagged in