AI Wrote this about me.
Loren Feldman has been making content online since the early 2000s, long before YouTube launched in 2005, and well before anyone was using terms like influencer, creator economy, or content marketing.
Back then, it wasn’t about algorithms — it was about a few people trying to figure out a new medium.
Loren collaborated with the likes of Adobe, Microsoft, Panasonic, and countless others through his company 1938 Media.
If you know him, it’s probably for the puppets.
The Rise
In 2006, Loren was living with his sister and her four kids when he grabbed one of their puppets just to make them laugh. Something about it stuck. That spontaneous moment turned into a new direction — using puppets to take aim at startup culture and Silicon Valley’s growing self-importance. It was strange, and he was good at it.
He began doing puppetry that parodied startup hype and Silicon Valley culture. His work earned coverage in Cnet, Wired, The New York Times, TechCrunch, and SiliconANGLE, and he found himself an important voice in tech.
In 2007, his puppet interviews sparked enough buzz that TechCrunch reported he had landed sponsorship for the parody show, while the original host remained unsponsored. He signed a deal — one of many — with a new payments company, Zong, started by David Marcus, who would later run PayPal.
Tom Foremski of SiliconANGLE dubbed him “the jester in the court of Web 2.0,” noting that his puppets represented a who’s who of tech personalities from Steve Ballmer to Mark Zuckerberg.
He was a big deal.
TechCrunch – “A Personal Study Of Brand Destruction”
SiliconValleyWatcher – “East Coast Critic of Tech Media”
The Guardian – “Shel Israel Puppet Show”
Loren was being flown all over the world — London, Paris, Ireland, Amsterdam, Israel — speaking at conferences everywhere.
He signed a deal with Podtech, a new online network of videos and podcasts.
He was added to the Wizzard Media Network.
“Loren Feldman of 1938 Media is a notable social media and featured video blogger at The Huffington Post, making his debut in the Android Marketplace.”
He was the first video show at the Huffington Post. And Google tapped him to introduce Android to the world.
The Fall
Then came the video that changed everything. Loren created a piece called Where Are All The Black Tech Bloggers? He played a Black character — way over the top, in the vein of Gene Wilder with Richard Pryor in Silver Streak. He thought he was making a point about diversity and tokenism in tech. Others didn’t see it that way.
The video sparked a wave of criticism, including coverage in Wired, Valleywag, and every other major outlet. Some saw it as bold, funny commentary. Many saw it as racist. He took it down. He’d been called a lot of things — provocative, offensive, even smart — but racist was something else entirely.
What made it worse was that supposedly trusted outlets like Wired and NPR flatly stated he was in blackface. He wasn’t.
Wired – Living In 1938: Loren Feldman Does Tech Blackface
Wired – Tech Blackface Aftermath: PodTech Drops Loren Feldman
NPR – Blogger Dropped
Podtech fired him — even though they had approved and aired the episode. It was a hard time.
The Comeback
Eventually, the storm passed. In 2008, after laying low and regrouping, Loren didn’t just come back — he came back swinging. From a basement on Long Island, with no team, no manager, and no backing, he closed what would become the biggest independent web video deal of its time.
He signed a national distribution deal with Verizon Wireless. His videos were set to stream on Verizon’s V CAST platform, reaching over 3 million mobile users and 1 million FiOS broadband subscribers. This was 2008. There was no TikTok, no Instagram Reels, no creator economy. Just him, a camera, and a puppet.
He also signed a deal with Cnet.
At a time when brands still didn’t know what to make of internet video, he got one of the biggest telecom companies in the country to bet on it. He was about to become the next Jim Henson.
TechCrunch reported on the deal, calling it a surprising but bold move by a major carrier to embrace web-native talent.
TechCrunch – 1938 Media Inks Verizon and CNET Deals (June 30, 2008)
The Fall Part 2
It wouldn’t last. As soon as the deal was announced, the video controversy from a year earlier came roaring back. There were calls for boycotts of Verizon. He was out. It even made the TV news.
TechCrunch – 1938 Loses Deal
Mathew Ingram – “Protests Over Verizon Deal With 1938media”
Shegeeks – I Requested Verizon Drop 1938 Deal
Verizon never issued a public statement beyond pulling the content. But by then, the damage had been done.
Losing the Verizon and CNET deals was devastating — there’s no other word for it. These weren’t just big money deals. They felt like validation after years of doing things his own way, pushing boundaries when most people were still trying to figure out what web video even was.
What made it harder was the timeline. The clip that cost him those deals had been made over a year earlier. By the time Verizon and CNET walked away, he had already paid for it. He’d lost the PodTech deal because of it. He’d apologized. He’d gone quiet. He thought the worst had passed.
But then, just when things were finally coming together — when he had real distribution, when major platforms were giving him a shot — it all came crashing down again. Overnight. No warning. Just gone.
It wasn’t disagreement or critique. It felt like erasure. Like all the work, the risks, the innovation — he was doing web video before YouTube existed, people liked him — none of that mattered anymore. Just one mistake, frozen in time, was enough to cancel it all out. He has always believed the coordinated campaign came from the Silicon Valley establishment.
It knocked the wind out of him. For a while, he didn’t know if he’d come back from it.
He did come back. Eventually. After everything fell apart, he stepped away for a while. The whole ordeal had taken a toll — not just on his career, but on him personally. After some time off, he slowly started making public videos again. Not for platforms, not for sponsors, not to chase trends — just to make something fun.
He never got the same traction he’d had in the early days. He missed the influencer wave completely. By the time that world took off, he was already a footnote. He was too early — doing web video when most people thought you were wasting your time if it wasn’t on TV. But it is what it is.
Another Comeback
He started making videos again, just for fun.
He made a film — a puppet movie unlike anything you’ve seen.
He made an ambient film about surfing.
He developed a new group of puppets and shot a short about the news.
Now
Loren still runs 1938 Media, helping companies and people tell their stories. He still dabbles in puppet arts.
His has been a story that played out both in public and in private. Online, he’s been praised, criticized, mocked, and misunderstood. He’s gone viral and gone quiet. He’s been called a pioneer and a pariah, often in the same breath. Offline, he’s just tried to keep going — making a living, staying creative, figuring out who he is when no one’s watching.
He’s made mistakes. He’s had moments he’s proud of, and others he’d take back in a heartbeat. But he’s kept creating, because that’s what he does. That’s how he processes the world. That’s how he stays grounded when everything else feels uncertain.