Exhausted and sore from a mountain bike ride, PHS senior Matteo Scanu sits at his desk to edit a video for his 154,000 TikTok followers. Over the pandemic Scanu started a tech focused TikTok account which went viral around the world. 

“ I started with videos of my gaming setup and just showing people my desk,” Scanu said. These videos received lots of views prompting Scanu to expand and continue his TikTok journey. 

“ I started reaching out to tech companies to send me their products so that I could give honest reviews with my viewers,” Scanu said, “ At first I would reach out to hundreds of companies and see what I could get.” 

Eventually companies started reaching out to Scanu paying him to advertise his products. He has now made over 500 such videos while also maintaining some other more lighthearted videos. Both types of content have been appreciated by his fans. 

“It has been amazing to watch his growth on what started as a hobby during the pandemic become a full time business,” senior Arun Brahma said. 

Scanu’s TikTok career started during the pandemic but his interest in photography and videography has stretched beyond that. 

“ I saved up money and bought my first video drone when I was in fifth grade,” Scanu said. “ At first, I bought it cause it looked cool but after flying it around, I fell in love with photography and videography.”

Ever since then, Scanu has collected his parents’ old cameras. He really began pursuing photography in 6th grade. In 7th grade, he created a Youtube channel which mainly featured arial videos and travel vlogs. According to Hindawi.com travel vlogs are videos that share narration and images of travel experiences.

“ I had a lot of fun with youtube, especially skiing videos as I was able to share my experiences with people all over the world,” Scanu said. 

However, when the Covid-19 pandemic started, Scanu had to shut down his youtube channel and find a new route. 

“ I couldn’t rely on travel vlogs anymore and the videos took too much time to edit but I still wanted to do something with videos,” Scanu said. “ I thought, why not share my new reality, my desk setup.”

This was the beginning of his Tiktok career. Despite having success, Scanu believes that it is important to find a balance between content creation and outdoor/ down time.

“ I really enjoy spending time in nature, mountain biking and playing basketball for example,” Scanu said. 

In fact, according to bettermarketing.com, a website designed to help content creators, one of the top reasons they fail is a failure to balance down time with their brand. This has led Scanu to pick up mountain biking and join the high school team as an 8th grader. 

“ We had an unofficial tryout and me and Schuyler [Sawicki] were as fast as anyone so they let us come on as 8th graders,” Scanu said. 

Throughout his mountain biking career, Scanu has had a lot of success winning medals in his freshmen and sophomore years and even qualified for the Norcal state finals as a sophomore. The momentum carried into his junior year where he consistently finished in the top 20. 

“ The division I was in as a junior was much harder and faster than my previous two years. But I was still doing well and placing in the top 20 out of 150 people,” Scanu said. 

Outside of the racing, Scanu enjoys the mountain bike community and the events they put together before races. 

“ You have people from all around California playing music, you know cooking food, going out and playing. You’ll play football in the middle of grass and then you go, everyone sleeps over in tents or at hotels for some of the races,” Scanu said. 

In addition to mountain biking and being in nature, Scanu enjoys visiting new places and exploring the world. 

Scanu has remained an active member of the Piedmont community. As the team captain he currently instructs young mountain bikers and helps them achieve their goals. He also shares his business knowledge with his peers as vice President of the Investment Club. 

After a long day at school and in nature, Scanu parks his bike in the garage, tiredly trudges up the steps and uploads a new video for his fans to see.