LDC Top 50 2025
Andrew Trotman and Sam Lenehan
Founder and CEO
KOMI Group
If you want to understand what makes a video, ‘go viral’, Andrew Trotman is your man. He created KOMI Group – then known as It’s Gone Viral – in 2015. A few years later, Sam Lenehan came on board and together they’ve built a business which racks up 5 billion views each month.
The group comprises a publishing arm, content business and talent agency. It grew 96 per cent year-on-year after the pair raised growth capital and their sights are now on world domination. “We already have a small office in the US,” says Lenehan. “The next phase is about competing on a global scale.”
The next phase is about competing on a global scale.”
Q&A
What is unusual about KOMI Group?
Sam: We have a publishing business which owns and operates social media brands across all the mainstream platforms. KOMI Talent helps influencers to better monetise their content, as well as offering talent management. Ark by KOMI creates and curates around 50,000 pieces of video content each year, and licences out these videos to other organisations.
Andrew: Data has been a huge part of our journey. Almost every other sector has the ability to build a proactive business model, but we don’t have that luxury, so – using AI and data – we have built the best reactive model in our industry. If there’s a drop off of 15 seconds into a 10-minute video, we’ll use those learnings in the next one.
How do you spot viral content?
Andrew: The one rule is that you have to make the audience feel something. That’s what makes a video reach the masses. It can be funny, or shocking, but it has to be immediately clear to the viewer what we are trying to make them feel. Then you must deliver on that promise.
What are your ambitions for his business?
Sam: Over the past 18 months, we have seen the crystallisation of seven years of hard work. KOMI is now well-placed to attract institutional capital and to partner with existing brands and creators too. How big could this be? We will strive to lead the industry.
Andrew: We have built a platform that is geographically agnostic. Since 2019, we have taken views from 250 million on Facebook alone to 5 billion across all the major social platforms today, with a presence across every major Western market.
