We build & scale YouTube Channels that last
Whether you’re a media brand or building a faceless channel, we help individuals and companies turn YouTube into a profitable, scalable media asset that compounds over time.
Trusted by Creators, Brands & Media Companies
From creators starting their first channel to established media companies, Branded Empires has one mission: build YouTube channels that grow, monetize, and scale. With a proven track record of six-figure channels and consulting for global media brands, we know how to turn YouTube into a lasting digital asset.
Meet Leander Hofkes
Having helped creators, brands, and investors achieve millions of views and six-figure revenues, Leander Hofkes specializes in turning YouTube channels into scalable, monetizable assets.
Leander Hofkes
Founder of Branded Empires
Justicul
350k+
Built from scratch into a 350k+ subscriber channel with 80M+ views and $400K+ in revenue through diversified monetization.
Founder
Out of Bounds
75k+
A branded basketball channel I've helped build from 0 to 75,000 subscribers and $100K+ profit.
Co-Founder
Gravipull
50k+
A space brand that I've helped build from 0 to 50,000 subscribers and consistent $5,000/month profit.
Co-Founder
For over a year, I’ve consulted with Underknown (creators of What If, 8.5M+ subs), shaping strategy across their entire portfolio (Aperture, Animalogic, How To Survive). By improving ideation and packaging on What If, I raised both the view floor and ceiling. One of my first new formats achieved 1M+ views; another hit 14M views in under six months, becoming What If’s 4th most-viewed video ever, and doubling monthly revenue.
Meet the Branded Empires Team
Branded Empires isn’t a one-man show. We’re a collective of proven YouTube growth experts with real track records, brought together to build and scale channels into valuable media assets.
$400k+ generated with Justicul
Ideated a 14m-view hit
Helped monetize 10 branded channels from scratch
Scaled clients to $50k months
Leander uploaded his first YouTube video at age 10, recording his TV screen with a camcorder balanced on a pillow. But like many creators, the passion was buried for years after classmates found out and embarrassment set in.
He returned to YouTube during college under the name Justicul, posting skits and reactions while juggling classes and editing late into the night. For two years he uploaded twice a week with barely any traction. After graduating with a degree in International Business, he started applying for corporate marketing jobs, but every interview felt wrong. He kept talking about YouTube. No one shared the vision.
Instead of settling, he took a warehouse night shift and kept creating. When Fortnite launched, he noticed small channels pulling millions of views with “progression” videos. He uploaded his own, a one-week keyboard & mouse journey, and it blew up: 1 million views after a few months, now sitting at 4.5M+.
That was the moment he stopped applying for jobs and went all-in. He grew Justicul into a branded YouTube channel that ultimately earned nearly $400,000 through ads, affiliate deals, and sponsorships, including a $12,000 single-video brand deal. But without a full team, the grind caught up. Burnout hit hard.
He pivoted to consulting and made an immediate impact. He helped Underknown’s flagship channel, What If, double its monthly revenue with a single idea, delivering a 14M-view hit now among their top 4 videos ever. He then helped grow ThisIsLife from 56K to 200K+ subs and 10x’d its revenue to $70K CAD/month, three times in one year.
Leander went on to co-found Out of Bounds, scaling it with Andrew to 60K+ subscribers, 22M+ views, and six figures in yearly profit. Now, he works behind the scenes helping brands and creators do the same. His clients have gone viral with debut videos and he’s helped launch or scale multiple successful channels, including Gravipull, Privacy Matters, and others soon to be revealed.
Today, Leander leads Branded Empires, helping creators, entrepreneurs, and brands achieve similar results.
7-video streak of 1m+ views
20 million views in 1y
75,000 subscribers earned
$150,000+ generated with Out Of Bounds in 1.5y
Andrew’s journey started in elementary school, editing Call of Duty montages and basketball mixtapes before most kids even knew what YouTube was. By the end of high school, he had two dreams: to work in media or to become a full-time basketball coach. Coaching took the lead, and from age 19 to 26, he went all in. He built his own coaching business, helped launch a full training facility, and coached for three professional basketball teams across New Zealand and Australia.
But he never stopped creating. On the side, he built Andrew M Hoops, teaching basketball through videos on Instagram and YouTube. He monetized the channel in under 10 videos and pulled in 400K+ views with a single viral hit. Still, content took a back seat until 2023.
That year, Andrew returned to YouTube with a new plan. His second video on a fresh channel hit 50K views. One exploded to 70K in a single day. But the real shift came after partnering up with Leander, turning a long-shot idea into a 32-minute documentary on Trae Young. He posted it just two weeks after being made redundant from his full-time coaching job. Within 8 days, the video blew up. Two weeks later, the channel Out of Bounds was monetized.
Andrew went all-in. He continued his job part-time to stay afloat while spending 8–10 hours daily building the channel. Within months, he and the team had a 7-video streak of 1M+ views, and since then, they have achieved 22 million total views, 65K subscribers, and have made over six figures in profit. He quit the part-time job in August 2024, now fully independent, debt-free, making around $10-$20k every month, and consistently investing in his future.
Today, Andrew is not just a full-time creator; he’s a coach inside our consulting program, helping others do exactly what he did: build standout YouTube brands, monetize fast, and turn their passion into a long-term career.
Back-end offer expert
53 million total views
300k subs across all channels
$600k generated with Virkayu
Kai’s YouTube journey began over 20 years ago, editing videos for school projects and online communities before YouTube was even invented. After years as a science teacher and high-level League of Legends player, he saw a gap in the gaming education space and built a channel that broke it open. In just two months, he grew to 25K+ subscribers, pulling hundreds of thousands of views per upload while still teaching full time.
By 2019, he went all-in. Through a mix of AdSense, Patreon, Twitch, sponsorships, and coaching, he scaled to consistent $10K+ months, launched an additional channel under the Virkayu brand, and became a leading voice in League of Legends education, amassing over 268k subscribers and 53 million views across his channels.
When the gaming economy began to collapse in December 2022, Kai rebuilt fast. He launched his own platform, pre-sold courses, spun up a lead generator channel, and converted to a monthly recurring model, sustaining $10K–$20K/month consistently.
Still hungry to expand, Kai pivoted beyond gaming. He launched a monetized-on-first-video history channel and then co-founded The GOAT Authority with Leander, an NBA documentary channel that hit 2M+ views and recouped 3x ROI within months. But the real leap came with Gravipull, a creative space documentary brand using Kai’s astrophysics background. Just six months in: 1.1M-view viral hit, 37K subs, and nearly $10K in a single month from sponsors and AdSense, with even more high-level partnerships lined up.
Today, Kai is a head coach in the Branded Empires team, helping creators build repeatable, profitable YouTube brands using the same systems that took him across four six-figure verticals and millions of views.
Client Case Studies
We don’t just get results for ourselves, we actually deliver them for others too. Here’s how we’ve helped creators and media companies generate millions of views, six-figure revenues, and channels that actually last.
Ready to build or scale a YouTube brand that actually lasts?
You are? It’s time we talked. Apply below.