Joe Gagliese is the co-CEO of Viral Nation, founded in 2014 with his long-standing friend and business partner, Mat Micheli. Before the success of Viral Nation, Joe embarked on numerous startup ventures before discovering an opportunity to change the creator economy. In less than five years, he and the team grew Viral Nation by over 300% year-over-year without external capital. By 2022, Viral Nation had closed a groundbreaking $250 million funding round, spearheaded by Eldridge. Under Joe's leadership, Viral Nation scaled to become a global leader in social-first transformation and commerce and the world’s largest talent agency representing enterprise clients like Amazon Prime, Coca-Cola, Meta, and Walmart. Joe’s disruptive approach to the creator economy has garnered him critical acclaim in publications including the New York Times and Forbes. Gagliese is the first Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Toronto and founder of the YES Scholarship which supports the value of post-secondary education and fostering true entrepreneurial talent.
