At just 18 years old, an Ottawa entrepreneur is turning the videos people scroll past every day into a growing business, with clients he says include Amazon Prime and Members of Parliament. Atreyu Amis, is the founder of Clipstar, a company specializing in a growing form of social media marketing known as “clipping.” “Clipping is basically when you’re scrolling on social media, you know, TikTok, Instagram and you see these clips of short videos over and over again,” Amis explained. The process involves taking longer videos, selecting the most engaging moments, and turning them into shorter clips that are distributed across social media platforms. Companies pay to have their content shared, allowing them to reach audiences beyond their own social media accounts. Amis founded Clipstar just over a year ago after noticing an opportunity to bring the marketing strategy to larger organizations. “I saw a market gap where big companies, organizations and governments even, weren’t using clipping to market what they were doing,” he said. According to Amis, Clipstar has since worked on promotional content for Amazon Prime television shows and movies, along with content for MPs from different political parties. He says the company has generated more than one billion views in 2026 alone. “I could have never imagined it would blow up like this,” Amis said. From local businesses to major brands While Clipstar has attracted larger clients, Amis says helping local businesses remains an important part of the company’s work. Among them is Soungui Fitness, an Ottawa fitness business owned by Soungui Koulamallah. Koulamallah says short-form videos have become an important way of connecting with potential clients and introducing people to his gym. “I find the social media side goes hand in hand with the business side,” he said. The videos, he explained, allow potential customers to become familiar with the business before ever walking through its doors. The company is also attracting established content creators. Joudel Janoska, a creative strategist and longtime social media content creator, is working with Clipstar to help promote an upcoming book. “I’m working with Clipstar because I have an upcoming book launch, and I wanted a good team by my side,” Janoska said. She says turning longer conversations and stories into short videos allows creators to highlight the moments most likely to capture and audience’s attention. “It’s like a podcast when you’re talking for 30 minutes and 45 minutes, you want to be able to clip it into 30 second short form video of the best pieces of content,” she explained. A growing opportunity for young creators Beyond working with clients, Clipstar also provides opportunities for people to earn money by creating and sharing videos. Amis says the platform has more than 20,000 clippers, with earnings tied to the number of views their content generates. He says some of the platform’s highest earners are making five figures per month. The company also uses software designed to detect fake views and automated engagement, something Amis says has been one of the biggest challenges in building the business. “A lot of people on social media don’t realize that just because a video gets a million views doesn’t mean they’re real, or the comments are real,” he said. For Amis, entrepreneurship started long before Clipstar. “When I was 12, I started a cleaning business, or I did window cleaning and, you know, typical kid going door to door,” he recalled. While he always imagined running his own company, he never expected it would be in the social media industry. Now, six years after knocking on doors offering to clean windows, he’s building a business around helping companies reach people on their phones. “Don’t look at social media just for creators and influencers,” Amis said. “There’s an audience for everyone.”
