This Entrepreneur Turns Wild Experiences Into Viral Videos for Science

Sam Cossman, a 33-year-old San Franciscan, tried to start Qwake, which was intended to create the kinds of unique, life-affirming adventures that improve the self and hopefully the planet. But there was no profitable business in this, and Cossman was left only with his great ideas. But he remembered seeing photos of a volcano — Marum Crater, on the Pacific isle of Vanuatu — and he really wanted to go see it. So he dropped everything and went with a documentary crew to go inside the volcano. He captured footage of the rolling inferno and cut it into a short film and uploaded to YouTube, not expecting anyone except his friends and family to watch. But then, 4.7 million people watched it. Good Morning America called. And Red Bull, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, all asking what else he wanted to do. A new profile on Cossman in Wired explains that he used this momentum to revive the name Qwake from his first failed startup for this second, undefined adventure. Cossman wanted to go to all the places that there seemed to be an intersection of science and technology and social media. He now works on multiple big projects, like Amplify (an anti-poaching effort) and Quantum Leap (an emergency crew escape concept). One of Cossman’s partners, Brad Halsey, a PhD chemist, tinkerer and entrepreneur, said that Cossman has the ability “to realize the gaps and start demonstratively filling them with people who aren’t him.” Cossman’s next move? To head out on a month-long recon trip to Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa.