Isaac Coenca (they/them)

Ur Internet Friends

Isaac is a business mogul and the Founder/CEO of Ur Internet Friends. They identify as a black, non-binary artist and creative entrepreneur, and studied French and Communications as an Undergrad. Isaac was an optiMize Fellow in 2020 working on Ur Internet Friends, a digital and print multimedia platform for traditionally marginalized online creatives. There have been two print issues of the Ur Internet Friends Zine, alongside a slew of podcast episodes. Isaac also participated in Cohort 7 with Star Laces.

Visit the Ur Internet Friends Instagram or Website to learn more.

I heard about optiMize through my friend who was doing it and online, and I was interested in it because it seemed so not like just another pitch competition - you guys were trying to build a community. The workshops really made me realize, ‘Oh, these people are actually trying to help.’ Even had I not pitched [for optiMize funding], I still found the workshops and mentor check-ins super beneficial.

I genuinely don’t think there is another community on campus quite like optiMize, that is so non-competitive, encouraging, and not only invested in your project, but invested in your success, as well as in you as an individual; the amount of things like catching up and checking in with each other that make it feel so normal? That stuff really makes a difference.

My interests lie very much so in social innovation, art, gender identity and entrepreneurship. So during Cohort 7, I joined my friend's project Star Laces, which helped to normalize pronouns through shoelaces and bring them into the mainstream conversation. After having seen how optiMize works as a whole, and considering the question “Why Not Me?” I thought about all my internet friends who were creating, but didn’t have an agent, or a tie to the mainstream media. I felt like there was a big hole. Just like the pronoun shoelaces, these were things I would have liked to see growing up. I wanted to be a part of making sure that it exists for other people.

Ur Internet Friends started as just a zine (mini, self-published magazine), but the challenge and the fellowship helped us realize that we could be a bigger platform. Now we have a website, and the podcast, which I am super excited about. Also, the zine is just so much better this time around, thanks to the perspectives and feedback we were able to get from peers and mentors. Also, the fact that we worked on the zine during the height of the COVID pandemic? Without the ongoing encouragement from optiMize, it might not have gotten done. Being a part of the fellowship, and having a warm community while there was so much going on around us was crucial. We still wanted to bring happiness into the world and we were able to do that because of optiMize.

For anyone entering the challenge: don’t limit yourself, your project, or your vision of what it can be. Go into the challenge wholeheartedly and give it your best. There’s so many different things you can gain from the workshops or talking to a mentor, so try to figure out what you can do with those resources instead of stressing about your project being perfect or presentable immediately.