Corey Olson is the creator of Vanilla Video, a video production company based in Illinois that has served thousands of customers across the U.S. for over a decade. Established to challenge traditional pricing models, the idea was simple: make professional video affordable.
A lifelong builder, Corey began programming at a young age, introduced to Visual Basic by his father. He built his first website soon after and has been coding ever since. He prefers building custom tools tailored to his needs and considers himself a full-stack developer. Corey has two decades of experience creating, managing, and maintaining web-based projects.
During warmer months, he often walks around 5 miles per day. He dropped out of college in 2007 to pursue entrepreneurship and found unexpected joy in filming personal events. He enjoys working with people and values the time he spends with clients. Although he casually offers photography, he prefers video for its ability to capture moments more faithfully.
In his late teens, Corey became fascinated with economics and politics—especially how they interact. He enjoys studying numbers, business models, and the patterns within complex systems. In 2020, he published a compilation of home videos featuring his dog that went viral, briefly placing him in the top 1–2% of YouTubers by subscribers and views. Though the channel is now offline, the experience shaped this site as a personal hub for side projects. More recently, he has focused on building algorithmic trading models and fostering communities around them.
Corey remains an avid builder, but has recently refocused on Vanilla Video, working to revive the original momentum that fueled its early growth.