Abandoned Malls, Big Dreams | How Draven Built a YouTube Channel and Monetized It

Welcome to Episode 35.

Toby is joined today by Draven Starr, the creator behind Optopolis, a popular YouTube channel focused on urban exploration and documenting retail history.

From his childhood fascination with traffic signs and city building to creating over 100 videos exploring abandoned retail spaces, Draven shares the behind-the-scenes journey of how he turned his passion into a growing platform.

“I started finding interest in like exploring of abandoned places specifically. I'd see videos of people going inside of abandoned places in my video games. I don't know what was it, maybe around 2018, I started to really find interest in more retail specific topics.”

“So it was just an abandoned space that intrigued me. It had been vacant for as long as I can remember. ...And I stumbled across the fact that the Walmart logo was there. And that just threw me off. Was like, what? I don't remember that being there. I don't remember Walmart ever having anything at that space.”

“So, you know, I guess that's kind of a little bit of my reasoning for doing videos these days is that nothing lasts forever. And even if it lasts for a long time, it's still kind of cool to be able to look back and see what things looked like… of course nowadays I do a lot more stuff around current events, so it helps get the word out as well more about what's happening in the Cheyenne community. And really any city beyond that, but Cheyenne's kind of my home base.”

Episode 035
Release Date: December 9, 2025
Host: Toby Lyles
Guest: Draven Starr
Get in touch with Draven
LinkTree - https://linktr.ee/optopolis
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/Optopolis
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theOptopolis/