7 early YouTubers reveal the moments they knew they made it big

• When YouTube was starting out in the late 2000s, the first set of creators recording videos couldn't have known how big the platform would become.
• These YouTubers set the precedent for what it meant to be an online personality — no one could tell them that the path they were on could turn them into bonafide celebrities.
• Suddenly, online creators were having offline impacts, from the comfort of their own homes.
• Seven early YouTubers told Business Insider the first time they realized their work was being watched and noticed by viewers around the world.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Judson Laipply, 'Evolution of Dance'

I had no idea what a viral video was. Two weeks [after I uploaded 'Evolution of Dance'], I got a notification in my inbox someone had interacted with this YouTube video. I went and looked and I had 19,000 views on my video. A couple days later, 30,000 people had watched. I remember thinking, 'Maybe I'll get a gig out of this.'

Jumping from a quarter- to a half-million, I started getting emails from friends who were getting the video on newsletters, seeing it in their email. What really prompted the big moment of, 'This is something unique,' is I get a phone call from someone at YouTube. There's a voicemail: 'We got a call from the "Today" show, and they want to know if we could give them your contact information.'

It was about four weeks before it clicked and I was like, 'Oh, this is something different.' That's how I got to be the poster boy for YouTube for a couple of years. I honestly figured it would all die down in a year or two. I never thought that 14 years later, I would still be talking about it. I will always live on as the first.

Olga Kay

All the time I've been on YouTube, I knew I had fans. But I didn't understand what that meant until I went to a YouTube gathering. For the first time it clicked, 'Oh these people are actually real.'

By 2010, everywhere I went in Los Angeles, I would get recognized. Especially if I went to the mall, or places populated by teenagers. When you get recognized, it's a lot more personal. They've watched your whole life unfold. They ask very direct questions about your life. Sometimes they know more about me than I remember about my own life.

Peter Shukoff, known as Nice Peter, creator of 'Epic Rap Battles'

It was a comment that I got from Joe Penna [aka MysteryGuitarMan] on an early video that blew my mind wide open. I was a huge fan of his. He was a huge inspiration. It was like, 'Holy crap! Someone like MysteryGuitarMan can see your content.'

Mesh Flinders, co-creator of 'Lonelygirl15'

It happened pretty fast. Right away, it became apparent there was this debate about whether or not she was real. By July 4, I remember saying: We got something here, let's keep going. We knew we had a bigger audience than we ever expected.

[Lonelygirl15] certainly defined my career. It didn't open the kind of doors in filmmaking that I wanted it to, but it did open the doors in terms of advertising work. That's how I've supported myself for the last 15 years.

I would not have guessed at the time that we would be talking about her 15 years later. Because the platform was so new when we did what we did, people will always remember the early creators.

Bryony Matthewman, known as Paperlillies

One person once commented on a video of mine when I had around 35,000 subscribers. Someone said, 'That's how many people fit in White Hart Lane [the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club stadium].' I realized that's how many people subscribed and want to listen to my stupid stuff. There were so many people out there that care.

GloZell Green

I was in Costco one day, and this girl was following me. I was like, 'What's about to go down? Why is this girl following me?' Then she asked me for a picture. I realized, 'I need to pay attention to this YouTube thing.' I looked at the comments and was like, 'Wow, these are real people.'

I had a meetup at a yogurt shop. I walked up, and the line is wrapped around the corner with all different types of people. I was like, 'Who's here? Who are they waiting for?' Turns out it was me. This internet thing, kids who are on it don't care your political background, how fat you are, how black you are, how tall you are. If you are making them laugh, they like you. That's it.

It wasn't until I interviewed Barack Obama in the White House that my mama cared. Up until then, I was an embarrassment.

Brooke Brodack, also known as Brookers

For me, my work was out of love and it was personal. When people on the web started to share my work, strangely I had a lot of opposition to that. But pretty quickly, I got used to this new idea of sharing it with strangers online. It was unusual as me as an everyday, common person to be sharing my content.

In the very beginning, I was recognized out a lot. I had a huge ego at that time, and I think that's the biggest issue for people who become YouTubers who aren't ready: You feel like you're nobody, and now you're expected to be somebody. It's just something you have to get used to. At that time, I didn't want to be that way. I was acting. I was still shy and reserved. But it brought me out of my shell a lot. I was paving a new path, and I'm still doing that in a sense, 15 years later. YouTube is still a really big, important part of my life.