YouTube mega-star MrBeast seeks 10-figure valuation

Seems way too high. A 10x valuation like this is usually for tech related businesses. MrBeast is sort of tech adjacent, producing content that leverages social media platforms, but isn’t actually a hockey-stick growthable venture (coined that word myself; also yes, hockey sticks occur in viral growth for content popularity but MrBeast has arguably already passed that phase of his content business)

The types of businesses mentioned for expansion using the invested funds don’t see that many hockey sticks. And restaurants are horribly risky and failure prone: they’re heavily influenced by fads and economic circumstances. He might very well pull it off, it’s early days in his existing efforts to talk about longevity, but it’s all risky.

It’s an investment for expansion though and he’s already seen his hockey stick growth. Usually the 10x is in anticipation of that future growth. MrBeast is already established on that front.

But I should refrain from judging too much. Details on what he’s seeking for investment terms and what he’s proposing for business growth were too thin here for more than mild skepticism.

Good on him. He completely figured out YouTube's model and now is expanding to other industries. I can easily see him at 10+ billion in another 10 years.

Something about MrBeast has always bothered me, I’m not quite sure I can put my finger.

It has to do with things like his random money drops. It seems like he established himself in an #OMG look at this great thing I’m doing for someone# sort of way. But doing something good always felt like the incidental byproduct of producing a bit of content that got lots of eyeballs on it.

I’ve never seen something that would demonstrate that MrBeast is doing any of it because he actually cares, and instead it seems like it’s done because it drives viral consumption of the content. I’d like to be wrong if anyone has come across something that shows otherwise.

Maybe this shouldn’t bother me? By which I mean, if everything MrBeast has done wasn’t through YouTube but instead was presented as, say, a Netflix production “reality” tv series then I’d think to myself- oh of course it’s for audience entertainment and any good that comes of it is a happy accident, not the actual goal.

Maybe my issue is how I was initially introduced to MrBeast content, which was through my young kids. And my kids thought he was actually giving the money away specifically and primarily to do something good and nice for someone. Instead it feels like there’s an element of exploitation to it.

I don’t know, I’m probably overthinking the whole thing and I should (maybe? Thoughts or suggestions?) just recalibrate my outlook to view his content as just another sort of game show or something.

Though even then, it annoys me that some people seem to view him as a good person for what he does, akin to viewing CBS as altruistic for giving Jeopardy winners $$.

I’m overthinking this. Stopping now.

I agree. He is literally investing that money into his business. That's just called a "write-off" or cost of doing business. It's not altruism if the act literally makes him more money than he gives away.