Matthew Patrick’s greatest achievement isn’t that he grew his YouTube account into a social media business with over 40 million subscribers. It’s that he was able to sell the company his and succeeded from a very difficult task, emotionally and formally, from.
In an emotional video released earlier this year, Patrick – known as MatPat online – surprised viewers with his decision to quit his illustrious career. He explained, “I don’t like the night very much. I don’t like that [my wife] Steph and I have been at work for over ten years, where I’m sitting at dinner with my best friend, and we’re discussing business management… I miss the days when I used to live on the couch with him. and playing video games, and is not newsworthy.
When some YouTubers quit, they usually stop uploading videos and move on to other things. Even for YouTubers who are big enough to think about selling their channels, getting out remains popular in the industry. Their businesses are now considered dangerous for consumers, because they rely heavily on the views of social platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. And the designers themselves are important to their companies’ products, which makes it difficult for consumers to measure how important their contribution is to the success of the channel.
However MatPat found the media company Lunar X to take over his company, Theorist Media, in a turnaround process that took several years to complete and gave him a enough to retire. (He won’t reveal the exact number.)
“We had discussions with 10 different companies,” MatPat told TechCrunch. “We ended up taking a product that we liked for the brand, which realized that we’ve spent the last 10 years building a solid, well-known, well-loved brand.”
Turning YouTube into a full-time job is a dream, but it doesn’t last forever. As the maker economy continues to grow, Theorist — which employs 22 full-time staff and about 20 freelancers — is seen as a blueprint for how makers can make this kind of business transition.
“Media companies are led by people, which can be dangerous,” Hank Green, a longtime entrepreneur and entrepreneur, told TechCrunch. “When you die, or when you want to retire, it ends, and that’s sad. It’s like, have I created something that will surpass me, that I can relax for the first time in 10 years?
For example, Green’s oldest vlogbrothers, probably could not be found – it is a series of seventeen years in which he and his brother John make videos back and forth . You can’t take the titular brothers out of the vlogbrothers.
“Even that was part of the quality process,” MatPat said. “How central is the theorist, and if we as a company get it, have we seen that?”
But according to MatPat, Theorist was in a good position to move on to new forces, because the shapes of its displays can be easily reproduced. Although MatPat’s personality made the station popular, his video formats made it easy to recruit new hosts. On Game Theory, his main channel, MatPat would analyze video games in detail and create videos explaining his theories. But with the right authors, any host can mimic the look and feel of their videos.
“It’s an unproven environment right now. We were one of the first successful deals and successful conversions in the space,” he said. “But we know after we got the property, we got a lot of calls from other YouTubers who wanted to sell.”
Advocating for designers
Although MatPat has retired from YouTube, he is still very busy. In fact, he spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill. Now that he’s no longer making videos, he wants to use his status as one of YouTube’s most successful personalities to educate entrepreneurs about what entrepreneurs need as small businesses.
“It’s strange to be in that position, YouTuber MatPat, who has just come out of the stage and is very well known in this area, suddenly there is no one in Washington, who is the real seller of the industry of 250 billion dollars. , ” he said.
He is more than happy to act on ego for the sake of his industry. MatPat and his wife Stephanie – former co-owner and COO of Theorist Media – strongly believe that their agents need to understand how creative businesses work. According to Goldman Sachs, the creative economy will be worth half a trillion dollars by 2027. Oxford Economics estimates that YouTube’s creative ecosystem will support more than 390,000 full-time equivalent jobs by 2022.
“We’re trying to educate lawmakers about what the economy is, and that it’s a real job and that we’re small businesses, so there are tax laws and things that work for small businesses,” Patrick said. told. TechCrunch. “Even when you talk to the media, they are the same, aren’t they? Because there is no clear indication on the tax forms – like, what is the manufacturer’s business?
Law enforcement officers are well known for their time when it comes to technology. It’s hard for some elected officials to imagine how Facebook itself makes money, let alone how innovators use social media platforms to launch multimillion-dollar businesses. When TechCrunch caught up with MatPat at Vidcon, he had just returned from a trip to Capitol Hill, where he realized how far we have to go.
“One week, let’s say [spoke with legislators], was like, ‘First question, what is Roku, and how is it different from YouTube?’” he said. “Which means where we start.”
Without much regulatory oversight or understanding of their work, designers and their businesses are left vulnerable. Being a self-employed business owner is tough, but relying on big technology platforms for funding makes things even more difficult. Even a small change in the algorithm can affect a creator’s ability to reach an audience, and less feedback means less money. In terms of online transactions and transactions, there are no industry standards for payment.
“This is not related to New York and California only. The greatest designers come from all parts of the US,” MatPat said. “When we were on Capitol Hill, we were meeting with our district representative, and we were like, ‘Hey, did you know that the biggest YouTuber in the world is in your area?’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s MacBeast, right?’
Even small policy changes can make a big difference for designers.
“Right now, there are no names and government reports that say, ‘I’m a content creator by trade. I make a lot of my money creating content, video, social media, whatever,'” he said. said. Then a legislator can see, ‘Oh, my state in central Iowa has a lot of innovators, this is an important part of my constituency.’
The creative industry is often licensed – making online videos sounds like a hobby, not a career. Many kids say their dream job is to be a YouTuber, but only a small percentage of aspiring creators will make enough money to sustain themselves. But the way MatPat sees it, aspiring artists can learn a lot of transferable skills from YouTube.
“I think it’s perfect and I encourage anyone to start a YouTube channel with the hope of becoming a successful YouTuber, because the skills you gain from doing so are applicable in many different worlds,” said MatPat. Producers need to know public speaking, writing, video editing, filming, social media marketing, data analysis, and more. “One of the things I’m hoping for is for people to find that there are transferable skills, in which case, maybe I wasn’t doing the job well, but I learned all these things from make YouTube, which works.”
MatPat’s exit pushed the industry forward by showing that retirement is possible, and he hopes to make even more waves on Capitol Hill.
He said: “If our legacy strengthens the resources of the next generation of artists, that’s a great thing.” That is the best message I can end with.
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