MrBeast has a 'God King' problem

What do Kim Jong Un, Ayatollah Khamenei, and MrBeast have in common?

They all have such control over their fiefdoms that they’ve been called “Supreme Leader.” In the case of MrBeast, YouTube’s top star with over 500 million subscribers, the moniker came courtesy of a prospective investor.

The financier wanted to add “key man insurance” to a MrBeast fundraising term sheet to hedge against fallout if the company lost its leading man.

Adding the insurance would be “standard and obvious when a biz is led by a supreme leader” such as MrBeast, he wrote in an email viewed by Business Insider.

MrBeast was also referred to as “God King” on a 2022 org chart, and has called himself the “main character” of the company.

MrBeast’s “God-King-Supreme-Leader-Main-Character” status has become a topic of increased concern among insiders and investors as his business has ballooned into a nearly 800-person operation that blends media, advertising, chocolate bars, and fintech — with ambitions for an IPO.

Investors have been eager to get a piece of MrBeast.

For his company, Beast Industries, to justify a valuation that topped $5 billion — and see long-term success in the public markets — it also has to grow beyond him.

The 28-year-old’s outsize importance at the company has, at times, given investors and business partners pause, according to Business Insider’s review of thousands of court documents and interviews with a dozen people close to the business.

The capacity of MrBeast’s brand to transcend its famous founder will be a bellwether for what’s possible in the creator economy, where the lofty ambitions of a wave of new superstars have yet to be fully realized. “He’s clearly built something that’s unique, special, and not a lot of places to do that,” said Chris Erwin, founder of RockWater Industries, which advises creator companies. “Where he gets dinged is: he’s the major face of all the content.” “There is key man risk, and buyers will discount that,” Erwin continued.

MrBeast’s company representatives declined to comment for this story.

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has already stepped back from running parts of his company, appointing former Shutterfly CEO Jeffrey Housenbold as CEO in 2024 and subsequently hiring a slew of seasoned execs.

He’s currently developing various content verticals to be hosted by different creators, following a playbook employed by other digital stars, including Alex Cooper, Dude Perfect, and Steven Bartlett.

Still, Beast Industries insiders question whether Donaldson’s businesses could continue to thrive without him front and center.

That’s of particular concern in videos.

Six insiders said increasing Donaldson’s presence is seen as a way to guarantee success.

The less he’s on screen, the more risk there is. “He has to be there in pivotal moments,” said a former staffer who left earlier this year. “That was always a concern for us,” said another, who left around the same time. “If this guy breaks a leg, we’re kind of screwed.” With Donaldson being stretched further and further — bouncing from filming in his Greenville, North Carolina, headquarters to overseas shoots and swanky New York advertiser pitch meetings — does something have to give?

So far, Donaldson’s efforts to branch out — and cede some control — have had mixed success.

Take the example of his food brand, MrBeast Burger.

From the start, there were operational hiccups.

Donaldson was heavily involved in promoting the brand, but was unavailable when the MrBeast team was finalizing plans to put up a series of billboards advertising the burger company in the summer of 2021.

He was filming a video that involved being stuck in jail. “Jimmy is going to be locked up in prison (with no access to his phone) for the main channel video this week,” his chief of staff wrote to business partners at the time. “Don’t know if we want to postpone launching billboard campaign or not.” Beast Industries’ relationship with its burger partner, Virtual Dining Concepts, imploded in 2023 when Donaldson and his partner fought over control and ended up suing each other.

In private messages released as part of the suit, Donaldson repeatedly expressed his frustrations with product quality and his inability to decide the company’s direction.

VDC alleged that Donaldson didn’t make the appearances and promos he was supposed to.

The case is set to go to trial in December.

Donaldson’s candy company, Feastables, has shown more promise, generating $215 million in net revenue in 2024, according to company materials viewed by Business Insider.

Its sales growth slowed considerably in 2025, though.

A leaked investor deck described how the brand relied heavily on Donaldson’s promotion to drive awareness, with one limited-edition item selling out almost immediately after he posted about it.

Feastables switched out the leadership last year and is looking to holiday-themed products and new categories like chocolate milk and novelty items to spark growth.

Expansions by Beast Industries into new areas such as financial services, mobile phone plans, and influencer marketing are in their early stages and largely untested.

Zack Honarvar, a longtime creator manager who founded The Good Internet, a holding company of creator-focused services, thinks Beast Industries has better prospects in media than in services businesses. “Jimmy uniquely has really great taste and a brain for how to make content work organically online,” Honarvar said. “With the right media catalog, they can create a lot of revenue through all the different forms of advertising and IP ownership and upstreaming to streaming platforms.” Media is a tough business to sustain. “Beast Games,” Donaldson’s reality show on Amazon’s Prime Video, has been a big test.

The show leans on Donaldson as its host and promoter, a situation that has presented challenges.

Ahead of the first major shoot for season one, for instance, the YouTuber injured his back.

As 1,000 contestants streamed toward the set, Donaldson lay horizontal atop a pile of money after telling a medic earlier in the day that he couldn’t film or move.

He later rallied and got the shoot done with the help of a topical pain reliever, but the moment, captured in a YouTube documentary, showed how much the MrBeast content machine needs its star.

The season was a major hit, with the show making Nielsen’s top 10 originals weekly chart, which measures US TV viewership, seven times.

Donaldson said he “lost tens of millions of dollars” filming it. “For me, it was about making season one as good as possible,” he said in a podcast appearance. “I can’t let the YouTube community down because creators don’t have a good rep when it comes to doing stuff on streaming platforms.” The second season drew less heat.

It cracked Nielsen’s top chart once.

Season 3 was filmed earlier this year and hasn’t been released yet.

Donaldson has also tested going off-camera in some media projects.

On Tuesday, he published a novel alongside author James Patterson, which debuted at No.

About a year ago, he premiered an animated series, “MrBeast Lab: The Descent.” The show was based on a MrBeast toy line that became a best-selling new toy property in 2024, according to Circana’s retail sales tracking.

The show is set to release new episodes this fall.

Large, personality-led companies that have built diversified businesses are relatively rare.

Martha Stewart and Oprah are among a handful who have built robust empires.

Few achieve the scale necessary to go public.

Martha Stewart Living reached a market capitalization of roughly $2 billion after its public listing; its valuation plummeted after Stewart’s insider trading scandal broke.

In the influencer arena, a few early brands that hit the public markets have flopped after their talent deals soured.

They include the e-sports company FaZe Clan and the influencer-mansion brand Clubhouse Media Group.

Beast Industries has a key advantage in pitching institutional investors on the road to an IPO: If they want to buy into the creator economy, MrBeast may be the only player who can reach the scale of revenue they’re used to.

Of all creators, MrBeast is in the best position to IPO, and is laying the groundwork to do so, said Monica Khan, founder and CEO of Creator Revolution, which helps creators build businesses and advises companies on influencer strategy.

She added that executing a public offering would require many bets to pay off in areas outside his proven expertise in making YouTube videos. “It’s a massive, massive undertaking,” she said. “I think that’s a real question that MrBeast exploring this now will allow us to better answer: Is that the eventual goal that any of these creators should have?” The fate of MrBeast’s IPO ambitions could shape what options are available for other star creators. “If he’s successful, it will encourage people to take bigger and bigger bets,” said Jonathan Miller, the CEO of Integrated Media Co., which invests in digital media. “If he doesn’t, it will probably encourage people to do lines of business that feel closer to home and scale bets down a bit.

The overall momentum will still be there, but the valuations may change.” Then there’s the question of what Donaldson himself wants long term.

A self-described obsessive, he’s been relentlessly chasing YouTube fame since he was a teenager.

He gets fired up when told “no,” and takes business mistakes, like undercooked MrBeast Burgers, very personally.

He’s said his workaholic approach isn’t sustainable for most people. “There’s a reason no one makes videos like me because no one wants to live the life I live or be in my head: They would be miserable,” he said on a podcast interview.

That said, he added that he didn’t “have any intention of ever stopping.” In a June interview, Donaldson said he expected to run his business for 20 or 30 more years.

He said he hasn’t ruled out running for political office.

One Beast Industries alum imagined him eventually moving into an executive producer role. “I think in his perfect world, if he was just making YouTube videos, that would be his happy place,” a former producer said. “He lights up when he’s creating.

He seemed to live for those moments.” Another possibility?

Donaldson could clone himself, Beast Industries’ CEO Housenbold suggested — with a smile — at the DealBook conference in December.

The idea isn’t so far-fetched if it refers to an AI avatar.

Other top creators like Khaby Lame have planned to make digital clones of themselves, and the MrBeast team has used AI for features like language dubbing.

Ultimately, ensuring the MrBeast brand continues to capture the spirit of its founder as it branches into a slew of unrelated businesses may be the creator’s greatest challenge yet — a harder task than burying yourself alive or surviving 100 days in a nuclear bunker. “On the one hand, the brand has grown to represent far more than Jimmy’s personality and face,” a former “Beast Games” staffer said. “On the other hand, there is only one MrBeast.”

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