How Jake Paul resisted FBI raids and YouTube controversy to launch a corporate empire

Before the 27-year-old became the third-richest content creator, earning $38 million by 2023—and challenging boxing legend Mike Tyson in a fight to be streamed on Netflix—Paul was a night shift at Disney.

Having recently found internet fame by making six-second comedy videos on Vine, Paul was fired from a children’s show. Bizaardvark, where he played the struggling Dirk Mann. In a twisted take on the acting life, Paul was praised by Disney in 2017 for causing trouble with his qualifications, starting fires in empty swimming pools, shooting a reporter’s T-shirt, and organizing drag races without him. a house for rent.

“We don’t have that much noise,” said Paul The Hollywood Reporter behind the scenes. “Like, yes, we had a furniture fire in our backyard once. But that didn’t hurt anyone.”

Even as he gained 47 million followers across YouTube and Instagram for his prank videos and behind-the-scenes vlogs of his budding boxing career, trouble continued to follow Paul.

In addition to allegations of sexual harassment and the use of racial slurs in YouTube videos, Paul threw dirty parties at the height of COVID and was charged with trespassing and unlawful assembly after he was filmed with a stolen bottle of vodka in a looted shop. The charges were later dropped. But following the mall incident, the FBI raided his home again with a SWAT team in August 2020. The US attorney’s office in Arizona later said he would not face federal charges.

It is hard to imagine that this guy will be the face of a fund invested in the success of brands like Olipop and Fly By Jing. Or you’ll be the founder of a new personal care brand of deodorant and body spray called W—a play on the Gen Z slang for “win”—which launched this week in 3,900 Walmarts, with other products launching later throughout the month. 400 other Walmart locations.

But as the name of his new product suggests, Paul continued to find success despite a wave of “failures of a thousand.” After miraculously—yet inexplicably—wresting victory again and again from the jaws of defeat, Paul has learned to love this argument.

“Other businessmen understand it, and business women understand that if you do something amazing, everyone is going to try to stop you,” Paul said. Good luck.

The ‘problem child’ is growing up

Following the narrative of so many content creators in the mid-2010s, Paul gave up on prank videos and turned to other ways to make money. He coined the name “The Problem Child” and made a name for himself in boxing, where he achieved a record of nine wins and one win. In 2021, he founded the Anti Fund alongside Geoffrey Woo, a businessman who rejected Paul ten years ago, when he founded his content house Team 10.

Woo said Good luck it’s a common strategy for influencers to try their hand at consumer companies and venture capital after squeezing juice on YouTube.

“Content creators, or celebrities in general, think it’s a grab for free money,” he said.

According to Amanda Russell, marketing consultant and author of The Influencer Code: How to Unlock the Power of Influencer Marketing, it can be really profitable. Content creators like Paul already have a built-in audience, allowing their products to grow quickly.

“It’s getting harder and harder for products to break through,” Russell said Good luck. “Everything is a commodity now unless consumers are connected to the product. People don’t really go along with brands; they talk about people.”

But Paul will tell you that having his name in business does not mean success. In 2016, his social media site Locker Room, which separated users into groups of just boys and girls, was shut down after only 500 downloads. In 2018, he was accused of defrauding customers of his online platform Edfluence, which offers educational videos to become an influencer, after users could not open the videos even after paying an initial fee of $7 to do so. And in March 2023, he coughed up $400,000 to the SEC for promoting a crypto scam.

“You have to go through those times when you lose money, your vision is not as good as you thought it was,” said Paul. “Those are the things that make you last longer.”

Woodie Hillyard, CEO of W, saw more of Paul—a self-aware and humble entrepreneur hungry for success—when he met him a year and a half ago. During their first meeting, a group of kids approached Paul asking for his autographs. Hillyard remembers that Paul was patient, asking each child about their interest in school and what their favorite sport was.

“You just see him interacting with people on a human level, and it just makes you realize what a great guy he is,” Hillyard said. Good luck. “People have the opportunity to grow.”

While Hillyard sees his young business partner as smooth-edged and polite, Paul, at least in public, still relies on his trouble-making personality. In W’s latest promotional video, Paul calls himself “dumb and stinky,” asking a production assistant to apply deodorant to his hairy, sweaty pits.

“I personally do not see that I have a conflict. I speak the truth and people don’t like the truth in this day and age because the truth hurts,” said Paul. “I wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers or speak my mind.”

‘Content is king‘

Don’t underestimate Paul’s bravery. Paul was unsuccessful despite his argument, Russell argued. He got his professional footing because of it.

“Those who try to please everyone don’t really belong to the people,” he said. “The more you stand for something, the more you create a cult following.”

Paul is well aware of his past delinquency. He has used his continued relevance, even bad name, to his advantage: “Content is king,” he said. “The most important thing is eyeballs and sales and exposure.”

This strategy is not foolproof, as Paul’s family knows. Older brother Logan Paul has found meteoric success with his energy drink brand Prime, launched alongside boxer KSI. But after earning more than $1 billion in sales within two years of the company’s launch, the brand’s rapid growth became unpopular.

Gen Alpha lost interest in the drink as they stuck to the next product. And after being hit with a lawsuit claiming it contained more caffeine than labeled “permanent chemicals,” the premium bottles are now sitting on discount shelves in UK retailers.

But Jake Paul has faith in his mind that can overcome adversity. He’s been through the crossfire of tough fights, criminal allegations, and failed businesses, and he’s still coming out the other side swinging.

“Everybody wants to see you go down, and you just keep rising to the occasion and win and win and keep fighting,” Paul said. “And that’s exactly what I did.”

“One of my biggest losses was my biggest win,” he added.