Six rungs from attention to a local economy
The same six rungs recur in every complete path on the map. A platform pays first, usually the YouTube Partner Program from 2007, the Twitch Partner Program from 2011, or nothing at all on Vine, Instagram and early TikTok, which is why the Vine generation moved to YouTube and why LTK and the Amazon Influencer Program exist at all. A brand pays second, and the first sponsorship is the moment a creator becomes a business: Quidd's 10,000 dollars to MrBeast in June 2017, Lancome's contract with Michelle Phan in 2010, Louis Vuitton's ambassadorship for Emma Chamberlain in 2019. An intermediary appears third, a manager on commission, a talent agency, or in the earlier decade a multi channel network taking a share of AdSense. The owned product comes fourth, and the gap between first payout and first product is the most useful number on the map: ten years for MrBeast, four to six for Michelle Phan, three and a half for Emma Chamberlain, and about four for Charli D'Amelio, whose first sponsorship came within a year but whose first owned product, D'Amelio Footwear, came in 2023. Manufacturing and retail come fifth, and that is where the map leaves the creator's metro: Feastables is made in Lima and sold from Bentonville, Prime is run from Louisville and was meant to be bottled in Truesdale, Missouri, Happy Dad is canned in Monroe, Wisconsin, Kylie Cosmetics and ColourPop come out of Oxnard. Capital arrives sixth, either as a growth round or as an exit, and the exit is where the physical economy is priced: Celsius paid 1.8 billion dollars for Alani Nu, Coty paid 600 million for half of Kylie Cosmetics, Unilever paid a reported 1.5 billion for Dr. Squatch, and Bitmine put 200 million into Beast Industries at a 5 billion dollar valuation in January 2026.
MrBeast: attention to chocolate
Jimmy Donaldson uploads his first video in February 2012 at age 13 and spends five years on Let's Plays before I Counted to 100,000 breaks through in January 2017. AdSense pays first; the first brand deal comes in June 2017 when the app Quidd pays $10,000 that he gives away on camera, which becomes the format. Night Media manages him from January 2019. MrBeast Burger launches in November 2020 as a ghost kitchen deal with Virtual Dining Concepts, reaches 2,000 locations and ends in a 2023 lawsuit. Feastables, the first product he fully owns, launches chocolate in January 2022 and sits in Walmart and 7 Eleven. Beast Industries raises $45 million in 2022, $105 million in 2024 and a reported $500 million in January 2026 at $5 billion. Beast Games season two airs from January 2026 and he passes 500 million subscribers in June 2026, all run from Greenville, North Carolina.
Jimmy Donaldson incorporates Feastables on July 8, 2021 and launches MrBeast Bar chocolate in January 2022 with Walmart as first retailer, selling about 10 million dollars in the first months. The bars are manufactured in Peru by Machu Picchu Foods SAC. Distribution reaches 7-Eleven and Speedway in May 2023, the UK in July 2023, Canada in April 2024 and India in November 2024. A February 2024 relaunch replaces the logo and formulation and drops the MrBeast Bar name. Gross revenue is a reported 251 million dollars with 20 million profit in 2024, making Feastables the profitable division inside a Beast Industries that lost about 80 million on content the same year. Alexandre Zigliara, formerly of Mondelez and Coca-Cola, is chief executive, and chef Nick DiGiovanni becomes a brand partner in July 2025. Beast Industries is the Greenville, North Carolina holding company for MrBeast's channels, Feastables, Lunchly, merchandise and new ventures, with over 250 employees by 2023 and a single balance sheet under chief executive Jeffrey Housenbold, formerly of SoftBank. Combined sales are a reported 400 million dollars in 2024, with the content arm losing about 80 million while Feastables earned 20 million. Bloomberg reports in February 2025 that the company seeks about 200 million at a 5 billion dollar valuation, and in January 2026 it raises 200 million from Bitmine at that valuation. It acquires the youth fintech app Step in February 2026 and Housenbold talks publicly about an eventual public listing. Its Beast Games contestants sue in September 2024 and a former employee sues in April 2026.
The intermediary on this path is Night. Reed Duchscher founds Night Media in 2015 while running brand deals at Dude Perfect, taking a management commission on sponsorships and later equity in the businesses it helps build. He begins working with MrBeast in February 2018 and signs him in January 2019; Night partners on MrBeast Burger in 2020 and co creates Feastables in January 2022. It forms the 100 million dollar Night Capital with The Chernin Group in September 2022, acquires LFM Management with Kai Cenat and AMP in August 2023, buys The Roost podcast network from Warner Bros. Discovery in April 2024 and Bottle Rocket Management in November 2024. MrBeast ends the exclusive relationship in May 2024 after Duchscher declines to move to Greenville and run Feastables full time. Night buys Experiential Supply Co in October 2025 and raises 70 million dollars in February 2026 to build, operate and acquire businesses in internet culture. It starts in Dallas, sits in Austin during the MrBeast years and lists Santa Monica as its office by 2026.
Prime: the manufacturing rung
Logan Paul and KSI announce Prime on January 4, 2022 as a hydration drink built with Congo Brands of Louisville, Kentucky, which holds a reported 60 percent while the two creators split the rest. Target signs in March 2022, Asda in June 2022, Walmart takes the Hydration+ sticks exclusive in September 2022 and Aldi UK lists it on December 29, 2022. Sales are about 250 million dollars in 2022 and a reported 1.2 billion in 2023. Refresco builds a dedicated line at Truesdale, Missouri under a 2023 contract, then sues Congo for 67 million dollars in 2024 when no orders arrive. UK sales fall 48 percent in 2024 and 71 percent by mid 2025, US sales fall about 40 percent, and 2025 revenue is projected near 300 million. Congo cuts staff in January 2026, its Australian arm enters administration in July 2026, and the brand pushes Prime Protein and ZERO Hydration to hold shelf space.
Congo Brands is the Louisville, Kentucky company co founded by Max Clemons and Trey Steiger that operates Prime Hydration and until 2025 operated Alani Nu, the energy drink founded in 2018 with fitness creator Katy Hearn. Congo handles formulation, co packing contracts, distribution and retail sales for creator fronted beverage brands, which is why Louisville rather than Los Angeles is where Prime's jobs sit. Celsius agrees in February 2025 to buy Alani Nu for 1.8 billion dollars including tax assets and closes on April 1, 2025, with Clemons and Steiger among the sellers. Congo dissolves its field sales organization, cuts jobs across the UK and other countries in January 2026, and its Australian arm enters voluntary administration in July 2026 with about 85,000 Australian dollars in cash against 7.9 million in liabilities. The founding year is not confirmed in a retrieved source. Refresco is a Dutch owned contract bottler whose Truesdale, Missouri plant becomes the documented co packer for Prime Hydration. Under a 2023 three year agreement Congo Brands commits to at least 18.5 million twelve pack cases a year and Refresco installs a dedicated line for Prime's custom bottle, finished in March 2024. Congo never submits orders and Refresco files a 67 million dollar suit in Delaware Chancery Court in 2024. The case shows how a creator brand's demand collapse lands as idle capital equipment in a Missouri town.
The comparison inside the same operator is Alani Nu. Alani Nu is founded in Louisville in 2018 by fitness creator Katy Hearn, now Katy Schneider, and her husband Haydn Schneider with Congo Brands as operator. It reaches about 595 million dollars of net revenue in 2024, partners with Addison Rae on a Berry Pop flavor in 2022, and is sold to Celsius Holdings in a deal announced February 20, 2025 at 1.8 billion dollars including tax assets, a net 1.65 billion in cash, stock and earn out, closing April 1, 2025. It is one of the largest publicly reported exits for a creator founded beverage and the outcome of the Congo model that Prime does not repeat.
Michelle Phan, Kylie Cosmetics and the beauty template
Michelle Phan posts makeup tutorials from May 2007 and her Lady Gaga tutorials pass a million subscribers by 2010, when Lancome makes her its official video makeup artist, widely reported as the first major brand deal for a YouTube beauty creator. She co founds MyGlam in 2011, which becomes Ipsy in September 2012 and raises $100 million in 2015 at a valuation above $500 million. L'Oreal launches Em Cosmetics with her in August 2013; she buys the stake back in 2015 and relaunches Em independently in April 2017 after leaving Ipsy. Endemol Beyond builds the Icon network with her in 2015. Em Cosmetics is her business today. Michelle Phan co founds MyGlam in 2011 with Marcelo Camberos and Jennifer Goldfarb in San Mateo, California, launching the monthly bag in September 2012 and renaming it Ipsy. TPG Growth and Sherpa Capital lead a 100 million dollar round in September 2015 at about 800 million, Phan leaves in 2017 to run EM Cosmetics, and Ipsy buys BoxyCharm for 500 million in October 2020 to form BFA Industries, which raises 96 million from TPG in February 2022. Camberos steps down as chief executive in January 2023 for Scott Gilbertson of TPG, the incubator Madeby Collective is closed the same year, and the two boxes are consolidated under the Ipsy name. No sale or new ownership is confirmed through 2026.
Kylie Jenner is a celebrity rather than a creator, but Kylie Cosmetics is the chain every creator beauty brand copied. Seed Beauty of Oxnard manufactures the first Lip Kits, which sell 15,000 units in under a minute on November 30, 2015 and crash the site, with a company of about twelve employees. Ulta carries the brand from November 2018 in over 1,100 stores, worth an estimated 54.5 million dollars in six weeks. Coty buys 51 percent in November 2019 for 600 million dollars, Coty filings then show trailing revenue of 177 million rather than the claimed 360 million, Seed Beauty sues over trade secrets in 2020, Coty relaunches the line in July 2021 and records 31.4 million in impairments in 2022. Jenner explores buying back Coty's stake in 2023 without a deal, and estimated 2024 revenue is about 339 million. Seed Beauty is founded by siblings Laura and John Nelson in Oxnard, California, and develops, manufactures and ships beauty products from its own plant, launching ColourPop in 2014 and manufacturing Kylie Cosmetics from 2015 and KKW Beauty from 2017. It sues Coty and Kylie Cosmetics in 2020 over trade secrets after Coty's purchase and later drops the case. Seed is the proof that a fast manufacturer near Los Angeles can turn a social following into a shelf product in months, and its Oxnard plant is where the beauty jobs from that model land.
Emma Chamberlain: the small brand that shows the middle rungs
Emma Chamberlain starts her channel in June 2016 in the Bay Area, moves to Los Angeles in June 2018 and signs with UTA that July, about two years in. Louis Vuitton makes her an ambassador in 2019 after a YouTube sponsored trip to Paris Fashion Week in March 2019. Chamberlain Coffee launches online in December 2019, raises close to $20 million over several rounds including $4.6 million in 2024, reaches roughly $22 million revenue in 2024 while losing money on co packer stockouts, and opens cafes in Century City in January 2025 and Venice in May 2025. She becomes co CEO with Gustav Langberg Hossy after Christopher Gallant exits. The podcast Anything Goes runs from April 2019 through Ramble, goes Spotify exclusive in February 2023 and pauses indefinitely in April 2026. Emma Chamberlain launches Chamberlain Coffee in December 2019 as a mail order bag business and grows it into cold brew packets, canned lattes and matcha sold through Target, Walmart and Costco, with roughly 20 million dollars raised from investors. Revenue is 19 million dollars in 2023 and nearly 22 million in 2024 with a loss blamed on co packer stock shortages and executive turnover, and a fall 2024 fundraise draws investor descriptions of desperation. Chief executive Christopher Gallant leaves and Chamberlain becomes co chief executive with Gustav Langberg Hossy. The company opens its first cafe at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles on January 28, 2025 and a second in Venice in May 2025, forecasting 33 million dollars for 2025 while pulling back from some retail. The roaster is not publicly named.
Dude Perfect and the Sidemen: collectives that became companies
Five Texas A&M roommates post Backyard Edition on April 9, 2009, draw 200,000 views in a week and incorporate on September 9, 2009. A CMT series in 2016 moves to Nickelodeon, live tours start in 2019 and the channel passes 60 million subscribers. Highmount Capital announces an investment of more than $100 million on April 9, 2024, and former NBA executive Andrew Yaffe becomes the first CEO in October 2024. An 80,000 square foot, reported $5 million headquarters opens at The Star in Frisco, Texas in January 2025 with the first Trick Shot World Championship in February 2025. Yaffe departs on September 3, 2026 after disagreeing with the founders on the next phase, and investor Patrick Hurley becomes interim CEO. Dude Perfect announces in October 2024 a headquarters at 15900 Gateway Drive off the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco, Texas, described at announcement as a 3 million dollar, 36,000 square foot building with a production studio that chief executive Andrew Yaffe, hired from the NBA that month, says will be open to other creators. Forbes reports the opened headquarters in January 2025 at 5 million dollars and 80,000 square feet, and the first Trick Shot World Championship follows in February 2025. The building is the physical form of the group's shift from a YouTube channel to a company with a hired chief executive, paid for out of Highmount Capital's 2024 investment of more than 100 million dollars. The two sets of figures are both reported and are not reconciled in a company statement.
Seven British YouTubers form the Sidemen as a GTA Online crew in October 2013 in London, with revenue split equally among members. Sidemen Clothing earns £5 million to £7 million a year, Sides fried chicken opens as a delivery brand, XIX Vodka launches in October 2022, Best cereal reaches Tesco in 2024 and Side+ sells subscriptions. The Wembley charity match raises £4.7 million, Netflix airs Inside, and Victor Bengtsson becomes the first outside CEO in January 2026. KSI leaves on May 31, 2026 and the remaining six continue.