About this episode
An enduring challenge of the media business is finding leverage in models. This used to be fairly straightforward. Newspapers had leverage as quasi-local monopolies, Magazines had leverage that allowed Vanity Fair to pay a writer nearly $500k for three articles a year – and still be nicely profitable. And so on. It’s increasingly hard to find that kind of leverage beyond a few exceptions to the rule. The closest is likely in lean creator businesses that have created valuable intellectual property that can be monetized in various ways. Dude Perfect is a great example of this. The four dudes from Texas A&M went from viral trick-shot videos on YouTube to building a very profitable media franchise with diverse revenue streams Beyond YouTube ads, Dude Perfect developed business lines in merchandise, licensing and live events. It is a testament to the benefits of bootstrapping. According to an investor deck I saw, Dude Perfect grew to $35 million in revenue with over 50% EBITDA margins. That attracted a $200 million valuation in a funding led by Highmount Capital to expand the business. Andrew Yaffe, the Dude Perfect CEO who joined in October 2024 from the NBA , spoke to me on The Rebooting Show about how to build enduring franchise value in this kind of creator-led media business.