Earlier than the 27-year-old turned the third-richest content material creator, raking in $38 million in 2023—and difficult boxing legend Mike Tyson to a struggle to be aired on Netflix—Paul was Disney’s nightmare worker.
Recent off gaining web fame from making six-second comedy movies on Vine, Paul was fired from the kids’s present Bizaardvark, the place he performed stunt-pulling Dirk Mann. In a twisted tackle artwork imitating life, Paul was booted by Disney in 2017 for inflicting a nuisance together with his personal stunts, lighting fires in empty swimming swimming pools, brandishing a T-shirt gun at a reporter, and organizing filth bike drag races exterior his rental home.
“We’re not even that loud,” Paul instructed The Hollywood Reporter after the incidents. “Like, yes, we had a furniture fire get out of control in our backyard one time. But that didn’t harm a single person.”
Whilst he garnered a following of 47 million throughout YouTube and Instagram together with his prank movies and behind-the-scenes video blogs of his budding boxing profession, hassle continued to observe Paul.
On high of allegations of sexual assault and using racist slurs in YouTube movies, Paul threw raucous events on the top of COVID and was charged with trespassing and illegal meeting after being filmed with a stolen bottle of vodka in a looted mall. The costs have been later dismissed. However following the mall incident, the FBI additionally raided his house with a SWAT workforce in August 2020. The U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Arizona later mentioned he wouldn’t face federal prices.
It’s arduous to think about, then, that this similar man would develop into the face of a enterprise capital fund that invested within the success of manufacturers like Olipop and Fly By Jing. Or that he would develop into the founding father of a newly birthed private care model of deodorant and physique spray referred to as W—a play on Gen Z streaming slang for “winning”—that launched this week at 3,900 Walmarts, with extra merchandise launching later this month throughout a further 400 Walmart areas.
However just like the identify of his new model suggests, Paul has continued to search out wins regardless of a wave of “1,000 failures.” After surprisingly—however not inexplicably—snatching victory from the jaws of defeat again and again, Paul has discovered to like the controversy.
“Other businessmen understand, and business women understand that when you’re doing something amazing, everyone’s going to try and stop you,” Paul instructed Fortune.
The ‘problem child’ grows up
Following the narrative of so many content material creators within the mid-2010s, Paul phased out prank movies and turned to different technique of being profitable. He dubbed himself the “The Problem Child” and made a reputation for himself in boxing, the place he earned a file of 9 wins and one loss. In 2021, he co-founded enterprise capital fund Anti Fund alongside Geoffrey Woo, an entrepreneur who rejected Paul a decade earlier, when he pitched his content material home Staff 10.
Woo instructed Fortune it’s a standard technique for influencers to attempt their hand at shopper manufacturers and enterprise capital after squeezing the juice from YouTube.
“Content creators, or celebrities in general, think it’s a free money grab,” he mentioned.
Based on Amanda Russell, advertising marketing consultant and creator of The Influencer Code: The best way to Unlock the Energy of Influencer Advertising and marketing, it actually might be profitable. Content material creators like Paul have already got built-in audiences, permitting their manufacturers to scale rapidly.
“It’s harder and harder for brands to break through,” Russell instructed Fortune. “Everything is a commodity now unless consumers have a connection with the product. People don’t really resonate with brands; they resonate with people.”
However Paul will inform you himself that simply having his identify hooked up to a enterprise doesn’t imply success. In 2016, his social media web site Locker Room, which divided customers into teams for simply boys and simply ladies, shut down after getting solely 500 downloads. In 2018, he was accused of scamming prospects of his on-line platform Edfluence, which supplied educational movies on turning into an influencer, after customers weren’t capable of unlock the movies even after paying the preliminary $7 price to take action. And in March 2023, he coughed up $400,000 to the SEC for selling an alleged crypto rip-off.
“You have to go through those moments where you lose money, your idea isn’t as good as you thought it was,” Paul mentioned. “Those are the things that make you in the long run.”
Woodie Hillyard, W’s CEO, noticed extra of that Paul—the self-aware and humbled entrepreneur with an earnest starvation for achievement—when he met him a yr and a half in the past. Throughout considered one of their first conferences, a bunch of youngsters approached Paul asking him for autographs. Hillyard recalled Paul being affected person, asking every child about their curiosity in class and what sports activities they preferred.
“You just saw him connect with people on a human level, and it just made you realize that he’s a great guy,” Hillyard instructed Fortune. “People have the opportunity to grow up.”
Whereas Hillyard sees a younger enterprise associate with smoothed-out edges and a relaxed demeanor, Paul, at the very least to the general public, nonetheless leans into his trouble-making persona. In a current promotional video for W, Paul calls himself “dumb and smelly,” asking a manufacturing assistant to use deodorant to his bushy, sweaty pits.
“I don’t personally think I’m controversial. I tell the truth and people don’t like the truth in today’s world because the truth hurts,” Paul mentioned. “I wasn’t never afraid to ruffle any feathers or speak what’s on my mind.”
‘Content material is king‘
Don’t dismiss Paul’s bravado. Paul hasn’t succeeded despite his controversy, Russell argued. He’s discovered his skilled footing due to it.
“The ones that try to please everyone are really for nobody,” she mentioned. “The more you stand for something, the more that you create a cult-like following.”
Paul is hyper-aware of his previous delinquency. He’s used his continued relevance, even the infamy, to his benefit: “Content is king,” he mentioned. “The most important thing is eyeballs and marketing and exposure.”
This technique isn’t foolproof, because the Paul household is aware of. Older brother Logan Paul discovered meteoric success in his power drink model Prime, which was launched alongside boxer KSI. However after raking in over $1 billion in gross sales inside two years of launching the corporate, the model’s speedy progress turned unsustainable.
Gen Alpha misplaced curiosity within the drink because it latched onto the following hyped-up product. And after getting hit with a lawsuit alleging it incorporates extra caffeine than labeled and “forever chemicals,” Prime bottles at the moment are sitting on low cost cabinets in U.Ok. retailers.
However Jake Paul has religion in his successful mentality within the face of adversity. He’s walked by the fires of significant controversies, felony allegations, and failed companies, and nonetheless comes out on the opposite facet swinging.
“Everyone wants to see you go down, and you just continue to rise to the occasion and overcome and conquer and keep fighting,” Paul mentioned. “And that’s really what I’ve done.”
“Some of my biggest losses were my biggest wins,” he added.
