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.
