Jake Paul & The Chainsmokers: Turning Fame into Funds, Jake Enters Politics? & Venture Bubble Signs

Jason Calacanis (0:01)

Jake Paul has got to be the dumbest, cockiest, stupidest, most egotistical person in the social media sphere.

Jake Paul (0:09)

Mr. President, what an honor.

Jason Calacanis (0:11)

That's what makes him so damn successful.

Jake Paul (0:14)

The world has shifted to attention being one of the most valuable currencies.

David Sacks (0:19)

He is the multi-talented superstar who bridged the cap between social media and professional boxing. He is a boxer, a content creator, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist.

Jake Paul (0:32)

I have two main goals, definitely becoming world champion, and I want to exit a company for $1 billion. I never was like, social media is the new wave, I was the wave.

Chamath Palihapitiya (0:46)

Please welcome Jake Paul.

David Friedberg (0:58)

What's up, man?

Jake Paul (0:59)

What's up?

David Friedberg (1:00)

How you doing?

Jake Paul (1:00)

Good. Hey, don't fall asleep. When I say all, you say in.

David Friedberg (1:03)

All. All.

Jake Paul (1:06)

Let's go. Come on, guys. We're at the summit. Get that energy up.

David Friedberg (1:11)

Jake, let's actually start where I think Nick and Clavicular ended, which is in this weird way, all of you guys have grown up in this social media generation and you're maybe at the tail end of it. You're almost 30 now. Talk to us about your journey because your journey started very similar to a lot of these guys, which is you're there, you started Vine at the time, so it wasn't even really TikTok and YouTube, and then this success begets success, and then just walk us through what that does to you as an individual trying to find your way in the world.

Jake Paul (1:49)

Yeah, it's a good question. I don't remember a time where I wasn't already getting followers and people following me and coming up to me since I was super young. I think for me personally, I was doing it before it was cool and because it was a passion. I think a lot of people now are trying to become influencers and trying to figure it out and seeing if they can go viral and create a team and build businesses around them, because it's the cool thing to do and it seems like the best thing to do. But I think the people that authentically are actually entertaining and have a take and are filling a niche in the entertainment space and specifically on social media are the ones that succeed.

I was doing it because I loved doing it and I was...

David Friedberg (2:44)

What did you love about it when you first started posting?

Jake Paul (2:47)

I loved creating. I loved having a story and an idea in my mind and seeing it come to life and to be able to put it out there into the world and to make people laugh, to change their lives, to maybe make their day a little bit better.

People go through hard times and all these things on a daily basis. So if I could inspire someone in my messages every single day in my vlogs, I would say, make sure you're working hard, make sure you're smiling, make sure you're chasing your dreams. And I think those simple reminders on a daily basis are why I was able to grow a really big audience.

David Friedberg (3:21)

Does the pressure change your approach to the business as you started to become more and more successful? There's millions of people. And then in this weird way, the platform underneath you goes away.

And so how did that change when you're like, oh my God, I have to restart all over again, this business that I had invested so much time in isn't there anymore? This is Vine specifically.

Jake Paul (3:39)

Yeah, I wasn't too worried about it. So it's actually a funny story.

And it's a good lesson for business owners. But we told the top 20 Viners told Vine, hey, you have to start paying us. Otherwise we're going to stop posting on here because they weren't paying us. And we knew we were getting ripped off. We were bringing in all of the content, all of the views, all of the fans. And we were like, hey, we need a million dollars. They went back to Twitter and they were like, hey, they want a million dollars. They came back and were like, yeah, we could pay you the million dollars.

David Friedberg (4:10)

Million each or a million a month?

Jake Paul (4:12)

Exactly. So they said, we'll pay you a million. How do you guys want to divide it between you 20? And we were like, no, we need a million dollars each per year. And they said, no, we all stopped posting on the platform, transitioned to posting on Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat. And within a couple of months, the vine died out.