Meet the CEOs behind YouTube's biggest stars

Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox mightiness beryllium the faces of the YouTube drama collective, Smosh, but behind the cameras, idiosyncratic other helps tally their 64-person team.

Padilla and Hecox named Alessandra Catanese, Padilla's longtime manager, CEO successful 2023. This allowed the brace to absorption connected the originative broadside of their YouTube channels.

Catanese handles the company's day-to-day operations and wide concern strategy.

"I surely don't judge that each creator needs a CEO, but I bash judge not each creator is simply a CEO," Catanese told Business Insider.

Smosh isn't the lone creator-led cognition to put an extracurricular enforcement successful a apical relation successful the past fewer years. In 2023, the fashionable sports creator Jesser hired Zach Miller, a Spotify and NBCUniversal alum, arsenic its archetypal president. In 2024, YouTube's most-subscribed-to creator, Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, hired Jeffrey Housenbold to pb his institution arsenic CEO and president.

Donaldson is among a procreation of YouTube creators who came to fame astatine a young age. He didn't be assemblage oregon adjacent enactment a regular occupation earlier helium got into contented creation. Leaders from the extracurricular tin assistance creators like MrBeast capable skills gaps and physique teams arsenic they look to rival Hollywood studios.

Some of the biggest YouTubers are present leaning connected CEOs, presidents, and different C-suite executives to assistance them marque astute concern moves and negociate sprawling accumulation teams. They're tapping execs from endowment absorption firms, Hollywood, and creator system startups.

"A batch of creators person reached a standard wherever they cognize they request much operating support," said Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios. Atkins, a erstwhile MTV exec, joined the institution from creator Dhar Mann past year.

Helping creators physique a concern to vie with Hollywood

The caller people of YouTuber main executives is helping creators physique teams, make M&A strategies, rise funding, oregon upwind increasing pains.

Timothy Salmon was promoted past twelvemonth to president of CatFace, the institution down YouTuber Aphmau, who has 23.6 cardinal subscribers and makes videos astir Minecraft. Salmon joined the institution successful 2018 and has a inheritance successful post-production for TV and film.

He helps negociate a 93-person squad successful Austin, freeing up creator Jessica Bravura to absorption connected originative tasks, similar penning scripts and readying videos. He keeps the squad connected apical of YouTube's ever-shifting algorithm.

"YouTube is an ever-evolving beast," Salmon said. "If you're not flexible and you can't adapt, it volition permission you behind."

Catanese, meanwhile, works from Smosh's Los Angeles office, wherever she spends astir of her clip gathering with unit oregon concern partners. She has helped Smosh prosecute to adapt to TV screens and currency successful connected YouTube's conflict with streamers. Catanese elevated Kiana Parker to the relation of enforcement vice president of programming, overseeing this strategy for Smosh.

Atkins, who works from New York and LA, studies the Dhar Mann audience. He analyzes metrics similar viewership, ticker time, and click-through rates and uses them to measure the company's strategies.

"I aftermath up successful the morning, and I instantly look astatine the numbers," Atkins said.

He besides oversees operations, specified arsenic hiring, and caller marque initiatives, similar touring and M&A. In February, his squad hired a main strategy serviceman to enactment alongside Atkins connected sourcing, negotiating, and structuring imaginable M&A deals.

Meanwhile, creator radical Dude Perfect brought connected erstwhile NBA exec Andrew Yaffe arsenic CEO late past year. He helps prosecute endowment successful beforehand of and down the camera, physique partnerships with brands, and negociate the semipermanent strategy.

Housenbold, the CEO of Beast Industries, is starring MrBeast's institution arsenic it raises caller capital. Housenbold has compared the institution to Disney for the adjacent generation erstwhile pitching prospective investors, arsenic Business Insider antecedently reported.

Some creators are reluctant to cede control

For a creator, bringing connected a CEO oregon president besides means letting spell of immoderate control.

"It's hard due to the fact that creators travel from an manufacture rooted successful doing it each by themselves," Catanese said.

At the extremity of the day, their sanction and marque are connected the line. Salmon astatine CatFace said determination person been times erstwhile the broader squad was acceptable connected a strategy, similar a marque woody oregon however a sponsor was presented successful a video, but the creator said it didn't consciousness right.

"Working with contented creators tin beryllium precise fascinating, frustrating, exciting, and exhausting," Salmon said. "This institution is simply a practice of who they are. It's understandable that they're picky astir the marque and however it's seen."

But the biggest hazard to a creator concern is burnout, and CEOs and different executives tin assistance instrumentality immoderate of the unit disconnected creators.

"I ever archer creators to physique systems and teams astir them truthful that they tin proceed to standard without burning out," Atkins said. "The No. 1 happening I spot for a batch of creators is that they've done everything successful the past, truthful they proceed to effort to bash everything themselves without taking a break."

Part of a CEO's occupation is making creators consciousness comfy that they're not going to messiness with what's working. For astir creator businesses, the creator is astatine the halfway of the content, and it truly doesn't enactment without them.

"Let's not hide who built this," Atkins said. "My occupation is to heighten it, not to alteration it."