• Jake Paul is the latest YouTuber to try his hand in the boxing ring, taking on — and defeating— YouTube gamer AnEnsonGib on Thursday night.
• Following his win, Paul is setting his sights on fighting British YouTuber KSI, who recently beat Paul's older brother, Logan, in a contested defeat.
• Jake Paul vowed to "avenge" his brother immediately following that defeat, and previously told Business Insider his fight against AnEnsonGib would be "a stepping stone" in his path to ultimately take on KSI.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jake Paul is wasting no time setting his sights on his next boxing match after decisively winning his first fight on Thursday night.

Following in the highly publicized steps of his older brother Logan by trying his hand in the boxing ring, the 22-year-old Jake Paul took on YouTube gamer AnEnsonGib and was handed the victory midway through the first round. But as Paul previously hinted in a conversation with Business Insider, this is only the beginning: His main focus in to "avenge" his brother by taking on KSI, the YouTuber who beat Logan Paul in a recent bout with a contested outcome.

"[AnEsonGib] is a kid that no one really knows about," Paul told Business Insider in early January. "This opponent is merely a doormat I'm wiping my shoes on on the path of taking on KSI and knocking him out."

Logan Paul, 24, has now fought KSI is two boxing matches in 2018 and 2019 that likely made millions in revenue for the two YouTube stars. Although the first fight ended in a draw, judges for the second fight narrowly ruled KSI the winner. Jake Paul immediately insisted the fight was rigged, and has vowed to fight — and win — against KSI for his brother's honor.

In the minutes following the Paul's victory against AnEnsonGib, he and KSI were face-to-face in the boxing ring, taunting each other and exchanging verbal jabs.

"Shut the f--k up, little guy. You see your best friend planted on his ass over there?" Paul said to KSI. "You had to beat my bro by a bad call. You're next. Let's make it happen."

As for KSI, the British gamer said in a 2019 interview he was "definitely interested" in fighting the younger Paul brother, as long as he could "prove" he's better than Logan Paul. Now that Jake Paul decisively had victory in the boxing ring, it stands to be seen whether a fight between his and KSI is in the future.

Both Logan and Jake Paul, who combined have nearly 40 million YouTube subscribers, have been through their fair share of controversy in their nearly 10 years in the limelight as online creators.

"The Paul family is sort of notorious," Jake Paul told Business Insider. "Everyone wants to see the big bad wolves fall."

The Paul-AnEnsonGib fight was exclusively shown on DAZN, the sports-streaming platform behind the production of several recent boxing matches between YouTubers who are trying to monetize their fights. DAZN and notable boxing promoter, Matchroom Boxing, have been partnering up to negotiate deals for YouTubers getting to the ring and broadcast their face-offs.

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• Meet the rising stars of PR, where we recognize rising talent at the biggest public relations firms.
• PR is getting more attention from marketers as people are getting harder to reach with traditional advertising. At the same time, PR firms have to expand their expertise to areas like social media and content and use data to show their work is driving results.
• We identified up and comers who are doing just that at the top PR firms like Edelman, Ketchum, and MSL.
• They stand out for how they're applying data in new ways, helping their firms grow their capabilities, jumping on trends, and managing clients' crises.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

PR seems to be more important — and complex — than ever.

Companies have to tell their stories better than ever to a public that's avoiding traditional ads and demanding more of corporations. That means communications experts have to pull more levers than ever, from social media to influencers as well as old-fashioned press hits, while using data to show their effectiveness. 

The agency PR pro is not just juggling these demands, but doing it for multiple clients. It's a tough job, but many are making themselves indispensable to their clients, mastering the use of data and social media channels, managing relations with reporters, and responding quickly to news events to shape public opinion of them and their executives.

These rising PR stars are doing all that and more. They're using data in new ways, leveraging influencers, helping clients jump on social trends, and roping in new ones.

For this list, we selected people from the top PR agencies in the US by revenue, using the widely cited Holmes Report. In most cases, we chose one person per firm, with a couple exceptions where more than one person particularly stood out. We did our own research along with company information to determine the final list.

Scroll down to see who made the cut of the top PR pros of 2019, listed alphabetically by last name.

Alyssa Meyers contributed reporting.

Brian Brooks, Hill+Knowlton

Brooks is a VP based in Hill+Knowlton's Houston office and has quickly become the WPP agency's go-to for companies dealing with crises and sensitive matters. 

Brooks ran point on media relations when a client was involved in a fatal oil and gas accident that killed five workers. When another was involved in an environmental disaster that threatened a community's groundwater, he helped with media relations and providing updates to the public.

He's also landed coverage in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and other outlets for clients including Argus Energy Managers, Deep Imaging, and Deloitte.

Amanda Frew, FleishmanHillard

A managing supervisor in the agency's Sacramento office, Frew combines her legislative and culinary background to serve her food and drink clients with passion. For California Prunes, she led a campaign that included an influencer event that got a ton of attention for the client. 

She's even put her food talent to work serving as the Omnicom agency's food stylist, helping bring in more than $100,000 in revenue to in the past two years.

Frew is also active in the agency's diversity & inclusion team and helped create an initiative called "Remix your Algorithm," which challenges colleagues to counter their biases by changing up their social media consumption.

Outside of work, she plies her cooking skills as a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, a philanthropic culinary society.

Lindsey Herzog, Weber Shandwick

Herzog has risen fast through the ranks at Weber Shandwick's Dallas and St. Louis offices over eight years to account director, and her splashy, award-winning campaigns for big clients like Anheuser-Busch has made her highly sought after by clients.

She helped Bud Light take over towns for its popular "Whatever, USA" campaign, put up a Bud Light Hotel in New York for Super Bowl XLVIII, and created the Bud Light Factory at SXSW in 2016 — showing dedication that helped her win "Client Counselor of the Year" for St. Louis in 2018.

She's active in St. Louis' Public Relations Student Society of America, where she helps students learn more about the PR industry. 

Nichole Hetchkop, Allison+Partners

Hetchkop, who goes by Niki, leads the display division of Allison+Partners' Samsung B2B account, regularly traveling to high-profile events with its leaders to handle media relations on the ground. 

Last year, her team racked up more than 1,600 media placements, exceeding its goal by 200% — which drove awareness and, according to the firm, even influenced product sales. It's also helped secure 25-plus industry awards such as a CES 2020 Mark of Excellence Award for Samsung's Wall LED display.

When she's not pitching for Samsung, she's heavily involved in the MDC Partners agency's cultural initiatives, through its Women's Leadership Program, "Workout Wednesday" program encouraging employee fitness and General Mentor program, and as a Culture Ambassador.

Shawn Jackson II, MSL

Jackson is a senior account supervisor and a rising star on the baby business of Publicis' MSL.

His big win last year was leading the Pampers Changing Tables program, which put changing tables in men's bathrooms to call attention to the lack of changing facilities in many men's restrooms. The campaign also helped position Pamper as a promoter of social change.

The Changing Tables program got more than 500 hits in outlets including CNN, Today, and Forbes, and has already started collecting industry awards.

Tania Mercado, SKDKnickerbocker

In just a year, Mercado, a senior associate, became a go-to for high-profile clients and projects dealing with sensitive issues like crises and litigation.

After the 2019 shooting in El Paso, Texas, that left 22 dead, she worked around the clock for the League of United Latin American Citizens to get media coverage and help its effort to raise money for families impacted by the shooting. She also helped LULAC respond to a big immigrant raid in the US by providing relief and legal guidance for impacted families. 

Mercado also is active in litigation matters involving Native American Tribes and has helped draw attention to its case in outlets like The Washington Post and Associated Press.

Corporate clients also rely on Mercado, with her Latina background, to review their products for reputational risks. 

Christiana Pascale, W2O Group

Pascale has a passion about oncology and ability to make complex science concepts understandable that make her indispensible to her many drug company, biotech firm, and advocacy group clients.

Pascale, an associate director who goes by CP, handled the media plan for a cancer immunotherapy treatment from clinical development to launch and more than 20 approvals.

She also stands out for having gotten more than 400 interviews with leading physicians and client spokespeople around major cancer conferences, and working with celebrities on health awareness programs.

Katie Rie, Zeno Group

Rie, VP of digital, is helping solve for one of the PR industry's thorniest problems today: proving communications actually works.

She came up with a methodology called Influenced Media that track conversions for influencer campaigns by showing how they lead people to take actions like signing up for newsletters.

The approach worked so well for one company last year, Rie got the client to expand its business from just influencer work to out of home, paid social, three events, and more — leading it to increase its spending with the agency by 550%.

Bailey Roy, Ketchum

PR agencies are becoming more data-driven, and Roy is leading the charge at Ketchum on that front as research director for analytics.

Roy is the in-house expert for everything from consumer's digital journey to mining social media conversations and analyzing social channels. As influencers become a growing part of companies' marketing plans, she helped build the Omnicom agency's influencer arm, Maestro, which is being used by big CPG, tech, and retail clients.

She also developed an analytics training program that was rolled out across Ketchum and is now being offered to clients.

Brian Salvesen, Hill+Knowlton

Salvesen is a true rising star, having been promoted three times in two years.

In his most recent move, he joined the agency's tech to Innovation + Creative team, where he's helping the firm grow beyond its PR and communications roots to content creation. One of his notable projects involved creating content for Korean semiconductor maker SK Hynix — work that the agency credits Salvesen with extending from lasting four months to all of 2020.

He's also counted on to handle sensitive work for a United Nations client, work that involved getting nearly 33,000 mentions in a day and 51 media hits during a World Humanitarian Day 24 Stories campaign.

Lauren Schirripa, Edelman

With people watching less ad-supported TV, marketers have to find new and creative ways to get their message out. Schirripa, strategic planning director for planning at Edelman's Chicago office, is a powerhouse when it comes to helping clients tap into cultural trends and use influencers that fit their target audiences.

In one of her bigger coups, she helped figure out the strategy that resulted in cheese maker Bel getting Antoni Porowski, the food and wine expert of Netflix's "Queer Eye," to tout its Boursin cheese spread all over the place as part of a year-long deal.

Ashley Solivan, Ogilvy

An account director in Ogilvy's Washington, DC, office, Solivan has a knack for building the rapport across industries and geographies that it takes to support her many mission-driven clients at the WPP-owned firm.

Her clients have included Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Department of Commerce, Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

One of her most visible efforts is FEMA's Resilience National Partnership Network, a consortium she designed and leads and which comprises companies, foundations, and agencies that are working on disaster preparation and mitigation.

Mark Ward, Golin

Ward has become key to helping the IPG agency in the race for PR to show it's backed by data. As senior manager for analytics at the Dallas office, he's constantly working on ways to devise PR plans and prove that paid social media is having an impact.

One of his biggest contributions was helping Golin develop a way to track people as they interact with a given brand. He came up with an algorithm that crunches more than 150 metrics to figure out how they impact all the stages of the customer journey.

The approach won an award in 2019 from AMEC (the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication).

Stephanie Waties, APCO Worldwide

2019 was a big year for Waties. She's a director in the DC office, where she counsels big companies in high-stakes industries like transportation, travel, healthcare, and tech on reputational and public affairs issues.

Last year, she worked with toll road operator Transurban on the opening of a new toll road in the highly congested DC market that drew heavy media coverage. She also racked up new business, grew existing accounts, and retained a longtime client.

She's also developing the firm's services for clients in the fast-growing transportation industries as they grapple with challenges like regulation, infrastructure changes, and automation.

Zander Wharton, Finn Partners

Wharton is an account supervisor who made a name for himself at Finn Partners by introducing B2B clients to the world of influencers.

He launched the firm's FinnFluence program, which builds influencer marketing programs for clients and which resulted in more than 13 million impressions and more than 3,000 social engagements for clients in its first year.

He also has a knack for spotting trends and storytelling for clients. For IEEE, he helped create a campaign that associated the tech professional organization with women and inclusion.

Wharton is also involved in agency community service projects and is one of its vocal LGBTQ+ leaders.

Tiffany Win, Edelman

Win is a senior account executive in the corporate affairs and advisory area, where she's known as an expert in the growing area of digital employee experience, which looks at how employees work and how the tech they use impacts their work.

Win led a pilot for Citadel's employee advocacy program that used influential people on social media to recruit people, helping attract job candidates to the company. She regularly evaluates companies' employee apps, down to creating a scorecard for clients to analyze these tools.

One client called her attention to detail "petrifying."

• Maria Fagerström is a Swedish pilot and Instagram influencer living in Spain.
• She posts about the aviation world, and frequently answers her followers' questions about her job.
• Fagerström shared a little bit about her life with Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Maria Fagerström is a pilot and Instagram influencer from Sweden who shares her exciting life with her more than 500,000 followers.

Her Instagram bio reads "Hi crew 👋🏼 I'm here to give YOU a bit of insight into the aviation world with a purpose to inspire & empower others. Welcome onboard!" She follows through on her promise, too, sharing travel tips, tough parts of the job, and other insider tidbits that the average passenger might not know.

Fagerström shows the glamorous side of her life, like trips to Tenerife and Greece, but she also shares challenges, like dealing with an irregular schedule and lack of sleep. Follow her on Instagram here.

Here's how Fagerström uses Instagram to share her life as a pilot.

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Fagerström told Business Insider she didn't expect to grow a huge following on Instagram, but her interest in business and entrepreneurship has grown over the past two years. Now, she tries to give her followers insight from her perspective as a woman in a male-dominated field.

Fagerström said that being a pilot is actually often relaxing in good weather, at least once the plane reaches cruising altitude. "Best part of the job must be the feeling after touching down after a tricky approach, and you’ve done a well-done job with maneuvering the aircraft all the way from start to finish," she said.

The hardest part about being a pilot, Fagerström said, is a constantly changing her schedule. For her, "a lot of coffee seems to be the answer. "

For anyone thinking about becoming a pilot, flight school is tough, Fagerström said. "You’ll most probably have to say goodbye to your social life for a year or two. But I can assure you it’s totally worth it when you get your wings."

Fagerström's boyfriend is also a pilot, which she said is "quite convenient ... I can totally recommend it. What people usually assume is that we talk about work all the time, which actually couldn’t be further away from the truth. However, it is nice to be able to talk about your day in 'aviation language' and being understood as he is in the exact same position."

As a short-haul pilot, Fagerström only has short breaks, so she doesn't see many new places on her routes. The perk, she said, is "I always get to sleep in my own bed."

Instead, Fagerström does most of her travel during her time off.

The couple recently bought a house together in Spain, where they are based.

Fagerström has been flying for nine years, and she is "counting down the months until I have the hours to start the command upgrade course to become a captain myself."

Source: Maria the Pilot

Fagerström is following in her father's footsteps — he's also a pilot.

Fagerström had some advice for aspiring pilots: "You can become skilled at anything, if that is becoming a pilot or anything you dream about achieving, you can. As long as you’re willing to put your mind, time, and effort into it."

• The arguments used by Tesla short-sellers are running out of steam, said Gene Munster, a managing partner at the venture-capital firm Loup Ventures.
• Tesla has an edge over other automakers in battery technology, charging infrastructure, and autonomous-driving technology, Munster said, and has the potential to become one of the most successful transportation companies.
• Munster's comments came after Tesla beat Wall Street's expectations and made a profit for the second quarter in an row.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The arguments used by investors betting that Tesla's stock price will fall are running out of steam, Gene Munster, a managing partner at the venture-capital firm Loup Ventures, said on Wednesday.

Munster said there are four subjects that skeptics tend to focus on: the demand for electric vehicles, Tesla's ability to manufacture them, the amount of cash Tesla has, and the way the electric-car maker is valued. The first three are turning in favor of Tesla optimists, Munster said, and the fourth is not a strong foundation for an argument against a company's future prospects.

Tesla's performance during the final nine months of 2019 illustrate the potential the electric-car maker has to become one of the most successful transportation companies, Munster said, though Tesla still faces execution challenges.

"Given the progress over the past year along with the size of the opportunity, all indications point to Tesla's stock taking a similar path to Amazon's over the past decade, with valuation continuing to move higher," Munster said in a blog post published on Thursday. 

Tesla has developed an advantage over other automakers in battery technology, charging infrastructure, and autonomous-driving technology, Munster said.

"The opportunity in mobility is massive, and Tesla is the most obvious company to capture a large piece of the prize," he said.

Munster also noted that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has adopted a new, "almost quiet assassin-like," disposition. Musk has in the past publicly sparred with critics.

Munster's comments came after Tesla reported a second consecutive quarterly profit that exceeded Wall Street's expectations. 

Since Tesla released its third-quarter results in October, its stock price has more than doubled, from $255 to $646 when markets opened on Thursday. In addition to the third and fourth-quarter profits, Tesla shares have been buoyed by record sales in 2019 and the rapid construction of its factory in Shanghai, which began delivering vehicles to customers at the end of last year.

While Tesla has not yet made a profit over a 12-month period in its 17-year history, it has been profitable in four of the past six quarters. 

Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com. You can also reach out on Signal at 646-768-4712 or email this reporter's encrypted address at mmatousek@protonmail.com.

• Read more:
• Elon Musk made $2.3 billion in the hour after Tesla announced better than expected earnings. Here's how the eccentric CEO makes and spends his $33.6 billion fortune.
• Tesla says you'll start seeing its futuristic Semi on the road this year
• The Tesla Model Y is now in production, months ahead of schedule — and deliveries are expected to begin in March
• 2020 will be the most shocking year in Tesla's history — but not for any of the usual reasons

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk contradicted a bold claim he made last year about Autopilot

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• Arvind Krishna, who will take over as IBM's CEO in April, spoke to Business Insider in November about Wall Street's adoption of the public cloud. 
• IBM, working in collaboration with Bank of America, has created a public cloud that is tailored for financial firms.
• The new public cloud aims to ease security and resiliency concerns that many on Wall Street still have when it comes to using the technology.
• Bank of America spent 18 months working with IBM on developing the cloud and more than 400 controls for users to manage and oversee it.
• The bank had long resisted such a move but now plans to eventually put customer data in IBM's cloud.
• Click here for more BI Prime.

On Thursday, IBM announced Arvind Krishna would take over as CEO in April. This story was originally published on November 6, 2019.

IBM is looking to speed Wall Street's adoption of the public cloud, and it's collaborating with perhaps the unlikeliest of allies to do so.

The tech giant has designed a public cloud aimed at meeting the needs of financial firms, built in collaboration with Bank of America, one of the industry's longest holdouts from using the tech. And the bank, which has spent roughly 18 months helping IBM develop the cloud, will be its first customer.

Wall Street represents a huge opportunity for public-cloud providers, albeit one incumbents like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google have not fully tapped into. While firms are increasingly investing more of their tech budgets into the public cloud, the industry has stopped short of mass adoption.

Despite the cost savings and innovation benefits they might achieve, most financial firms have hesitated to move critical tools and services or customer data into public clouds because of fears of security or resiliency.

Arvind Krishna, then senior vice president of cloud and cognitive software at IBM, told Business Insider in November that his company's public cloud would look to alleviate those concerns by offering customers insight into how the cloud was built and was operating to ensure it met financial firms' high standards.

He added that the approach would differentiate IBM among the cloud providers.

"Transparency is the best antiseptic," Krishna said. "It's not just a question of, 'Hey, trust me I'll build it.' ... That I think is a big difference, and that is unique here, and that is perhaps not being met by the others."

A valuable collaborator for IBM

Bank of America set the bar high for IBM, Krishna said, noting that the bank had more stringent requirements than anything he and his team had seen from regulators. The level of detail and scrutiny needed to make Bank of America comfortable with the product led to the development of more than 400 controls around how the cloud could be managed, he added.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, as Bank of America has been among the most vocal on Wall Street in its resistance over moving to the public cloud.

Instead, it's focused on building out its private cloud. The seven-year journey of moving 80% of its workloads to the private cloud resulted in $2 billion in annual infrastructure savings this year, a point CEO Brian Moynihan was all too happy to point out on the company's third-quarter earnings call in October.

But Moynihan also hinted that Bank of America would most likely shift to the public cloud at some point as it became a cheaper alternative, telling analysts the firm was "working with potential providers to take the next step."

"We have to make sure that the external providers are safe, sound, leave the data just for us to use for our customers, don't mix with other people's data, etc.," Moynihan had said on the call.

"We don't need to own the hardware. We just need to find out who can provide it the right way," he added.

To be clear, there is no financial arrangement between the two sides. Bank of America served only as collaborator and will not be commercially incentivized to grow IBM's cloud.

Howard Boville, Bank of America's chief technology officer, told Business Insider a motivating factor was the desire to be able to more seamlessly work with vendors that choose to host their tools or applications in the public cloud.

Roughly 10% of the third-party applications Bank of America uses today reside in the public cloud, also known as software as a service. Each is treated separately to ensure the proper security and controls were in place, thereby slowing down the pace at which the bank could try new things.

"In the past, every single new partner that we onboarded required a lot of very unique processes to get them onboarded and a lot of time as well," Boville said. "We want you to make it more efficient. We want to ensure that we could consume innovation from these software-as-a-service companies far more quickly than what we currently do to and integrate them in a connected fashion."

Eventually, customer data will be put in the public cloud

Bank of America won't just be looking for vendors it hopes to work with to host its solutions in IBM's new cloud. The bank is willing to put its money where its mouth is by hosting some of its own applications in the cloud.

Boville said initial tools the bank would look to move onto IBM included complex and large financial calculations for risk management. Financial firms stand to benefit from moving risk applications in the public cloud, as it allows them to pay for increased server space only when they use it — such as times of extreme market volatility — as opposed to all the time.

That's only the first phase, however. Boville said once the bank was fully satisfied with how the controls were functioning it would look to move customer data into the public cloud.

"As we go through each milestone, and we get a degree of evidence that we are meeting all of those controls in the same way we look to meet our controls in our internal cloud, we will then start to put different types of what you call applications, workloads, and data into the IBM cloud," Boville said.

To be clear, Bank of America's private cloud, which the bank took a $350 million charge for in 2017, will still get plenty of use, Boville said. Large companies will always want to store certain data or applications internally.

Boville couldn't give a specific percentage of what would remain on the private cloud versus what would move, but he said the bank was evaluating some applications considered to be good candidates to sit on the public cloud.

"There will always be a need for our private cloud," Boville said. "But we don't believe all the applications that we currently have need to sit within our own physical data centers and our own physical hardware."

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Tech investor Elizabeth Yin said in a recent Twitter thread that one secret to a closing a venture capital deal quickly is to adapt the pitch for the audience.
• "If you're pitching someone who is a decision maker, focusing on crazy upside is important," Yin wrote. "If you are pitching someone who is not -- you want to make this person look good / convey you know what you're doing."
• Her venture capital firm, Hustle Fund, promises to make an investment decision within one to two weeks of a first meeting with a founder — a timeline that's becoming more standard as early-stage investors race to fund the hottest startup deals.
• With her permission, we've shared Yin's tweets.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The road to raising venture capital for a startup is no cakewalk. It explains why some founders try to shorten the road by going around a venture firm's associate or principal, a junior member of the investment team who sources deals and performs diligence for the partnership.

A founder may try to pitch their startup to the general partner — the decision-maker — directly, which some firms allow.

Elizabeth Yin, a serial entrepreneur and a tech investor, says this can be a mistake.

On Twitter, she explained that a principal is the fund's gatekeeper. They may make more time for the founder than a general partner would, and serve as an advocate, Yin said. And sometimes, a principal will take a smaller salary for a cut of the profit if a startup they find has an exit. It provides an incentive for the junior investor to take a risk on a deal.

She added that this upside may not be true for all principals. Some might be risk-averse because they fear a "bad deal" could cost them their job, Yin wrote.

One secret to a closing a deal quickly is to adapt the pitch for your audience, Yin said in her tweets. A general partner wants to know that the risk will pay off, while an associate or principal will focus on founder credentials and surefire bets.

"If you're pitching someone who is a decision maker, focusing on crazy upside is important," Yin wrote. "If you are pitching someone who is not -- you want to make this person look good / convey you know what you're doing. Your company is what it is but diff msging."

Her venture capital firm, Hustle Fund, writes checks to companies before they've even raised a seed round. It promises to make an investment decision within one to two weeks of a first meeting with a founder — a timeline that's becoming more standard as early-stage investors race to fund the hottest startup deals.

Yin shared her thoughts on how to get an investment decision sooner on Twitter.

Why do startup investors take a long time to decide (and how can startup founders shorten that cycle)?

Yesterday, I was talking with one of my founders about his conversation with a potential investor. He's had a couple of meetings with the firm and one of the GPs wants to meet again. My founder was asking what they should talk about since they've already covered everything.

Every investor has their own timeline

First, why do investors take a while to decide? Well...it depends, but the answer is that not all investors do — it depends on who it is and how their decision making process works. And it's important to understand that background first.

Angel investors can move fast

For example, most angel investors can decide on an investment in one to two meetings. Why? Because an angel's money usually is only shared by maybe a partner or spouse or maybe family (with a parent). So, it can be a fast decision-making process.

Some angels have full-time jobs

Sometimes angels take a while despite this, because an angel may have many things going on. Including a busy job (or starting a company!). Or family matters. Or many other investments to evaluate. So, what's important here is to make yourself a top priority.

Ask how you can be helpful

But the decision-making process in itself is not the time-consuming part. So understanding where the bottlenecks are and dealing with them accordingly is what is important to identify.

Venture funds are responsible for other people's money

And then, you could be pitching investors who are stewards of other people's money. Like VC funds. If someone is managing money for other people, then the process is going to be more involved almost by definition.

They take their charge seriously

There are probably many processes in place to make sure there is proper diligence on every decision. This could mean having a first mtg with one person at a firm. And then having a second mtg with a subset of decision makers. And then maybe an all-partner meeting of sorts.

The number of meetings is a function of how many stakeholders there are

There could be MANY meetings with funds, and the number of meetings depends a lot on the size of the fund, number of people at the organization, etc. There's no way to shortcut this. The quickest way is to try to get all of these meetings done as quickly as possible. But a process is a process.

Investors look at lots of companies

On top of that, all of these funds have many companies they are looking at. So in addition to the process being long, you also have to try to prioritize your company over all other deals that a person could be looking at.

A principal may be more risk-averse

Lastly, with organizations, you also need to understand risk profiles. Who is incentivized to take risk? An associate or a principal may or may not have enough carry (or any?) to take risk. But the downside of shepherding a "bad deal" is losing a job.

A general partner has more to gain from taking on risk

In contrast, the decision maker usually has lots of upside incentive to take risk because this person is the one who reaps the benefits if the investment does well.

Founders will try to skip the principal

This is obvious but important: Because I hear people go around saying things like, "Oh, don't pitch the associate. Try to pitch the managing partner." And while there is some truth here, in this current VC landscape, that may or may not be a good idea.

But the principal is the gatekeeper

There are a lot of new funds where there's a managing director focusing time on fundraising their fund. And it's the principal who is doing pretty much all of the decision making (or strong advocating). In this case, it would be MUCH better to pitch the principal.

The general partner or managing director might be too busy for you

That principal may have a lot more carry than other principals because, frankly speaking, that person likely isn't making a lot of cash so the upside is in carry. Also, the MD is probably all over the place and won't prioritize deals over fundraising.

The principal is looking for a win

In other cases, at a big fund, maybe the principal is making a good salary but has limited carry and there are more people and more processes. So, this is why I say it's case by case, and you have to follow the risk/reward.

The same advice applies to funds

This also applies to funds! Often, a new microfund manager calls me up asking how to close a fund-of-funds. It's the same thing: Who is incentivized to take risk? If you're the head of a family office, then you may like to take the risk because you get the reward.

Ask who is incentivized by upside

But if you are pitching someone who works for an organization and is not incentivized (much) by upside, there's less risk appetite. So just understanding that dynamic should affect strategy.

A successful startup pitch takes the recipient into account

It's not say that you can't win over someone who isn't a decision maker (either for startups or funds), and there are plenty of great people who work for funds (both at FoF and at VCs). But it means your tactics as the pitcher need to change.

TL;DR

Vast generalization — if you're pitching someone who is a decision maker, focusing on crazy upside is important. If you are pitching someone who is not, you want to make this person look good and convey you know what you're doing. Your company is what it is, but different messaging can help.

It helps to be top of mind

Finally, running a good fundraising process is ultimately how you close people quickly. In all cases, you need to be everyone's top priority, and the only way to do that is to have lots of meetings and have momentum on the raise. Scarcity of your round or fund is what drives people.

Fear of missing out is a big motivator

Final final thought: Even if an investor wants to invest, there is NEVER incentive to do so now if the opportunity is available tomorrow. ALWAYS better to wait for more info unless there's a chance the opportunity may be gone. FOMO is important in motivating investors.

SEE ALSO: I ran Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley accelerator that launched 2,000 companies including Cruise, Brex, and GitLab. Here's what I've learned about how to be successful in your career.

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• Netflix announced on Friday that it had extended its deal with Adam Sandler for four more movies.
• "Murder Mystery," which he starred in, was Netflix's most popular movie of 2019, the company said.
• Netflix originally struck a deal with Sandler in 2014 and renewed it in 2017.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Many more Adam Sandler movies are coming to Netflix.

The company announced on Friday that it had extended its deal with the actor for four more movies. It struck an initial deal with Sandler worth hundreds of millions for four movies in 2014 and then renewed it in 2017.

Sandler's Netflix movies have been trashed by critics. His first Netflix movie, "The Ridiculous 6," received a 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Every movie he's made for Netflix with his production company, Happy Madison Productions, has received a "rotten" score.

But they are massive hits with Netflix subscribers despite the negative critical reaction.

"Murder Mystery," in which Sandler starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, was its most-watched movie of 2019. On Friday, the company said that 83 million households watched it in its first four weeks based on its new viewership metrics, which counts a view if an account watches for at least two minutes (it originally said that 73 million households had watched it in the first month, under a different metric).

Netflix's content chief, Ted Sarandos, said in 2014 that Sandler "stands out for his global appeal to Netflix subscribers" and that "even movies that were soft in the U.S. [theatrically] outperformed dramatically on Netflix in the US and around the world."

Netflix said on Friday that users have spent a combined 2 billion hours watching his titles since "Ridiculous 6" premiered in 2015.

Sandler has already made six movies for Netflix and by the end of the new deal, he will have made six more, bringing the total to 12.

SEE ALSO: Netflix's most popular movies of the year, 'Murder Mystery' and '6 Underground,' were torn apart by critics

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• Roku announced on Thursday that it's pulling Fox apps from its streaming app store on Friday, including Fox Sports.
• The Fox Sports app on the Roku media streaming platform was meant to be one of the few places where fans could watch the Super Bowl in 4K resolution for free for the first time. 
• As of now, the Apple TV 4K and Amazon Fire TV 4K are the only media streaming devices that will stream the Super Bowl from the Fox Sports app in 4K for free.
• Cable providers like Altice Optimum, DirecTV, Dish, or Verizon Fios will also broadcast the game in 4K resolution, providing you have the right cable TV packages and set-top boxes.
• Otherwise, Super Bowl LIV will be able to stream in standard HD resolution from the Fox Sports app on Amazon, Apple, Android TV, Xbox One, Samsung's smart TVs (models from 2017 or newer), smartphones and tablets, and web browsers on computers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Super Bowl LIV is the first Super Bowl to be streamed in 4K resolution, and it was going to be available from the Fox Sports app for free on 4K-supporting Roku, Apple TV 4K, and Amazon Fire TV 4K media streaming devices.

On Thursday, however, Roku announced on Twitter that it's pulling Fox apps from its app store on Friday, including Fox Sports. The company cites an expired distribution contract with Fox as the reason.

Roku's tweet suggests alternative options via other apps on its platform like Fubo, Sling, Hulu Live, and YouTube TV that will stream Super Bowl LIV, but none of these services are slated to support the 4K resolution stream. None of these services are free, either, but free trials are available.

That leaves the Apple TV 4K and Amazon's Fire TV 4K media streaming platforms as the only places to watch the Super Bowl in sharp, clear 4K resolution for free.

Outside of media streaming over the internet, the game will also broadcast in 4K by certain cable providers, including Altice Optimum, DirecTV, Dish, or Verizon Fios, providing you have the right cable TV packages and set-top boxes.

The game will be available to stream in standard HD resolution from the Fox Sports app on a wider variety of streaming devices, including those from Amazon, Apple, Android TV, Xbox One, Samsung's smart TVs (models from 2017 or newer), smartphones and tablets, and web browsers on computers. 

Roku hasn't responded to Business Insider's request for more information or additional comments beyond the tweet.

"Roku's threat to delete FOX apps from its customers' devices is a naked effort to use its customers as pawns," a Fox spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. "To be clear, FOX has not asked Roku to remove our apps, and we would prefer Roku continue to make them available without interruption. Roku's tactics are a poorly timed negotiating ploy, fabricating a crisis with no thought for the alarm it generated among its own customers. Even if Roku unilaterally decides to remove FOX apps, savvy Roku customers know Super Bowl LIV on FOX will be ubiquitously available through streaming providers, FOX apps on the biggest streaming platforms and our website. Only Roku can pull apps from its customers' devices, and we would urge them to stop the intimidation tactics and reconsider the merits of irritating their best customers in pursuit of Roku's own interests."

Whatever is happening between these two bickering corporations, one thing is clear: Sports fans who were hoping to watch the game in any resolution from their Roku devices are losing out.

Since Roku's announcement that it's pulling Fox streaming apps from its store, Roku's stock has dipped 6%.

SEE ALSO: This is the first time the Super Bowl is streaming in 4K resolution, but it won't be true 4K

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NOW WATCH: Starbucks is giving away free drinks for the rest of 2019. It's one of the 5 sneaky tactics the coffee chain uses to get you to spend more money.

• Kimber Lockhart, 33, is the chief technology officer at One Medical, a primary-care startup that went public on Friday.
• Before One Medical, Lockhart was the director of engineering at Box and led a major redesign of the company's user interface.
• She joined One Medical in 2014 as the vice president of engineering and stepped into her role as chief technology officer in 2015 at 28.
• Lockhart was selected as one of the honorees on Business Insider's list of the 30 leaders under 40 who are working to transform US healthcare.
• She told Business Insider that a piece of advice she often offers people looking to disrupt the healthcare field is to try "starting with a slightly smaller scope" instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

At 33, Kimber Lockhart is in charge of overseeing technology at one of 2020's buzziest healthcare companies.

Lockhart is the chief technology officer of One Medical and sits on the board. The primary-care startup went public on Friday after raising $245 million in its initial public offering.

Her stake in the firm could be worth $11.2 million based on the $18 share price at which One Medical started trading on Friday. 

Last year, Business Insider selected Lockhart as one of the honorees on our list of the 30 leaders under 40 who are working to transform US healthcare. Here's a look at how Lockhart came to be the top tech leader at One Medical.

How Lockhart became chief technology officer at One Medical at 28

Lockhart graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in computer science. At 23, she sold Increo Solutions, a technology company she cofounded in 2007.

She sold Increo to Box and joined the cloud-storage startup. There, Lockhart rose quickly through the ranks, starting as a software engineer and eventually becoming senior director of web-application engineering in four years.

In 2014, Lockhart joined the healthcare sector when she started at One Medical as the vice president of engineering.

Within a year, she was promoted to chief technology officer. Lockhart's base salary in 2019 was $360,000, and she owns 620,390 shares of the company, according to One Medical's IPO filing.

Read more:Primary-care startup One Medical just filed to go public. Here are the investors and execs who stand to make the most.

Lockhart's advice about tackling the healthcare system

In an interview with Business Insider about disrupting the healthcare sector, Lockhart said she often sees people wanting to completely redesign either one part or the entirety of the system. But the US healthcare system is complicated and overhauling things that have been in place for decades may be too tall an order, she said.

"You have to understand all the stakeholders: the ecosystem of the buyer, the decision maker, and the constraints that cause one person to choose one system over another," Lockhart said at the time.

Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, then, it's about trying to make the wheel a little more efficient. One Medical uses a mobile app, which Lockhart oversees, that lets patients book appointments, renew prescriptions, message providers, and opt for "face-to-face virtual video visits."

That's part of her work on tools designed to improve the patient experience, from the time someone reaches out about a health symptom to the time they check out of the doctor's office, Business Insider previously reported.

"Wouldn't it be great if everyone had a guide to be able to say, 'Hey, is this the kind of thing I can video-chat with someone about? Or should I come in and see someone? Or do I need a specialist'," she said.

One Medical's app and much of its software can serve as that guide, she told Business Insider's Erin Brodwin.

"We do as much as we can to shoulder the burden with patients," Lockhart said.

Read more: Top young leaders at 23andMe, One Medical, and Oscar Health reveal their best advice for transforming the $3.5 trillion healthcare industry

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• One Medical popped in its stock-market debut, opening at $18 a share Friday after pricing its shares at $14 on Thursday night, raising $245 million.
• The company trades under the ticker "ONEM."
• One Medical operates primary-care practices that charge a $200 annual fee and also bills your health insurance.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Primary care company One Medical popped in its stock market debut Friday morning. 

On Thursday, One Medical priced its shares at $14 apiece, the low end of its expected range of $14-$16 a share. The stock started trading at $18 a share late Friday morning, jumping to as much as $20.22 a share. 

One Medical sold 17.5 million shares, raising $245 million in the offering. The pricing values One Medical at roughly $1.7 billion, based on the more than 122 million of shares outstanding disclosed in its S-1.

Read more: Here are the investors and execs at One Medical who stand to make the most in the IPO

One Medical's approach to primary care

One Medical was founded by Tom Lee, who served as the company's CEO until 2017. Current CEO Amir Rubin
joined One Medical in 2017 after working as an executive at UnitedHealth Group's Optum division. Before that, he was the CEO of Stanford Health Care.

Lee, for his part, has founded a new healthcare startup called Galileo, which offers a mix of online and in-person care. The aim is to do a better job of taking care of sicker people in the government-funded healthcare programs Medicare and Medicaid. 

Never miss out on healthcare news. Subscribe to Dispensed, our weekly newsletter on pharma, biotech, and healthcare.

When One Medical opened for business in San Francisco in 2007, its goal was to upend the way people got medical care by making it easy and convenient to see a doctor. The company charges a $200 annual fee and bills your insurance. One Medical had 397,000 members and operated in 77 locations as of September 30, the filing says.

The company's net losses deepened as membership climbed, the filing shows. From 2017 to 2018, losses widened from $31.7 million to $44.4 million. For the first nine months of 2019, One Medical's net loss was $34.2 million.

Read more: I became a member of One Medical, a primary-care practice that charges a $200 annual fee and has plans to double over the next two years. Here's what it was like.

One Medical's top investors going into the IPO include The Carlyle Group, which owns 26.8%, Benchmark Capital, which owns 13%, Oak Investment Partners, Lee, DAG Ventures, GV, JPMorgan, and Maverick Fund.

JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley led the IPO.

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• Thomas Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors of all time. He produced 1,093 patents and a trove of creations that helped shape modern history.
• That being said, he was falsely credited for some inventions, including the lightbulb, and much of his work never gained the recognition he had hoped for.
• From the precursor to the tattoo gun, to a phone that can contact the dead, here's a list of Edison's inventions you probably never knew about.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847, in the small town of Milan, Ohio.

Throughout his lifetime, he earned 1,093 patents, and became the driving force behind some of the most important technological innovations of the 20th Century.

Not only did he conceive of ideas as original as the phonograph and alkaline battery, but he also worked to expand on existing ideas — such as the lightbulb— and brought them to fruition in creative ways.

His mind was so rampant with invention that he became known as the "Wizard of Menlo Park," and his list of works far exceeds what most of us have come to know him by.

Here some of the most remarkable inventions you probably never knew Edison and his research assistants created.

SEE ALSO: From the internet to the iPhone, here are the 20 most important inventions of the last 30 years

DON'T MISS: 15 Inventions From Thomas Edison That Changed The World

Alkaline batteries

Edison believed that electric automobiles would soon take over the roads, and during the first part of the 20th Century, he tried to produce long-lasting storage batteries.

Knowing that lead acid batteries would be too heavy, he started experimenting with alkaline electrolytes and eventually produced an iron-nickel battery that brought him success in his later years.

Saying "hello" when answering the phone

It's second nature to us now, but people didn't always have a standard way to greet someone on the phone.

In 1877, Thomas Edison first suggested using the word "hello." Before this, telephone users would often pick up the phone with phrases like, "Do I get you?" and, "Are you there?"

But Edison found "hello" to be much more efficient, and the word caught on quickly — much to the dismay of Alexander Graham Bell. The inventor of the telephone preferred using the seafarer's phrase "ahoy" to begin a conversation instead.

A coal mining safety lamp

After hundreds of people died in coal mining accidents throughout the early 1900s, the Mine Safety Appliance Company recruited Edison to help fix the problem.

He began working on the first electric cap lamp for miners using rechargeable battery packs in 1914. The Edison Cap Lamp included a battery inside of a steel locking case that miners could wear around their belts, which would retain power for 12 hours as they worked.

Wax paper

In 1872, Edison came up with paraffin paper, or the idea of coating paper in wax to keep it from getting wet, to use in the telegraph.

This is a commonly used household object today, and its origins began with wrapping candy. Paraffin paper was also used to help Edison invent his favorite device, the phonograph.

Some reports suggest Frenchman Gustave Le Gray invented wax paper, but that he used it for photography instead of food.

Industrial research laboratories

Not only did Edison invent thousands of objects and ideas throughout his lifetime, but he also conceived of the spaces to do so.

Edison pioneered the industrial research laboratory, which paved the way for new research institutions. For the first five years of his career, Edison's laboratories were machine shops in Newark, New Jersey, where he spent time developing telegraphy, the electric pen, and stock ticker technology.

Eventually, he moved to larger spaces, and in 1876, he opened his most well-known laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It was here that Edison and his research assistants conducted extensive work on electricity and invented the phonograph. A decade later, he opened an even bigger laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, and set out to create the first motion picture camera and record technology.

While Edison often gets the sole credit for his many inventions, up to 200 men worked in his sprawling laboratories at a time, all contributing to developing new technologies that would change the world.

The electrographic vote recorder

Edison's first patented invention came to fruition in 1868. The Electrographic Vote Recorder was made for legislators in Congress to vote on issues by switching a device to read either "yes" or "no" rather than handwriting each vote.

According to an archivist at the Thomas Edison National Historic Park, Edison thought this invention would make him rich. But Washington officials hated it.

Politicians quickly rejected the device out of fear it would disrupt the voting process, and Edison vowed to never again invent something that didn't have an "apparent" market.

"Etheric force" and the early stages of radio

In 1875, Edison and his team were experimenting with new ways to improve the telegraph, when they noticed a strange phenomenon happening between the machines.

Each time the device vibrated, metal objects that came in contact with it would generate sparks. Edison became curious about this reaction, and determined that it must be the workings of an unknown force, which his team dubbed "etheric force."

He then developed an etheroscope, a device that would measure different ways this force could be transmitted and observe the sparks more closely, but he never quite understood what it meant.

Eventually, it became known that his telegraph was actually producing radio frequency electromagnetic waves, which later become the basis for the development of radio technology.

The electric pen

In 1877, Edison patented the electric pen, which allowed workers to make copies of handwritten documents much quicker.

The pen was powered by a small electric motor, and as the user would write, a handheld needle punched tiny holes onto the surface of paper. The idea here was to create a stencil by allowing workers to roll ink over the holes and produce copies onto blank sheets of paper underneath.

This invention paved the way for the first ever mimeography, and is even thought to be the precursor to the first tattoo gun.

The phonograph

Among Edison's thousands of patents and inventions, the phonograph was his favorite. He developed a method to record sound on cylinders coated in tinfoil in 1877.

The machine had two needles, one for recording and one for playback, and when he spoke into a mouthpiece, the vibrations of his voice would prompt the recording needle to indent the cylinder and retain the audio.

The first words ever recorded into this machine were the lyrics to "Mary had a little lamb."

Ore milling

Throughout the 1800s, Edison worked closely with miners to develop milling technology that would separate magnetic particles, like iron, from non-magnetic rock by placing them into different bins.

Between 1887-1889, he designed a full system of "mining, crushing, separating, and concentrating" at a mine in New Jersey, according to the Thomas A. Edison Papers.

Edison was so excited about this venture that he invested $2 million of his own money into creating this technology. But due to unforeseen expense issues, he was forced to shut it down.

A method for preserving fruits and vegetables

Yes, Edison even invented a method for keeping fruits fresh.

In 1881, Edison filed a patent for preserving fruits and other organic materials by keeping them sealed in an air-tight glass vessel that sounds like modern-day Tupperware.

Reader's Digest noted that Edison's last breath was captured in a test tube using similar technology, and it's on display at the Henry Ford museum.

A talking doll

Apparently we can thank Edison for Talking Elmo and Furbies, too.

In 1887, he turned his eye to producing smaller inventions that would turn a quick profit.

One of these included a talking doll for children. Inspired by his phonography, Edison created a smaller version of the device and placed it inside imported dolls from Germany. His original intention was to have the dolls ready for sale Christmas that same year, but production failures pushed back their release until 1890.

The motion picture camera

According to the National Park Service, Edison wrote in October 1888: "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the Eye what the phonograph does for the Ear . . ."

And sure enough, he succeeded. By 1892, Edison and a team of scientists invented the first motion picture camera, and by 1894, the first movie theater opened in New York City.

Throughout his life, Edison experimented with making dramas, comedies, and documentaries, and in 1911 alone, he made about $200,000— the equivalent to over $5 million today — through the film industry.

Other inventors contributed to the development of movie cameras and theaters, but Edison is often called "the father of motion pictures."

A home-projecting kinetoscope

After receiving early success from the motion picture camera, Edison set out to create movie projectors, which he called kinetoscopes, that could be used in homes or schools.

But this invention wasn't nearly as successful. The machines were too expensive, and only 500 of the original 2,500 sold.

An "off the grid" powered house

Edison was a huge supporter of clean energy technologies, and in 1912 he unveiled the "Twentieth Century Suburban Residence," a completely self-sufficient and "off the grid" home.

Each part of the prototype house was powered by his own batteries and a small-scale generator, which charged a bank cells in the basement. For this first trial, Edison used a gas-run motor, but documents suggest he was interested in switching to wind power.

Toward the end of his life, The New York Times reported the green energy enthusiast saying, "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."

A concrete house

In 1917, Edison patented an entire system to mass-produce concrete houses.

Edison was interested in creating a cost-effective prototype for working class homes, and the idea was to create houses in one swift concrete pour.

These homes measured 25 by 30 by 40 feet high, and were considered largely a failure due to the difficulty in producing the reusable metal molds required to make them. But Edison did manage to build some of these homes near his laboratories in New Jersey, and many of them still stand today.

A "spirit phone"

In 1920, Edison became intrigued with ideas of the afterlife, and he set out to create a device that could be used to communicate with the dead.

The invention is thought to have come from a time when Edison was going head to head with Nikola Tesla, who had also been experimenting with contacting spirits.

This apparatus became known colloquially as the "spirit phone," and the science behind it was borrowed from Albert Einstein's theory of quantum entanglement and special relativity.

Essentially, Edison believed that spirits of people could become units of energy after death, and perhaps that energy could be bundled to interact with the natural world.

Excited about this new endeavor, he invited groups of friends and scientists to test the device, but they quickly realized it didn't work.

Fuel-cell technology

Edison was constantly searching for new energy solutions, and was even at the forefront of developing fuel-cell technology.

Fuel cells operate by producing energy from a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, leaving behind only water, heat, and electricity as a by-product. Because this reaction causes such little pollution, today's researchers are turning to fuel cells as an environmentally sound option.

Home subscriptions

Edison caught on to mail-order subscriptions long before Netflix was conceived.

In the 1900s, the Edison Home Service Club began manufacturing records and more affordable phonographs so that consumers could listen to music within the comforts of their own homes.

In 1922, he began offering customers access to more of these records via a subscription service. If buyers joined the club, they would get samples of 20 records in the mail a month. The customers would then choose which ones they wanted to buy, and send the rest back for redistribution.

• Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is the most popular professional gamer in the world and he's earned millions live streaming from his home on a daily basis.
• Ninja's success is intertwined with the popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a free game with more than 250 million players worldwide.
• In August 2019, Ninja agreed to an exclusive streaming deal with Microsoft's Mixer. He will reportedly be paid $20 million to $30 million over three years to keep his broadcasts on Mixer.  
• Ninja hit over 1 million subscribers on the livestreaming platform Mixer in a matter of days, and he boasts another 22 million YouTube subscribers.
• While Ninja began earning millions in 2018, he has been gaming competitively since 2009, focusing mainly on Microsoft's "Halo" franchise.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins is the world's most popular professional gamer and he's showing no signs of slowing down in 2020.

Ninja's long list of achievements includes becoming the first professional video game player featured on the cover of ESPN the Magazine, helping drop the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve, guest starring in a Super Bowl commercial, and becoming the first streamer on Twitch to reach 10 million followers.

He's now 28 years old and earning more than $10 million a year thanks to an exclusive deal with Microsoft and its Mixer game-streaming platform,

Ninja livestreams himself playing video games for about 12 hours a day from his basement studio, accepting donations, interacting with his audience, and welcoming new subscribers with each broadcast. The long hours have helped Ninja earn more than $500,000 a month from donations and subscriptions.

Ninja's meteoric rise to the top of the gaming world is intertwined with the massive popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," his game of choice. "Fortnite" is a free game with more than 250 million players worldwide– Ninja is regarded by many as one of the best players on the planet, and certainly the most visible.  

Ninja has streamed himself playing alongside major celebrities like rappers Drake and Travis Scott, and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. The extra attention has also stirred some controversy: Ninja vowed to stop swearing during his streams after he was criticized for casually rapping a racial slur during a broadcast. The gamer has gradually crafted his personal brand to be kid-friendly without diluting his stream for older viewers.

Ninja's rise to fame has showed just how much of an impact video games can have on pop culture; the viral success of "Fortnite" and the massive audience of Twitch helped turn a career gamer into a full-fledged celebrity.

Here's everything you need to know about Ninja, the pro gamer who's bringing video game streaming to the mainstream:

SEE ALSO: Meet Jessica Blevins, the 26-year-old wife and manager of the most popular video-game player in the world right now

Ninja is one of the highest-paid personalities among game streamers, YouTubers, and esports players.

In interviews with CNBC and CNN, Blevins confirmed he earned more than $500,000 a month from his more than 160,000 paid Twitch subscribers, which are separate from his 12 million followers on the same platform.

On Twitch, streamers net $2.50 for every subscription, which costs the viewer $5 a month and gets them exclusive emotes and badges while allowing them to view the stream without ads. Meanwhile, simply following a streamer is free, but doesn't come with any perks. Viewers can leave "tips" and donations for streamers while they broadcast, though, and Ninja says he once received a $40,000 donation.

Ninja now streams on Microsoft's Mixer, which charges viewers $6 for a similar subscription service. Ninja also earns YouTube ad revenue from his 22 million subscribers and he gets paid for sponsorship deals.

Ninja's newfound fame helped him earn sponsorships and big opportunities.

With millions of viewers pouring in daily, Ninja has an audience that is the envy of broadcasters and advertisers alike. Ninja has formed partnerships with a variety of companies including Red Bull, Uber Eats, and NZXT. While some of the deals are straightforward, like his unique discount codes on Uber Eats, others come with added perks.

In October, Red Bull helped Ninja build a state-of-the-art streaming studio in his basement. In addition to installing more than $20,000 in broadcast equipment, the studio was custom made to fit Ninja's growing personal brand.

Ninja's brand has also been boosted by appearances on popular TV shows like "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," and ESPN's "E:60." He became the first professional gamer to grace the cover of "ESPN the Magazine" in October 2018.

Ninja spends most of his time playing "Fortnite: Battle Royale," one of the internet's favorite video games

Ninja's success is intertwined with the ongoing popularity of "Fortnite: Battle Royale," a shooter game in which a hundred online players are dropped onto an island where they mine for materials, build structures, find supplies, and kill each other until a single player is left standing, similar to the dystopian arena game described in the "The Hunger Games" books and movies.

It stands as the most-watched game on Twitch by a lot, and "Fortnite" creator Epic Games reports that the game has seen 250 million players worldwide. While packages with the full version of "Fortnite" start at $39.99, the "Battle Royale" game mode is free to play on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile (both iOS and Android). 

The popularity of "Fortnite" is what sparked Ninja's friendship with Drake, who is also a fan of the game. Drake initiated the unlikely pairing, saying he had watched Ninja's streams before they played together.

On March 14, 2018, Drake joined Ninja for a "Fortnite" stream late at night, and the two broke Twitch's record for the most concurrent viewers of all time, partly thanks to Drake's advertising the marathon to his 36.9 million Twitter followers.

During the hours-long session, Ninja implied that it had been Drake who actually initiated the team-up.

While the two ran through the virtual island looking for weapons, Drake said he had recently been playing "Fortnite" in the recording studio during his breaks, had seen a video of Ninja playing on Instagram, and later watched more of his content on YouTube.

"I am 99.9% sure we are about to break Twitch," Ninja said shortly after, pointing out the number of their concurrent viewers had surpassed the previous non-tournament record of 388,000, held by Dr. DisRespect.

"That's easy," Drake replied.

The duo was later joined by rapper Travis Scott and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who admitted during the game he is a huge Ninja fan.

That night, they maxed out at 635,000 concurrent viewers. Luckily, Twitch didn't actually crash. You can watch the recorded games on Ninja's YouTube channel.

Despite all the success, Ninja hasn't forgotten his roots.

During the CNBC interview, Blevins reminded viewers that while playing video games on Twitch may seem like an easy way make millions, he doesn't recommend quitting your day job — at least not at first.

"You can't just drop everything and focus on playing video games for a living," he said, after pointing out that when he first started his gaming career, he was also working, going to college, and playing soccer. "You want to make sure you're securing your future and putting in the extra time to make this happen as well."

Perhaps the most charming part of Ninja's zero-to-hero story is his previous job at Noodles and Co., which he has nothing but kind words for, as evidenced by this Twitter thread:

And based on this tweet, it seems like they feel the same way:

Blevins works with his wife, Jessica, who is one of the reasons why he's so successful.

Jessica Blevins is in charge of managing Ninja's entire business, including coordinating the handful of people who are part of "Team Ninja."

She's also a streamer in her own right, going by the online handle JGhosty.

You can read our interview with Jessica here.

And although he's managed to build a reputation as "one of the good ones" in the often toxic gaming community, Ninja has already faced some public scrutiny.

In March, while playing "Fortnite" with Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, Ninja started freestyle-rapping over the song "44 More" by Logic.

The actual lyrics to the song don't include the N-word, but Blevins said it anyway, to the surprise of his partner (a video of the incident has since been deleted). 

Lots of Ninja's fans came to his defense on Twitter after the initial blowback, saying that unlike YouTube star Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, who famously fell from grace in 2016 after calling another player the N-word (and said many other regrettable things), Blevins had no malicious intent and clearly fumbled over it in the moment, indicating that it was a sincere accident.

Blevins apologized for the blunder in a series of tweets Thursday morning, saying: "The best way I can explain it is that I promise that I understand how much pain that word causes, even if it gets used a lot in music and elsewhere. It's a word historically used to divide people, and I'm about bringing people together."

He continued, "I apologize for offending anyone and appreciate you all rocking with me."

But Ninja hasn't always been this famous.

Prior to 2018, Ninja was one of the thousands of 20-somethings livestreaming video games on Twitch — where he had around 28,000 subscribers — and making gaming videos for YouTube.

He also played "Halo" professionally, traveling all over the country to compete with various esports teams, including the Renegades, Leftovers, and Team Liquid.

And while these are huge accomplishments in both the gaming and online entertainment industries, no one could have guessed what the future had in store for Ninja.

The esports and video game streaming are still emerging as sources for mainstream entertainment. Overnight celebrities like Ninja showcase how Twitch can reach global audiences

In the future, Ninja says he wants to be known as more than just "The 'Fortnite' guy."

While Ninja's superstar status is closely tied to the success of "Fortnite," he has expressed a desire to diversify his brand and become known for more than just playing a specific game.

In August 2019 Ninja announced a new apparel deal with Adidas and released a book called "Get Good: My Ultimate Guide to Gaming." Then in September, he was the special guest on an episode of Fox's "The Masked Singer."

However, "Fortnite" is still the most popular game in the world and Ninja spends the vast majority of his streams playing it.

You can now catch Ninja's daily streams over on Microsoft's Mixer game-streaming platform.

In August 2019 Ninja announced that he would be moving his stream to Mixer, starting with a live weekend event from Lollapalooza 2019. Microsoft reportedly will pay Ninja $20 million to $30 million over the next three years to broadcast exclusively on Mixer.

Mixer has seen a substantial increase in viewers since Ninja arrived — it only took him one week became the first streamer on Mixer with 1 million followers.

• YouTube has more than 2 billion monthly users visiting the video-sharing platform for their favorite vlogs, music videos, sports highlights, and more.
• YouTube was founded 15 years ago above a California pizza shop by three early PayPal employees. Since then, it's become the most popular free video-sharing platform in the world.
• Take a look at the history of YouTube, from its start as a failed video-dating website to a powerhouse platform that's launched a new generation of money-making YouTubers and influencers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In its 15-year history, YouTube has become the undisputed king of online video.

It has over 2 billion monthly users who watch hundreds of hundreds of millions of hours of content every single day. But many people don't know how YouTube got its start.

The company rose like a rocket ship after its founding in 2005, and was bought by Google scarcely a year later. Under Google, YouTube went from being a repository of amateur video to a powerhouse of original content, not to mention a launching pad for its own new brand of superstar, like PewDiePie and the Smosh Brothers.

Here is how YouTube got its explosive start, and maintained that momentum to become the biggest force in online video.

SEE ALSO: 21-year-old YouTuber MrBeast was one of the most-viewed YouTube creators in 2019 — check out how he got his start and found success with elaborate stunts and giveaways

February 2005: Three early employees at e-payment startup PayPal — Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim — start working on a free video-sharing site called YouTube. Hurley registers the trademark, logo, and domain for YouTube on Valentine's Day while sitting in YouTube's first headquarters above a pizzeria in California. Hurley becomes YouTube's first CEO.

Source: USA Today, Engadget

February 2005: The cofounders initially think of YouTube as "a new kind of dating site," with the slogan "Tune in, Hook up." However, YouTube-as-a-dating-site attracts few users, and the cofounders are forced to take out ads to offer women $20 to upload "dating videos" onto YouTube. "Our users were one step ahead of us," Jawed Karim later says. "They began using YouTube to share videos of all kinds."

Source: Vice

April 2005: While the dating service doesn't pan out, the three cofounders transform their idea into a free video-sharing platform, thanks to inspiration from two significant events in 2004: Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl, and the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Source: USA Today

April 2005: The first video posted to the site, called "Me at the Zoo," is only 19 seconds long. The video is exactly how it sounds, with YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim standing in front of elephants at the San Diego zoo and talking about their trunks.

May 2005: YouTube launches its first public beta site. As you can see, the design has changed quite a bit since then, and YouTube's homepage got its latest redesign in November 2019.

September 2005: YouTube sees a video hit 1 million views for the first time. The video is a viral Nike ad showing Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho receiving his pair of "Golden Boots," and it demonstrates the power of YouTube's promotional potential.

You can watch the full Nike ad here.

December 2005: YouTube officially launches out of beta and is made available to the public thanks a timely $3.5 million initial investment from Sequoia Capital. At this point, YouTube is getting 8 million views a day.

Source: New York Times, Telegraph

February 2006: After the Saturday Night Live sketch "Lazy Sunday" goes viral and clips of it posted on YouTube attract millions of views, NBC demands that a particularly popular clip is pulled from the site. NBC's complaint paves the way for YouTube's "Content Verification Program," which launches in October 2007 to help content creators easily identify videos that infringe on their copyrights and get them removed.

Source: New York Times

April 2006: A video is uploaded to YouTube showing two boys in China lip-synching to the Backstreet Boys. Susan Wojcicki — YouTube's current CEO who was in charge of Google's acquisitions at the time — credits this video with convincing her that it would be worth it for Google to invest in user-generated content by purchasing YouTube.

Source: Business Insider

April 2006: Venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Artis Capital Management bring their total investment in YouTube to $11.5 million. When YouTube is acquired months later, these firms' investments pay out massively.

Source: New York Times

June 2006: After the initial spat over the SNL sketch just a few months before, YouTube and NBC strike a deal to help promote the network's upcoming fall TV line up. The move helps the traditional media company enter the new digital age, and marks the beginning of YouTube's several key partnerships with content providers later down the road.

October 2006: Wojcicki convinces Google's cofounders in the potential of YouTube, and the company acquires the video-sharing site for $1.65 billion. Google calls YouTube, a company with around 65 employees, "the next step in the evolution of the Internet." YouTube's cofounders saw nearly $400 million in profits, each, thanks to the purchase.

Source: ReadWrite, "The YouTube: A Full History"

May 2007: A baby named Charlie takes the world by storm. The 56-second video of a toddler biting his brother's finger — and then smiling — is one of the earliest YouTube videos to go viral, and has now has nearly 900 million views. The family said in 2017 — on the video's 10 anniversary — that the clip has raked in more than £1 million in royalties.

Source: The Sun

June 2007: The same month Apple launches its first iPhone model, YouTube launches its mobile site. YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley predicts that mobile is "going to be a huge market," making YouTube's mobile site a "natural transition."

Source: Mashable

July 2007: YouTube teams up with CNN to host the presidential debate for the 2008 election cycle, which features video questions submitted by the public. Seven out of the 16 presidential candidates for 2008 announced their campaigns via YouTube.

Source: New York Times

August 2007: Google rolls out its first ads on YouTube videos. Instead of an option for traditional pre-video ads, the company chooses a new in-video format featuring semi-transparent banners that pop up on the lower portion of videos, and can be clicked away after several seconds.

December 2007: YouTube rolls out its "Partner Program" to allow everyday people to get paid for their viral content, and turn their hobbies into money-making businesses. Not even a year later, the most successful users were earning six-figure incomes from YouTube.

Source: New York Times

September 2008: The viral hit, "Evolution of Dance," becomes the first YouTube video to hit 100 million views. The video features Ohio resident Judson Laipply, who later became a motivational speaker thanks to his newfound fame.

Source: Think With Google

November 2008: YouTube expands its ad offerings to include sponsored videos and pre-roll ads, a format YouTube long said it wouldn't resort to because those ads were too intrusive to the audience. However, the benefits paid to brands and advertisers beat out customer experience in the end.

Source: Gigaom, Wall Street Journal

April 2009: Usher introduces 15-year-old Justin Bieber to the world via a video on YouTube. Bieber would release his music video for "Baby" the following year, and it remains one of the most-disliked videos on all of YouTube.

Source: Business Insider

April 2009: YouTube teams up with media company Vivendi to launch a new music video service called Vevo, in response to music companies' complaints about piracy and unfair licensing terms. As part of the deal, Vevo can distribute its music videos on YouTube, setting the groundwork for Vevo's massive YouTube presence today.

Source: All Things D

October 2009: YouTube reveals that it has surpassed the milestone of 1 billion views a day. By this point, more than 20 hours of video are being uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Source: Telegraph

April 2010: Felix Kjellberg joins YouTube to create content under the channel name "PewDiePie," where he first provides video-game commentary before expanding into vlogging and reacting to internet memes. The YouTuber has since surpassed 100 million subscribers, and is the most-subscribed-to solo creator on the platform today.

Source: Business Insider

October 2010: Columnist and activist Dan Savage uses YouTube to launch the "It Gets Better" campaign on YouTube to send messages of hope to LGBTQ teenagers who feel bullied or ostracized because of their sexuality. The campaign ends up going viral, and even President Barack Obama participates

Source: New York Times

October 2010: Hurley, a YouTube cofounder, steps down as CEO. In his place Google appoints Salar Kamangar, who the company says was already leading YouTube's daily operations for the last two years.

Source: BBC

December 2010: YouTube introduces skippable ads with a format called "TrueView," allowing consumers to skip over ads after five seconds and launch straight into the videos they want to watch.

Source: TechCrunch

April 2011: YouTube officially enters the broadcast business with the launch of YouTube Live. YouTube Live has allowed the site to stream everything from concerts to news coverage to the royal wedding to the Olympics.

Source: Financial Times

October 2011: YouTube launches its first original channels in a push to create original content on the platform. Google purchases Next New Networks, an original web video programming company, and reportedly pays more than $100 million to content creators to make videos exclusively for YouTube.

Source: All Things D

May 2011: After a soft launch with indie movies a year earlier, YouTube offers a rental service where consumers can choose from thousands of movies and shows to rent and stream directly on the platform. The move is a bid to compete with media-streaming companies like Netflix.

Source: Digital Commerce 360

Spring 2011: YouTube plays an instrumental role in Arab Spring by helping disseminate messages of freedom and democracy. With YouTube, protesters are able to upload and share videos featuring protest and political commentary. Many of those videos end up going viral, with the top ones receiving millions of views.

Source: University of Washington

August 2012: YouTube becomes the go-to place for presidential elections by launching "YouTube Elections Hub." In addition to streaming the live speeches from the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention, it features content from eight news outlets, including YouTube-bred commentator Philip DeFranco.

December 2012: The viral video "Gangnam Style" becomes the first YouTube video ever to reach 1 billion views, just five months after it's posted. The PSY music video currently has nearly 3.5 billion views, and is still the seventh most-viewed video on all of YouTube.

Source: Billboard

January 2013: YouTube opens "YouTube Spaces" in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, New York, and Sao Paulo. These spaces function as studios for YouTube content creators.

March 2013: YouTube reaches 1 billion monthly users.

Source: Think With Google

February 2014: Susan Wojcicki, Google's 16th employee, is named the new CEO of YouTube, taking over the role from Salar Kamangar.

Source: Business Insider

February 2015: Google launches YouTube Kids, a new "family-friendly" version of the video platform that filters content to ensure it's safe for minors. The Kids platform also offers parental controls, like limiting screen time and disabling search.

Source: Wired

August 2015: Google launches "YouTube Gaming," a way for gamers to livestream their play sessions to a live audience, which also lets them interact and chat in real-time. The service is meant to counter Amazon-owned Twitch, the dominant force in the live-streaming market, which Google tried (and failed) to buy a year earlier.

Source: The Guardian

October 2015: YouTube unveils YouTube Red, its subscription service that lets customers watch videos and stream music without ads. The service includes access to exclusive content featuring stars like PewDiePie and Lilly Singh. Three years later, YouTube Red is renamed YouTube Premium, and spins off its music-streaming to a separate service, called YouTube Music.

Source: Variety, The Verge

January 2016: The music video for Adele's "Hello" sets a record as the fastest video on YouTube to hit 1 billion views. It takes the British singer just 88 days after the video is uploaded to beat out the record previously held by "Gangnam Style."

Source: Guinness World Records

August 2016: YouTube starts notifying creators when their videos are demonetized — meaning that the platform's algorithm has decided that some aspect of the clip doesn't adhere to "advertiser-friendly content guidelines," so it's ineligible to make money. Although these guidelines have been around since 2012, popular creators whose main income is YouTube, like Philip DeFranco, criticized it demonetization as "a form on censorship."

Source: Recode, Business Insider

February 2017: YouTube's biggest star, PewDiePie, is the subject of a bombshell Wall Street Journal investigation that finds nine of his past videos contain "anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery." One of those videos showed two men, paid by PewDiePie, holding up a sign reading "Death to All Jews." Both YouTube and Disney quickly cut ties with him, and he was kicked out of YouTube's preferred advertising program.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Business Insider

March 2017: Major companies across the US and in international markets — like AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, and the British government — pull their ads from YouTube en masse after the Times of London reports that ads are appearing alongside extremist and offensive content. YouTube's ability to police content is put into question, and analysts estimate the boycott cost the company $750 million.

Source: The Verge, Business Insider

April 2017: YouTube tries to save face by altering its ad policies and also revamps its Partner Program, raising the minimum requirements for money-generating channels. The two algorithm changes, and major advertisers' YouTube boycott, help kick off YouTube's first "Adpocalypse," a term for the massive slowdown in revenue for creators.

Source: AdAge, New York Times

April 2017: YouTube TV, its on-demand streaming service, officially launches in select markets. It'll be another two years before the service goes nationwide, and the price jacks up to $50 a month.

Source: The Verge, Business Insider

November 2017: Multiple reports find disturbing and abusive videos across YouTube that use family-friendly characters to aim their content toward kids. Similar inappropriate content is found in the YouTube Kids app. Even more advertisers pull their ads, and YouTube responds by updating its policies around age-restricted content.

Source: The Verge, New York Times

December 2017: YouTube Logan Paul posts a video of him and friends discovering and filming a dead body in Japan's so-called "suicide forest." Outrage over the video is harsh and swift, and nearly 200,000 people sign a petition to have Paul kicked off YouTube. He apologizes, and remains one of YouTube's most controversial stars.

Source: Business Insider

April 2018: A woman opens fire at YouTube's San Bruno headquarters, wounding three people and killing herself. Police later say she planned her attack because she was upset about YouTube for censoring and demonetizing her videos.

Source: NPR

February 2019: YouTuber Matt Watson exposes a "soft-core pedophilia ring" living in the comments on YouTube videos featuring children, where pedophiles trade remarks and links. Another exodus of advertisers occurs, and YouTube responds by disabling comments on videos featuring children.

Source: Variety, YouTube Blog

May 2019: T-Series, a Bollywood music label, becomes the first YouTube channel to hit 100 million subscribers. It beats out PewDiePie, the 2nd most popular channel, for the achievement.

Source: Business Insider

June 2019: Vox reporter Carlos Maza speaks out about YouTube's failure to take action against right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder, who was harassing Maza with homophobic and racist remarks in YouTube videos. YouTube rules Crowder's videos don't violate harassment policies and keeps his video online, a decision that prompts backlash from both the public and employees inside YouTube.

Source: Business Insider

September 2019: The Federal Trade Commission fines YouTube $170 million following an investigation into whether the platform violates children's privacy laws by collecting the data of children under the age of 13 without their parents' consent. The FTC settlement also requires YouTube to create a system where creators flag their content as family-friendly.

Source: Business Insider

December 2019: Six months after the Maza-Crowder controversy, YouTube updates its harassment policy to ban content that "maliciously insults" others — from creators to public figures — on the basis of race, gender, and sexual orientation. The policy also targets sustained harassment campaigns. However, the revamped policy has led creators to worry about a crackdown on popular types of videos (like commentary and drama) and another Adpocalypse.

Source: The Verge

Nathan McAlone contributed to an earlier version of this report.

January 2020: PewDiePie, YouTube's most subscribed-to channel, takes a break from YouTube. He says he'll be away "for a little while" because he's "feeling very tired." This is his third break in nine years on YouTube, evidence of creators' constant struggle with burnout and stress.

Source: Business Insider

• David Dobrik is a popular YouTuber known for his vlogs and antics with a group of creators dubbed the Vlog Squad.
• Dobrik got his start on the now-defunct video-sharing app Vine in 2013, and is now worth an estimated $7 million.
• Here's everything you need to know about the 23-year-old Dobrik, who was born in Slovakia and now has more than 15 million YouTube subscribers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A 23-year-old YouTuber by the name of David Dobrik was recently named Generation Z's favorite social media personality in a survey from financial analyst firm Piper Jaffray.

If you're not a teen, it's possible you've never heard of the star. He's a celebrity that's risen to fame thanks to social media: He got launched into the spotlight on the video-sharing app Vine, and has since turned to YouTube, where he has more than 15 million subscribers.

Now, Dobrik has turned his empire into a net worth estimated at $7 million. His elaborate stunts and vlogs have earned him movie roles, a gig hosting the Teen Choice Awards, and a loyal fanbase.

Here's everything you need to know about David Dobrik, a Vine star-turned-YouTuber:

SEE ALSO: A transgender flag emoji is finally coming to smartphones in 2020

David Dobrik was born in Kosice, Slovakia, on July 23, 1996. He has three siblings named Ester, Sarah, and Toby.

Source: Famous Birthdays

Dobrik and his family immigrated to a suburb of Chicago when Dobrik was 6 years old. He attended Vernon Hills High School, where he played tennis.

Source: Famous Birthdays, Chicago Tribune

Because he moved to the US when he was 6, Dobrik is protected from deportation under the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, that allows undocumented minors to live and work in the country. However, under President Donald Trump, those protections could be revoked.

Source: Tubefilter

After Dobrik graduated high school, his parents gave him a choice: go to college or move out. Dobrik chose to move to Los Angeles in 2013 with a few of his friends, and the group struggled to survive on cheap groceries like peanut butter and bread.

Source: Forbes

Around this time, Dobrik discovered an app called Vine, where users could create short six-second looping videos to share with others. He started out running a few different sports accounts from which he would upload sports highlights and clips. At that point, Dobrik estimates he was making $1,500 to $2,000 a month.

Source: Forbes

But Dobrik soon transitioned over to creating comedic Vine videos. He started teaming up with other funny people on Vine — a group that's come to be dubbed as the Vlog Squad. This includes other big-name former Vine stars and YouTubers like Scotty Sire, Toddy Smith, Gabbie Hanna, Josh Peck, and Zane Hijazi.

Source: We the Unicorns

As he continued to produce videos on Vine, Dobrik followed some of the platform's creators over to YouTube in 2015. But he couldn't afford to create elaborate productions and rent out massive sets like other lucrative influencers were doing in order to produce content.

Source: Forbes

That's when Dobrik met fellow Vine star Liza Koshy, who introduced him to vlogging — essentially, online video journals. "I really liked that it was a small camera and you could just record your whole day," Dobrik told Forbes. "I filmed my first vlog and I think it worked because I wasn’t trying to make it work. I was just doing it for my own enjoyment."

Source: Forbes

By November 2015, Dobrik and Koshy were dating. "Never have I ever gotten so comfortable being around a person as quickly as I did with her," Dobrik said on the couple's one-year anniversary. "I probably sound so repetitive talking about how lucky I am."

Source: Instagram

When Vine shut down in late 2016, Dobrik switched over full-time to YouTube, where he has two channels: David Dobrik, home to vlogs, and David Dobrik Too, where he puts his content featuring members of his Vlog Squad. Between the two channels, Dobrik has over 20 million subscribers.

Dobrik launched a podcast in mid-2017 with fellow Vlog Squad member Jason Nash. Called "Views," the podcast takes people behind the scenes of their vlogs and just features the crazy antics between the two.

Source: Tubefilter

Dobrik and Koshy announced in June 2018 they had split. They filmed an emotional video on YouTube about the mutual breakup, and told fans they couldn't be together because of personal issues. Despite no longer dating, the two remain best friends and still film videos together.

Source: Insider

Dobrik has turned his success on YouTube into big-screen gigs. He starred in the animated film "Angry Birds Movie 2," and hosted the Teen Choice Awards in August 2019 alongside "Pretty Little Liars" star Lucy Hale.

Dobrik and his Vlog Squad are known for the wild pranks they play on each other, and general mayhem wherever they go. In 2019, Dobrik married the mother of Vlog Squad member Jason Nash to successfully pull off a long-standing joke of becoming Nash's stepdad. The marriage lasted a full month before they divorced.

Source: E! Online

Dobrik is worth an estimated $7 million. He owns a $2.5 million home in Los Angeles, which features an in-house recording studio and a multitude of cars, including a Tesla and Ferrari.

Source: Celebrity Net Worth, Architectural Digest

However, Dobrik is so insanely popular that he struggles to maintain privacy even within his own home. Dobrik recently told to social media to plead with fans to stop coming to his house unwarranted. "Stop coming here, please," Dobrik said in a video to Instagram followers. "I don't wanna have to move, but this is terrifying."

Source: Business Insider

Dobrik has a full-time live-in assistant, his longtime best friend Natalie Noel. Rumors have swirled that the two are dating, but the two haven't confirmed that.

Source: Cosmopolitan

In 2019, Dobrik was named a judge, along with Ciara and Debbie Gibson, on "America's Most Musical Family," a Nickelodeon singing competition. He was also revealed as the fifth most-watched YouTuber on the platform in 2019.

Source: AOL, Business Insider

Dobrik was also behind the most viral video on TikTok, the new video-sharing platform that draws similarities to Vine, where he got his start. The TikTok video showed off a giant version of a science experiment involving "elephant toothpaste" in conjunction with science YouTuber Nick Uhas.

Source: Business Insider

To kick off 2020, Dobrik released a photo-taking and editing app called David's Disposable. The app is inspired by Dobrik's secondary Instagram account, where he posts photos he takes with his disposable camera, which thusly have that retro, 90s feel.

Source: Business Insider

• The primary-care startup One Medical just went public. 
• The company raised $245 million after offering 17.5 million shares at $14 apiece. Shares started trading late Friday morning at $18 a share under the ticker ONEM.
• The top investors and executives in the company, including founder Tom Lee, stand to make millions off the public offering.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The primary-care startup One Medical recently filed for an initial public offering.

On Thursday, One Medical priced One Medical priced its shares at $14 apiece, the low end of its expected range of $14-$16 a share. One Medical sold 17.5 million shares, raising $245 million in the offering.

The stock started trading above that share price on Friday at $18 a share. It trades under the ticker ONEM.

When One Medical opened for business in San Francisco in 2007, its goal was to upend the way people got medical care by making it easy and convenient to see a doctor. The company charges a $200 annual fee and bills your insurance. One Medical had 397,000 members and operated in 77 locations as of September 30, according to the filing.

One Medical's last private valuation was $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook.

According to the company's filings, One Medical's net losses deepened as membership climbed. From 2017 to 2018, losses widened from $31.7 million to $44.4 million. For the first nine months of 2019, One Medical's net loss was $34.2 million.

The company had about 397,000 members as of September 30, up from 346,000 at the end of 2018.

In its filing, One Medical listed the top shareholders in the company and their stakes.

These are One Medical's top investors, and how much their stakes are worth:

• The Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm that in 2018 led a $220 million private financing round for One Medical, taking on a massive stake in the company. As of the IPO, Carlyle Group owns 28.2 million shares, or 22.9% of One Medical after the offering, a stake worth $506.8 million based on the $18 a-share price One Medical started trading at on Friday. 
• Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley venture firm that was an early investor in One Medical, owns 13.6 million shares of One Medical, worth $245.3 million. The firm has a 11.1% stake in the company after the offering.
• Oak Investment Partners, another early investor in One Medical, owns 12 million shares, or 9.8% after the offering. That stake is worth $216.4 million based on the opening share price Friday. 
• Tom Lee, the founder of One Medical who served as its CEO until 2017, owns 8.2 million shares of One Medical ahead of the IPO, or 6.6% after the offering, a stake worth $148.3 million at the top of the range. According to the filing, Lee resigned from One Medical's board of directors in August. A doctor and entrepreneur, Lee has since gone on to found a new healthcare startup called Galileo, which offers a mix of online and in-person care.
• DAG Ventures, another early investor in One Medical, owns 8 million shares, or 6.5% after the offering. That stake is worth $143.6 million.
• GV, which led One Medical's $30 million Series F round in 2013, owns 6.2 million shares of One Medical, or 5% after the offering, a stake worth $111.3 million. 
• JPMorgan, which led One Medical's $65 million financing round in 2015, owns 5.7 million shares, or 4.7%. That stake is worth $103 million.
• Maverick, another early investor in One Medical, owns 5.5 million shares, or 4.4%, a stake worth $98.3 million.
• Amir Dan Rubin, 50, is the president, CEO, and chair of the board at One Medical. Rubin joined One Medical in August 2017 after working as an executive at UnitedHealth Group's Optum division. Before that, he was the CEO of Stanford Health Care. He owns 5.3 million shares of One Medical, a 4.2% stake in the company after the offering. That stake is worth $95.6 million.
• Andrew Diamond, 49, is the chief medical officer of One Medical, overseeing the doctors that practice at One Medical's clinics. He is also a member of the company's board of directors. He has served as the company's chief medical officer since September and was the company's national medical director before that. Diamond has been practicing with One Medical since 2007, according to his LinkedIn profile. He owns 304,309 shares in One Medical, worth $5.5 million.
• Kimber Lockhart, 33, is One Medical's chief technology officer and a member of the board of directors. She joined the company in 2014 and became chief technology officer in 2015. Before One Medical, she worked at the cloud-storage company Box. Lockhart owns 620,390 shares in One Medical, worth $11.2 million.
• Kalen Holmes, 53, is a member of One Medical's board, which she joined in January 2017. A former Starbucks executive, Holmes also sits on the board of Red Robin and Zumiez. She owns 31,915 shares of One Medical, worth $574,470 at the opening price.  
• David Kennedy, 49, a partner at Serent Capital, has been on the board of One Medical since 2007. He owns 381,341, worth $6.8 million at the opening price.

This article was published on January 6 and has been updated.

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Billionaire financier George Soros is calling for Mark Zuckerberg to give up control of Facebook.
• Soros and Facebook are trapped in a bitter and long-running dispute over Facebook's impact on society.
• Soros argues that Zuckerberg and Trump's interests are aligned, and that there's an "informal mutual assistance operation" between them.
• In a column in The New York Times on Friday, Soros wrote that Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg "should not be left in control of Facebook."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

George Soros is gunning for Mark Zuckerberg again.

On Friday, the billionaire investor published a column in The New York Times calling for Zuckerberg to be forced to give up control of Facebook, inflaming the long-running and bitter dispute between the social network and the Hungarian-American philanthropist.

Facebook's policy decisions on political advertising are benefiting Donald Trump, and the interests of Trump and the 34-year-old billionaire CEO are "aligned," Soros argued: "I believe that Mr. Trump and Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, realize that their interests are aligned — the president's in winning elections, Mr. Zuckerberg's in making money."

Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg must relinquish control of Facebook, Soros said, suggesting they must be forced to if necessary: "I repeat and reaffirm my accusation against Facebook under the leadership of Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg. They follow only one guiding principle: maximize profits irrespective of the consequences. One way or another, they should not be left in control of Facebook."

Soros' column is an escalation of remarks he made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier in January, when he said he believed there was "an informal mutual assistance operation or agreement developing between Trump and Facebook." (A Facebook spokesperson called the remarks "plain wrong" at the time.) It is the latest salvo in a years-long contentious clash between Soros and Facebook. 

In January 2018, George Soros lambasted Facebook (and Google) as a "menace" to society with damaging effects on democracy. 

Facebook responded by engaging opposition research firm Definers to smear Soros and anti-Facebook activists in attacks that were decried by critics as anti-Semitic (Soros is Jewish, and a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories). After Facebook's actions were revealed by The New York Times in November 2018, Facebook dropped the firm, and Zuckerberg denied knowledge of it.

A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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• Years of Mark Zuckerberg's old Facebook posts have vanished. The company says it 'mistakenly deleted' them.

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• Mark Zuckerberg has grown "more religious" over the past few years.
• The Facebook CEO said the birth of his daughters and the challenges his company have faced have influenced his faith.
• The 35-year-old tech exec made the rare public comments about religion at a conference in Utah.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's grown more religious over the last few years as a result of fatherhood and the "challenges we've been through as a company."

In an on-stage interview at a conference in Utah on Friday, the 35-year-old technology executive made rare public comments about his Jewish faith.

Asked about who his mentors are Zuckerberg segued into a discussion about religion. "I've become more religious," he said: "The last few years have been really humbling for me."

He went on: "I think there's a comfort in knowing and having confidence that there are things bigger than you ... it's why I have so much faith in democracy overall, it's why I care so much about giving people a voice."

Zuckerberg attributed his evolution to two factors: The issues his company has faced over the last few years, and the birth of his two daughters, now aged four and two. 

He added: "You have to believe in things that are bigger than yourself."

Zuckerberg subsequently jokingly clarified that "I did not mean to say that God is a mentor."

The billionaire chief executive grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York in a Jewish household. He only rarely talks about his faith, and in a reply to a Facebook post in 2016 said that after a period of questioning in his life, he no longer considered himself an atheist. " I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important," he wrote.

His wife Priscilla Chan is Buddhist, he wrote in a Facebook post in 2015.

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• Musician Grimes, who is reportedly the girlfriend of tech billionaire Elon Musk, opened up about her pregnancy and how she feels "woefully ill prepared."
• She posted a photo on Instagram asking her followers for pregnancy advice and apologizing for not promoting her album more or posting on social media more often.
• She went on to describe her pregnancy for the first time, talking about how it has "been good" but taken a toll on her physically.
• Grimes said she felt "woefully ill prepared" because she said she didn't really understand what she was getting into.
• "I didn't even google it, I was just like sure [why] not," she concluded her post.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Musician Grimes, who is reportedly dating tech billionaire Elon Musk, opened up about her pregnancy and how she feels "woefully ill prepared."

Grimes wrote on Instagram asking for pregnancy advice and apologizing to fans for not promoting her album more.

"This whole thing has been a bit of an ordeal," Grimes wrote. "Had some complications early on, a decent second trimester but starting to hurt everywhere at 25 wksz [sic]."

Despite the complications, the pop star mentioned that "it's been good too," but has taken a toll on her physically. Grimes said she felt "woefully ill prepared" because she said she didn't really understand what she was getting into.

"I didn't even google it, I was just like sure [why] not," she concluded her post.

The musician first ignited pregnancy rumors on Instagram after posting a semi-nude photo of her with a fetus Photoshopped onto her stomach with a caption about being "knocked up." She subsequently posted another photo on Twitter of her looking pregnant, to which Musk cryptically responded "x is y."

The couple officially went public with their relationship after appearing together at the Met Gala in 2018.

• Read more:
• Musician Grimes appears to have confirmed her pregnancy on Twitter, adding to speculation that she and Elon Musk are having a baby
• Musician Grimes posted a 2nd photo where she appears pregnant, adding to speculation she and Elon Musk are having a baby
• 'X is y': Elon Musk sent a cryptic tweet in response to his partner, Grimes, as pregnancy rumors swirl

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This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. This report is exclusively available to enterprise subscribers. To learn more about getting access to this report, email Senior Account Executive Jeff Jordan at jjordan@businessinsider.com, or check to see if your company already has access.

Although competition in the US wireless carrier market remains fierce, the price war among the Big Four US carriers — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint — began to cool over the past year.

In an attempt to avoid further competition on price, carriers began shifting their focus to adding value to their mobile plans with new offerings to differentiate from the competition. This helped average revenue per user (ARPU) start to stabilize across all carriers in Q1 2018, after declining over the last two years.

The Big Four have now begun reshuffling their unlimited plans to lure subscribers by providing more options. This strategy has been unrolling in two flavors: introducing new, expensive unlimited plan tiers loaded with an array of features and choices, while also catering to price-sensitive customers with more affordable plans that strip away extra perks like free digital content and international coverage. As a result, a new battleground is emerging, with differentiation now coming down to the value loaded in their mobile plans.

Looking forward, the US carrier market will see competitive pressure pick up due to a number of trends: 

• The US smartphone market is creeping toward saturation. Penetration in the US hit 85% in 2018, up from 82% in 2017 and 77% in 2016.
• eSIM technology is making it easier for consumers to switch carriers. eSIM technology is a nonphysical SIM card slot that pairs with the physical SIM card to enable dual-SIM functionality — allowing customers to switch carriers without changing to a different SIM card or device.
• And cable mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are edging in on US carriers' share of wireless adds. Cable MVNOs, such as Comcast's Xfinity Mobile and Charter's Spectrum Mobile, are expected to snag roughly 50% of total wireless customer net adds, or about 2.2 million subscribers, by 2020.

All of this means fostering loyalty and winning over new subscribers is more important than ever for the Big Four, making it crucial for these mobile carriers to understand consumer sentiment around their services.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence uses consumer survey data from our proprietary panel, collected during 2017 and 2018, to evaluate which features are most important to consumers when selecting a mobile provider, as well as to determine which features would convince them to switch to the competition. It contains insights that can help telecoms guide strategic investment and marketing decisions to win and retain customers in this increasingly competitive space.

The companies mentioned in the report are: AT&T, Amazon, Apple, Charter, Comcast, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Sprint, T-Mobile, Tidal, and Verizon.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• T-Mobile came out on top again, outpacing the rest of the Big Four US carriers on value, loyalty, and satisfaction. T-Mobile customers want to see coverage improvements, though. 
• Verizon customers don't see much more value in its offerings than a year ago.
• AT&T was the only carrier to show declines in all capacities. 
• Sprint is still a good deal, but it doesn't offer much else.
• When it comes to features, subscribers still value the basics most. However, demand for international coverage is growing.
• 5G is the next major battleground for the Big Four, and the winner of the 5G race has the potential to leap ahead in customer volumes. 

 In full, the report:

• Determines the features that are most important to consumers when selecting a mobile provider.  
• Identifies which features are nice to have or essential in consumers' willingness to switch carriers. 
• Examines consumers' feelings on emerging technologies and trends in the mobile industry, such as 5G, new network-connected devices, and the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.

SEE ALSO: 5G in the IoT: How the next generation of wireless technology will transform the IoT

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• Airbnb quietly acquired Eliot, a real-time pricing calculator for rental property owners, in a previously unreported 2018 deal, an Airbnb spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

• Airbnb had already rolled out a similar tool to Eliot in 2015 called "Smart Pricing."
• Airbnb did not disclose how much it paid for the deal or what it did with Eliot's team or product.
• Airbnb has acquired more than two dozen startups in its journey toward becoming a public company, which it said it plans to do in 2020.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. 

Airbnb bought up Eliot, an on-demand rental pricing tool, in a previously unreported deal in October 2018, an Airbnb spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

Eliot, founded in 2017 by Edouard Tabet, analyzed "billions of vacation rental pricing points to accuratly [sic] predict short-term rental revenue, trends and price surge events," its website said in 2018, according to The Internet Archive.

On-demand or "surge" pricing, where prices for a product fluctuate as demand ebbs and flows, has been an essential aspect of platform-based companies like Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, allowing them to make more money during busy times and keep consumers coming during slower periods.

In 2015, Airbnb rolled out its Smart Pricing feature, which it said "allows hosts to set pricing controls that automatically adjust to demands in order to stay competitively priced." Since Smart Pricing's debut predated the Eliot by several years, it's unclear whether Airbnb wanted to acquire the company's technology and talent, buy out a potential competitor, or both.

Airbnb did not disclose how much it paid for the company or what the terms were, though Tabet's LinkedIn profile lists his current job title as "head of growth, Growth & Traffic" at Airbnb. The domain for Bold's website now redirects to a company called Velo Payments, which says it's "making the payouts process accurate, reliable and easy." Business Insider could not confirm whether there is any connection between the companies.

Bold is among several acquisitions made by Airbnb that the company has been relatively quiet about, in contrast to its purchases of companies like HotelTonight and Luxury Retreats. With Airbnb preparing to go public in 2020, investors will be paying close attention to how each of its more than 20 past purchases have paid off.

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