The tech world is buzzing about a leaked MrBeast employee guide: ‘A clear manifestation of founder mode’

MrBeast is the world’s most popular YouTuber.

MrBeast is the world’s most popular YouTuber. He’s also the hottest new thought leader in Silicon Valley.

A leaked workplace guide from the 26-year-old creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has been circulating in the tech world over the past few weeks, making the rounds on X, LinkedIn, and other social platforms. At one point, it was featured as a top post on startup accelerator Y Combinator’s Hacker News website, as founders, tech workers, and investors plucked out insights from the 36-page document.

In the guidebook, titled “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production,” which B-17 verified with two former MrBeast staffers, Donaldson dove into topics that are top of mind for business folks. He wrote about how he identifies high-productivity workers for his company and why it’s important to be “obsessive” about getting tasks done. He also laid out his views on efficient management. (You can read the full guide here.)

The YouTuber’s approach to leadership immediately drew comparisons on social media to “founder mode,” a buzzy concept that advocates for managers to be more hands-on at their companies. The idea emerged from an interview with Airbnb cofounder Brian Chesky and was popularized in a September blog post from Y Combinator’s Paul Graham.

“The MrBeast memo is a clear manifestation of founder mode,” said Tom Alder, who writes a weekly growth hacks newsletter called Strategy Breakdowns.

Donaldson’s guide “demonstrates an intensity and hardcore mindset that non-founder-led companies seldom possess,” Alder said.

A hardcore founder who writes like a real person

MrBeast’s guidebook is the latest “hardcore” corporate document to go viral in the tech world. Netflix’s culture memo was once a hot topic among tech workers, and Jeff Bezos’ Always Day One mantra inspired company doctrine at other Big Tech firms, including TikTok’s owner ByteDance.

“Leaked internal emails and memos are religious texts for the tech world,” Alder said. “A point-in-time artifact that only gets more compelling as time goes on, as those companies become more prolific.”

Of course, not everyone was on board with the MrBeast workplace manifesto.

One commenter on the Y Combinator post described it as “insane drivel of a sweatshop boss / wannabe cult leader.”

Donaldson’s business practices have also recently come under scrutiny, particularly around the filming of his upcoming show with Amazon.

But the broad popularity of MrBeast’s guide among tech entrepreneurs and startup founders shows how in just a few years, influencers and the creator economy have become legitimate business figures in the tech and media industries.

Donaldson isn’t just the top YouTuber (with 317 million subscribers and counting), he has also expanded beyond social media into several business ventures, including merchandise and products. He’s aiming to earn $700 million in revenue in 2024, per a set of court documents from earlier this year.

“To me, it’s just yet another sign that the YouTube creator space has reached this moment of ignition where you have to think about these kinds of things to build a big business now,” John McCarus, founder of executive search firm Content Ink, said of the MrBeast onboarding guide’s popularity.

Keeping it casual while asking for exceptional work

Donaldson, who has expressed admiration for tech visionaries like Steve Jobs, brought a casual tone to his guidebook that feels different from other company documents that have leaked.

Yes, MrBeast wants “A-Players” who are “obsessive, learn from mistakes, coachable, intelligent, don’t make excuses, believe in Youtube, see the value of this company, and are the best in the goddamn world at their job,” as Donaldson wrote in the guidebook. But he also doesn’t care about workplace decorum in the way that an executive at a bigger company might have to.

“I think this is resonating because it’s so counter to the current trends in work culture today, which seem soft by comparison,” Rachel Roberts Mattox, a brand developer and marketing advisor, said of the MrBeast document.

“He’s not selling employees on a list of benefits they will enjoy, like hybrid work and flexible schedules and unlimited PTO while outlining how to ‘play nice’ with other departments for optimal productivity,” Mattox said. “Quite the opposite. He’s saying if you’re not single-mindedly obsessed and OK with unapologetic micro-managing and radical accountability, quit now.”

Donaldson’s casual, unpretentious writing style was a big factor in helping it spread across the tech world, industry insiders told B-17.

“It feels authentic,” said Marc Cohen, an early-stage tech investor at Unbundled VC. “It feels like it’s written by a person rather than it’s written by a corporation. And when you do that, you get a message across.”

“I really liked the way the document is very raw,” said Abhishek Sharma, a senior product marketing manager at the AI fintech upstart Rafa.ai. “If you look at the other company documents, it’s very fluffy, very corporate jargony and very nice, pretty looking visuals. And this one was straight up Google Doc.”