Dude Perfect Got $100M in PE Money. This is What They're Doing With It
Their YouTube channel dwarfs every sports league's. Now I visit the quint at their new HQ as they reveal big plans for their next trick: Grow even more
I write about creators, digital platforms and the $250B global industry they power — including the creator business VC rush and the talent arms race between Netflix, Spotify and YouTube. Email me tips, story ideas and memes at natalie@theankler.com
About 30 minutes north of downtown Dallas, amid a flat expanse of chain restaurants and beige office parks, the Dude Perfect headquarters is an indoor funhouse for sports fans. On the cotton candy-blue basketball court, there are multiple hoops, including three that slide along fixed tracks — making those trick shots all the trickier. A 45-yard football field comes complete with NFL-regulation goal post. And the mini golf course was inspired by some of the sport’s most famous holes.
The 80,000-square-foot facility also features a gym, a putting simulator, a rock climbing wall and a pickleball court. Then there’s the hidden candy room, the secret slide, and the water fountain that dispenses only Body Armor energy drink. Believe it or not, actual work gets done here too. The space is tricked out with an infinity wall, gaming studio, editing bays and Samsung televisions.
The DP basketball court raises the trick-shot game with moving hoops👇
Before I toured DP’s $5 million Frisco, Texas HQ last week as part of its big unveiling event (thanks to YouTube for hosting me), I visited with a friend in Dallas who asked me why the YouTube trick shot pros needed all that space. Sure, everything’s bigger in Texas, but weren’t they just some guys with an iPhone?
These days, Dude Perfect has a lot more in common with a Hollywood studio than with teens filming TikToks from their bedrooms. Over the past 16 years, the five college buddies have built an audience of more than 60 million YouTube subscribers, making their channel the fourth-most followed sports channel in the world, ahead of all the major leagues. They also have 18.4 million followers on TikTok and 13 million on Instagram.
Ten months ago, Dude Perfect took on a $100 million-plus investment from Highmount Capital — one of the biggest investments to date into a creator-led business — to super-charge the business (I tackled this topic last week). “Last year, we really found ourselves at a crossroads,” one of the Dudes, Coby Cotton, tells me. “We could not get away from the feeling that there’s still so much more ahead of us.” Cotton, 37, says he was blown away by the response from possible investors. “We got offers from every PE firm I could think of, all across the board, including full buyouts. It was incredibly affirming and encouraging.”
Together with Highmount, Dude perfect embarked on a months-long search for its first-ever CEO. In October, they named former NBA executive Andrew Yaffe to the role. Since then, they’ve hired a Fanatics veteran as CFO and a chief product officer from cheerleading apparel maker Varsity Spirit — and grown their team to 30 employees with plans to be north of 50 by the end of the year as they focus on building out their retail business and other in-person touch-points for their fans.
“If you’re a sports fan under the age of 35, you’re a Dude Perfect fan,” says Yaffe, 39. “That’s a huge platform for us.”
Yaffe, Cotton and others who spoke to me about the Dude Perfect phenomenon gave me a good look at how they got here and where they might be going next. In this newsletter, I also have the latest on YouTube’s video podcasting growth and what’s driving it, with insights from Tim Katz, the company’s VP of partnerships. Read on to learn:
How Dude Perfect leans into family-friendly content without being “SuperNotCool”
Their ideas for keeping young audiences coming when “we’ve all had surgeries and labrums replaced”
The brand’s next moves: board games, tours and ceding the spotlight to the next generation of tricksters — while still holding the camera
Their plans for a Dude Perfect theme park-style experience to welcome global fans
Why they decided to take on investment and how they decided which investor money to take in the end
How and when they’ll contemplate a sale and exit
Plus: YouTube’s latest milestone win with creators and the strategy to keep even more viewers coming to its video podcasts