Casey Neistat is a veteran YouTuber responsible for some of the craziest content even by today’s standards. He built his name and career from the ground up. Today, we’ll look at how Casey Neistat cemented his legacy as one of the most influential YouTubers of all time.
Who is Casey Neistat?
Casey Neistat is a YouTuber, businessman, and an influencer. He dropped out of High School at 16 and became a father just a year later. He moved out of his trailer park home and went to New York to serve as a dishwasher then moved to connecticut to become a short line cook.
Everything began to look up for Casey when he found his passion, filmmaking.
What Does He Do?
His career’s beginning could be traced back to the viral short film he made in 2003. In the film, he criticized apple for not having replaceable batteries for their music players. It was titled “iPod’s Dirty Secret”. In 2008, things began to look up for him when HBO bought his and his brother’s series called “The Neistat Brothers”. It was reported that HBO bought it for $2 million.
Around the same time, he started posting short film in his YouTube channel. The most notable would be “Bike Lanes”. In the video, he criticized why police officers give bikers tickets when they do not stay in their lane. Neistat demonstrated his point by staying in the bicycle lane, stumbling across multiple obstacles in the process.
He then began his vlogging career shortly after. As of today, he has made over 1,000 videos with over 12 million subscribers. Watch below Neistat’s most popular video with over 73 million views.
In an Entrepreneur Article, he shared what runs in his mind whenever he works with a brand. Being a well-known figure in the influencer space, he worries that the brand’s desired message and approach may be executed at the expense of his principles. He said:
“For traditional marketers, and traditional advertising, it is a really scary place to be. And then for the influencers, the individuals who are the mouthpiece for it, it’s a really frightening position to be in because you have this big fat check in front of you and oftentimes you can be asked to compromise your value or your integrity to pay the rent,”
Social Media and Net Worth
Multiple famous brands have also asked for Neistat’s help for their commercials. One of the most notable was his work with Nike, “Make it Count”. The short film depicts Casey and his friend spending all the budget traveling the world while filming their experiences. Check it out below:
Casey was also behind Beme, a now-defunct media company, Beme, a video sharing platform. CNN purchased the company from Neistat for a whopping $25 million in 2016. After two years, Neistat and co-founder Matt Hackett severed ties with the news organization.
He has an estimated net worth of $12 million coming from YouTube and works with other brands. If you don’t want to miss updates about his life make sure you check him out on Instagram and subscribe to his YouTube channel.
Opinions expressed by AsianBlurb contributors are their own.
Sam Kimen is a lifestyle reporter in Los Angeles covering internet culture. Sam is passionate about influencer marketing and the entrepreneurial side of social media.
