Caspar Lee went viral on YouTube in the 2010s, leading to some mind-boggling million-dollar paydays.
“I started making YouTube videos when I was 16. It wasn’t really a business avenue. I just thought, this is a cool thing and I want to try to build it up as big as I can,” Lee, 31, told The Times of London in a Friday, July 4, profile. “When I was 18, I asked my parents if I could take a year off before going to university and do YouTube full time. At that point I had two or three thousand pounds in my bank account.”
As Lee started making more videos, his income slowly grew, too.
“I was fortunate to be part of [a] group of YouTubers in the right place at the right time, and the audience and figures grew,” Lee recalled. “I managed to interview Ed Sheeran, Kevin Hart [and] Dwayne Johnson. I turned my YouTube channel into a talk show. I think nearly 10 million people saw the Ed Sheeran video — that was when things really took off. By the time I was 21, I’d made my first million.”
He added, “It felt good to get to that point and have a financial cushion for me and my family, but making even more money doesn’t incrementally make you more happy. Even though I made an extreme amount of money quickly, I didn’t know how long it would last.”
For Lee, who didn’t grow up overtly wealthy, he tried to save “as much as possible.”
“It’s kind of how someone feels when they win the lottery,” he said. “I don’t really get a buzz from spending. If I spend money on something that I think can make more money one day, then I get a buzz, but I don’t like buying something that I know is just going to lose its value the second I walk out the room.”
Lee has since transitioned his career offline, launching multiple businesses and a venture capital fund, also worth millions.
“I can’t really see a time when I’ll stop working. You never know what’s going to happen with global politics or economics, so I hope to have a diverse portfolio of investments that will keep me going,” he added. “My venture fund has been incredible. I’ve invested a lot of my personal money into that.”
All in all, Lee wants to be able to build “a nest to look after [his] family.”
“I don’t have children yet, but I want to make sure my future family will be well looked after,” Lee, who married model Ambar Driscoll in February, added. “Once you feel secure financially, any additional money doesn’t necessarily make you happier. Some people spend their life trying to just chase money for the wrong reason, but I really enjoy building things. It’s the process, not the money, that makes me happy.”
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