Jake Paul & The Chainsmokers: Turning Fame into Funds, Jake Enters Politics? & Venture Bubble Signs

Jake Paul argues that durable creator success comes from being entertaining, distinctive and useful to a niche, not from chasing virality. He warns that attention can produce “YouTuber disease,” in which creators say increasingly outrageous things for clicks, and says stricter moderation at one platform may simply drive audiences elsewhere unless platforms coordinate. He recalls Vine’s top 20 creators leaving after the company offered $1 million to divide among them, rather than the $1 million each per year they wanted; they moved to Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, and he says Vine died within months. Before YouTube fame, Paul visited startups, angel-invested and started a social-media-label company. Through Team 10, he says, he signed talent, helped more than 20 people build audiences of millions and pioneered the content-house model.

Paul says boxing began when he agreed to fight two UK brothers with three months to prepare, then won by knockout in Manchester. The audience and commercial potential drew him deeper into the sport; he moved from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico to train with fewer distractions. He cites 138 million Netflix viewers for his fight with Mike Tyson and calls an earlier bout the biggest pay-per-view in amateur boxing. His ambitions include becoming a world champion and exiting a company for $1 billion. He says MVP applies influencer-promotion tactics to combat sports and has 400 fighters across boxing and MMA. Paul contrasts the roughly 15% of revenue he says UFC fighters receive with the 50% share in other professional leagues, and says Sean O’Malley received $600,000 for the White House card. He believes UFC pay and reluctance to fund major bouts leave some fights fans want unrealized; MVP’s merger with PFL, he says, could create a stronger competitor offering better revenue shares, sponsorships and less risk of fights being shelved.

Paul says fighting, content and investing reinforce one another by expanding his audience and businesses. He began angel investing at 18 and later formalized Anti-Fund with Jeff Wu, raising $100 million. Its barbell strategy pairs early-stage first checks and hands-on support with growth investments in companies that have established track records. Paul wants the firm to compete with traditional venture investors on DPI and IRR, while using his reach to give portfolio companies attention and marketing advantages. He also says he may enter politics to help people and make change, predicting that candidates will increasingly use existing social-media audiences to communicate with voters and win votes. He cites Spencer Pratt and Nick Shirley as possible audience-builders who could become leaders, and mentions Trump. Separately, his foundation has opened 40 free boxing gyms for children and supports young boxers through events, tournaments and sponsorships; Paul says he has also helped raise the profile of women’s boxing, which he considers underpaid and underserved.

The Chainsmokers say their music fame and distribution platform brought consumer brands to them, while working with founders showed them how they could help companies, prompting the creation of Mantis. Wynn is the fund’s anchor LP; they say they had performed at Wynn in Las Vegas for eight years and lived in the city for ten. Their early music strategy was direct and labor-intensive: Alex found writers on Hype Machine and sent personalized emails promoting remixes, which they say helped them reach about 30 number-one spots on the site. Artists now have more ways to distribute music and build direct fan communities, but the duo says the model feels broken and they would not know how to start over amid roughly 300,000 daily Spotify uploads.

Mantis invests in Series A companies in cybersecurity, AI, infrastructure, deep tech and health tech, generally without leading rounds. The Chainsmokers describe their role as collaborative support through go-to-market relationships, networking and brand-building, while stressing that founders have different needs and investors must know when to step back. They say celebrity can open doors but also make institutions wary of backing a celebrity-associated fund, so sustained DPI matters for credibility. They favor substantive businesses and long-term visions over hype in a market with abundant liquidity and rising markups. Venture is a difficult first investment, they warn, because it is illiquid, long-duration and labor-intensive; they cite a chart indicating the top 5% of venture investments generate 90% of returns.

The firm is approaching its seventh year and recently had its first significant liquidity event, Fund I’s investment in Underdog Fantasy. Its manager says returning cash to investors is essential even though the firm believes it has built 75% of its business model; Fund I and II investors generally did not invest to play it safe, allowing more latitude to hold winners. The manager says Dandy continues to double annually and has begun expanding internationally, and that liquidity decisions weigh company demand and sentiment against secondary-market supply and demand. SPVs have also connected late-stage investors seeking exposure with early investors seeking liquidity, including in Zipline, Vast, Adams and Go.ai; the latter’s early investors had invested below a $10 million valuation before a later round described as $500–600 million. The manager calls secondary deals that price a second tranche at two or three times a company’s initial valuation without improved underlying performance a bubble, and says that can be a moment to “take a little,” while acknowledging Sequoia may assess such deals differently because its cost of capital may differ. They expect firms to build late-stage and secondary-liquidity businesses as companies remain private longer.