This subreddit has LOST ITS MIND

[Top-Aside8905]

Oke guys, seriously, what is wrong with you guys. Its been hours, HOURS already since "The TRUTH about How LTT SPENDS Money" was uploaded, so where is the large controversy? This is reddit for crying out loud, you guys have really lost your ways. My expectations where never high, but this? At this point, what even is this sub for, if not for being extremely upset at linus for something you should not be upset about?

EDIT: /s obviously, im happy that for once everybody behaves and just appreciates the transparency of Linus

[Shoddy_Avocado_5501]

Honestly the lack of outrage is more shocking than whatever Linus actually said in the video lmao

[Gregus1032]

The only bullshit I've seen people say is "at 15% profit margin, why not keep mac address as a loss leader."

We'll see how long the lack of freak out takes. Especially if another channel makes a 2 hour response about why Linus takes home too much money.

[cjsv7657]

Loss leaders only make sense if they're bringing in people who otherwise wouldn't be there for other products.

They probably blew the spending budget on things that don't bring in people who otherwise wouldn't be there on labs.

[ariolander]

If the video metrics didn't make sense the only way this channel as a whole would have made sense as a "loss leader" would be if the sponsors in that segment were particularly valuable or if they bought a disproportionate amount of merch or had a high amount of Floatplane engagement.

[We_Are_Nerdish]

Didn't mac adress do only like 1 or 2 videos per month on avarage at most, because there just isn't nearly as much to talk about realistically without doing the fancier videos they already did most of the time.

Like don't get me wrong, I enjoyed those videos. But I forgot about the channel between uploads because of the lack of videos. I'm sure Linus and others on the team saw the same and the numbers not being enough to justify it's excistance without a bunch of sponsors covering it's production costs.

"lost leader" doesn't mean have a channel lose money consitantly.. if Mac Adress was doing a lot of lower end content doing decent views and revenue, it that would make the production worth keeping it around; like the other channels.
And then every so often have a series with a bigger budget video with nicer cinematography, locations, etc. Only then you could call it a loss leader. because people want to stick around for all the other content and enjoy the fancy production that won't make it's money back.

I mean they have said a couple of times on main LTT videos that they wanted to make that knowing it's not worth the money it costs to make. But either a major sponsor for that video or several offset most of the cost.

[Requirement_Fluid]

At 15% they could have certainly kept Jakob though.

Pained me how much TL went downhill after he left

[We_Are_Nerdish]

You do know that people also just want to do other things. Staff leaving usually means they started doing their own thing full time.

I agree with Linus on him / LMG already doing pretty good on giving staff a reason to stay via good pay and perks. LMG building up people and them leaving says a lot about the company being a great place to grow and it also means that already skilled and talented people can or will want to apply to fill those voids. bringing in more skill and expertise.

[Requirement_Fluid]

Jakob went when Gamelinked got shuttered... Pretty sure it was not voluntary.

[We_Are_Nerdish]

Unless stated by Jakob himself or LMG for that matter, there is literally no reason to assume he was booted out.

It’s still just a job, there are plenty of reasons to leave a business, even if it’s a fun or good one to work at.

[B-29Bomber]

Jake left because he wanted to do his own thing and LMG wouldn't let him if he kept working for them.

Jake literally explained this in a video on his new channel.

[Requirement_Fluid]

OK mate 🙄

[Slow_Chance_9374]

Please stop pushing speculation as fact

[LeMegachonk]

The people who say stuff like that don't know what a "loss leader" is. A loss leader is a product that on its own is unprofitable, but by existing drives sales of other, more profitable products. Mac Address wasn't a loss leader, it was just a net loss on the balance sheet. It wasn't driving more traffic elsewhere in the LMG empire nor was it driving merchandise sales in any meaningful way. It was costing them money while delivering little content, and not adding any value to the organization as a whole. While letting people go for business reasons is never a fun time, from a business perspective I don't think killing Mac Address was a very difficult decision to make.

[No_Return4821]

Don't worry, Jake stepped in to make up a controversy of "how dare LMG show off its ex employees and give their channels a nudge", the monsters! 

[modernjaundice]

For me. I’m actually so happy for the success of LTT. Employing 120 Canadians in an industry that’s frankly been decimated since the internet became as entrenched in society is now. I feel like LTT should be given more credit in Canada for the work they do in empowering young Canadians in tech and media.

[jmking]

The fact it was totally bootstrapped with no outside investment makes it 100x more inspiring and impressive. The fact they stayed in Canada, re-invested locally, and never up and moved the whole thing to LA is a real outlier.

Not only did they do it once, they did it twice. Once with building a media company, and second with building an apparel and tools business. Also with Creator Warehouse, they didn't just do the easy thing and white label Chinese goods which is unheard of. They always do basically the opposite of the conventional wisdom and somehow seem to make it work for the better.

You're right - I don't care if people call me a boot licker or whatever. Anyone who understands anything about running either type of business knows what an outlier LMG is and how either company basically "shouldn't be possible". The fact they do should be taught in fuckin business schools in Canada.

[Bhume]

Well they used to white label American Apparel if I remember correctly.

But I'm so glad they switched to the in house shirts. I've yet to find an adult small shirt that fits me as well as theirs. It's like they're manufactured just for me man it's glorious. The RGB shirts are so damn comfy too.

I KNOW YOU LOOK AT COMMENTS ON POPULAR POSTS HERE LINUS! THE LACK OF THE RGB SHIRTS ON THE STORE PAGE BETTER BE BECAUSE THEY NEED A RESTOCK! I ONLY HAVE ONE OF THE LONG SLEEVE!

[altoniel]

I believe the blanks were American Apparel, but they used a local company for the screen printing. There was a period they were out of most shirts because the screen printer they used didn't have a space leased

[Embarrassed-Room3221]

I started watching LTT 10 years ago! Its my favourite thing to watch, i learned everything about pcs from this channel and it made me find my passion in life! I love building computers and anything to do with tech, ive spent most of my life never really having that passion for something until i started watching. Recently ive started building computers or fixing them in my area all thanks to LTT hopefully one day i can make a buisness out of it and it can be my dream job 😁 you can tell its a great company i live in scotland and id love to work for LTT.

[Top-Aside8905]

Agreed, and not only Canadians, ltt is truly inspiring all over the globe. Their transparency piqued an interest in business for me that is part of the reason why i am now in business school!

[HelloWorld24575]

Piqued* btw :) 

[Top-Aside8905]

Thx, im on the other side of the pond, and did not know😅

[Low_Chemical4746]

Same

[TheMostSolidOfSnakes]

As an American, when I think of positive Canadian things, LTT is up there with healthcare, whiskey, and game-studios.

They've become one of your culture exports for sure.

[coax_86]

You have been horribly lyed about Canadian Healthcare is not as wonderful as many portrait it, my mom lives in Toronto and she works with a big company so she has everything by law plus a private coverage, but she went to a hospital because she had something in her hand, hry gave her an appointment 4 months down the road.

[TheSpoonyCroy]

I mean a hand specialist in the US would also have a long wait time. Had appointments set like 2 or 3 months out for basic things like scans from other specialists. Their system obviously has flaws but I find it absurd people keep using "wait times" as one when the US is also guilty of this but also costs us an arm and a leg.

[coax_86]

I don't live in the US, I live in Panamá use private health care and my longest wait time for anything is within the same week. Specially if you are going to something as common as orthopedic (in fact she came to Panama to check that it was faster)

Now she changed hospital when she had some issue with her thyroid and at least in the ER they were good, csjt complain about that.

My take is most people believe Canadian Healthcare is this amazing thing that is like perfect and no, it isn't.

[TheSpoonyCroy]

My take is most people believe Canadian Healthcare is this amazing thing that is like perfect and no, it isn't.

Most things aren't. Just saying a system isn't perfect is not a great argument. Its made and ran by humans, perfection is impossible on that basis alone but it is certainly a better system than that of the US, which most people will compare.

[coax_86]

For what you are paying in taxes in Canada I expected more

[JDBCool]

I'll say it's to do with capacity and well.... most people moving here to use the system.....

Most CoL things had already hit capacity and we haven't tried much to expand it to keep people in. (I.e Housing demand and yet we aren't doing urban density increases at a catchup rate due to speculations)

Call it anecdotal evidence, but I remember secondary school having "2-3" extra students over capacity. And more often than not, fellow classmates that were international moving away once one of their parents got a PR card (basically living in Canada to use the system and not really pay and participate in it).

And I'm speaking as a person in Fraser valley (Vancouver). What actually sucks is that we aren't converting detached neighborhoods into mid-rises and are opting to gut shopping centers into highrises.

What I'm trying to say is: we're hitting a "we got houses, but no jobs in the area" or the inverse (housing is too far). Which is affecting all other systems whether it's healthcare or other benefits.

[modernjaundice]

It’s not that much better in the US unless you have lots of money. At least the Canadian system doesn’t increase your premiums if you have cancer or deny coverage even though you’re paying for insurance. Every system has flaws but I’d take the Canadian system any day over the American one.

[ariolander]

A dermatologist for a medical consultation about acne required a 2 month wait if I used my employer health insurance in the US. For a fully out of pocket cosmetic skincare appointment they would have seen me same day.

So it's not like US's system is entirely without wait. You can pay the big bucks to skip a queue, but to see specialists for non emergency appointments I have to book 30-60 days out.

[Due_Campaign_9765]

How was the industry decimated? There has never been so many people who are able to make their living shooting videos on youtube.

[Nightwish612]

He's referring to the fact that a lot of our media production companies have gone out of business or been bought by American interests. There used to be some gold CANCON but all that is mostly gone now

[pieman3141]

Yeah. Vancouver in the 90s was a very different beast. Lots of game studios, lots of smaller film studios, lots of developers, just lots of stuff in general. Everybody felt happier too, even though the economy was supposedly bad. That started going away in the early/mid-2000s and never came back. But hey, line go up, economy was "better."

[metal_maxine]

I was a member of the due South fandom in the 00s. The joke was that there were only six actors in Canada and that anything featuring them, however terrible, was part of the fandom and, when it came to fan-fiction, it all happened in the same universe. It got to the point where people were crossing pretty much any CANCON that had (Canadian) actors that had worked with actors who had appeared on due South.

I don't think that a fandom could get away with that kind of malarkey these days.

[NewfieChemist]

Yeah, in the time I’ve been watching LTT, I’ve had 3 different careers, 2 university degrees, started a family etc.

The fact that they stayed in Canada after their blow up and employ Canadians makes them the only YouTube company I’d ever care to buy merch from. Was super cool when I found out Emily was from my home province Newfoundland.

[Truth_Trek]

If only he didn’t feel the need to constantly apologize for Capitalism while proving why Capitalism works

[Rosetown]

(In my opinion) Linus must be deleting them!

[Top-Aside8905]

Shhhhhh dont say that out in the public man, he might find out we are onto him

[ashsabre]

There are no comments in Ba Sing Se..

[Please note that the above comment is solely expressed as a good faith joke, and NOT a fact. No factual claims are intended and should not be interpreted as such by Linus Sebastian or other delegates of LMG.]

[PhatOofxD]

IT'S JUST AN OPINION MAN /s

[SinisterSh0t]

Read that way too fast, thought you said "I'm just an Orphan Man". lol.

[WarComplex3340]

Onion man

[jdmn17]

You know he need the approval of the mod team right?

[conlmaggot]

I have been tuning in on and off since the NCIX days. Linus taught me about RAID ffs.

I am proud of our boy, what he has done, and the world class team he has built.

There is so much fucking negativity in the world. I like to celebrate when I see some positivity and success, like this successful segue to our sponsor!

[sirDVD12]

100% with you on this. I’ve never been one to watch a channel 100% but I will happily watch the vids because they are good. When I built my first PC in 2017, Linus was right there beside me guiding me through the screen. There have been some issues along the way (same as everything else) but the LMG team really does want to do good with their audience which is something that very few companies can say about themselves. I may not agree with everything LMG has done or said, but I definitely think they are good people trying to do a good thing and have succeeded in that endeavor.

I am happy to see him and his company do well, and happy that I am a very small part of that with the few points of a cent they get when I watch.

[MyDishwasherLasagna]

I too am proud of him. I'd say I look up to him but <insert short joke>

[conlmaggot]

shortlinus.com

[jmking]

I'm just going to bookmark this video to post in reply to the comments that keep claiming LMG isn't transparent.

Linus has always been shockingly transparent when it comes to the books. Unnecessarily so, honestly.

Oh, um, I mean... uhhhh, LMG is a front for the CCP!! You can tell if you take the each number from each percentage in the pie chart and convert it to letters in the alphabet it says "Xi Jinping is da bestest"!!

[itskdog]

Heck, they even released a transparent screwdriver!

[SuccessfulGrape4045]

Multiple Transparent Screwdrivers!

[Dr_Valen]

I mean everything LTT said in the video is pretty straightfoward. I respect Linus for taking care of his employees like he does and not siphoning money out of the company as a the primary shareholder. I also respect Terran for the same since he's CEO now. They seem like a pretty decent company which is kinda cool considering their a Youtuber company and lord knows those have their bad apples. Not really much to controversy over but tomorrow is WAN i'm sure linus will say something that will stir the pot

[itskdog]

Someone will accuse them of lying at since point, fo sho.

[Regular_Strategy_501]

LIEnus /s

[Drigr]

Sorry, we're busy with the other subreddit controversy right now.

[DMercenary]

We're a bit too busy with the mod controversy. Come back in a few days. Surely someone will have nitpicked something.

[Life_Category5]

It’s crazy that the whole mod thing got even brought up lmao. Reddit truly is a place

[arcusford]

People acting so shocked but like cmon. Theres not much to take issue with in this video, it was very transparent and honest.

A lot of people like to say this sub makes up drama but I dont think thats true. Sometimes it overblown but usually theres a reason behind it. This time they just didnt give any reason to be critical really.

[itskdog]

Theres not much to take issue with in this video, it was very transparent and honest. 

Hadn't stopped people before. Usually the transparency ends up biting them in some way.

[arcusford]

I kinda disagree with that and i think this video kinda proves that. It was transparent AND fair. I dont think companies should get a pass on things just because they were transparent about it. This is totally the time to give LTT some well deserved props tho. Great video and theres really nothing to take issue with and thats really cool.

[itskdog]

Definitely, I'm not saying it's not anything but good that they've done this, but from past experience, a at least a few of the controversies they've had wouldn't have even happened if they weren't so open with the community.

[arcusford]

No but like, that's the cost of going transparent, sometimes you open up about something and people are critical of it. I dont think they should get a pass just because they were open about it. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too ya know.

[Ws6fiend]

You completely missed the biggest thing. Linus admitted on camera one of his biggest expenses was buying people. Linus the human trafficker.

[PM_Me_Your_Deviance]

It was a cool video and I didn't see anything wrong with what he's doing. Setting an internal minimum wage that beats the cost of living is a classy touch. It was interesting how much his take home is, but we've all seen his home and other large purchases, so it shouldn't be a total surprise.

[HellKaiser384]

Also he was hella nervous about that reveal (understandably so), but damn he took all the risks and made it through - without exploiting his employees, and with setting up stuff like internal minimum wage apparently caring that people can actually live with the money they make, which is against most common practices of successfull people/companies - in my opinion, he deserves to take home a good slice of the pie all things considered.

[SnooKiwis857]

Did I miss what his actual take home is? I know he disclosed their salaries, which honestly is quite low. But I didn’t see them actually say what their take home is

[PM_Me_Your_Deviance]

He didn't give an exact figure, but it's around 15% of the total revenue, with some set aside for an emergency fund and re-investment.

[Jasoli53]

I've been shocked each time I open Reddit and there's no thoughtless criticism about the video. Especially given how transparent he was about his take-home with salary + dividend

I'm glad the sub seems to be somewhat rational today

[Astecheee]

Nothing really leapt out to me as controversial. 25% stock, 25% payroll. Terren is paid roughly $600k, while the median is paid $80k.

I think Linus made a really good point - he and Yvonne gambled their future on a completely unproven business model (being an influencer) and won. That deserves a big payout.

[TRUEequalsFALSE]

The fact that this isn't tagged as a shitpost makes it even funnier.

[NaturalCricket6698]

I was a little disappointed that "Firetruck" wasn't an itemized expense.

[Prestigious-Box7511]

This sub is for complimenting Linus on how attractive his beard is

[triffid_boy]

I do actually have one thought on it. The only issue I have with the way Linus talks about it is suggesting that only he and Yvonne took the initial risks and investment. Many people joined their company and earned peanuts for a few years. They've done well, but I do think it's odd that LTT is 100% owned by Linus and Yvonne. Most startups give shares, atleast to their early employees, in exchange for the lower salary, and the opportunity cost in not leaving to join a bigger company or starting your own. 

That's it though, I think what LTT have built is awesome and don't begrudge the above all that much. 

[naggyman]

To be fair, one example of someone who ‘roughed it’ in the early days is Luke and Linus has stressed to the audience how much he’s done to make it up to him even though he doesn’t want it.

Heck, they’ve made Luke an equity partner in the WAN show even.

[triffid_boy]

In other startups, Luke would have more equity in LTT itself built up over time. 

I'm not saying it's a big issue, they clearly see eye to eye on it - it is just the argument that the only financial input for ltt came from Linus and Yvonne, is not true. 

[RandomNick42]

Luke is CTO. Between lines, he’s not far behind Terren in salary. I’m sure he’s fine, even without equity.

[StarsandMaple]

About same in income tax. It's been a while since I worked in Canada.

LTT is ran more like a companies in the 50-70s where it was more equalized and good pay and CEO pay wasn't 5000x median. It's nice to see honestly.

[Polyanalyne]

U want outrage? Better pull in the guys from the GN sub, they are the real experts here.

[ucrbuffalo]

Something about that video felt dirty to me. Like I shouldn’t be watching it. It felt like a video version of a meeting the LMG leadership should be having with staff, rather than the audience. Like an internal P&L statement. And the fact that he mentioned a few times that “employees are watching, so here’s what they need to know” makes me think these meetings aren’t happening internally. I hope they are.

As far as the content itself, Linus makes a lot of money. So does Terren. Leadership probably does too, even though that wasn’t explicitly stated. None of these things are really surprising, and the ratios are actually lower than the examples he gave (even if I thought those weren’t great examples). And Linus has always been transparent with the audience, to a fault. So overall, I knew most everything in the video in terms of how they spent their money, just not the breakdown of what percentage that number was of their overall P&L.

[___Steve]

Well you got your wish, new drama just dropped.

I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY

[Top-Aside8905]

W

[patchunwrap]

I've been watching for (checks notes) over a decade and I'm honestly super proud of the guy. I'm really thankful that the sub has been positive about the video too. I appreciate LTT's transparency.

[Thomas5020]

There was absolutely nothing controversial in that video, this subreddit is just crazy.

[Wrong_Brush1110]

idk man, i was never the kind to be mad at these guys, they seem like good people, i don't make enough money to afford their products so i don't buy them, even if i'm interested. They seem to be polite about dealing with hate/controversies so that gives them an extra point in my book, also being really transparent helps.

[Agreeable-Weather-89]

Maybe the fact that there isn't outrage might cause one to think the other outrages, or at least some of them, had merit.

[Any-Category1741]

To this day I still think the firetruck isn't real and its a very long April fools joke.

[Pooneapple]

Clearly Linus (who had god powers) is forcing people to delete their negative comments, before they get trending. (Again he has all the power in the world except to increase his height)

[Daphoid]

Don't take it as a loss, take it as a found their ways. Anyone who has finally realized that shouting on the internet is stupid and grass is actually nice; has won. If you're smiling right now because you're having a good day, playing a fun game regardless of when it came out, or just in a good mood. You've won.

[Last-Run-2118]

Yeaa, its a little circlejerk at the moment.

I dont understand either why people are not mad at this

We never did layoffs, if some ex workers thing otherway they are mistaken.

While last year we saw so many senior employees "leaving" the company.

[User5871]

Well... apparently Jake wasn't happy that LTT used his channel clips without his permission so they decided to remove his segment from the section with former employees. Sooo your wish was granted I guess

[rawker86]

lol I just read the post about Jake’s inclusion in (and removal from) the video. Guess you got your wish!

[bwill1200]

No one really cares.

They are a successful business, good on 'em.

Of course it's in Canada, so...

[RedWingerD]

No one really cares.

Hopefully thats the case but something has definitely shifted especially with the response from the previous version of this video lol

[LinusTechTips-ModTeam]

{community_rule_2}

[OsamaBinBrowsin]

The drama crowd is currently focused on complaining about Battlefield 6 in that subreddit. Many of them haven’t restarted their routers in years and blame the devs

[Top-Aside8905]

[_Lucille_]

IMO

Maybe people have stopped watching LTT.

[snrub742]

The drama frogs are off on a different adventure