Everything you need to know about the leaked PDF from MrBeast

An internal onboarding document leaked from MrBeast's production company has been generating tons of chatter online.

On one hand, the document outlines MrBeast's sky-high expectations for his employees at a time when MrBeast himself is battling allegations of running a toxic workplace environment.

On the other, startup Twitter has embraced the document for its abundance of insights and content strategy gems from YouTube's most popular creator.

What exactly is this PDF?

The 36-page PDF, called “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production,” is an onboarding document for new members of the MrBeast production team.

• The document, which sometimes refers to itself as a “book,” was written by MrBeast himself.

• It was first leaked to YouTuber Rosanna Pansino back in August as part of an ongoing scandal around MrBeast's business practices.

Much of the document gets into the technical weeds of YouTube production — how to optimize thumbnails, how to run ads that minimize churn, etc.

But MrBeast gives equal weight to explaining how be an elite-level performer at his company. This isn't merely an aspiration, MrBeast makes clear in the document, but an expectation:

“There is only room in this company for A-Players. A-Players are obsessive, learn from mistakes, coachable, intelligent, don’t make excuses, believe in Youtube, see the value of this company, and are the best in the goddamn world at their job. B-Players are new people that need to be trained into A-Players, and C-Players are just average employees. They don’t suck but they arn’t[sic] exceptional at what they do.”

Who is MrBeast?

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the world's most popular YouTuber with 316 million subscribers. He's also the #3-most followed account on TikTok.

He's known for making attention-grabbing videos involving huge sums of money and massive stunts, for example:

• I Gave People $1,000,000 But ONLY 1 Minute To Spend It! (213 million views)

• I Spent 50 Hours In Solitary Confinement (322 million views)

• I Bought Everything in 5 Stores (179 million views)

He's also known for philanthropy, which he incorporates into his videos, such as when he paid for 1,000 people to have eyesight-restoring cataract surgery.

But over the summer, MrBeast became embroiled in quagmire of scandals and criticism, ranging from exploiting vulnerable people by profiting from offering them free cash, to employing someone accused of sexual assault. And multiple participants from a MrBeast Production show called Beast Games have claimed that the show subjected them to dangerous working conditions.

Since the allegations, MrBeast, who cares deeply about his brand and image, has gone uncharacteristically silent on Twitter, where he hasn't tweeted since late July. Meanwhile, he continues to release videos on YouTube and TikTok.

Why does this PDF leak matter?

The leaked PDF has seemed to touch a nerve in everyone who's read it.

Popular YouTube influencers like Rosanna Pansino, who leaked the PDF, have ridiculed the document as clear evidence of toxic, unfair, and even dangerous workplace practices. Of particular note is the section where he ranks employees using an A, B, C hierarchy:

Also, this section about how production should treat the actors has been making the rounds for its alleged "boys will be boys" attitude:

But the tech startup world has viewed the doc much more favorably, as a rare glimpse at the strategies and tactics employed by a top performer.

After Starter Story founder Pat Walls called the PDF a “must read for anyone creating content” on X last week, a multitude of founders and tech leaders chimed in about the doc and its merits:

• Simon Willison, the co-creator of Django, blogged about it as “a snapshot of what it takes to run a massive scale viral YouTube operation”.

• Patrick McKenzie, aka patio11, tweeted, “I felt it in my soul when he was explaining the concept of a bottleneck and then mentioned that he apologized because he felt it was talking down to the audience, where that is a thing you have to repeatedly remind mostly functional adults is a thing in the world.”

• Courtland Allen (our own @csallen) wrote about three lessons he thinks every indie hacker should take away from the MrBeast doc.

Hate it or love, the PDF is making waves, and it's worth a read for anyone in the tech or the creator space.