Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox might be the faces of the YouTube comedy collective, Smosh, but behind the cameras, someone else helps run their 64-person team.
Padilla and Hecox named Alessandra Catanese, Padilla’s longtime manager, CEO in 2023. This allowed the pair to focus on the creative side of their YouTube channels.
Catanese handles the company’s day-to-day operations and overall business strategy.
“I certainly don’t believe that every creator needs a CEO, but I do believe not every creator is a CEO,” Catanese told Business Insider.
Smosh isn’t the only creator-led operation to put an outside executive in a top role in the past few years. In 2023, the popular sports creator Jesser hired Zach Miller, a Spotify and NBCUniversal alum, as its first president. In 2024, YouTube’s most-subscribed-to creator, Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, hired Jeffrey Housenbold to lead his company as CEO and president.
Donaldson is among a generation of YouTube creators who came to fame at a young age. He didn’t attend college or even work a regular job before he got into content creation. Leaders from the outside can help creators like MrBeast fill skills gaps and build teams as they look to rival Hollywood studios.
Some of the biggest YouTubers are now leaning on CEOs, presidents, and other C-suite executives to help them make smart business moves and manage sprawling production teams. They’re tapping execs from talent management firms, Hollywood, and creator economy startups.
“A lot of creators have reached a scale where they know they need more operating support,” said Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios. Atkins, a former MTV exec, joined the company from creator Dhar Mann last year.
Helping creators build a business to compete with Hollywood
The new class of YouTuber chief executives is helping creators build teams, develop M&A strategies, raise funding, or weather growing pains.
Timothy Salmon was promoted last year to president of CatFace, the company behind YouTuber Aphmau, who has 23.6 million subscribers and makes videos about Minecraft. Salmon joined the company in 2018 and has a background in post-production for TV and film.
He helps manage a 93-person team in Austin, freeing up creator Jessica Bravura to focus on creative tasks, like writing scripts and planning videos. He keeps the team on top of YouTube’s ever-shifting algorithm.
“YouTube is an ever-evolving beast,” Salmon said. “If you’re not flexible and you can’t adapt, it will leave you behind.”
Catanese, meanwhile, works from Smosh’s Los Angeles office, where she spends most of her time meeting with staff or business partners. She has helped Smosh hire to adapt to TV screens and cash in on YouTube’s battle with streamers. Catanese elevated Kiana Parker to the role of executive vice president of programming, overseeing this strategy for Smosh.
Atkins, who works from New York and LA, studies the Dhar Mann audience. He analyzes metrics like viewership, watch time, and click-through rates and uses them to evaluate the company’s strategies.
“I wake up in the morning, and I immediately look at the numbers,” Atkins said.
He also oversees operations, such as hiring, and new brand initiatives, like touring and M&A. In February, his team hired a chief strategy officer to work alongside Atkins on sourcing, negotiating, and structuring potential M&A deals.
Meanwhile, creator group Dude Perfect brought on former NBA exec Andrew Yaffe as CEO late last year. He helps hire talent in front of and behind the camera, build partnerships with brands, and manage the long-term strategy.
Housenbold, the CEO of Beast Industries, is leading MrBeast’s company as it raises fresh capital. Housenbold has compared the company to Disney for the next generation when pitching prospective investors, as Business Insider previously reported.
Some creators are reluctant to cede control
For a creator, bringing on a CEO or president also means letting go of some control.
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“It’s hard because creators come from an industry rooted in doing it all by themselves,” Catanese said.
At the end of the day, their name and brand are on the line. Salmon at CatFace said there have been times when the broader team was set on a strategy, like a brand deal or how a sponsor was presented in a video, but the creator said it didn’t feel right.
“Working with content creators can be very fascinating, frustrating, exciting, and exhausting,” Salmon said. “This company is a representation of who they are. It’s understandable that they’re picky about the brand and how it’s seen.”
But the biggest risk to a creator business is burnout, and CEOs and other executives can help take some of the pressure off creators.
“I always tell creators to build systems and teams around them so that they can continue to scale without burning out,” Atkins said. “The No. 1 thing I see for a lot of creators is that they’ve done everything in the past, so they continue to try to do everything themselves without taking a break.”
Part of a CEO’s job is making creators feel comfortable that they’re not going to mess with what’s working. For most creator businesses, the creator is at the center of the content, and it really doesn’t work without them.
“Let’s not forget who built this,” Atkins said. “My job is to enhance it, not to change it.”
