Veritasium's Journey: Growth, Challenges, and Future Plans

Am I retiring? That is the question I will answer in this video. And you can skip

ahead to the answer if you like, but I think it'll make more sense if I explain. You know, I started this

YouTube channel in 2011 after quitting my full-time job. >> And welcome to Veritassium in units of

kilogram. >> I was teaching around 15 hours a [music] week to pay the bills. This is a

represent >> but the other 40 to 50 hours per week I spent making videos on this channel and

I [music] didn't do it for the money >> gives math to the other subatomic >> I don't think anyone who started at that

time did because there was basically no money to be made in my first year working full-time I made $840

in my second year I earned $12,000 the real reason I made Veritassium is because it allowed me to combine the

[music] three things that I always loved doing the most. Learning about science, teaching,

and creating, like performing, and making [music] videos. I did not get into this to start a

business. I personally think I'd be terrible at selling things. I'm not one of those people who can say, "You've got

to try this. It'll change your life." You know, back in 2015, I kickstarted a magnetic molecular modeling kit called

SNATMS, and I still sell it on Amazon, but I hardly ever mention it because I don't want to bother you. And I figure

if you're looking for something like that, well, maybe you'll find it. Hello. Very nice. Thank you. I almost

never ask you to like, comment, or subscribe. Thank you for watching because I figure you know what you want

to do. And [music] I'm not a growth hacker. We don't sell cheap merch. No t-shirts or hoodies. I want you to get

more value out of me than I get out of you. You know, the only thing that I am really passionate about is the truth.

And the best way to get to the truth is through science. Our universe is an extraordinary place. And I think most

people go through life oblivious to how it actually [music] works. How does the boat go forwards?

>> Yeah, it's okay. Then well again [laughter] well I know I know it does [music] but again I don't have all the

answers. >> I think that's not just unfortunate it has real negative consequences. To give

an example in 1958 Dr. Benjamin Spock published in his book Baby and Child Care that babies should be put down to

sleep on their fronts rather than their backs to prevent them from choking on their own vomit. And this book outsold

every other book except the Bible for its 52-year print run. So, it [music] was pretty influential. But when

empirical studies showed that babies sleeping on their fronts were actually more likely to die from sudden infant

death [music] syndrome, well, the book was not promptly updated. It was printed with the same bad advice for decades,

[music] leading to an estimated 50,000 unnecessary deaths. The point is, we lead better, happier lives when they're

in accordance with how the world actually is rather than just how it appears to be or how we'd like it to be.

That is why an undercurrent of every video is how do we know what's true? How would we know if we were wrong? [music]

Because I want to increase the level of critical thinking in the world. That is the fundamental mission of Veritasium.

>> Now, so far this is basically just like >> by 2013 I was fortunate enough that this dream job YouTube channel started to

produce enough income to live off. So I quit all of the work and this has been my main gig ever since.

I can't believe all the things I've gotten to do. And I want to thank you, someone who's watched at least one of

these videos, for making [music] it possible. But I have to acknowledge my biggest

fear and what I think is the biggest challenge facing any creator, which is precariousness.

This is a job that comes with a lot of uncertainty. I mean, how much you make in any given month depends on how many

views your channel got in that month. And then there's the comment section and the fact that your sense of self-worth

is basically tied to how well your videos are received. But by far the biggest source of uncertainty is just

not knowing when this is all going to end. Like when are you going to upload your last successful video? When are you

no longer going to be able to make a living doing what you have been doing? In 2018, I had a call with my contact at

YouTube who told me I needed to quote stay relevant. Yeah, that stung a bit. Now, I'm not going to name names, but I

have seen friends and other creators who have stopped making stuff for a whole bunch of reasons. Like, maybe they've

gotten injured or gotten really sick. I know of other YouTubers who've been cancelled or demonetized. I mean,

there's just a million ways for things to go wrong and only really one way for them to continue to go right. I think by

far the scariest proposition is that the YouTube algorithm just stops showing your videos to people. I think that's

the scariest because it is so common and it's completely out of your control. A violinist placed in one of these rooms

was apparently banging. >> The way I dealt with this precariousness was by limiting my expenses. I didn't

buy any more equipment than was strictly necessary. I didn't book travel to filming locations. But if someone else

was flying me out, I might try to tag on a shoot. That is Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four. I did all the

research, writing, filming, and editing myself. Even the crappy animations, yes, all of that was me. As long as it was

just my time going into this channel and me depending on it for survival, I was okay. Hello, and thank you for

>> When I had my first kid in 2016, I launched a Patreon to try to ensure that I could always take care of my family.

But the channel continued to grow. It grew to a size where it was ridiculous that I was still doing everything

myself. I was working all the time. I am perhaps the slowest editor you will ever meet. So, I should have hired an editor,

but hiring takes time. [music] And on how many days was hiring someone at the top of my priority list? Well, zero.

Because I was always focused on making that next video. >> There's been a number of missions. Like,

>> now I did eventually start hiring people, but not because I was looking for them, just because they found me. I

mean, the first person I worked with consistently was Johnny Heyman, and I only found him because he recognized me

in a Chipotle. He is ridiculously talented. He's researched and written for this channel.

Plus, he's edited, done VFX, made simulations. He's even written and produced music, [music] original music

for videos, and you're listening to some of it right now. I hired Peter Lev because he did a PhD with my old PhD

supervisor. [music] I hired Emily Zang 20 minutes into a Zoom call and told her to move across the country. [music]

>> I found out about you through a friend, Zyla Foxlin. >> I remember I just got a text from you

and I was like, "Oh my god, Derek Muller is texting me." You're like, "Oh my god, Veritassium, Mr. Veritassium was texting

me." And you were just like, "Can you hop on a FaceTime later today?" I was like, "Well, this is a different

interview [laughter] process." >> We talked for half an hour. >> Yeah.

>> And then I said, "Do you want to work with me? Do you want to fly to LA and like

>> Yeah. >> work together?" >> And I was like, "I guess." in and how

soon? And you were like, "As soon as you physically can." [laughter] >> The only person I actively sought out on

a job board was my editor, Trenton. My two main animators, Ivy and Fabio, I got through cold emails.

>> What did you say? >> I said, "Are you looking for someone to help [laughter] with animations?" And

yes, >> Ivy sent me an email saying, "I've seen your animations and I think I can do

better." >> Your animations are the best straightforward. I was like slightly

offended reading the email, but I was also like, "Well, if you think you can do better, let's see it." [laughter]

>> We also got our first intern, Casper, through a cold email. >> And we said yes.

>> No. You said no. >> We said no. >> You were like, "We can't do that right

now, but would you like to research, write, and produce a video as a freelancer?"

>> Oh. >> And I was like, "That's crazy." In short, I wasn't very good at finding

people, but if they found me and seemed [music] decent, then I was happy to give them a shot. By 2021, I had this

talented little team of writer, producers, animators, and an editor. So, you might think that I could delegate

tasks to them and work fewer hours. But what actually happened was the opposite. I was working more then than ever before

because I had to prepare things for them to do and I had to train them up. You know, I was still editing about half of

the videos, and for the other half, I would often drive across Los Angeles in the middle of the night to pick up a

hard drive from my editor because this is the fastest method of data transfer that we worked out. And then I would

[music] drive back home, upload the file, and launch the video by 6:00 a.m. I pulled more all-nighters that year

than any other year of my life, including university. There were many nights where instead of tucking my kids

into bed, I was downstairs in the office making videos for this channel. So that is when my fiance told me something that

I already knew, which was that this was not sustainable. And yes, she was still my fiance because even though we got

engaged 7 years previous and had three kids together, we hadn't found the time to have a wedding.

So, the timing was kind of perfect when in 2022, these two guys, Owen and Ian, approached me about investing in

Veritassium. They had started a company called Electrify with the stated aim of helping educational creators build

better businesses and achieve work life balance. >> We loved Veritassium for what it had

been doing for, I guess, 13 years at that point. Um, and we just want to keep that going and do more and even more of

that great stuff. >> So, the deal they offered me was this. They would buy some of the business, but

I would remain an owner. They would take care of things like hiring, production, logistics, you know, corporate

compliance, taxes, all that sort of stuff. And they would reduce my working hours. So, it was kind of the perfect

offer at the perfect time. I never wanted to deal with hiring and taxes and all that stuff. I just wanted to make

videos, you know, like that's always what it's been about. Learn about science, make a great video. Plus, with

the cash they would pay upfront for equity, well, that would reduce the precariousness of being a creator,

especially at a time when AI was coming on the scenes and shorts were just starting, there was a lot more

uncertainty than usual. And this would allow me to always be able to provide for my family, which most importantly,

with fewer working hours, I would have a lot more time to spend. So, it was kind of a no-brainer. I signed the deal in

April 2023, and since then, Veritasium has been owned and run by me and Electrify. Now, I've seen some comments

concerned with how the investment will affect the channel, which I totally get. I mean, would they cut costs, reduce the

video quality, and just pump out way more videos to boost short-term profits? But fortunately, you don't have to

wonder what Electrify will do because we've already been working together for nearly 3 years. so I can show you what

we have done. We have produced some of the most successful videos in the channel's history. In fact, the three

videos you collectively have spent the most time watching were all produced in this period. The videos on forever

chemicals, blue LEDs, [music] and black holes, white holes, and wormholes. Videos like these have steadily

increased the amount of time that people are spending watching Veritassium. In fact, the last four months have seen a

record amount of time that people are spend watching the channel. Since the deal, the number of subscribers on the

channel has increased by 50%. These results have not been achieved by simply [music] pumping out more videos. In

fact, the number of main channel videos has remained basically constant. We've also not tried to make shorter videos.

We've continued to do deep dives into complex scientific topics. And because of that, the length of videos has

continued to increase. But that's a trend that began before Electrify. The real way we've been able to grow is by

adding more people. There are now over 30 people working on Veritasium. Writer, directors, [music] researchers,

illustrators, animators, editors, and production staff. These are the people responsible for some of your favorite

videos. I worked with Greor to make the exposees on Teflon and PAS and Monsanto. With Casper to make entropy, the

principle of least action series and black holes, white holes, and wormholes. With Emily, we made blue LEDs and the

micro mouse competition video. Henry was responsible for the videos on Alfred Nobel and phone hacking. Sully explored

the construction of the city corp tower, superglue, and what happened to Amelia Heheart. Peter wrote and directed the

videos on Oppenheimer and Japanese swords. Amelia did the same for jet engines and lithium ion batteries. James

made the videos on power laws and [music] six degrees of separation. I could go on, but the point is far from

cutting costs under electrify expenses have quadrupled. Most of that goes to the team. We are all spread around the

world, but we come together a few times a year to connect and figure out how to improve. When you see a beautifully

animated scene, it's not AI. That was drawn by hand by a person and animated by a person, too. The way our videos are

storyboarded now, it's so professional. It's like a movie studio. And we have people supporting us in other ways, too.

Videos like PAS or Monsanto might make big companies mad at us. So, we've only been able to make those videos now

because we have access to a legal team who can properly advise us. you can run things past the legal team and just see

like are we allowed to say this? So I mean it just it's expanded our capability. You know the goal of

improving the level of critical thinking in the world is a big one. But on my own I tackled it almost exclusively by

making YouTube videos. I didn't have the time or bandwidth for anything else. But with more people and resources we have

expanded our approach. We're now launching videos regularly on Tik Tok and Instagram. And we're making original

shorts for YouTube. We have dubbed our most successful videos into languages like Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese,

Arabic, and Turkish. In addition to maintaining dedicated channels in other languages, [music] every week, we are

publishing a free science newsletter, and we just kickstarted a science trivia board game with over 11,000 backers.

Other projects like podcasts and additional channels are in the works. Now, some of these things may not appeal

to you, and that's fine. But I hope you agree with me that the world is better off with more rigorously produced

science content. You know, all our facts are checked internally and we also use multiple experts with every video. We

run it past them to make sure we get everything right. We also post early versions to our Patreon supporters who

graciously help us catch mistakes. If we ever mess up, and I know it happens, well, please let us know. I welcome your

constructive criticism. I want you to help us improve. As for me, I have been able to [music]

reduce my workload and spend more time with my now four kids. This summer, we traveled around the Azors, Iceland,

biked around Amsterdam, and visited my family in Vancouver. And just last month, I finally got married

to my brilliant, [music] beautiful wife here in Portugal. I could not have picked a better or more

patient partner with whom to spend the rest of my life. So, am I retiring? Well, at some point I

will, but it's not exactly clear when that will be. What I can tell you is that [music] I won't be around as much,

which you've probably already gathered over the last year or two. You know, in some upcoming videos, I will not appear

at all, even if I'm guiding things in the background. And this is to give me more time to spend with my family and to

read books and exercise and contemplate other projects. You know, I am proud that what started as my passion project

now employs dozens of people. I am inspired by each and every one of them and I have the utmost confidence in

their abilities. You know they are paid well and they produce excellent work. At one of our meetings I walked into this

room to see all these super intelligent people who have taken up the mission of increasing the level of critical

thinking in [music] the world. And that's when it hit me that I am no longer doing this alone. It's no longer

just one guy pushing a boulder uphill. Now the team [music] is like a juggernaut. They're like this train

barreling down the tracks with their own momentum. So, I genuinely can't wait to see what we're able to accomplish

together. I hope you'll join us. And if you have any questions or ideas for the channel, please put them down in [music]

the comments. And as always, thanks for watching.