Zach: In April, I left my job at BuzzFeed after working there for four years. The next day I started a company with my three best friends and boy, oh boy, has it been a fucked up two months (laughs) Ned: This is the story of how we left BuzzFeed. You thought we were gonna say WHY we left? Well... we'll touch on that later. Keith: We decided we should make a company, and for the most part I think it was a good decision! Eugene: Collectively, we decided it was just time to try something else Keith: You know, we've grown, we've learned a lot. We're smart little babies. Eugene: And that involves this new production company out of Ned's old house. Ned: We are in what used to be my bedroom, now it is a studio. Zach: Where was your child made? Point my finger. Ned: It's a little weird... (intro) Keith: At early, early 20- What year is it? (laugh) Feels like it could be 2020 at this point. Zach: The past two months.. Keith: --Last two months have been very stressful. [head banging]
Keith: Don't do that. Don't do that... Eugene: You get on a roller coaster. It's just a constant descent, like there's no up. It's just down. [screaming] Ned: You want the truth? Keith: Today is the day before we launch everything! Ned: Please subscribe! I--I hope you're a subscriber... Click subscribe! It's a new channel, it's different... Zach: If you're watching this, that means we did it! When I'm filming this, I am only filled with worry, and doubt, and fear and sometimes excitement! But mostly fear... What have we gotten ourselves into? Keith: We're--I don't know if we're launching. Ned: I bought my first house. I renovated my first house. I had a baby I'm starting my own business. Four massive life changes! Eugene: When it rains it pours, Ned decided he just wanted to dump a hurricane on his life.. Ned: Oh God [baby screaming] shh, shh Keith: I think it didn't even strike me until last week, I'm like, "Why does everybody keep asking ME questions?" OH, because I'm supposed to have the answers... Keith: (screaming) That's my job! Keith: We agreed that we were all going to put our money into a company, start it together. Going to a Chase Bank, we're all pouring a bunch of our money into this company to hope that it doesn't fail. We all invested 25 percent each... Ned: I won't say a number but it's certainly more than I'm comfortable with... Zach: Small business owners motherfucker! (laughs) Ned: I took out a second mortgage on my house. Keith: Yeah, yeah. It's a lot.. Eugene: We saw the cliff and we jumped right over it, but we think we have a parachute. Keith: We're almost done setting up our new company bank account, and Zach is playing a video game on his phone. Keith: Zach is 12. Ned: How are you gonna make money, and how much money gon' cost to make that money? Luckily, I love spreadsheets! I like doing spreadsheets. Maybe this part's not that interesting...I find it fascinating. Zach Off-Camera: Nerd! Eugene: We decided to start a Patreon to give you the opportunity to support us directly and to raise funds for our new channel. Really excited to have a more open, direct relationship with you and you can get exclusive access to a lot of really cool Try Guys things. Keith: Try again... (laughter) Ned: So we quit our jobs, we start our company, and then it comes to our first shoot day! Ned: Give me power! POWER! Power...Oh it's not plugged into the wall...goddammit Zach: But when we actually pulled the trigger, a whole bunch of bullshit came our way. We are all set up, this is actually the first thing we are shooting. We uh, definitely, you know, don't have everything we need to do this right, but we're gonna-- Ariel: We're gonna figure it out! Zach and Ned: --attempt. (laughter) Zach: Alright, let's roll some cameras, huh? [Everyone cheering] Ned: AND THEN.. my wife goes into labor. Zach: Ned's baby came three and a half weeks early. Doctor: Only about five percent come on that due date. Keith: What's the point of the date?? Ned: Whoa, that was unexpected! They should have gave me a due month.. Doctor: Yeah, that's a better idea.. Zach: We had this whole schedule planned out where we were gonna like film all these videos, and THEN Ned's baby was gonna come and then we could edit. Had to throw all that out the window! Keith: And then, two days later, Eugene was cast in a movie! Eugene: I am on my way to Texas, to appear in my first feature film. It's kind of the best thing about being independent is that I can finally work on all the projects that I wanted to do so there's going to be a lot of producing, directing, and acting for all four of us. Keith: So somehow, Keith and Zach were in charge of the company. Keith: Oh my god, what are you doing? What are you doing? Zach: I'm making a standing desk. Ned: While I was... learning how to be a dad Keith: Don't put this on this nice table! Ned: Keith and Zach were learning how to run a company. Zach: It's not that nice of a table. Eugene: I have full confidence that Zach and Keith can hold the fort down. Zach: It's our first standing desk! Keith: You look ridiculous Zach: YOU look ridiculous. Eugene: I think that they're gonna do a really great job. Keith: You can't just keep stacking furniture to fill your needs, Zach. Zach: What do you think, Ned? Keith (imitating Ned): Umm... I don't know guys... Ned: We quickly realized there were a lot of resources and support that we had working for a big company, that you don't have when you're completely by yourself. Keith: Right now we have a couch. We have a totally barren kitchen. We got a bag on a knob. Zach: We had a day without toilet paper! (whisper) Those were dark times.. Keith: This is where we're working for the next couple months. Zach: Leaving to start our own company, I thought it'd be glamorous. So this has just been here for days. It was not that! Keith: I'm taking out the trash. Zach: First of all, I don't throw away trash in my own house. Keith: It's exactly what I thought it would be.. I'm a digital media maker, I make videos for the internet! You're watching a video of me chopping up garbage! Both of us are in the weird place in our lives. It wasn't even OUR garbage, it was NED'S garbage! Ned had a baby, so you gotta pull a little extra weight for the family man. Ned: Oh god.
(baby crying) shh shh Zach: I guess Ned just left stuff here... Some nerf guns, a board with names. What other cool shit does Ned have in his house? Let's go look! What is-- It's an envelope that says "For Ned's Eyes Only"? Zach: Okay, there's some cool shit in here, But I'm gonna pretend I didn't look in there, and then maybe we'll see if Ned is willing to show us. Okay, Zach: Eugene! Ready to get back to work Eugene: Yeah, I'm ready to fucking do this!... [Keith patting his lap] Eugene: You're so dumb.. How long were you-? How long did you keep Keith here though? Did he just sit here? Zach: He was here for two weeks! Keith (in crying voice): I've been waiting here so long! Zach: As of today, the four of us have an office! Ned: Ayye! Keith: Ned and Eugene are back in the fold, now our little office looks like an office! [screaming] Ned: What's up everybody?! These are our PA's Kasiemobi and Miles. Ned: Okay, alright Our editor Devlin, our production coordinator, our producer Rachel. That's our studio. We got a printer, we got videos! We got pre pro for July...whaaat? Eugene: We've just been filming, working, non-stop. [screaming, indistinct noises] Keith: Aw, my face! [screaming continues] Keith: Hi everyone [screaming continues] Keith: It's certainly the most stressed...that I've ever been...in general. Eugene: (sigh) I don't know how we're gonna do this Keith: It is...a week from when we're we're supposed to launch our channel. Ned: We are all busting our asses for this launch. We're staying up late, we're coming in early. Eugene: We've just been trying to front-load as many videos as possible because frequency and consistency is very important. Zach: Honestly when people leave the office, I'm like, "Oh, finally I can get something done" Keith: There's been several times where Zach and I have been here until midnight or... Zach: We don't like making shitty videos We like making good videos and if that means that we have to stay up late...forever. Keith: Ned's been working over the weekend editing with his baby in his hands. Ned: Definitely distracting [baby coos] Mwah mwah mwah Keith: Eugene pulling--Eugene, like, doesn't sleep sometimes Eugene: Ugh.. Camera Person: Have you slept? Eugene: I haven't slept in 3 days! So... Eugene: Our channel launch is coming up. But we're also closing out VidCon with this huge live performance. It's just so much at one time. Keith: When you're working from 7:00 in the morning until 9:30 at night some days. It's just like You don't have a lot left. Eugene: My biggest fear's that we're gonna be sacrificing quality, that we want to keep up, for all the quantity that we have to do I guess the whole point of doing this is trying to create a foundation for something bigger, right? Zach: It's like one of those -- there's like a triangle and it's like, choose two. You can make a lot of videos good videos, or uhh be a sane normal person. I guess (pop) Choosing those two Keith: And it's hard, but we're doing it somehow Ned: Right now on the eve of our launch is the exact most stressful time. Keith: Oh, I'm so anxious about making a mistake Eugene: There were a lot of times I was having panic attacks. Zach: This is a risk. Keith: What if they think we've gotten too weird cause we've gotten a little weirder. Ned: Right now, I'm really feeling the pressure Eugene: So it is the... very late night Ned and Eugene: The eve before our launch Keith: The eve of the channel launch! Eugene: We've worked really really really hard to look like we haven't worked hard at all Eugene: We haven't had time to celebrate and we don't have champagne, but we did have Miller High Life which is the champagne of beers. Zach: Months and months of work. Ned: It's kind of like our whole lives have been building up to this moment All: To The Try Guys! Zach: I- I hope you're as excited about this as I am because I'm really excited. And I-I think you're gonna really like it. And in the morning, we'll see if...anyone Ned: It was all worth it... Zach: Guess what I just did? Ned: What? Zach: Just became our first subscriber! Woooo! Ned: We got Zach! Zach: Why I left BuzzFeed is really THIS. The whole time we felt like there was more that we could be doing and giving to you. And now's that time. We've launched for an hour and a half. We already have 16,000 subscribers, this is crazy. Keith: We didn't leave to do the Try Guys for a year, We left BuzzFeed to make the Try Guys company for that to be our career It's the morning of the launch now, we got- we got 21,000 people and they're all like, "Yay I'm excited for the channel, I'm so excited!" It's crazy Eugene: I'm just really excited to be able to work with my friends in a capacity that challenges our creativity We just hit 35,000 subscribers. Gosh, so grateful for everyone who wants to continue seeing us work together Pesto, you look like you're growing out of my head. Look at how (laughs) Ned: I'm surrounded by my best friends and people that I trust 46,000, you just keep refreshing and it keeps growing! Yes! Eugene: The best part of it is we get to share that experience with all of you. Zach: When we woke up this morning, we had 200,000 subscribers. To be able to make more videos than we've ever been able to make before, to have a community just for you Ned: We checked, and it, like, suddenly updated, and it's half a million people! Zach: And to be able to go on this journey with my three best friends Keith: What's up Jake Paul? Eugene: We can now be truly, unabashedly, wholly ourselves [Keith making weird noises, as Keith does] Ned: There's no holding back because this ours! We own that light! Keith: What's really cool about this channel is that we're experimenting a lot. Eugene: Lot of surprises that the audience is not going to expect NED: Over a million subscribers! *cheering* NED: Oh my god. Open it, yes, yes, you can open it, you can open it Zach: We're not just making the Try Guys, we're making new shows, we hope to make seasons of those new shows that live right here. *group awwing* Keith: It's old memorabilia! Zach: Everyone take one! Zach: It's things that will go to other places. Eugene: Film and TV and live shows Zach: We're talking about going on tour. We're making merchandise!? There's just gonna be so much. There's so much to be excited about and I... ugh, I can't wait. Eugene: I'm sure you got a pump up from Ned. Ned: New channel! Get amped! Get with it! Let's do this! Come on baby! Try Guys for life! Whoo! Also, please subscribe cause I have a baby and I need to feed it. (outro) Keith: We got a subscriber right here. Becky: Subscriber!!!
Keith: Whoo!! Not all of our subscribers can sleep in the same bed as me. Becky: Smash the subscribe. Keith: Smash that subscribe, hit that - ring that bell, ring that bell.
I realize that it's a few days old now, but I'd like to see Phil's reaction to this. Especially since it's another group of great creators, leaving a big company like Buzzfeed, in favor of going entirely independent with the use of merch and Patreon.
Edit: It seems like I've been living under a rock. It's like a month ago that this happened. Sorry to have a misleading title O_O
Love the Try Guys - good luck to them in this new venture and hope it’s a friendly split from Buzzfeed.